*This is an archive page. The links are no longer being updated.
1994.09.12 : Americorps Kick-off

Contact: HHS Press Office        Margaret Justus
         (202) - 690-6343        (512) - 327-1243
Monday, Sept. 12, 1994                          
                                                

            SHALALA JOINS CLINTON IN AMERICORPS KICK-OFF


     GALVESTON, Texas -- HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala today joined
President Bill Clinton, other national officials and local leaders
located in participating sites across the country to launch
Americorps, the new domestic Peace Corps that will number 20,000
volunteers by the end of the year.

      President Clinton used a White House satellite hook-up to
address the various kick-off events and to swear in the mostly
youthful volunteers.

      Secretary Shalala spoke to the new Americorps members, Texas
officials and community leaders who gathered at the Texas A&M
University campus in Galveston for the ceremony.  She particularly
praised Americorps' efforts in support of childhood immunization.

     "I'm especially proud that two of the president's top domestic
programs -- the Childhood Immunization Initiative and Americorps --
have forged a partnership to immunize tens of thousands of children
against deadly diseases, like mumps and measles," she said. 

     The Texas Americorps VISTA program, so successful that it has
been expanded by Governor Ann Richards, has resulted in thousands of
immunizations.  The Childhood Immunization Initiative is working
closely with Americorps to establish similar programs in other
states.

     Featured participants in the colorful Galveston launch event
included Secretary of the Navy John Dalton and gospel singer Yolanda
Adams.  The backdrop for the program was Texas A&M's Texas Clipper,
home of the Seaborne Conservation Corps, a nine-month residential
program in which Americorps members perform environmental service.

     Americorps, the realization of the president's vision of
enlisting volunteers, mostly young people age 17 and over, into a
national service program to "get things done" in American
communities, offers them education benefits for college, vocational
training and college debt repayment.  It is a partnership
coordinated by the Corporation for National and Community Service
and directed by Eli Segal.

     Americorps members, working full or part-time, are being
assigned to community service designed to make a direct impact in
the critical areas of education, public safety, human needs and the
environment.

     The corps includes members of the new Civilian Community Corps
and members of the Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA).

     HHS received $2.1 million in grants this summer from the 
Corporation for National and Community Service.  The grants will
support 245 Americorps members in immunizing children, providing
home visits to children and families with limited access to health
services, easing the daily lives of the developmentally disabled and
tutoring Native Americans and migrant laborers' children in Head
Start centers.

     The Childhood Immunization Initiative is a comprehensive effort
to improve child immunization rates.  It includes five key
strategies to improve preschool vaccination rates: improving the
quality and quantity of vaccination delivery services; reducing
vaccine costs; increasing community participation, education and
partnerships; improving the monitoring of disease and vaccination
coverage; and improving vaccines and vaccine use.

                                 ###