Recovery in Action

These new Recovery Act AmeriCorps members provided vital services to people facing unemployment, poverty, and other challenges by offering job counseling and placement services, providing foreclosure prevention and financial counseling, weatherizing homes, strengthening food banks, supporting health care and independent living services, and more. In addition, the AmeriCorps members themselves learned new skills, acquired qualities of leadership, and gained a sense of satisfaction from taking on responsibilities that directly affect peoples' lives.

Since the enrollment of the first Recovery Act AmeriCorps members, data reported by grantees and sponsors shows these members achieved strong results, including:

• leveraging more than 1,091,000 volunteers to serve more than 8.75 million clients;
• generating more than $124.48 million in cash and in-kind resources for nonprofits;
• providing employment and skills training and counseling to 181,821 clients;
• helping to place 15,238 people in jobs; and
• providing foreclosure and housing assistance services to 113,541 people.

Below are a few examples of AmeriCorps Recovery in action:

Program Profiles

Preventing Foreclosures and Providing Housing Assistance

Program: Equal Justice Works
Location: Nationwide

More than 3 million homes received foreclosure notices in 2009. Many homeowners are losing their homes because they lack the ability to navigate the landscape of lending laws. Legal representation can help many homeowners save their homes and, more broadly, help to stabilize neighborhoods at risk. But nonprofit legal services programs everywhere are besieged with requests for foreclosure assistance, and too few people are able to obtain qualified legal guidance.

Equal Justice Works received a $1.2 million AmeriCorps Recovery grant to place 30 AmeriCorps Recovery Fellows and 305 Summer Corps Fellows across the country to provide legal assistance to victims of foreclosures and others facing financial challenges as a result of the recession. Since receiving the grant, AmeriCorps Legal Fellows and Summer Corps members have helped 1,899 people needing home foreclosure and housing assistance, and have already saved 662 homes from foreclosure. AmeriCorps Recovery Fellow Ben Long, serving at the Appalachian Research and Defense fund of Kentucky, helped a recently-widowed client save her home from foreclosure by identifying several Truth-In-Lending violations and obtained a favorable loan modification. Radia Hussain, a Summer Corps member at the Legal Aid Society in Queens, provided direct legal assistance to clients who were victimized by predatory lending practices and prevented four clients from losing their homes to foreclosure in just a few short weeks. Christine Khalili-Borna, an AmeriCorps Recovery Fellow at Public Counsel in Los Angeles, engaged law students in the Homeless Prevention Project, recruiting 400 students from nearby law schools. Last year, Christine helped 3,462 obtain food, shelter, medical care and other basic needs.

Program: Michigan Campaign to End Homelessness AmeriCorps Program
Location: Michigan Statewide

The housing emergency in Michigan is staggering. In March 2009, 8,240 Michigan homes were in active foreclosure; 8.6 percent of the nationwide total. The 20 members of the Michigan Campaign to End Homelessness AmeriCorps Program are taking action to sway the tide of this housing crisis. Members are serving across the state, from urban Detroit and Grand Rapids, to the rural north of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Fifteen of the members are actively engaged in outreach to the homeless population. These members provide housing assistance to homeless individuals; including identifying housing barriers, identifying housing opportunities, linking them to support services and benefits assistance, and providing follow-up. The remaining five members assist in foreclosure prevention activities such as helping people understand what foreclosure is, what the process is, who the entities are that are involved, and how to avoid foreclosure. Members interact with landlords, lenders, and counselors to help homeowners move through the process without getting lost or misdirected. Since Recovery funding was awarded in the summer of 2009, AmeriCorps members have served 845 individuals with housing or home foreclosure assistance. The impact is clear, 133 foreclosures were prevented and resolved, with hundreds more pending satisfactory resolution.

Program: NeighborWorks
Location: Multiple Sites

NeighborWorks VISTA members have recruited more than 6,000 volunteers, generated more than $4.5 million in cash and in-kind resources, assisted in saving more than 4,500 families' homes from foreclosure, and built the capacity of financial fitness and asset-building programs for more than 5,500 individuals in underserved communities.

Job Placement and Employment Training Programs

Project: West Tennessee Special Technology Access Resource (STAR) Center
Location: 21 counties in West Tennessee

The STAR Center provides assistive technology and referrals for people with disabilities in West Tennessee to help them fulfill their goals of education, employment, and independent living. Through the Center’s Building Together Project, VISTAs build the capacity of the individual organizations where they serve and collaborate with other AmeriCorps VISTA members to develop resources and trainings and create related projects. Three members joined the project in May 2009. Since that time, they have recruited more than 535 community volunteers, who have contributed more than 6,000 hours of service. These members have also established community partnerships and expanded financial resources through effective communication, marketing, and outreach. To make STAR’s service more accessible to disabled clients who have difficulty with transportation, one member, Thomas Buie, is developing a distance education plan to bring online training to client’s home computer. STAR anticipates serving an additional 100 clients per year by offering distance education. The efforts of Recovery Act-funded AmeriCorps VISTA members have enabled more than 300 new disabled clients to receive employment and skill training and more than 20 disabled individuals to be placed in permanent full and part-time jobs.

Program: Youth Conservation Corps, Inc.
Location: Waukegan, Illinois

Two AmeriCorps Act VISTA members Youth Conservation Corps (YCC), Inc. helps at-risk, economically disadvantaged youth get their lives back on track, complete their GED, and learn how to look for a job. YCC also provides employment training and environmental education training to high school youth by engaging them in conservation projects. The AmeriCorps VISTA members at YCC conduct community outreach and recruit volunteers for environmental restoration and cleanup of two rivers in the area. These members have recruited 90 community volunteers, who have contributed 450 hours of service. Fundraising events and grant writing initiatives by the AmeriCorps VISTA members have brought in nearly $625,000. These resources helped fund employment and skills training and counseling for 33 clients, resulting in 25 job placements. The clients also received financial planning and literacy services.

Green Jobs and Weatherization

Program: California Conservation Corps
Location: California Statewide

The California Energy and Environmental Conservation Recovery Corps is an environmental stewardship and low-income home weatherization program funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. It is a collaboration between the California Conservation Corps and four local community conservation corps with nine service sites throughout the state. The program helps fund approximately 119 AmeriCorps members. Program work began in July 2009 and will run through September 2010. Six service sites provide low-income home weatherization services. As of December 31, 2009, 1,064 homes have been weatherized and made more energy-efficient. Four service sites provide public lands work with an emphasis on native habitat restoration and trail construction/restoration. As of December 31, 28 trails have been constructed and/or restored and 42 acres of native habitat have been restored and protected.

Program: Montana Conservation Corps
Location: Montana Statewide

Through the Warm Hearts Warm Homes program, Montana Conservation Corps Recovery members are weatherizing homes in communities across Montana by repairing, replacing and installing windows, doors, roofing, ducts, insulation, weather-stripping, lights, heating, ventilation and cooling (HVAC) systems, energy-efficient appliances, water heaters, low-flow toilets and showerheads, and photovoltaic panels. In addition, members may perform energy audits to assist in weatherization planning and assist residents with conservation awareness that will contribute to lower energy use and cost. Recovery Corps members have weatherized 539 homes for 1,287 clients across the state.

Providing Economic Security

Program: United Way of Central Alabama
Location: Alabama

United Way of Central Alabama relies on AmeriCorps VISTAs to expand its capacity to strengthen the economic security of low-to-moderate income Alabamians through outreach and recruitment for the Individual Development Account program, development and marketing of financial literacy education
resources, expanded VITA income tax preparation assistance, and foreclosure prevention activities. Through the effort of four Recovery Act-funded AmeriCorps VISTA members, the United Way of Central Alabama has supported 5,361 clients, providing financial planning and foreclosure and housing assistance to nearly 3,070 clients. Seven clients were able to bring their mortgage current, three clients were able to refinance their mortgage, six clients received a reverse mortgage, and two clients initiated a forbearance/repayment plan. These members also recruited 37 community volunteers, who contributed more than 1,750 hours of service.

Success Stories

Weatherization Project Saves a Life in North Carolina

Weatherization doesn't just save energy - sometimes it saves lives. Asheville, N.C., resident Gene Senyak credits a carbon monoxide alarm installed at his West Asheville bungalow with saving his life when his power went out during a snowstorm. AmeriCorps members with the AmeriCorps Recovery Project Energize program had placed the monitor in Senyak's kitchen during an energy audit in preparation for a free retrofit of the home. When his electricity went out, cutting out his furnace, Senyak retreated to one room with a propane heater where he tried to stay warm. Overnight, the monitor went off, alerting him to high carbon monoxide levels from the heater. "They've already saved my life," Senyak said of the Project Energize workers, whose work is funded by federal Recovery Act dollars.

Transforming Her Life through Service

AmeriCorps Recovery Member Rebecca Long dropped out of school at fourteen. She committed to turning her life around when she entered the YouthBuild McLean County Charter School’s AmeriCorps program in September 2009. Despite a challenging living environment where she is responsible for her niece and nephew, she has been able to maintain a 3.6 GPA, and nearly perfect attendance while working a fulltime job as a waitress on weekends. In addition to these amazing accomplishments, she recently completed an 8 week EMT course at Heartland Community College and passed the state licensing exam. She has contributed over 415 hours of service to her community so far. Through her term as an AmeriCorps Recovery Member she has helped build Green affordable housing, increased recycling efforts within our community, built bunk beds at a children’s camp, and organized a blood drive. AmeriCorps service has helped her gain the insight that she wants to pursue a career in a helping field, such as nursing. She plans to use her AmeriCorps scholarship to attain her degree. She states that, “YouthBuild AmeriCorps gave me the courage to get my diploma and also pass my EKG course. YouthBuild has changed my life because I know I can do hard work, and I feel like nothing can stop me.”

Helping the Unemployed Find Dignity and Work

Over the past few years, the recession has hit working people hard in Michigan. In Kent County, where Grand Rapids is located, 25 percent of children are receiving food stamps. Unemployment in Grand Rapids is nearly 12 percent, which is three points higher than the national average. I joined Goodwill and AmeriCorps because I believe everyone has the right to provide for themselves and their families. There is dignity in work. At Goodwill, I instruct around 40 to 60 participants on a daily basis, serving 700 participants in an average month. I work with individuals who are unemployed and underemployed, have disabilities, are homeless and have felony backgrounds. I teach classes about résumé building and cover letter writing. I facilitate classes on interviewing, professionalism, and I instruct participants on computer basics. I offer advice on career paths and higher education.

My most important function, however, is fostering confidence in participants I see on a daily basis. Goodwill Industries provides people with resources to empower themselves and to provide for their families. I love being a part of that mission. Goodwill Industries of Greater Grand Rapids placed over 900 participants in jobs last year. It’s tremendously rewarding to be the Career Center instructor and help unemployed people find work. With help from the AmeriCorps education fund, I was able to defer my loans and I’ll be using it in the future to pay for part of my master’s degree in sociology. I’ve been able to gain valuable experience that I would not have otherwise had. I love getting up in the morning and coming into work.

~ Chris Mills, AmeriCorps Recovery member at Goodwill Industries of Greater Grand Rapids

Preventing Gangs in Tallahassee, Florida

AmeriCorps VISTA Recovery Act member Ramunajan Narayanan is helping stop the growth of gangs in Tallahassee, Florida as part of the statewide Florida Gang Reduction Strategy developed by the Attorney General. The strategy recognizes that law enforcement along can’t stop gang activity and that the community must be involved. Ramunajan works in the Leon County Sheriff’s Office, where he recruits and coordinates volunteers for the gang reduction task force, identifies community resources and strategies that address gang prevention, and provides support to the task force leadership committee.

Ramunajan was born and raised in Gainesville, FL and attended the University of Florida where he earned a bachelors degree in Economics, and went on to receive a Masters Degree in International Business in May of 2009. While a college student, he created an after-school program that targeted at-risk elementary school students in East Gainesville. He joined VISTA because “my education experience over the past decade has taught me that among the most important criterion for stimulating economic growth in a particular community is attacking the education gap and preventing at-risk kids from entering gangs.” After his AmeriCorps VISTA year, he wants to pursue a career that focuses on economic/business development in third world countries.

Advocating for Veterans

At a recent community outreach event, Center for Veterans Advancement AmeriCorps Recovery Fellow Stacy Zimmerman met Jason, a young veteran who saw massive combat and bloodshed while serving in Iraq. Jason has severe psychological problems stemming from his combat experience, including post-traumatic stress disorder and possible traumatic brain injury. Because of these issues, Jason was unable to keep a job, his family was alienated from him and he had experienced several run-ins with the law. When Stacy first met him, Jason was living at a VA facility where he received intensive inpatient treatment for his psychological problems. However, Jason was receiving only a small amount of VA service-connected disability benefits, and his legal and financial difficulties were preventing him from moving forward in his life. The Center’s Director assisted Jason by winning a decision to double the amount of his VA benefits, and he plans to further appeal the decision so that Jason can receive benefits at the fully-disabled level. Meanwhile, Stacy has been working with the Court, Probation Department, Alternate Public Defender, and the VA to advocate for and coordinate a positive resolution of Jason’s other legal and financial problems. Once these issues are resolved, Jason hopes to move into his own apartment, where he can continue outpatient treatment at the VA and concentrate on recovering from the invisible wounds of war.

Helping a Student Stay on Track for Graduation

KJ, was on track for repeating 9th grade for the third time when he was suspended from school and placed at SCALE, one of our alternative school sites. KJ was paired with Pattie, an AmeriCorps Members, a baby boomer recruited for the Recovery program that was trained to tutor him. Within a week of working with Pattie, KJ’s demeanor changed. He started walking to the site. Patti worked with him on a plan for achieving the credit hours he would need to make it into 10th grade by the beginning of the school year. Along with tutoring during the period he was at the location she began to mentor him via email, encouraging him towards his goal. By the end of the period, KJ had completed the required 50 hours needed and was promoted to the 10th grade for the 2009 school year.

Gaining Skills and Protecting Public Lands in California

Ryan Avila, 24, from Loma Linda, CA, is an AmeriCorps member at the California Conservation Corps’ (CCC) Inland Empire Center. Prior to being part of this Recovery Act-funded program, Ryan was unemployed but volunteering at Loma Linda Hospital. As part of the program, Ryan is currently with members of the Desert Conservation Crew out at the Vulcan Mine in the Mojave National Preserve. The work site is so remote that corpsmembers set up a base camp where they reside for the duration of the project. He will be working to install fencing around the abandoned mine for public safety and watershed protection purposes. Previously, Ryan has gained trail rehabilitation and trail maintenance experience working with the United States Forestry Service (USFS). Ryan has taken advantage of every opportunity AmeriCorps and the CCC has offered to him. He has taken the initiative to participate in the Center’s Corpsmember Advisory Board as one of the individuals to get it up and running. Ryan has expressed interest in learning more about GIS/GPS technology and using that knowledge to explore job opportunities with abandoned mine mapping, skills he will learn as part of this AmeriCorps Program.

Bringing Technology to Low-Income Communities

At One Economy Corporation, VISTA members are maximizing the potential of technology to empower communities for a lifetime. Two VISTAs, funded by the Recovery Act, have already changed the lives of community members with just six months of service.

Tariq Shaheed serves at the One Economy office in Los Angeles, California, where he helped the One Economy staff bring wireless Internet to Jordon Downs, a 700 unit apartment complex in the Watts district of Southern California. In partnership with AT&T and Opportunities Industrialization Center, Shaheed helped distribute 150 computers and 50 hours of computer training to residents at Jordon Downs. He also oversaw the construction of 350 outdoor enclosures for the wireless router network, assembled by the residents and youth of Jordon Downs. Now hundreds of residents have access to content on career coaching, resumes building, and financial management through the Beehive (http://www.beehive.org), a website created by One Economy to provide low-income individuals with tools and information about financial services, education, jobs, health care, and family. Additionally, the hours of computer training have equipped residents with job readiness skills. The youth in Jordon Downs “aren’t just doing maintenance work,” said the Resident Development Program Coordinator. “They are actually learning a skill that will benefit them in the future.”

As editor of the “localized” Kansas City Beehive in Missouri, VISTA Thomas Del Greco develops content specific to needs of that community. Visits to the Kansas City Beehive have increased by 500 percent! Del Greco has helped more than 1,000 people learn more about unemployment and how to apply for food stamps through the development of localized content. In this tax filing season, he has helped more than 50 people learn how to apply for the earned income tax credit. “Thomas is providing people with information so they can make more informed decisions about jobs, health, and more,” said VISTA Leader Meg Gosney. “He is teaching people with the content he develops. He is helping them access resources that teach how to navigate through the tough times, find a job, and gain financial independence.”

Helping People with Mental Illness

William, a veteran, is a full-time Recovery Act AmeriCorps member serving at Grapevine, a drop-in center for individuals with mental illness in Butler County, Pennsylvania. He serves as a mentor, listening ear, and friend to many clients with severe mental illness. He is responsible for transporting them to necessary medical and social services appointments as needed and also for connecting them with housing by driving the moving truck. He helped more than 30 individuals move into new housing between May and December 2009. William also helped distribute nearly 1,000 pounds of donated frozen turkeys to needy families over the holidays.

Mentoring At-Risk Youth

The Recovery Act has allowed many additional Michigan citizens to serve in AmeriCorps. Included in that group is Chardae Rowe, a first-year, full-time member serving Downriver CARES-Recovery in Southgate, Michigan. Chardae is a Detroit native and graduate from Michigan State University with a Degree in Journalism. She was placed with The Guidance Center’s Juvenile Justice Program where she provides resource coordination, life skills development, and mentoring to at-risk youth. In her role as AmeriCorps member, Chardae has been instrumental in the development of a Culinary Arts employability model for the youth she serves. This model helps youth develop the skills necessary for future careers in the food service industry. In addition, she has developed many life skills curriculums that help educate the youth to make positive life decisions. This includes HIV/AIDS prevention and education training. She also attends probation hearings for youth, completes detention visits, and connects the youth and their families to needed resources. Chardae hope to continue her passion for HIV/AIDS prevention and outreach work with the National AIDS Fund and is interested in obtaining a Masters in Public Administration so she can fulfill her dream of one day opening her own non-profit.

The Heat is On

The Accounting Aid Society in Detroit is the largest provider of free income tax preparation services for low and moderate income households in Michigan. We help struggling families prepare taxes and recover more than $14 million in refunds and credits each year. In this way, we help families stay in their homes, keep their utilities turned on, put food on the table, and save for the future. As an AmeriCorps member serving at AAS, I prepare tax returns for clients, train volunteers to prepare returns, and help maintain the efficiency of our tax sites. I serve approximately 5-15 clients per day and each one has a unique situation. One client had paid more than $300 to have her tax return prepared by a local income tax service. The IRS rejected her tax return because it was done incorrectly. She came to us asking for help amending her return, which showed her owing more than $2,000. The preparer that did her return originally misclassified her income and failed to award her tax credits that she was entitled. I corrected her tax return for her and as a result she received a refund of $3,500. Later that month, I received a call from this client. She had received her refund and gladly shared, “I was able to use it to pay off my past due heating bills and the utility company is turning my heat back on before winter arrives.”

~ Brian Foster, AmeriCorps Recovery Act Member, Michigan’s AmeriCorps Partnership

Matching a Big Brother with a Troubled Little Brother

When AmeriCorps VISTA member Michael Curtis first arrived at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tucson, Arizona, he was prepared for an office assignment with little interaction with clients. Curtis's experience serving nearly 600 underprivileged children has changed all that. Curtis visits the schools where Big Brothers Big Sisters has site-based programming and sees the kids on a daily. One of the first matches Curtis made included a boy who was struggling a great deal. The 'Big Brother' that Curtis recruited has been tremendous help to 'Little Brother,' who lost both his parents within months of each other and is being raised by his sister who is bedridden. The youth was occasionally acting out and his grades were slipping. Since being introduced to his Big Brother, the Little Brother has improved his grades and behavior and shows a positive attitude toward life and new experiences.