marathoner452

And this time, I'll be working with you side-by-side. :-) I'm excited too--been ready to get my hands dirty for months. Now I just need to book my flight.

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ratkrycek.livejournal.com

Can I go with you guys? :)

Actually, I've been meaning to ask about AmeriCorps/VISTA anyway... am I too old for them (bah)?

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The more, the merrier, as far as we're all concerned. You'll have to clear it with her, but I can speak at least for the two of us when I say we'd love to have you along. :-) And she can give you the story on being an AmeriCorps VISTA a heck of a lot better than I could, since I'm not one, though there are times I wish I was. She's really opened my eyes to a lot since we've been together.

~Adam

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http://www.americorps.org/

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You're definitely not too old for AmeriCorps*VISTA. (I have no idea how old you are, but the only program that has an age limit is NCCC)

I'll echo what Adam said-- the more the merrier, we're trying to get as many people interested as possible. If you're seriously interested, let me know and I'll give you the contact information of the person putting this trip together :)

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Who's running the show? Who should I get in touch with?

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You mean as far as the July trip or as far as AmeriCorps?

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The July trip. Lauren sent me the information just a few minutes ago.

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(I've been interested since August.)

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What's your email address?

I think Bethany said she'd forward the email on to you, but if you give me your email I'll put you in touch :)

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roadwarrior247@hotmail.com.

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Just be sure you remove the "Fwd" prefix from the subject line--my e-mail account doesn't get forwards for some reason unless that part of it is not present.

Thanks, Lauren! I'm so excited!

~Adam

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Shoot me an email at piikanala19@yahoo.com and I'll forward you the info on the July trip. Lauren and Adam and I are going with the Colorado area alumni group and you'd definitely be welcome. We're going as part of a month of service down on the Gulf-as many AmeriCorps alums, current volunteers, supporters, friends, etc as possible. Part of it is to draw attention to the good work that AmeriCorps NCCC people are doing down there, seeing as they're about to lose their funding. I think it's a crying shame that we can give tax breaks to rich people and fund the war in Iraq but our government doesn't want to keep such an excellent program going, but enough of my politics. We're partly doing it for some well-deserved PR on their part, but mostly to help out down there.

NCCC is the only program with an age requirement, 18-24. You never get too old for VISTA (indirect service/capacity building) or the state and national programs (direct service). There were people at my preservice orientation who were old enough to be my grandparents. There are programs all over the country doing pretty much anything you can imagine, and while they don't pay a lot it's an amazing experience, particularly if you work for a supportive organization.

www.americorps.org is the main website with a search engine for programs and all kinds of other cool information. There are also several livejournal communities full of AmeriCorps people. (Not surprisingly as there seems to be a livejournal community for just about anything.)

If you have any other questions, I'd be happy to try and answer them. I've had quite an experience as a VISTA and it's hard to believe I'm not even a year out of college.

~Bethany

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As an FYI to Bethany-- I was talking to my local Red Cross disaster guy (oh, how I love him!), and he hadn't heard that NCCC is in danger of losing their funding. He's going to "query some people" to see if there's a plan in place to supplement DSHR numbers if that does in fact happen.

My chapter doesn't have a VISTA (they seem to have had a bad experience in the past and are reluctant to go down that road again, which is a shame), and so they're out of the loop on "AmeriNews".

This NCCC information should be disseminated (sp?) as much as possible to Chapters who don't have a member-- since NCCC funding affects everyone.

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Supplement DSHR numbers? You mean like send DSHR people down there to do what the NCCC people are doing?

(I love having 24 comments on one post.)

~Bethany

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(Hehe, it is kind of cool actually having a discussion on this)

No, I meant since such a large chunk of DSHR *is* NCCC (all corps members get trained in ARC disasters at the start of their term of service), that if/when NCCC loses funding, the Red Cross will lose a huge number of instantly available volunteers. (There are others, of course, but we're talking about such a large group of already-trained volunteers that this has to have some kind of impact in large-scale deployments)

Hopefully there's a recruiting plan to counteract the loss of such a large volunteer base.

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I don't know numbers, but I know there are a bajillion new Red Cross volunteers that came forward during Katrina. It's anyone's guess as to how many of them have stuck around to really get trained for the long run, but I know I hear my emergency services director (who is currently on a much-needed vacation to Utah with no cell phone connection whatsoever) talk about how chapters have expanded their capacity and they'll only need DSHR people for the really big ones. All of which is to say that hopefully it won't hurt quite so bad because Red Cross chapters have a little extra padding.

But still, most of us aren't quite as flexible and quick to deploy as NCCC people must be. Heck, I even work for the Red Cross and disappearing for 3 weeks is a trick for me...in the "real world" it's gotta be even harder. I suspect a lot of bosses aren't as sympathetic as they should be about letting people off the hook on a moment's notice so they can fly down south and work in a shelter.

So yeah, not having NCCC people is going to hurt.

~Bethany

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ratkrycek.livejournal.com

Pardon my ignorance (again), but what is NCCC? I know, I should just Google, but then, I should also just know. ;)

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National Civilian Conservation Corps. Another branch of AmeriCorps. To the best of my knowledge, they work 10 month terms with the same group of people and live in dorm-style housing. More regimented than the other AmeriCorps programs as far as the lifestyle goes, but more flexible in terms of the projects they work on. One of the NCCCs I talked to down in New Orleans had come down to the Gulf right after Katrina for a month or so, then went back to the West Coast to tutor kids, then was back in Louisiana but gutting houses this time, and after 2 months of the gutting houses thing was going to Oregon or Washington (can't remember which) to help with invasive species removal.

They have the ability to travel wherever they're needed for a month or two at a time, whereas the rest of us AmeriCorps people tend to stay put on a project for a year or two. That's enormously helpful in the case of a disaster, seeing as disasters usually aren't considerate enough to follow a schedule. :-)

~Bethany

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