Happy Spring!

Last month was an exciting one as AmeriCorps members, programs, and communities celebrated the fifth annual AmeriCorps Week on May 14 - 21. Multiple Governors and state legislatures officially declared AmeriCorps Week across the U.S. and AmeriCorps members were featured in news articles and other media outlets. Throughout Michigan, service projects and other activities were held to highlight and celebrate what AmeriCorps members have done and continue to do for their communities. Projects included neighborhood restorations, park and river clean-ups, donation drives, home repair, and many others.

There was one AmeriCorps Week project I was especially excited to hear about, as it incorporated several goals of our inclusion initiative. On May 18, Camp Fire USA's AmeriCorps team coordinated a service project with students who are part of the Region 1 Transition Services (R1TS) program in Cedar Springs. R1TS is a transition-specific program for young adult students who have special needs and live within Kent County School Districts. Centers work to empower and motivate young adults to realize their capabilities, dreams, and potential. Fifteen AmeriCorps members worked with 44 students to landscape, conduct grounds maintenance, paint, and sort items for their resale store, which helps fund their program. Prior to service, members enjoyed a presentation by Cedar Springs Mayor Charlie Watson, who spoke about the importance of volunteerism and how students can make an impact on the community. At the end of the project, members and students were treated to a celebration lunch where they learned about AmeriCorps and listened to remarks from the Cedar Springs superintendent. The students came away excited about AmeriCorps and knowing they made a difference. What a great way to celebrate service!

As we move ahead with the second half of 2011 and put AmeriCorps Week behind us, it's nice to have a reminder of the amazing things national service programs are accomplishing every day. This edition of IN Touch highlights some of the promising inclusion initiatives taking place in Michigan's national service network. I encourage you to share your own stories and updates with me at csvista@michigan.gov, and perhaps even share them in an upcoming edition of IN Touch!

In Service,

Kathleen Egan

Cross-Stream/Inclusion AmeriCorps*VISTA

Michigan Community Service Commission

To see past editions of IN Touch you can access the archived versions by visiting the Resources section of the Disability/Inclusion section of the MCSC website.  

  

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Calumet High School: Lighting the Way to Inclusion

Our program spotlight features a Learn and Serve - Michigan program located in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Susan Rosemurgy is an Art Teacher at Washington Middle School for the Intermediate School District of Calumet, Laurium, Keweenaw.

This spring, art students at Calumet High School collaborated with the cognitively-impaired (CI) classroom students to make Japanese-style lanterns that use energy efficient CFL bulbs. The Calumet art class received an inclusion mini-grant from the Michigan Community Service Commission (MCSC) to help fund this project.

"When we found out about the MCSC mini-grant, we knew we had an opportunity to make an impact right here in our own school," Susan stated. "The lantern project seemed like a good fit since our school has been talking a lot about 'light harvesting,' and energy conservation is such an important issue for our school, our community, and our whole country. This project has been an unprecedented success! Not only did we address our community's need for more awareness of energy conservation and energy costs, but we engaged students with disabilities and together we served our school and community." 

Susan and her students truly feel they are "lighting the way to inclusion." During this month-long project, every Tuesday and Thursday, CI students came to the high school art room at 8:05 a.m. and got busy working with their art student partners. Since the art students outnumbered the CI students and Susan wanted to ensure everyone got to know each other, she created a rotating list of art students assigned to CI students.

Susan was thrilled with the outcome of the project.

"It really worked out well and was a true collaborative effort - art students helping CI students and CI students helping art students. What a distance we all traveled thanks to this project!  Some of my art students were not even aware that the CI students were in our building; and some of the CI students come from outside the Calumet school district so they do not know many students here. I thought the lamps would be the crowning glory to the endeavor but it was really the students connecting to students."

Art students responded to a variety of questions during this time and their comments reflect the need for more support, understanding, and inclusion of those with disabilities. Examples of students' comments include:

"This project connects to our community by showing that everyone should learn to help others...and when you do, you feel better about yourself and our community."

"It feels really good to help other students and put myself and my problems aside to just focus on the students and get to know them better."

"I would like to learn how to make the CI students feel more welcome in our school."

"This experience made me realize how there is hardly any difference between us - we all like having fun and doing projects."

This project would not have been possible without several key school and community partners including the CI classroom, the Upper Peninsula Power Company (UPPCO), the public library, and the Western U.P. Center for Science and Math at Michigan Technological University.

"By establishing these partnerships we are making progress toward generating more ideas and ways to include students with disabilities in future service projects," Susan reflected. "We will keep the goal of making service a part of the lives of individuals with disabilities at the forefront of all our discussions about service learning."

Inclusion Mini-Grants: The MCSC is pleased to offer supplemental inclusion funds for Michigan's AmeriCorps*State and National, Senior Corps (RSVP, Senior Companions, Foster Grandparents), and Learn and Serve programs to engage people with disabilities in service. Funds will be granted through an application process and will support service projects and "service shadow" opportunities that include people with disabilities. Inclusion mini-grant requests may range from $100-$500. Programs will also be required to submit a final report detailing the project/event outcomes. The application is available on the MCSC website at www.michigan.gov/mcsc.    

Reasonable Accommodation Funds: For cases where a reasonable accommodation would prove to be an undue hardship for a program, limited funding is available through the MCSC to provide accommodations for service applicants, AmeriCorps*State and National Direct members, Senior Corps volunteers, and Learn and Serve program participants. Programs should seek alternative funding or cost-sharing resources whenever possible. All national service programs must provide reasonable accommodations where required by law regardless of their eligibility for MCSC or outside funding.   

NextSTEP Pilot, or any of our other Disability and Inclusion resources visit: www.michigan.gov/mcsc.

Michigan State University's Library houses an area of their website devoted to scholarships, grants and other resources focused on the disabled and disability concerns: http://staff.lib.msu.edu/harris23/grants/3disable.htm.

The Home Depot Foundation's Community Impact Grants Program will accept proposals for grants through October 31, 2011. More competitive grant proposals will specifically identify projects for veterans, seniors, and/or the disabled and will include housing repairs, modifications, and weatherization work: http://www.homedepotfoundation.org/how-we-help/grants.html.

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