Putting out Fires in Yavapai County!

Constance Howard

 AmeriCorps VISTA member, Constance Howard, serving with the Yavapai County Medical Reserve Corps (MRC), had the opportunity to participate in the Yavapai County Public Health Emergency Response protocol during the Gladiator Fire, which affected the Crown King community and as of June 13, 2012 was completely contained.  Constance assisted in the alerting/recruitment of 4 Registered Nurses to help at the American Red Cross (ARC) shelter as on-call night shift attendants and 12 non-medical MRC volunteers with phone bank experience in case the need for urgent status updates and donations arose.  Constance says, "this was my first experience in a local emergency response situation.  It was amazing to see how quickly and efficiently county services came together and the eagerness of volunteers to help the families affected by the fire." 

The ARC shelter assisted a small number of families and a few animals, through services provided by the Animal Disaster Services, during the weeks of the Gladiator Fire. MRC volunteers are trained to assist the ARC shelters and are put on alert/stand-by to help out with various response requests during large scale emergencies.

AmeriCorps VISTA Member Jennifer Gosnell Helps Raise Over 60,000 Diapers for Local Babies

YAVAPAI COUNTY, Arizona (June 18, 2012 ) The third annual Yavapai Diaper Drive, coordinated by AmeriCorps VISTA member Jennifer Gosnell, was a great success, collecting 61,942 diapers for local young children in need.

To keep a baby healthy, a year’s worth of diapers can cost up to $2,000. “We’re so appreciative of the greater Yavapai community for supporting families of our youngest children through the Diaper Drive,” said Karin Ward, Superintendent and Principal of Beaver Creek School. Ward said her school staff will be able to distribute the diapers they were given through the diaper drive to families in need in Rimrock.

During the drive, which ran from April 16^th through May 13^th , bins were located at public libraries to collect community donations, and organizations such as Height’s Church, Boyle Pecharich Cline Whittington & Stallings PLLC, Faith Lutheran Church of Cottonwood, and the Lion’s Club of Prescott Valley held their own diaper collection events. Sam’s Club of Prescott Valley was also able to donate nearly 25,000 diapers to the Diaper Drive. 

100% of donated diapers are now being distributed  to local families in need through local organizations such as Arizona’s Children Association, Early Head Starts, Teen Outreach Pregnancy Services, the Coalition for Compassion and Justice, and Yavapai County Community Health Services.

 “We have so many families with very young children in Yavapai County who are struggling to provide the basic necessities for their families,” said Barbara Jorgensen, Family Health and Wellness Section Manager for Yavapai County Community Health Services. “The annual Diaper Drive provides help to these families when times are tough. It is one way in which the community can support young children and families.”

The Diaper Drive, a project led by First Things First in Yavapai County, originated in 2010 to help local families with the cost of diapering their babies. “Thank you to all the communities who participated to make the Diaper Drive a big success,” said Sherry Birch, Vice Chair for the First Things First Yavapai Regional Partnership Council. For more information on First Things First, please visit azftf.gov.

VISTA Member Meghan Quigley Discusses "The Community Circle" and How You Can Help

AmeriCorps VISTA Member Meghan Quigley with
volunteers at Open Door

I've never been the kind of person who likes to do the same thing everyday. Luckily for me I work at a very eventful place – everyday I see new faces, hear new stories and am blessed to meet the people who frequent Open Door. There is never a dull moment at the Coalition for Compassion and Justice!

I run the emergency voucher program at Open Door that provides voucher assistance to clients for gasoline, laundry and healthcare assistance. I distribute these vouchers every Tuesday morning and they always go fast! Some people start lining up at our doors at 7am for our 9am open, as we distribute vouchers on a first come, first served basis. In addition to gasoline, laundry and healthcare vouchers, emergency assistance vouchers are available for rental assistance in order to prevent eviction, hotel stays while waiting for more permanent shelter and relocation expenses to be supported by family or other emergency situations are all available when funds are available. Our priority at CCJ is to families with children in all aspects of voucher distribution. We strive to give a “hand-up” to these families by preventing eviction one month and leave them with a plan in place to prevent the situation from happening again in the future. I see first-hand the great need for basic assistance in our community. The number of calls I receive for rental assistance is extremely high and although I turn many people away, many families are helped as well. Since the beginning of February 2012, CCJ has assisted 36 families in eviction prevention. As our funds are diminishing and the need for funding only seems to become greater, some good news has just come in! CCJ will receive grant funding from the Yavapai County Community Foundation in support of housing and homelessness prevention assistance for families with children!

At CCJ, I also facilitate The Community Circle (TCC) which is a group of representatives from local service agencies who work together to eliminate duplication of resources in our community as well as provide support and collective case management when necessary. As a group, TCC is currently working on merging our efforts with another CCJ program, Circles of Support, which empowers motivated individuals to self-sufficiency with the help of mentors. These mentors provide coaching in areas such as job acquisition and retention, budgeting and finances, housing, nutrition and more. Circles of Support is often offered to clients who complete Getting Ahead or Financial Education classes at Catholic Charities, which is a partner organization of CCJ and The Community Circle. TCC's other partner agencies include Arizona Women's Education and Empowerment, Adult Probation, Heights Church, Judian Society, New Horizons ILC, Prescott Area Women's Shelter and Yavapai Reentry Project. We are always looking for more organizations to join our conversation at our monthly meetings. If you would like learn about available resources and share what your organization has to offer, please join our next meeting on July 11, 2012 - call 928-533-2674 for more information!

Want to support The Community Circle in another way? The Folk Sessions of Prescott is sponsoring “Women In Song II” on Saturday, June 30 at 7pm at The Highlands Center – 1375 S. Walker Rd. in Prescott. The proceeds from this concert will go to The Community Circle which will in turn help families in need with emergency voucher assistance. Tickets are available at the Center or online at http://womeninsong.eventbrite.com/ Hope to see you there!

Teen Maze with Nikki Rice

Parent-Teen communication practice

Juggling Act!

Fifteen years ago, Diane DeLong, (North Star Youth Partnership's Program Director) had a vision of a way to help the youth in the community, and with that small vision and a lot of work, her own version of Teen Maze was born! Teen Maze is a life sized "board game" where students interact with volunteers from many different organizations to help see the benefits and consequences of life choices.

As an AmeriCorps Member with North star, I helped to present our booth, "The Game of LIFE." North Star wanted to show the students that every choice you make affects your life (positively and negatively), so the games were centered around decision making, refusal skills, and goal setting. When the students walked into our booth, they were greeted by a volunteer and asked to spin a wheel. On the wheel were different types of jobs, ranging anywhere from garbage collector to doctor. If you spun a number that was between 1-6, then you went to college and you chose not to have a baby.  If you spun a number between 7-12, you did not go to college and you did decide to have a baby.  The students that received babies had to hold them properly throughout the entire booth, which included the activities of "The Balancing Act of Life" (playing twister while keeping the baby "safe") "High Stakes Stack" (stacking cups signifying things like 'relationships', 'school', 'fun', 'jobs', etc. on a pizza box while balancing the baby), and a parent/teen communication scenario. This taught teens how difficult it is to juggle your every day life when you have a baby.

It's pretty interesting watching teens try and hold a baby properly while attempting to play the game TWISTER or balance a pizza box in their hand. One student actually said, "How am I supposed to hold this baby AND stack these cups at the same time?" which reinforced North Star's objective. Although a lot of work and dedication, Teen Maze is always a very fun experience both for the volunteers and the students. I personally am proud that I am able to be a part of something that is beneficial, yet loads of fun for the youth in our community!

AmeriCorps Member Nikki Rice demonstrating "safe" baby balancing

Meet Yanina Rivera- Incoming VISTA Team Leader

Last year Yanina Rivera moved to Prescott, Arizona to serve as an AmeriCorps VISTA member with the Granite Peak Neighborhood Project (GPNP).  The mission of the project is to build and strengthen the relationships within the Dexter Neighborhood with a goal of improving civic engagement and unity.

With the help of Kelly Sammeli (City of Prescott- Code Enforcement), Yanina coordinated a Dexter Neighborhood Cleanup on MLK day. Working with the Serve Yavapai team she recruited and coordinated over 60 volunteers who helped dispose of 3.45 tons of yard debris. This event made it to the front page of the Dailey Courier on January 16, 2012.

Yanina also worked to support the Monday Night Resource Center at Miller Valley Elementary School. Volunteers from local institutions such as Granite Peak Unitarian Universalist Congregation, Sacred Heart, Prescott College, Northpoint Academy and Prescott High School; have all worked together  to provide English as a Second Language courses to 18 families while their children received homework assistance from volunteer tutors. To date, Yanina has developed $4,994.00 of non-cash resources for this program, which include 8 refurbished computers.

This summer, Yanina will be attending Urban Bush Women’s Summer Leadership Intensive: Soul Deep- Why Are People Poor: Demystifying the Opportunity Gap in the United States.  Urban Bush Women is a dance company that uses art to address social issues, and build community. She is looking forward to the experience and to applying her learning with the program back here in Prescott in her new position as the AmeriCorps VISTA Team Leader, starting this fall.

She hopes that the accumulation of all of these experiences will help her launch a career using art to educate and empower all people but especially those people that have faced discrimination and isolation.