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Monday, 01 October 2007 |
Civitan Services of Saline County has received a state grant that will allow the Benton-based agency to serve as an AmeriCorps Promise Fellow host site through September 2008.
The grant enables Civitan to enhance and expand its volunteer program in support of the five fundamental resources for children and youth.
The fundamental resources include creating ongoing relationships with caring adults and mentors; creating safe places with structured activities during non-school hours; creating a healthy start and future for all youths; giving youths marketable skills through effective education; and providing opportunities for youths to give back through community service.
The grant is from the Arkansas Service Commission, Division of Human Services-Department of Volunteerism.
The amount of the grant was not disclosed.
Civitan Services will serve as a host site during the Civitan Center’s 50th year of service to the community.
Through the program, Civitan will be recruiting youth volunteers and adult mentors to assist youths in several service projects throughout the year of the program. All youths in Saline County are invited to participate after school and during the summer months.
Civitan Services, founded by the Benton Civitan Club, has been serving developmentally delayed citizens of Saline County since 1958.
Civitan Services began as a one-room, one-volunteer teacher school for children. The community service organization now spans several sites and helps more than 100 preschool children and adults with a variety of developmental disabilities.
Civitan Services’ staff applied for the AmeriCorps grant through the Arkansas Service Commission in hopes of jumpstarting the current Civitan volunteer program, a spokesman said.
The goal is to connect area youths with quality mentors who can share in the same community spirit that created Civitan Services, while also helping to gain public understanding, awareness and acceptance of those here with developmental disabilities, the spokesman said.
Established in 1994, there have been more than 150,000 members of AmeriCorps.
www.bentoncourier.com
They have served more than 4,000 communities, mobilized and recruited nearly two million volunteers, mentored more than two million children, organized after-school programs for more than half a million at-risk youths, and built or renovated more than 25,000 homes.
AmeriCorps members come from all walks of life and age groups.
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