This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Seven Utah philanthropic organizations will share $1.86 million in AmericaCorps grants, the bulk of which will be used to fund education programs aimed at young children.
Funding went to "priority areas laid out in the bipartisan Serve America Act" established by President Bill Clinton in 1993 as well as "pressing issues facing Utah communities," according to a press release from the Utah Commission on Volunteers. Education programs aimed at younger children, environmental education, and social services for adults are among the areas most funded.
AmeriCorps is a volunteer-based, domestic program to serve needy U.S. communities that is patterned after the international Peace Corps program. The grants will pay the subsistence costs of full-time volunteers as well as support the programs' basic missions.
"Members come on and they participate for a year, utilized in part-time or full-time capacity," said Utah AmeriCorp program manager LaDawn Stoddard. "They provide services for a minimal amount of money," for programs that "have looked at their communities or state and noticed a need."
The amount received by each program was largely dependant on the number of volunteers they plan to mobilize, as described by their grant application.
AmeriCorps Literacy Initiative received $800,000, almost half of the total grants awarded, to fund measures that focus on helping children read at grade level by third grade. Volunteers, often mothers, organize after-school tutoring programs to accelerate reading skills.
Three other education-focused groups, The Boys & Girls Clubs AmeriCorps LEGACY Project, Utah Campus Compact AmeriCorps, and AmeriCorps at Brigham Young University, also focus on serving underprivileged children, especially through the help of college students.
"In the committee there is a consensus that if you can effect change in a child, as an adult they won't need those services," said Stoddard. "That's the reason education is high in the priority list, because we can break cycles and make significant changes in their lives."
Similarly, the AmeriCorps Alleviating Homelessness Program, which received $205,000, aims to break a cycle before it begins.
"It's a program that focuses on people at risk for homelessness. It provides preventive services to make sure people can stay in their homes. It's cheaper to keep someone in their home than to get them back into a home. They teach them to be aware of resources available, to get them back into being able to be in a house and a job."
The Utah Conservation Corps Program, which works to preserve the nearly 70 percent of Utah land that is state or federally protected, received $440,184.
The grants will support 1,621 AmeriCorps members who serve across the state and work to organize even more volunteers to help their causes.
Who got AmericCorps grants?
AmeriCorps Literacy Initiative, $800,000
The Boys & Girls Clubs AmeriCorps LEGACY Project, $112,988
Utah Campus Compact AmeriCorps Education Award Program, $150,000
AmeriCorps at Brigham Young University, $5,000
The Utah Conservation Corps Program, $440,184
The AmeriCorps Alleviating Homelessness Program, $205,000
AmeriCorps and the Medically Underserved, $150,000