Playworks North Carolina is proud to announce that we have been awarded the AmeriCorps State Formula grant for the 2013-2014 school year by the North Carolina Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service! As an AmeriCorps State grantee, 11 of our 19 Program Coordinators will be participating in a “year of service” with AmeriCorps through the Playworks program.
AmeriCorps is a government funded program that has been allowing citizens to serve in their communities through local public agencies and non-profit organizations for nearly 20 years. Since its creation in 1993, AmeriCorps has had over 800,000 members who have committed to a year of service, and Playworks North Carolina is honored to have 11 of those members this year!
AmeriCorps’ partnership with Playworks as a national program began in 2004 when it awarded the organization 35 member slots in the original grant. Since then, the partnership has grown, and in the 2013-2014 school year Playworks as a whole was awarded 119 slots for all of the grants combined in California, Utah, Washington DC, New Mexico and North Carolina.
Our AmeriCorps Program Coordinators’ “year of service” will include their usual Playworks programming along with two community engagement initiatives that will work to involve more of the community in projects at our partnering schools and volunteer recruitment in order to get more people involved in the Playworks’ mission here in North Carolina!
We are so grateful for our AmeriCorps Program Coordinators who have chosen to serve their communities through our organization. Jodi Ballard, an AmeriCorps member serving at Smith Elementary in Wake County says of her experience:
I think most notably this experience has provided me a whole new perspective on what a positive impact the slightest changes can have on not only a child, but on a school, and on a community. AmeriCorps has given me the opportunity to give back in a way that I may not have before. This year of service has already been a positive one in the few short months I have been a part of the Playworks organization.
—Coach Jodi
