Playworks Milwaukee is proud to announce its status as an AmeriCorps site this school year! AmeriCorps is overseen by The Corporation for National and Community Service and is funded through Congress.
Each year, AmeriCorps members all over the nation are engaged in service with thousands of nonprofit organizations, public agencies, and faith-based organizations to meet critical needs in education, the environment, public safety, homeland security, and other areas.
As a national organization, Playworks has developed a great relationship with AmeriCorps. Playworks received its first AmeriCorps grant in California in 2004, engaging 35 members in service at Playworks schools. Now, 8 years later, 180,000 people will serve as AmeriCorps members nationwide this school year, and of that number, 179 members will be serving in Playworks schools through the funding of 6 AmeriCorps grants! AmeriCorps has impacted Playworks so greatly that 37 percent of our current office staff nationwide was once Corps members!
As a new AmeriCorps site, Playworks Milwaukee is engaging six of our 12 coaches in a “Year of Service” at their Playworks schools. This means that in addition to their Playworks’ programming, members will complete monthly service projects throughout the community and recruit volunteers to get involved in the movement of play in Milwaukee!
The first service project of the year was in honor of September 11. Playworks AmeriCorps members teamed up with the Victory Garden Initiative, a nonprofit organization that empowers Milwaukee-area communities to grow their own food, for the first ever September Spree at Concordia Gardens!
This 1.5 acre community garden needed our helping hands to get ready for the winter and improve the infrastructure it already had in place. At the September Spree we participated in a variety of activities that helped reclaim the land for food and make the garden more inviting to members of the community.
We extend a big thank you to our 2012-2013 Playworks AmeriCorps members:
Chavon Robinson, Pat Brehm, Dominik Primus, Maddy Riordan, Tom Cramer, & Brenna Peak
We are so grateful you have chosen to spend your year serving the Milwaukee area in such a meaningful and powerful way!
