About Us
This project is funded by a single-year AmeriCorps grant through The Nebraska Volunteer Service Commission (Serve Nebraska), funded by the Corporation for National and Community Service. The grant is renewable for up to two cycles of three years.
This AmeriCorps project is a partnership of the Kearney Area Community Foundation and the Office for Service-Learning at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.
Overall GOAL- "Create a framework to raise a sustainable corps of volunteerism throughout rural Central Nebraska."
Explanation
The community to be served centers around the city of Kearney and the following counties: Buffalo, Kearney, Phelps, Custer, Dawson, Gosper, Franklin, and Harlan. The compelling need in this community is reflected in our plan to develop a sustainable corps of engaged citizens throughout rural South Central Nebraska. The plan is to meet this need by providing an infrastructure that will support and sustain this effort. The need has been identified through the work of both the Kearney Area Community Foundation, and the University of Nebraska Kearney: Office for Service-Learning. Both of these well-established organizations have worked extensively with the community for numerous years and frequently attempt to match willing volunteers to identified community needs.
The approach to meet this community need is to engage individuals and lead them to an understanding of the community need and assist them in developing an appreciation for helping others so that they continue throughout their entire life span in meaningful service to others. There are many community needs, a growing population of potential volunteers in both previous and new retirees and a necessity to enculturate the Millennial Generation, our youth and young adults, in civic engagement.
This partnership acknowledges the important identified needs ranging from disaster preparedness and response, to environmental stewardship; caring for disadvantaged youth, to quality of life for the elderly; providing educational opportunities for all, to caring for those in critical need. However, this AmeriCorps project is intended to reach beyond these more immediate needs to a more comprehensive and deeply felt community need of maintaining and restoring an ethos of mutual care for others. The overarching outcome in this project would be to develop a shared concept of citizenship, which revolves around engaging all sectors of communities, large and small, to assume a posture of always "considering the needs of one's neighbor."
When working in rural areas of our State, we recognize that there is a great potential to tap into volunteer resources not only within the Kearney area but also in the surrounding smaller communities. One outcome for this project will be the goal to access this potential resource as we work to build a sustainable corps of volunteers to help several communities in their efforts to remain vital. While it is very common for communities to pull together in cases of critical emergencies, an on-going volunteer base would help to sustain and support day-to-day needs that exist and continue to arise.
As we analyze issues related to meeting this community need, we have looked at the issue from both the community and the University's perspective.
In Partnership, the Offices for both Kearney Area Community Foundation and the UNK Office for Service-Learning, propose to develop a plan and mechanism which will help connect individuals to volunteer opportunities, assisting in the elimination of fragmentation of coordination and miscommunications between the volunteers and the service organizations.