True North AmeriCorps Program

City of Duluth Declares Partnership with True North AmeriCorps

cschmidt — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 15:45:24 +0000

The city of Duluth is joining forces with True North AmeriCorps to continue to help improves the lives of youth all across the city. Tens of thousands of volunteers hours will be made possible by the financial assistance that the city of Duluth is going to provide to the program.

Blair Gagne, Executive Director of True North Americorps states, “The commitment of the city is going to leverage over 1 million dollars worth of time. We’re looking at about 140,000 hours of AmeriCorps time that are going to benefit out schools. It’s going to really help with the achievement gap. It’s going to help with on time graduation.”

To see the full story by Northland News Center, go to http://www.northlandsnewscenter.com/news/local/City-Declares-Partnership-With–146197795.html

Mayor Don Ness and Other Local “Celebrities” Celebrate National AmeriCorps Week

cschmidt — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 16:12:46 +0000

As a part of National AmeriCorps Week, March 10-17 2012, Mayor of Duluth Don Ness and other local “celebrities” were asked to celebrate by being “Honorary Members for a Day”. Mayor Don Ness visited Lester Park Elementary, City Council Members Emily Larson and Jen Julsrud took a tour of Nettleton Elementary, and School Board member Tom Kasper spent some time at Stowe Elementary. Congressional candidates Jeff Anderson, Tarryl Clark, and Rick Nolan also celebrated the week by participating separately at programming at Homecroft Elementary, Piedmont Elementary and Lowell Elementary. The annual invitation is a chance for local politicians and celebrities to learn about what AmeriCorps does in the community and why it is important to support our programming.

For more information visit http://www.fox21online.com/news/mayor-ness-honorary-americorps-member

Thanks for coming out everyone!

Elavil

Member Story: Michelle Naar

cschmidt — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 15:56:54 +0000

Inside the Damiano Center, on the second floor is the Kid’s Café where True North AmeriCorps member Michelle Naar can be found daily serving the youth of Duluth. The Kid’s Café is a program that began after staff at the Damiano Center noticed a growing number of children coming to the Soup Kitchen at the center without an adult. The programs began in 2001. The main focus is to provide youth with a nutritional meal as well as education and a fun and safe environment for them to hang out at. Regular hours are from 3:30-5:30 pm for supper and during the summer, 11:30 am-1:00 pm for lunch. Michelle’s main role is to explore nutrition with the youth. Michelle hopes to leave a legacy of gardens. In the back of the building, there is an outdoor area that will soon have a playground and three small garden plots. When the weather starts to warm up, Michelle plans to keep the youth and their families busy growing all sorts of vegetables and fruits. Everything grown will be used at the program or given to the Soup Kitchen to use. Kid’s Café also has a large garden plot a couple blocks from the Damiano Center that Michelle is excited to get digging at.

There are approximately 15 kids who regularly attend the program and meal, however, the Kid’s Cafe can get as many 35 youth on busy days. Parents are encouraged to come but are only required to if the youth are under 6 years old. Michelle has done a variety of food/gardening related projects with the youth already. Recently, she and the youth planted an indoor garden that will have herbs, peas and other plants. This fall they made homemade salsa, a green tomato cake and apple cider. Watching the kids work together and get excited over making the apple cider has been Michelle’s most rewarding experience thus far. She would love to encourage more teambuilding activities like this to get more youth involved. “Kids have special gifts and talents that aren’t always noticed so here at the Kid’s Café we give them a chance to explore those”, Michelle says.

For more information about the Damiano Center and the Kids Cafe, visit http://www.damianocenter.org/

canadian pharmacy Tadalis

Member Story: Tasha Hanson

cschmidt — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 15:51:01 +0000

AmeriCorps member Tasha Hanson can regularly be found running around our Duluth Area Family Y. Tasha wears many hats in her AmeriCorps position. Currently her main focus has been the Y-Style program. Y-Style is a combination of fitness and academics and is for youth in grades 6^th-10^th from all over Duluth. Currently the program has 15 youth matched with 15 mentors. Y-Style is split into two semesters, the fall semester wrapping up in a couple weeks and spring semester beginning the end of January, running 10 weeks at a time. The matches meet on either Tuesdays or Thursdays from 4-6pm. This year they are working towards completing a triathlon. The summer aspect of Y-Style is a program calling Running Buddies which matches work towards completing a 5K. Running buddies is a 7 week program with healthy living being the main focus. If you are interested in being a part of any Y-Style program in the spring or summer, let Tasha know!

Some other Y programs Tasha is involved with coordinating and planning is the Generation Center and Teen LEAD. The Generation Center recently opened this fall and Tasha serves there two days a week. The Y found that a lot of youth were sitting around the lobby, bored, with nothing to do while their siblings or parents worked-out or were at a program. The Generation Center is a place for these kids to go to do fun activities, play games or work on their homework. It is open from 4-7pm and any Y member kids can use the facility. The other program, Teen LEAD, is a program for 7-12^th graders and meets twice a month. This group is committed to volunteering for 6 hours a month at the Y. One of the monthly meetings is devoted to doing trainings to help the youth develop as volunteers. Currently Tasha has 12 youth involved in this program.

Tasha was no stranger to the Duluth Area Family Y before serving as an AmeriCorps member. She worked at the childcare facility and also participated as a mentor in the Y-Style program. She is taking a year off of school to serve and will be going back to school with a focus on early childhood education. Originally from East Grand Forks, Tasha loves working in the Duluth community and meeting new people. Her favorite part of her position has been to see the changes in the youth. One of the Y-Style participants told Tasha that she has lost 17 pounds since joining Y-Style. Tasha looks forward to continually working with youth and seeing what new experiences will come her way.