Stone Soup is a collaborative of dozens of area churches, schools, government agencies and nonprofits, all with the goal of improving the lives of the residents of El Dorado Park. California State University, Fresno joined this partnership in 1993 and has become one of the major contributors to the program.

Now a formal nonprofit, Stone Soup offers a vast array of year-round services to the El Dorado Park residents. There are dozens of academic enrichment and recreation activities, job training programs, a senior service center, medical and dental clinics, nutrition and parenting classes, and a number of other projects.

Approximately 70 faculty and staff and over 300 students volunteer with Stone Soup each year. Faculty and students come from a variety of academic disciplines, including: Counseling, Social Work, Sociology, Child and Family Studies, Gerontology, Liberal Studies/Education, Health Science, Nutrition, Criminology, Theater Art/Drama, and many more. Students participate at Stone Soup as volunteers or through dozens of different service-learning and internship courses. There are also a large number of students who work at Stone Soup as part of the Federal Work Study program and through different scholarship and grant requirements. Everyone involved has had the opportunity to enrich their own lives and enhance their level of civic engagement.

The university has also assisted Stone Soup with financial support through grant funding, and we have acted as the fiscal agent for other grants obtained by the nonprofit. The partnership between Stone Soup, California State University, Fresno, and the other cooperating organizations and agencies is a model for highly effective and efficient nonprofit partnerships. The organization has had a significant impact on the area, as represented by the greatly diminished crime rates, improved academic achievement of the area youth, and the steadily improving socio-economic status of the neighborhood.

In recognition of their outstanding achievements, Stone Soup of Fresno and the partnering organizations have been honored with several prestigious awards, including: the Herman Goldstein POP Award, the Youth Citizenship Award, and the John Martin Fresno Area Reading Council Award. One of the most prestigious awards received by the Stone Soup project is the President s Service Award, conferred by President Clinton in 1995. In recognition of the university s contributions to the collaborative, Stone Soup gave the award to the University for housing and display. The partnership between California State University, Fresno and Stone Soup has been one that greatly benefits everyone involved. Our faculty, staff and students have significantly increased their knowledge of, appreciation for, and involvement in the El Dorado Park neighborhood and the community at large. Stone Soup has benefited from the many resources, both human and otherwise, contributed by the University. First and foremost, however, the residents of El Dorado Park have seen a dramatic change in their neighborhood and their lives. This partnership with Stone Soup has helped provide residents with the opportunities and resources they need to improve and enrich their lives in many ways.

Students for Community Service web site: http://www.csufresno.edu/scs/

Yan Matan is 74 years old. She is preparing to become naturalized as an American citizen. Her volunteer coach is one of 100 students at San Francisco State University and City College of San Francisco who work this semester with elders in citizenship and ESL literacy classes through SHINE, Students Helping in the Naturalization of Elders. Project SHINE is a national community- service learning effort with sister sites in Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Miami and San Francisco. Co-directors Gail Weinstein of SFSU and Nina Gibson of CCSF, work with faculty from a wide range of disciplines to develop “”project options”" for academic classes. Students who choose to participate in SHINE are trained as “”citizenship coaches”", and are placed in citizenship classes to tutor one-on-one or in small rows. The hope is that all participants gain citizenship knowledge and skills, develop confidence in themselves as learners, and nurture intergenerational relationships that last long after the project ends.

In Spring 1999, approximately 100 students from two campuses participated from English, Asian-American Studies, La Raza, Anthropology, Women’s Studies, ESL and Political Science. Project evaluations to date have indicated that as students assist elders in preparing to become citizens, their own academic learning is deepened, and they themselves have an opportunity to participate in our communities in the best sense of true citizenship.

As one coach says: “”I feel very fortunate to have landed in such an exciting class, where so many students experience success in their learning and citizenship attainment. The elders are so appreciative, and tell us how much we make a difference. I feel lucky to be working with a teacher who is an outstanding educator. Thanks so much for helping to set up such a great learning experience for me.”"

There is enormous satisfaction in building a program where academic course work comes to life; language is learned, and our community is strengthened through intergenerational relationships that we hope will last.

Contact people: Gail Weinstein, SFSU, gailw {at} sfsu(.)edu; Nina Gibson, CCSF, ngibson {at} ccsf(.)edu
SHINE web site: http://thecity.sfsu.edu/~shine/

Our members serve in rural mountain communities of the Colorado Rockies, covering a several hundred-mile region of the College district. Our mission for 1999 was to increase self-reliance by developing program members and by identifying and providing needed services to at-risk youth and their parents in a collaborative and responsive environment with human service agencies from both Garfield and Lake Counties.”"

As of 1999, eleven full-time and five part-time members successfully graduated from this AmeriCorps program. The three members serving in schools surpassed the program goal for involvement with youth by 25%; we exceeded our goals for new contacts with youth by nearly 160%. 90% of the targeted youths’ school grades increased by our goal of one grade level in math, science, and social studies. 80% of targeted youth raised their grade one level in English and reading. Most of these youth were “”English as a second language”" students. (Spanish is their first language.) Surveys completed by local teachers showed a 100% satisfaction regarding the performance and involvement of AmeriCorps members.

In social service agencies, AmeriCorps members more than doubled their expected number of service hours in group contacts, spending time in 2,950 group contact projects. Members in social service agencies served nearly 3,100 individuals.

In our first quarter for 1999 We had eighteen full-time members newly enrolled in an eleven-month commitment to service in our communities.

Nine members were serving in schools. We have already achieved 89% of our goal regarding student contacts and over double our goal for group tutoring. In youth centers, new members collaborated between communities to schedule events that involve kids from various areas, representing a wide range of ethnic and socio-economic diversity. In social service agencies, surveys show a decrease in dangerous behaviors.

Anecdotal stories from our CMC AmeriCorps members past & present

“”The ESL students I work with are truly amazing. They have an eagerness for learning and a respect for teachers and the school like I have never seen before. Two of the boys [in middle school] speak very little English. Together, we work on vocabulary and pronunciation in both Spanish and English. I hope I am as patient with them as they are with me. They never laugh at my feeble attempts to communicate with them, they smile and nod encouragingly as I stumble with the ‘ll’ sound or forget to roll my r’s”".

“”A family the Department of Human Services has been working with since May of ’98 has been unable to keep their home “”fit”" without support for years. Whenever I’ve worked with this family (approximately twice a week for two hours each session) the house would get cleaned up appropriately, but they never maintained their home between visits. Just last Friday, I arrived at their home and found it in perfect condition. The mom had found herself quite a bit of inner strength and decided to take charge of her household and four children. It was one of the best moments I’ve experienced this year!”"

“”I work with a kid that has emotional problems, and possibly suffers from ADD. He does not do well in class and is constantly being taken out of class for inappropriate behavior. He was not finishing his work on time. I was told that if he did not have every one of his drafts and an outline of an essay done in a week, he would not be allowed to turn it in and therefore would receive a failing grade. He worked with me for two days during his English class. On the first day he finished his outline. On the second day he finished a five-paragraph essay. He was so proud of himself that he typed his final draft that night. His essay was so good that it is displayed in the hall with some of the other children’s outstanding essays.”"

“”A youngster who seldom attended the recreation center is now showing up on a regular basis. This youngster suffers from Leukemia and must undergo treatments once a month. He said to me, ‘I’m feeling much better but the other kids still tease me about my hair loss’. I told him, ‘Hair will come and go, but your true friends, like me, don’t notice if you have hair or not’. He looked at me and said, ‘That means a lot, coming from a Bald Guy!’”"

Contact Contact person: Scott Dziura , Americorps Field Coordinator,
http://www.coloradomtn.edu/americorps

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

All of the students who participated in the six-month project were refugees who had completed basic ESL classes and had relatively good English-language skills. The students were required to provide a minimum of eight hours of service per month by assisting county social service workers with a variety of tasks, including:

Interviewing new applicants to the county social service system;
Reviewing applications and assisting new clients to complete applications;
Directing clients to the appropriate county office or staff person;
Assisting clients to access county information;
Speaking to county employees about the culture, family dynamics and health/medical worldview of the student s country of origin;
Speaking to community groups about services available through the county;
Speaking to residents about county programs and various educational programs available to them.

The county s social services agencies benefited by having refugees from a number of different countries working with them. Hennepin County is experiencing a dramatic growth in the number of refugees seeking services. Through their interaction with our students, the county workers were able to gain insight into the culture, values and traditions of these new clients. The students, through interaction with the county staff and their clients, learned different speech patterns, intonation and slang and significantly improved their language skills.

At the end of the project, and as the final requirement for the speech class, students were required to give a speech about their experience. Staff and supervisors from Hennepin County attended, as did faculty and administrators from the college.

On many campuses, however, the greatest barrier is the one that goes almost entirely unspoken: the barrier between students and staff. Ironically, the staff who are critical to keeping the institution running day in and day out, are too often nameless faces to students who benefit from that institution.

At St. Thomas Aquinas College, the community service office initiated an effort this year to bridge that gap. St. Thomas Aquinas is located in a small town north of New York City. A large contingent of the workers at the school come from the town s large population of recent Haitian immigrants, many of whom are seeking education in English as a second language.

At the beginning of the school year, Sister Catherine Morgan, the community service director at St. Thomas Aquinas, first approached the director of the college s food service and cleaning staff. He agreed to grant workers paid time during work to study with a tutor. She then approached a professor in the college s education department, and asked if teacher education students would be able to tutor college staff towards the fulfillment of field work requirements. The professor not only agreed to the idea, but volunteered to coordinate student placements in the program.

Having already bridged gaps between the community service office, university food services, and the education department, the project went on to bring students and staff together. Eight students met with eight staff members once a week for brief tutoring sessions. Students in the program received training in ESL instruction, and were given the flexibility to design tutoring sessions to meet staff members needs.

For many students and staff, this was the first time that they interacted with one another. In some cases, a sense of community has formed crossing boundaries that once had gone unquestioned. One example comes from a teacher education student: upon hearing that the staff member she worked with had just lost his brother in a car accident, she helped to organize a fundraiser in the education department to raise money for the deceased brother s family.

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

Students from Pacific tutor English as a Second Language students, read to primary grade students through the state-wide SMART (Start Making A Reader Today) program, tutor children in math, and lead after school recreation programs. Pacific students have initiated several after school programs at the nearby upper elementary school. These include French Club, Japanese Club (taught by students from the English Language Institute), and Peace Club (which leads students in activities and discussion on community building and non-violent conflict resolution). The Big Buddy Program pairs Pacific men with young boys for mentoring and needed extra attention.

EACH (Environmental Awareness Cultural Hacienda) gives ESL students a grounding in environmental understanding as preparation for Outdoor School. This project was begun by a Hispanic high school student who later enrolled at Pacific University. The class will be institutionalized as one of the projects in next year’s Pacific AmeriCorps program that will place thirteen Pacific students in part-time positions in the schools. Other students in this program will be doing their student teaching in the district’s high impact schools. This work meets a critical need in the community, but also provides students with opportunities to learn life-long citizenship skills. Through service learning classes in Sociology, Anthropology, First Year Seminar, World Languages, Psychology, Peace and Conflict Studies, Education, and reflection sessions through the Humanitarian Center, students process these experiences and make connections to their lives as citizens. They learn to value cultures other than their own, understand the challenges of adequately supporting schools, appreciate the importance of providing assistance to a troubled child, and feel the gratification that a program they initiated and ran is having a meaningful impact in the community.

Contact person: Ellen Hastay (hastaye {at} pacificu(.)edu), Director of the Humanitarian Center and Service Learning Coordinator

Humanitarian Center web site: http://nellie.pacificu.edu/humctr/index.html