BGSU, community partners to launch Wood County AmeriCorps

The University and six community partners have formed a consortium for service in Wood County.

The partners have been awarded a $50,000 planning grant through the Ohio Community Service Council to design an AmeriCorps program for the county. A second grant will be sought for operating funds to launch the program next fall.

AmeriCorps is a network of national service programs that engage more than 50,000 Americans each year to meet critical needs in education, public safety, health and the environment.

"Many people would call it the domestic version of the Peace Corps," noted Jane Rosser, assistant director of BGSU's Partnerships for Community Action (PCA), which is leading the county consortium.

Other partners are the Children's Resource Center, Wood County Juvenile Court, the Wood County District Public Library, the Wood County Educational Service Center, the Wood County office of United Way of Greater Toledo, and the United Christian Fellowship.

The library will host a kickoff event for the planning grant from 4-5:30 p.m. Tuesday (Sept. 21). The Wood County Commissioners will speak at 4:30 p.m. in the library atrium, along with Provost John Folkins and Thomas Trimboli, assistant to the president.

Rosser described the consortium as "a very natural coming together" of partners who have worked cooperatively in the past on initiatives such as the partnership support grant program, which is coordinated by PCA and the campus Center for Innovative and Transformative Education. That program funds projects that address community needs through BGSU-community partnerships.

She said the community partners asked PCA to take the lead on the AmeriCorps project, turning to the University as the largest employer in the county and the source of many volunteers already. "I see it as a way to link the University with the community," she added, calling the project a way to strengthen infrastructure for community service with the help of students and other BGSU volunteers.

Created in 1993, AmeriCorps is part of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which is providing the grant funding through the Ohio Community Service Council. The council is committed to ensuring that northwest Ohio receives funding, Rosser said, pointing out that the Wood County proposal was among 10 given "seed money" statewide to create new AmeriCorps programs.

With the planning grant in hand, and the second, prospective grant to provide funding for operations beginning in fall 2005, "it gives us a year to figure out what we want to do in the county," she said.

"Volunteers are the lifeblood of a lot of our organizations," so volunteerism will be a priority, as will sustainability, she predicted. The partners would like to see at least 25 people in the county working full time as AmeriCorps members, who serve through nonprofit and public agencies as well as faith-based organizations.