Accessing Home AmeriCorps Members double down on their commitment to serving Rhode Islander with days of service at non-profit host sites.
This year, the NWBRV Accessing Home AmeriCorps program has had the privilege of spending annual Days of Service with many of our State’s most well known known non-profit organizations, and Accessing Home current host sites. While Accessing Home service days have been coordinated a variety of ways in the past, this year’s plan to invite our host sites to coordinate with our AmeriCorps members, has allowed Accessing Members to support the work of their peers while getting to know these impactful organizations a bit better.
Our Accessing Home AmeriCorps members have had the pleasure of building connections and growing as a team throughout the course of these service days. This method has enabled members to learn about their colleagues, organizations and contribute an entire cohort worth of energy in assisting with important, current projects.”
NWBRV Director Meg Rego
The April, 25 Day of Service with Habitat for Humanity of Greater Providence and East Bay embraced the opportunity for AmeriCorps members to come together to work towards the shared mission of affordable housing.
Since 1987, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Providence and East Bay has been an independently chartered affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International, the largest nonprofit homebuilder worldwide. Their mission to build decent, affordable housing for and with families that live in substandard and unaffordable housing aligns seamlessly with our vision here at NeighborWorks Blackstone River Valley. Accessing Home members spent this year’s service day learning about what goes into framing a house. Members got to experience and assist first hand with building the first wall of a Habitat Home.
Additional service day collaborations included preparing garden beds at West Elmwood Housing in anticipation of the harvest season, beautifying local NWBRV neighborhoods, and clearing gardening areas at the House of Hope. Projects at NeighborWorks included painting fences and sheds, landscaping a community patio, and promoting the upcoming Levitt AMP Woonsocket Music Series; while the House of Hope massive garden cleanup spurred helpful community resource conversations that left members engaged and informed.
“While weeding the massive garden alongside one another, one member expressed a need to get her clients a free bus pass,” NeighborWorks Blackstone River Valley’s Meg Rego shared. “Breah Anderson, a site supervisor at House of Hope easily shared a resource through the PILOT program with RIPTA. The members worked through questions around the program and left the service day with new knowledge about a helpful community resource.”
AmeriCorps Accessing Home member Virginia Thimas expressed her appreciation for the annual days of service spent with her Accessing Home family; saying that her fellow members were put in her life for a reason.
“We are a family here, we’re in constant communication,” Virginia expressed. “I love the African proverb that it takes a village to raise a child. Here we feel it takes a village to raise anything…a business, a home, and especially a community. We are part of a village, of kind, caring and loving people from all over. And we raise one another up.”
Big thank you to our Accessing Home volunteers! With the volunteer help, we were able to open our two community gardens at House of Hope for the upcoming season. The community gardens provide constituents with access to nutritious food, improve physical and mental well-being, foster skill development and empowerment, facilitate social interaction and community engagement and promote environmental awareness. These benefits contribute to a more holistic and supportive environment for our constituents.”
Breah R. Anderson, LCSW – House of Hope
The Accessing Home initiative allows NWBRV to partner with community development organizations, public housing authorities, and other non-profits to equip Rhode Islanders with the resources necessary to acquire and maintain affordable, high quality housing. For more information or to join this program, please contact Tyler Martin at tmartin@neighborworksbrv.org or visit us online.
