1st Annual American Red Cross Service Day

With a vision to see this take place over the past year I can happily say, it was a success. With an expected turnout of 50 volunteers, I was absolutely SHOCKED when 86 youth came to the Santa Monica Chapter. From Ventura to San Diego, beginning at 9AM, we began the day with goal setting and speakers from the National Youth Council and experience volunteers. After an excellent IHL presentation, we grabbed lunch and divided up into our groups. Our task: to execute a service project in each of the 5 departments of Red Cross. Disaster Services, Biomedical, International Services, Health&Safety and Services to Armed Forces.

We hit the streets of Santa Monica, canvassing homes about fire safety and passing out door hangers. Held a mini SAFE Kids day where our volunteers taught youth in the community awareness about bike safety, water safety, fire safety and first aid. Having the Buddy the Blood Drop mascot in tow, volunteers successfully recruited over 45 donors for an upcoming blood drive. A booth was setup raising awareness for the Measles Initiaitive and pins were sold to drive our $1 to save a child campaign. Our final project saw 10 youth head out to the Fischer House at the local Veterans Affairs facility. They help distribute and inventory household supplies and did a bit of gardening for the residents.

With the overwhelming response, next year's event will be nothing but better. I cannot wait to see 100 youth, gather and execute another day of great service to the community and reminding the residents of Santa Monica and Southern California that our youth are the leaders in the neighbourhoods.

-Cory Russell, CSC Santa Monica member

The third annual AmeriCorps Week, which takes place May 9-16, 2009, provides the perfect opportunity for AmeriCorps members, alums, grantees, program partners, and friends to shine a spotlight on the work done by members—and to motivate more Americans to serve their communities. CSC members throughout the State of California will be participating in numerous service activites and events showing how CSC AmeriCorps members get things done.

Humboldt CSC Members:
On May 15th CSC members, Michelle and josh, will be working with the United Indian Health Services, where they will be assisting in their community garden. On Saturday, May 16th, they will be taking part in an event sponsored by the City of Arcata, Arcata High School and AmeriCorps Watershed Stewards on the Shay Park Cleanup, where they will be removing invasive plants and trash along the Jolly Giant Creek in Shay Park.

Ventura CSC Members:
The Ventura CSC members will be particpating in three separate activities. Presentations about Americorps and Safe Corps at a local high school, the Frontier HS, Camarillo on May 14th from 8:30 AM till 12pm. They will have a table set up about AmeriCorps at Oxnard College, Oxnard CA from 9 AM to 3 PM. In addition, Richard Senate, a 2007-2008 CSC AmeriCorps alum, along with the current CSC members will be having a 30 minute PSA announcemnt at the local public TV station, Community Access Partners TV (CAPS-TV), of San Buenaventura. The TV taping is will be on May 13th and will most likely be aired in the following week.

Silicon Valley CSC Members:
Silicon Valley CSC members will be hosting a “Barb’s Brown Bag Lunch," which is a monthly lunch meeting for staff and volunteers at their office. Members will be hosting the lunch on May 12th where they will be speaking about the program. In addition, Adriana Garcia, a second year CSC member, has coordinated a service activity where members will be working at

Santa Monica and Los Angeles CSC Members:
May 11-13 2009:
Presentations to High School students at Inyo-Mono County

Tuesday, May 11, 2009:

Project with Dream Center Los Angeles 12-5 PM

Members will assemble and distribute bags of groceries to underserved communiteis throughout the Los Angeles area.

Presentation to Red Cross/UCLA group 6:00 PM

Members will speak to UCLA students about AmeriCorps.

Thursday, May 14, 2009:

Beach Clean up with "Save our Beach" 10-1 PM

Friday, May 15, 2009:

Service Inclusion Event 1-4 PM
In conjunction with the UCLA Tarjan Center members will host partner agencies to a day of preparedness education to persons with with disabilities at the Ken Edwards Community Center in Santa Monica, CA.

The objective of the CADRE (Collaborating Agencies Disaster Relief Effort) Conference is to provide a forum for addressing the needs of vulnerable populations in disaster through collaborative planning, raising awareness of community & government disaster resources, and dialogue. The participants that attended the conference are those that work in community based agencies and who work with people that are vulnerable in disasters and county and Local emergency management personnel.

The 4th Annual “Together We Do Better” Conference was held on March 24, 2009 at NASA AMES Conference Center. The Theme this year was “Meeting Accessibility and Functional Needs in a Disaster”. We had presenters from Santa Clara County Emergency Managers Association, Bay Area Super Urban Area Security Initiative (SUASI) California State Emergency Management Agency (CalEMA), FEMA, American Red Cross and Department of Homeland Security Office for Civil rights and Civil Liberties among other local speakers and presenters. Some of the workshops of the day were disasters 101: Roles and Responsibilities in Emergency Planning and Response, Serving Diverse Communities in an emergency Disaster, & Safe Spaces for children in a Disaster. It was a very Productive and engaging conference were over 200 people attended. At the end of the day they all received free emergency preparedness goodies which included 3 day first aid kits donated by California Volunteers.

This is my second year helping organize this conference. As the logistics coordinator I oversaw projects, organized workshops, and mentored the food coordinator as well as the registration lead. I definitely felt that this was something I help create and pull off. I have learned and grown so much from organizing this conference 2 years in a row. I have enjoyed working with the vulnerable populations committee and networked a lot! It was a difficult at times, but knowing that so many people gained necessary skills in networking, resources, and knowledge in disaster preparedness made it all worth it! It was great seeing a large community take a step towards disaster preparedness!

--Adriana Garcia, CSC member

American Red Cross of Silicon Valley

AmeriCorps Video and Photo Contest

The AmeriCorps Video and Photo Contest - Enter Today! AmeriCorps, VISTA and NCCC members and alums, here's your chance to show how we get things done! Don’t miss this opportunity to show the world the impact of our service. Participating is simple and easy:

Step 1: Create Create a compelling 60 second video or take a powerful photo. Think about the impact of AmeriCorps, how will you capture it?

Step 2: Share Format your video or photo according to the guidelines, and upload it to the contest website between May 1 and May 22, 2009.

Step 3: View and VoteA panel of renowned judges will view your submission and narrow entries to finalists for each contest. Then the public will vote on this site between June 15 and July 6 to determine this year's winners.For more information on the contests and for official contest guidelines and schedules, visit http://www.americorpscontest.org/