September 4th and 5th marked the begin-ning of the new program year for Ameri-Corps ACCESS. The first day of orienta-tion was conducted at the Greensboro Buddhist Center (a tradition for Ameri-Corps ACCESS). This gives new Ameri-Corps members an introduction to another culture and religion. Along with the ad-ministrative aspects of AmeriCorps, ori-entation also allows members an opportu-nity to get to know each other and learn about working with diverse communities.

Pramaha Somsak Sambinb gives AmeriCorps ACCESS members a tour of the Greensboro Buddhist

Center

Volume V, Issue 1

AMERICORPS ACCESS PROJECT

AmeriCorps ACCESS

Project

413 South Edgeworth Street

Greensboro, NC 27401

Phone: 336.256.1375

Fax: 336.334.5413

2009 - 2010 Progra m Year

ACCESS EXPRESS

Special Points of

Interest

Orientation

National Identity Day

Interpreter Training

Professional Corps

AmeriCorps Launch

Raleigh Bailey

Member’s Birthdays

Make A Difference Day is a service pro-ject created by USA Weekend Magazine and promoted by the NC Commission on Volunteerism. It was developed as a way to encourage public ser-vice within the com-munity and Ameri-Corps participates in

this project each year. This year AmeriCorps members participated by collecting clothes, shoes, jackets, toys and other items for the Newcomers School. The New-comers School serves newly arrived immigrant and refugee children and their families. These items went directly to the families connected with the Newcomers School.

This is the first year that the AmeriCorps ACCESS Project participated in the Day of Service and Remembrance. This was developed by My-GoodDeed as a way to remember and honor the victims of 9/11. The mission is to recognize this day as a way to promote good deeds and community service. This first year AmeriCorps ACCESS partnered with AmeriCorps Community Collaborative and went to the NC Na-tional Guard Amory in Greensboro to make care packets. These care packets consisted of pens, crayons, cards, stickers, stationary, rulers and other items to be given to children whose parents are serving over-seas. These packets were made so the children can send cards to their

parents. Because of the efforts of AmeriCorps close to 200 packets were made.

National Identity Day

“Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.” The Buddha

Make a d i fference day

AmeriCorps is about making new friends too.

Day of service and remembrance

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A C C E S S E X P R E S S

Throughout the year AmeriCorps mem-bers provide additional services to the community through a project titled Na-tional Identity Day. National Identity Day recognizes specific days during the year that are considered very signifi-cant, such as September 11 and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. It is during these times that AmeriCorps members come together and demonstrate their commit-ment to service. During the 1st Quarter there were two National Identity days: Day of Service and Remembrance (recognizing victims of 9/11) and Make A Difference Day (10/24).

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P A G E 3

Living up to the saying “Getting things done!” AmeriCorps members are always looking for new and unique opportunities to help the community and provide service to others. This year ABCs Extreme Make-over: Home Edition came to the Piedmont Triad area of North Carolina to help a family build a wonderful home. AmeriCorps ACCESS Project Director Khouan Rodriguez braved the cool morning with AmeriCorps members (from left to right) Marines Jackson, Jack Tyler, Daniel Foster, Shaw Drake, Kristin Ken-nedy and Raycia Evans. This episode of Extreme Makeover should air sometime in January or February of 2010.

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One of the components that distinguishes the AmeriCorps ACCESS project from other Ameri-Corps programs is the Interpreter Training. AC-CESS began with interpreting services in 1995 and it has become a standard with the AmeriCorps training along with cultural competence. Interpreter Training is required for all bi-lingual AmeriCorps members.

Interpreter Training

E x t r e m e M a k e o v e r : H o m e E d i t i o n

A C C E S S E X P R E S S

Interpreter services have been part of the foundation of the AmeriCorps AC-CESS project and the Center for New North Carolinians (CNNC). Between its inception in 1999 up to 2003 around 500 bilingual/bicultural interpret-ers—representing 28 different languages and cultural groups—successfully completed the14-hour introductory interpreter training. In 2005 individuals from around the state with at least Level I interpreter training came together to form the North Carolina Professional Interpreters Association (NCPIA). NCPIAs purpose includes development of professional and ethical standards of practice for interpreters, creation of opportunities for professional devel-opment, and support for Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The goals of the CNNC interpreter training and certification initiative are (a) to increase access to high quality, professional interpretation for NC’s multicultural population; and (b) to provide interpreters from diverse cultural, linguistic, and educational backgrounds with opportunities to develop skills and com-petencies based on an ethically-grounded best practices model.

“Idealists are foolish enough to throw caution to the winds. They have advanced mankind and have enriched the world.” Emma Goldman

Linh Quach, AmeriCorps supervisor with Boat People SOS (BPSOS) in Charlotte sent this poem recognizing BPSOS AmeriCorps members and their service:

BPSOS-Charlotte is here to stay,

With AmeriCorps support, we'll find a way. To help our community and fellow man,

With two new members doing all they can.

Huy speaks other languages and dialects, and is compassionate in all respects.

Assisting refugees to receive services and aid, so they can progress to be self-made.

Mr. Tran motivates and is cheerful,

his stories of life and love-so bountiful. He helps the Vietnamese seniors "his age,"

the community thinks he's all the rage!

Supervisors are happy to know, that AmeriCorps is bound to grow. As all Partners step up in gear,

BPSOS-Charlotte looks toward a wonderful year.

Check out our Facebook page

AmeriCorps ACCESS (NC)

www.facebook.com

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Professional Corps members are professionals in the field that provide service to immigrants and refugee community. Professional Corps mem-bers are able to utilize their existing position as a way to enhance the AmeriCorps experience and provide training and mentoring to current AmeriCorps members. It is also a way for professionals to connect with each other, develop ongoing professional relationships, and expand re-sources for themselves and others. Professional Corps members are also part of the Center Fellows, a research component of the Center for New North Carolinians. The Center Fellows connects researchers with profes-sionals in the field and promotes ongoing research. Here we have one of our Professional Corps members Jamie Surprenant (standing) providing ESOL training to our AmeriCorps members on one of our AmeriCorps Saturday trainings. Kristin Kennedy (left) and Erin Kabrick (right).

Professional Corps

“I prefer rebelliousness because it affirms my status as a person who has never given in to the manipulation and strategies designed to reduce the human person to nothing.” Paulo Freire

AmeriCorps: Getting things done!

A C C E S S E X P R E S S

The Greensboro Children’s Museum is one of our part-ner agencies and offers an important resource to immi-grant/refugee populations in Guilford County as a non-threatening educational play place. Groups are welcome

and encouraged to use the facility as a place to enjoy family, learn or teach ESOL, attend programming, and

play and have fun! Standard admission fees can be waived for immigrant/refugee/low income and under-served populations as well as group visits. Please re-member or consider using the Children’s Museum for

classes and visits. Contact Katrina at: ksiladi@gcmuseum.com

or Gabrielle at ghowell@gcmuseum.com

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AmeriCorps Launch is the opportunity for various AmeriCorps programs to come to-gether and officially begin the program year. It was held at the Koury Convention Center in Greensboro on October 27th. Here we have two of our AmeriCorps members, Wendy Pagoaga (left) and Rafael Segura (right), taking the AmeriCorps Pledge:

I will get things done for America - to make our people safer, smarter, and healthier.

I will bring Americans together to strengthen our communities.

Faced with apathy, I will take action.

Faced with conflict,

I will seek common ground.

Faced with adversity, I will persevere.

I will carry this commitment

with me this year and beyond.

I am an AmeriCorps member

and I will get things done.

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“I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.” Albert Schweitzer

AmeriCorps members are not the only ones that have to go through trainings. Site Supervisors also have to en-gage in training with the AmeriCorps program. Supervi-sor trainings are a way for site supervisors to connect with each other and to share resources. It is also a way for supervisors to learn and grow in their capacity to supervise AmeriCorps members. During the first quar-ter site supervisor training, one of our Professional Corps members, Tom Matyók (who teaches in the Con-flict Resolution program at UNC-Greensboro), gave a training on Conflict Resolution.

SITE SUPERVISORS TRAINING

One of our partner agencies, Lutheran Family Services, is offering as-sistance with the N-400 naturalization application, and now offering

free citizenship classes for people who are eligible for citizenship.

Contact:

ELT Civics and Outreach Coordinator Lutheran Family Services

(336) 553-1504

A C C E S S E X P R E S S

AmeriCorps

Launch

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There are big changes with the Ameri-Corps program and the Center for New North Carolinians. The director of the agency, Raleigh Bailey is retiring as di-rector of the Center here in January. He will remain with the Center in other ca-pacities. I asked Raleigh to write a little something for the newsletter commemo-rating the time spent with the Center and with AmeriCorps.

A short history of the AmeriCorps ACCESS Project

by Raleigh Bailey

In 1994 I had recently returned to NC from Southeast Asia where I had been working with refugees and had a job with Casa Guadalupe in Winston-Salem. The Clinton Administration announced that it was developing a national service program that would be similar to the Peace Corps and VISTA, but with its own special characteristics. I was asked by a refugee resettlement agency, Lu-theran Family Services, if I thought this could work with refugees. I said that I thought it could, and I would develop a proposal with the agreement that I could direct the project if it got funded. We did get funded for a planning grant for a year in 1994. As part of the planning grant I did a needs assessment with refugee re-settlement agencies and other agencies who were interested in helping immi-grants. We held a big meeting at the Greensboro Buddhist Center with about 30 people representing agencies and refugee/immigrant communities from

across the state. We agreed on a plan and I designed a proposal around that. We agreed on a name, the AmeriCorps Cross Cultural Education Service System, AC-CESS. The proposal was funded, and our first group of about 20 AmeriCorps Members, full and part time, started in September of 1995. Many of them were community leaders from around the state who had been unpaid volunteers in their communities before ACCESS started. About 10 community organizations were partners and placement sites for us.

We did not have office space, and the project office was set up in my living room. I had a part time Administrative Assistant, La Khang, who was a social work student at UNCG. I recruited Mo-hamed Abu-NImer, a sociology profes-sor at Guilford College, to be in charge of training. He was a specialist in cross cultural conflict resolution. He and I and John Rife from the Social Work Depart-ment at UNCG designed a curriculum in cross cultural conflict resolution. We decided to schedule the trainings to be on a Friday night and the next Saturday once a month and held them at Guilford College. The members who were coming from out of town stayed in different places, including with members who lived here locally or at the UNCG Piney Lake Lodge or at the Greensboro Bud-dhist Center (that was a real cross cul-tural experience for a lot of people).

After a couple of years, Lutheran Family Services

decided that it was too diffi-cult to be the administration for the grant and I asked John Rife about the UNCG Social Work Department serving as the grant administration. We were able to work it out, and since 1997, UNCG has been the grant administra-tion. The program grew, and we added some additional projects in immigrant health and interpretation. We outgrew my house, and in 1999 we moved to our house on Edgeworth Street in Greens-boro. In 2001 UNCG established the Center for New North Carolinians, and ACCESS became the basic foundation that led to several other Center programs that have now developed. I moved from director of ACCESS to director of the center. Erin Ajygin, who had been an ACCESS Member, became the new di-rector. Eventually she moved on, and Khouan Maoxomphu, now Rodriguez, became the new director.

“The sole meaning of life is to

serve humanity.”

Leo Tolstoy

AmeriCorps ACCESS Project provides training and

support for AmeriCorps members serving their

communities across North Carolina.

AmeriCorps meets human needs and encourages

community development through the activities of

program members. It is supported by a partnership of

federal and state governments and local communities.

ACCESS helps refugee and immigrant communities gain

better access to human services, build bridges of

understanding with neighbors, and become economically

self-sufficient residents of our state.

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Khouan had been an AmeriCorps member at the Greensboro Buddhist Center and then had held other positions at the Center before becoming the new director who has now served in that position

for several years.

Now the AmeriCorps ACCESS Project is the oldest AmeriCorps program in the state, and one of the biggest. Hundreds of AmeriCorps members have completed the program. Many of them have contin-ued as professionals in human services, and many of the culturally competent agencies in North Caro-lina are staffed with professionals who began as AmeriCorps ACCESS members. Others have gone abroad to continue their service in other places. My daughter Kristie, who works for UNHCR in Jordan, has run into at least two ACCESS alumni who now work with refugees in the Middle East.

I am retiring from my position as CNNC Director this month. However, I have liked working with AC-CESS so much that I will continue part time to serve as the supervisor for the project so I can continue

to be involved with interesting people who want to make a difference in helping immigrants become equitably integrated into our state. Keep up the Good Service!

Ann Allison 11.27 Felicia Bundy 9.23

Huy Cil 10.06 Tonya Collins 12.22 Vicki Dithane 11.24 Betty Fletcher 12.16 Aubrey Grant 11.11

Megan Ingram 12.28 Marines Jackson 9.28

Jana Jacobs 9.22 Faith Josephs 11.14

Erin Kabrick 9.17 Cindy Knul 12.23

Rima Ksebi 11.12 Gloria Lawing 11.19 Violet Lincourt 11.11

Luz Lopez 10.12 Tom Matyók 11.17

Wendy Pagoaga 11.01 Katrina Siladi 11.18

Silvia Sobalvarro 12.31 Bethany Stipe 9.02

Doroteya Teofilova 12.09 Jack Tyler 10.26

Happy Birthday Members!

The following members had birthdays during the first quarter.

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Thursday, February 18th, 2010, the Latin American Coalition will be hosting: "A Night in Rio: The Brazilian Carnival Experience". The doors open at 7pm and the show starts at 8pm. Tickets are $10 in advance and $12 at the door regardless of age. It will be taking place in Charlotte's Neighborhood Theatre - 511 East 36th St, Charlotte, NC 28205. (This area of Charlotte is known as "NoDa".) It will feature "traditional dancing; live musical performances; authentic foods; and arts and crafts. Come and enjoy the contagious energy of the famous carnival at this one-of-a-kind cultural experience." More info: 704-941-2557 or visit www.LatinAmericanCoalition.org

El Centro Hispano in Durham will be offering free tax clinics from January through April most Saturdays. For more information please contact El Centro His-pano at 919.687.4635.

“Liberation is a praxis: the action and reflection of men and women upon their world in order to transform it.”

Paulo Freire

Visit the webpage

http://cnnc.uncg.edu/programs/americorps