2014 MLK, Jr. Day of Service

Service As A StrategyService As A Strategy Richmond’s Newsletter on Volunteerism and Civic Engagement

January 2014

On January 20, 2014, the City of Richmond’s Neighbor-To-Neighbor (N2N) and AmeriCorp ACES (Action for Community Enhancement Services) Initiatives worked in collaboration with the Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club and the Heroes and Dreams Academy to honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. A special day of personal reflection, group discussions, and service projects was provided to approxi-mately 100 attendees. The event, which was held at the Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club (3701 R Street), included meaningful presentations by Dr. Cynthia Newbille (7th District Councilperson), Don Coleman (RPS Board Chairman), Owen Cardwell (Executive Director of the Heroes and Dreams Academy), and Paul Manning (Chief

Service Officer). Ervin Johnson, an AmeriCorp member, served as the event’s dynamic emcee.

Governor Terry McAuliffe, his wife (Dorothy), and one of their daughters (Sally) attended the service component of the event and participated in the on-site paint project. Also in attendance from the Mayor’s Office were Dr. Cheryl Ivey-Green (Senior Assistant to the Mayor) and Don Mark (the Mayor’s Deputy Chief of Staff).

The Richmond Academy brought 50 youth (12-18 years old) to the event. The youth, as well as adults, par-ticipated in a unity and peace session led by members of the Peace Education Center. Judging from the en-ergy of the students and City of Richmond staff, there is no doubt that objective has been met. Our task now is to heed the call and join the movement. Let us continue striving forward to “Build the Best Richmond” possible by leveraging service as a strategy to get things done.

Gov. McAuliffe painting Paul speaking Don Coleman & Owen Cardwell

Councilwoman Newbille

Dr. Green, Gov. McAuliffe, Paul, Jen-nifer, AmeriCorp member Ayanna

Woodberry, Don Mark Attendees Youth serving seniors Ervin and Governor

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Department # of Employees Monthly Volunteer Hours (FY14 as of 12/3/13)

CLASS I: 1-20 EMPLOYEES

Treasurer’s Office 4 0

Press Secretary to the Mayor 5 0

Minority Business Development 5 0

Mayor’s Office 6 59

City Clerk 7 0

Retirement System 11 3

Budget & Strategic Planning 12 24

CAO’s Office 13 32

City Auditor 15 0

Human Services 15 2,211.05

Procurement Services 18 0

Animal Care & Control 22 0

CLASS II: 21-50 EMPLOYEES

City Council 24 0

Economic/Community Development 32 99

City Attorney 35 0

City Assessor 36 0

Human Resources 39 0

CLASS III: 51-100 EMPLOYEES

Finance 69 30.3

Commonwealth’s Attorney 77 0

General Registrar 78 0

City Library 84 23

CLASS IV: 101-300 EMPLOYEES

Information Technology 102 102

Planning & Development Review 106 26

Courts 112 0

Public Health* 123 0

Justice Services 207 112

Parks, Recreation & Comm. Facilities 260 201

CLASS V: 301+ EMPLOYEES

Public Works 420 4

Fire & Emergency Services 435 0

Sheriff and Jail 459 0

Social Services (including the ECDI) 472 40

Richmond Behavioral Health Authority** 497 0

Public Utilities 730 16.5

Police 955 178.5

TOTAL 5,485 3,161.35

*Class IV Note: Including Richmond City Health District (Public Health) 123 employees.

** Class V Note: Including Richmond Behavioral Health Authority’s 497 employees.

100,000

90,000

80,000

70,000

60,000

50,000

40,000

30,000

20,000

10,000

Note 1: The groupings of de-

partments, per class, are based

on figures provided by DIT.

100,000 Service Hours The N2N Service Thermometer

below represents the City of

Richmond’s progress towards

reaching Mayor Jones’ goal of

100,000 service hours among

city agencies.

100,000 Service Hour Challenge - Departments’ Monthly & Annual Totals

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The City of Richmond is one of five cities that have been chosen by the American Heart Association and Cities of Service, a bi-partisan coalition of more than 180 mayors committed to using citizen service to ad-dress pressing local needs, to receive 500 CPR Anytime Kits (or Hands-Only™ CPR training kits) to help turn more residents into lifesavers. Last year’s grant recipients trained nearly 17,000 people in lifesaving Hands-Only CPR skills with the kits they received.

The City of Richmond, by way of its Neighbor-to-Neighbor (N2N) Initiative, is partnering with the Rich-mond Ambulance Authority, the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority, and The American Heart Association of Greater Richmond with the goal of training 250 low-income public housing residents and 250 low-income Latino residents with the grant – thus equipping 500 residents with this life-saving training. Each of the 500 trained volunteers will train a minimum of five additional people (2,500 people) in Hands-Only CPR for a total of 3,000 people trained. The outcome will be that these trained volunteers will act as first respond-ers in cardiac arrest emergencies.

“I am excited about the power of this initiative and the impact that volunteers will make in saving lives in the City of Richmond,” said Mayor Dwight C. Jones. “The current rate of bystander-initiated CPR is 50% less likely in Richmond’s low-income neighborhoods than in high-income neighborhoods. This grant increases the opportunity for us to work with our collaborative partners in an effort to raise this number to a standard equal to or better than the healthiest cities in the world.”

This year’s training kit grant winners also include the cities of Duluth, MN, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, Phoenix, AZ, and Rock Hill, SC. The grants will support the implementation of the Cities of Service Volunteer CPR Blueprint, a high-impact service strategy in which each city’s mayor’s office partners with local medical professionals and emergency responders to train volunteers to use the lifesaving Hands-Only CPR technique. The Blueprint calls for the volunteers, who are trained by professionals, to teach CPR to at least five other residents, vastly improving a community’s ability to respond to sudden cardiac emergencies.

City of Richmond’s Hands-Only CPR Grant

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Corporation for National and Community Service to leverage National Day of Service and Volunteer Recognition

Mayors across this country use service every day to strengthen communities and tackle pressing prob-lems. To spotlight the impact of national service and thank those who serve, mayors across the country will participate in the second-annual Mayors Day of Recognition for National Service on April 1, 2014. The na-tional initiative is being led by the Corporation for National and Community Service, Cities of Service, and the National League of Cities. On this day, mayors will hold public events and use traditional and social media to highlight the value and impact of national service to the nation’s cities. Last year, 832 mayors representing nearly 100 million citizens participated in the inaugural Mayors Day of Recognition for National Service. Mayor Jones was one of the participating Mayors, hosting an event at the downtown Farmer’s Market. Over 100 people were in attendance at the public event in which the Mayor formally recognized the impact of na-tional service in the City of Richmond, issuing a mayoral proclamation pertaining to the National Service Rec-ognition Day. After the public event, the Mayor’s Neighbor-To-Neighbor (N2N) Initiative, AmeriCorp ACES members, and approximately 100 VCU students fanned out across the City of Richmond to provide volunteer service at four Senior Connections’ Friendship Cafes and 40 homes of elderly residents.

Mayor Jones speaking Mayor Jones posing with event attendees and project volunteers

Volunteers serving seniors

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Spotlight on AmeriCorps ACES member Henry Clay Bibbs

AmeriCorps member Henry Clay Bibbs is assigned to our Strengthening Families Partner – Heroes and Dreams which is coordinated under Rev. Owen Cardwell. The Heroes and Dreams Program is designed to achieve improvement in grades, attendance and behav-iors for participants’ ages 8 to 18 enrolled in the program. The Heroes and Dreams pro-gram is housed at the Salvation Army Boys and Girls Club in Churchill.

Mr. Bibbs shares the following: “First I would like to thank the AmeriCorps family for giving me the oppor-tunity to work with some fabulous young men. These young men come from very challenging circum-stances however with their parent’s permission; they joined the Heroes' and Dreams Academy because they want better to themselves. Mr. Bibbs’ responsibility with the Heroes and Dreams program is as a fa-cilitator and educational specialist. He recruits mentors, tutors and speakers with successful careers for participants to help improve their grades and to give them exposure to various pro-fessions. Periodically Mr. Bibbs will transport participants on tours of the City to share historical landmarks. He, along with other AmeriCorps members in the pro-gram, reach out to parents to seek their permission in having access to participants’ grades, their participation in scheduled Heroes and Dreams events, their attendance at PTA meetings and to encourage them to spend time each day with their chil-dren.

AmeriCorps

Human Services Employees Serve Feedmore While children across the region rejoiced over missing school due to the re-cent snow days, Feedmore - the umbrella organization of Meals on Wheels, the Food Bank, and the Community Kitchen - had their normal operations hampered. They announced a need for volunteers on Wednesday, January 29th to help in the areas of (1) meal packaging and light prep work in the Community Kitchen, and (2) packing 800 weekend backpacks for hungry kids. Employees from the City of Richmond’s Mayor’s Youth Academy and the Of-fice of the DCAO of Human Services responded to the need on the next day and served from 7am-1pm, preparing 1,500 meals for the needy.

Above: Rodslyn Brown (MYA) and Ann-Marie Williams (HS)

Mayor’s Toy Drive Volunteers On Monday, December 16 the City of Richmond partnered with Radio One again to host the annual City of Richmond and Radio One Holiday Toy Drive. 38 Neighbor to Neighbor volunteers as-sisted local residents with their holiday shopping at the toy dis-tribution event at Arthur Ashe. We had volunteers represent from local community groups and City agencies. Over 2,000 toys were donated and N2N volunteers helped to make the day go smoothly bringing holiday cheer to those in need during the holiday

season. City employees donated over 200 hours of service!

Clay speaking to mentees

Thank you City of Richmond employees for volunteering

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N2N Awards “Love Your Block” mini-grants: 4th Sub-granting cycle

Love Your Block (LYB) is a nationally tested, high-impact service strategy in which Mayor Dwight Jones’ Ad-ministration engages with community members in revitalizing their neighborhoods one block at a time. Pursuant to receiving a $10,000 LYB grant from Service Nation, in partnership with the Home Depot Foun-dation, N2N will soon be awarding mini-grants between $500 and $1,000 (in the form of Home Depot gift cards) to more community-based entities. The application deadline for the fourth round of funding is March 7, 2014.

To honor Martin Luther King’s vision of civic en-gagement and community action, 30 students from the University of Richmond joined Neighbor-To-Neighbor intern, Austin Shepherd, on January 20th for a day of service. The volun-teers connected with Department of Public Works Volunteer Coordinator, Matt Mason, to aid in the maintenance of Huguenot Flatwater Park. From 9 a.m. to noon, these students used tree clippers, saws, and mattocks to remove dead underbrush and invasive species from the park area. Through their combined efforts, 50 square yards of dense forest along the James River was recovered for use. The impact of their service can be seen in the new vistas and repainted trash bins around the Huguenot Flatwater parking lot. We thank the stu-dents involved for their assistance, and we invite you to go enjoy the park and see for yourself what one group’s commitment to service can do.

Above: Austin and other UR student volunteers.