Employment Security awards funds for volunteers to aid Grant, Spokane, Stevens, Pend Oreille schools - September 27, 2007
07-068
Media contacts:
Caitlin Cormier,
360-902-9215
Terri Barbee,
360-438-4145
Audio: http://fortress.wa.gov/esd/portal/info/newsroom/audiofiles/audio/
OLYMPIA – The state Employment Security Department has awarded a total of $191,500 to public-service programs in Grant, Pend Oreille, Spokane and Stevens counties.
Educational Service District 101, serving Grant, Spokane and Stevens counties, received $97,000 and will use the money to support Washington Reading Corps efforts to tutor students in public schools.
The Spokane Public School District will use its $46,500 grant to engage students and schools in disaster-preparedness projects.
The Rural Resources Community Action program, serving Pend Oreille and Stevens counties, received $48,000 to serve the local Head Start program and local school districts with tutoring and to create activities for students. The money will also fund the Rural Resources Adult Basic Education program, which assists students studying for their high-school-equivalency test.
The funding comes from the federal AmeriCorps and Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) programs. Employment Security distributes the money to local communities to cover operating costs and provide stipends to Washington Service Corps members, who will spend 10½ months working on public-service projects, such as tutoring students, building affordable housing, improving emergency readiness, and rehabilitating streams and trails.
Nearly $2 million is being distributed to school districts, counties, learning centers, housing authorities and non-profit groups in 23 of Washington’s 39 counties across the state to provide an array of educational, human and public-improvement services from September 2007 through August 2008.
“The grants make it possible for our Service Corps members and the groups they work with to do a lot of good in schools and neighborhoods around the state,” said Karen Lee, commissioner of the Employment Security Department. “These programs have a lasting and enriching effect on the people who participate.”
Created by the state legislature in 1983 and administered by the Employment Security Department, the Washington Service Corps engages the talents, energy and enthusiasm of civically minded adults, aged 17 and up, in serving their communities.
For more information about Washington Service Corps programs and the teams that received the grants, visit http://www.wa.gov/esd/wsc/ and look on the left side of the page.
