Americorps: Bringing Talent to Town

MaryRose Walko arrived in Pittsburgh like many do, as a student at the flagship University. Unlike many of the students who graduate from Pitt, however, she decided to stay here.

Why? Because of a national nonprofit group named AmeriCorps, started by President Clinton in 1993. “I hadn’t really planned on staying here,” she reminisces, “but then I found out about AmeriCorps and it was the perfect fit. I’m still here.”

MaryRose’s “perfect fit” entailed serving at the Allegheny County Jail as an instructor helping inmates obtain their Graduate Equivalency Diploma’s. It’s a site that very few 23 year old females would find appealing. Realistically, very few would even think of the jail as a place of employment, but that’s where AmeriCorps comes in.

Now MaryRose is the AmeriCorps Program Coordinator with Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council (GPLC), and it's her job to place all of the incoming members with their service sites, many of which are unknown to Pittsburghers but are a huge factor in keeping the AmeriCorps members coming back for more. “Our city has a vibrant nonprofit environment,” she says, “There are so many opportunities for young people to lend a hand, it is really no surprise how well the AmeriCorps program has flourished in Pittsburgh.”

A testament to that statement is the fact that two years ago the GPLC became the national headquarters for Literacy*AmeriCorps, which is only 1 of the 6 AmeriCorps programs functioning in Pittsburgh right now, with roughly 100 members serving the community at any time.

One of those members, Brian Romine of Cincinnati moved into the North Side, a place he describes as “an amazing neighborhood with lots of progressive minded people. Living there is a definite highlight.”  He spends his days commuting to the Allegheny Intermediate Unit’s English as a Second Language Site on Forbes Avenue, teaching those in need how to better their communication in English, and other tricks of adapting to this American lifestyle. “AmeriCorps provides an avenue for getting involved with non-profits in the city, and serving with AmeriCorps has also allowed me to meet other young people with similar goals,” he notes.

Rachel Baron, from Michigan, happens to be one of those other young people with similar goals who found a home in Pittsburgh. “In most parts of Pittsburgh,” Rachel remarks, “there’s a genuineness to the people and the neighborhoods that I find very attractive. Having grown up in a suburban tourist town where many things were polished and fake, I find myself drawn to the rough edges and everyday people that live here.”

It should be mentioned that AmeriCorps folk put themselves closer to the rough edges than most people care to go, (see: MaryRose’s site) and Rachel is no exception. She teaches computer literacy and Adult Basic Education at CareerLinks downtown, and in turn comes across some colorful, albeit good-natured, characters. She feels that way about Pittsburgh in general as well, “I like that I can ask people on the bus how to get somewhere and they’ll help me. I like helping out other people when they ask.”

That is the basis of the program as a whole: AmeriCorps operates under the maxim that it is not the responsibility of one person to do everything, but if each person does something, everyone benefits. Pittsburgh is the ideal city for this philanthropic attitude, as it is a city on the rise yet with plenty of areas still in dire need of attention. One of those areas, as most would tell you, is the problem of keeping young here.

Just one more useful facet of the ‘Corps.

Works for me!
“Thanks to my year of immersion in the Pittsburgh nonprofit network, I was able to find a job right out of AmeriCorps with GPLC,” says MaryRose. While that may sound like a recruitment soundbyte (especially coming from the mouth of the main recruiter, who is the Americorps contact for anyone interested) in the end it happens to be the case. Eight out of the forty or so of the Council’s full-time employees got their start with Literacy*AmeriCorps.

Karen Mundie, the Associate Director at GPLC, describes this hiring phenomenon as little more than common sense from an employer’s perspective. “They have already served here. We know they are flexible and can handle different tasks, and they have basically just come out of a year of nonprofit training.” It’s all good in other words.

It is a self-sustaining relationship, as members are captured by the thought of spending a year helping people, which AmeriCorps facilitates, then by the time the members are familiar with the sector and excited by the possibilities, Pittsburgh has them hooked and they have a network in place when it comes time to find a job.

The peaches and cream that MaryRose is experiencing does not come easy, rather it takes a year of full-time volunteerism at a volunteer’s pay grade (not pro bono, but close) to establish a network sizable enough to find a job. After 1700 hours of helping others, which is the requisite amount to receive the five thousand dollar education award, most members are ready to move back into the standard workforce.

Thanks to Pittsburgh’s most livable city status, these youngsters have no problem moving in right here.

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Max Jones is a freelance writer and an AmeriCorps member teaching GED preparation classes at the Allegheny County Jail.

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Photographs:

MaryRose Walko; Mufuku Bana and Aissata Diallo in an English reading class; Rachel Baron; word families; Karen Mundie.

All photographs copyright Brian Cohen