wfn.org | NCCCUSA Ecumenical Urban Service Program

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org]

NCCCUSA EPRUS Program Helps Volunteers as well as Communities
Meets Needs of Volunteers, Too
National Council of the Churches of Christ in the 
U.S.A.
Internet: c/o carol_fouke.parti@ecunet.org

Contact: Chris Herlinger, NCCCUSA, 212-870-2068
4/30/97 For Immediate Release

NEW YORK, April 30 ---- An ecumenical program 
administered by the National Council of Churches of 
Christ (NCCC) and now in its third year is not only 
strengthening U.S. communities and providing for a 
variety of human needs -- it is also making life a 
little easier for the hard-working volunteers who 
are making the program such a success.

The Ecumenical Program for Urban Service (EPRUS) has 
been "a Godsend," says Diann Brand, a volunteer with 
the Kentucky-based Christian Appalachian Project 
(CAP).  Ms. Brand, a second-year volunteer, is one 
of 312 AmeriCorps volunteers nationally who received 
EPRUS/AmeriCorps Education Only Awards for their 
work last year.

This year, 1,650 volunteers will receive awards and 
next year that number is expected to rise to 5,500, 
an increase Jan Schrock, director of EPRUS Special 
Projects, attributes to the increasing role churches 
have in the nation's volunteer efforts.

Now in its second year, the Regional Community 
Service Education Awards Only Program has provided 
education awards to AmeriCorps volunteers who serve 
in existing programs with the Council of Religious 
Volunteer Agencies.

Participating agencies include Brethren Volunteer 
Service, the United Methodist Volunteers in Mission, 
the Homeland Ministries of the United Church of 
Christ, the Christian Reformed Church Volunteer 
Program, and the Catholic Network of Volunteer 
Agencies.

The Education Awards Only Program is one of the key 
components of the EPRUS/AmeriCorps program, which is 
funded by the Corporation for National Service, the 
national service movement initiated by President 
Bill Clinton, and is administered through the NCCC, 
which represents 33 Protestant, Anglican and 
Orthodox member denominations and communions.

"Religious organizations have done community service 
for many decades, and now working with AmeriCorps, 
we can offer benefits," said Schrock.

Adds Chrissy Zaker, director of Amate House, which 
places volunteers in sites in and around Chicago: 
"This has definitely been a good thing. the church 
has always done this work and now there is a team 
effort among churches, social service agencies and 
the government to do this work together. It's a team 
effort."

EPRUS began in October 1994 in four cities, 
Cleveland, Kansas City, Pittsburgh and Seattle, and 
expanded to Orlando in 1995 - leading to the present 
EPRUS Five-City Program.

AmeriCorps members are placed in programs in the 
cities, most are recruited from local neighborhoods, 
others are recruited non-locally from colleges, 
universities, Council of Religious Volunteer 
Agencies, the NCCC and the AmeriCorps National Pool.

The Five-City Program now has 100 volunteers working 
in team projects that emphasize non-violence and 
health and educational strategies to empower urban 
neighborhoods.

The volunteers help children and youth in church-
based programs that include in-school and after-
school tutoring, alternative recreation programs, 
summer camp programs and activities, parenting 
education, childcare, conflict mediation training, 
conflict resolution and health care for teen-age 
mothers.

Year-long team-building training is a unique feature 
of EPRUS/AmeriCorps. Programs begin with an initial 
orientation, and provide ongoing training and 
reflection throughout the year.

EPRUS programs are run through inner-city ecumenical 
agencies which, by working together, address the 
violence and neglect which affect children and 
youth. Many programs in each city take place in 
churches which have become vibrant community centers 
offering after-school, evening, Saturday and summer 
programs.

EPRUS members also work within schools along with 
teachers and administrators to address needs of 
children and youth. A major objective of the EPRUS 
program is to mobilize and nurture local volunteers 
so that the programs will be sustainable.

In the Pittsburgh program, for example, the East End 
Cooperative Ministry has provided what Schrock calls 
"a safety cushion" for schools in Pittsburgh's East 
End by working with youths who are "acting out" in 
school. Alternative recreation, tutoring and 
mentoring programs are provided in area churches six 
days a week. "This is an incredible piece of work 
they do," Schrock said, noting, too, that the 
program has initiated an urban summer camp for 
some 550 children and youths. Many who have gone to 
the camp have, in turn, become camp counselors.

The success of the urban program prompted the 
Corporation for National Service to support an 
additional program - providing education awards to 
AmeriCorps volunteers who serve in existing 
programs.

That proved a boon to volunteers like Diann Brand, 
who came to Kentucky to do social service work but 
still had the burden of paying off her college 
student loans. Thanks to her $4750 grant, Brand, a 
1989 graduate of Benedictine College in Kansas, was 
able to pay off her loans, easing the financial way 
so she could eventually prepare for graduate 
studies. "The program benefits people right out of 
college and also those like me who were a little 
older and still paying off our student loans."

The idea of even contemplating graduate school would 
have been impossible, she says, without the grant. 
"This has been like an act of grace," says Brand, 
30, a case worker with CAP, a non-profit non-
denominational service organization in eastern 
Kentucky.

Brand's work focuses on emergency services - helping 
impoverished families with emergency situations, 
whether that means "scrambling" to get clothing or 
emergency shelter, or help with utility bills. One 
day recently, Brand had spent trying to find a 
bulldozing service for a family trying to level off 
some land so they could build a house.

"It can be stressful at times," she says of her 
work, which she describes as being a "Jill of all 
trades" - part counselor, part "Welcome Wagon lady," 
part Santa Claus. Brand came to Kentucky having done 
stints teaching and doing social service work.

Just as the volunteer work allowed her to do that, 
the EPRUS grant allowed her to start thinking about 
graduate school. She may yet complete a Masters of 
Public Administration or in Social Work.

Kathy Kluesener, a coordinator at CAP and also a 
regional EPRUS trainer, said the EPRUS program has 
produced "many success stories." For the agencies, 
it means keeping volunteers on for a longer period 
of time.

And the benefits for the volunteers are obvious. 
"One of our most persistent questions by perspective 
volunteers is, `I'd like to volunteer but I have a 
student loan.' It really helps them out. And as the 
need for volunteers increases, it's a real help for 
people with loan worries."

Nell Gibson of the NCCC, who formerly worked with 
the EPRUS program, said the program's success proves 
that young people have "gotten a bad rap."

"There's a lot of idealism among young Americans and 
the media play up the worst elements. There's a 
sense of idealism among young people that people 
don't talk about," she said.

The Rev. Chuck Rawlings, coordinator of the NCCC's 
Urban Programs Unit, adds that the EPRUS program is 
continuing a historical tradition of U.S. mainline 
churches working ecumenically to improve social 
conditions - a tradition perhaps best exemplified by 
the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

"These new programs are opening up ways to make that 
happen again," Rev. Rawlings said, "to teach that 
spirit again, to turn young people on to what they 
can do for society."

Practical obstacles can stand in the way of such 
idealism, especially for young people in the African 
American and Latino communities. That is why in 
EPRUS's third year, the Education Awards Only 
program expanded to include members who are 
providing community service through churches and 
community service agencies affiliated with Black and 
Hispanic churches. This year, the program will 
expand to include Asian and Native American 
churches.

Those involved in the Hispanic churches program are 
involved in health, community safety, education, and 
environmental work, notes the Rev. Eddie Lopez, a 
United Methodist pastor in the Bronx and coordinator 
of the Hispanic program.

"Latinos and Latinas are the poorest minority group 
in our country. Here is an opportunity to put 
together poor churches with poor students," he said. 
"It is helping the churches, social agencies, 
students and, of course, those members of our 
community who receive assistance in tutoring, soup 
kitchens, food pantries and a host of other areas."

The role these programs are playing in their 
communities can't be overestimated, he said, because 
it affords congregations the chance to become 
involved in their communities, creating what Lopez 
calls "transforming change," and assisting "our 
young adults and adults to obtain a college 
education, which for some would otherwise be 
unaffordable."

"Here is an opportunity to create an ethic in our 
communities in which we `do for ourselves,' " he 
said. "I think this alone is worth the money that 
the federal government is spending on AmeriCorps."

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