Service Projects

Literacy*AmeriCorps New Orleans

Planning and attending service projects comprise a central part of a Literacy*AmeriCorps member's service year. All members are required to engineer a community service project during their year of service. Additionally, members are required to participate in at least one service project per month, but full time members are encouraged to participate in two or more.

Holiday Angels Bring Cheer to Local Children

The December service project took on a merry glow as AmeriCorps members brought Christmas cheer to the children of the Urban League Early Head Start Program on Rampart Street (member Esther Alexis‘ site). With Benji Lee serving as Santa Claus(pictured left), twenty little ones were treated to several gifts, treats and story readings. While the children were a little shy at first, Santa was patient and friendly, and by the end of the event, he’d become a new friend. In addition to Santa, many AmeriCorps members participated as Santa’s elves, handing out gifts, reading and playing with the children. Kudos go out to everyone who helped with this fun event, from our gift wrappers to Santa himself. Kevin Planchett, who organized the event, should be thanked for her hard work in getting donations so that all of the children (and some of their siblings) were supplied with books and an array of others gifts.

Dragon Cafe

On December 16, 2009 AmeriCorps Members partnered with Hands On New Orleans and visited the St. Georges Episcopal Church’s famous Dragon Café Feeding Ministry. The Dragon Café was established in the fall of 2005 during the early days of recovery following Hurricane Katrina. Hot meals are served two (2) nights a week to the local community and all that’s seeking food or even just good conversation. We sang songs, washed dishes, and served between 50-70 meals that day! On a regular day, the café serves between 75-125 meals when open. If anyone is seeking information concerning this famous café, please e-mail them at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or call the Ministry Director, Mr. Stan Jahncke at (504) 899-2811 ext. 208. 

ABOVE: Members Gail Eugene, the organizer of the service project, and Domonique Dickerson pose for a quick picture while prepping for the upcoming meal. 

The 4^th Annual Kaboom Playground Build

Make it Matter Day: I Read Aloud

On Saturday, October 3rd, YMCA Educational Services (YES!) hosted "Make it Matter Day," a national event sponsored by Reader's Digest.  AmeriCorps members and staff read aloud excerpts from favorite literary works. Each attendee discussed the book that they chose to bring and why they chose that particular work.  A range of styles and subjects were represented from sentimental to humorous, classic to contemporary.  The following is a list of the participants and the works they shared.

(From Left to right: Back row: Jan Jugran, Kalynd Kryza, Phyllis Gallagher, Catherine Spaulding, Jennie Merrill, Shannan Cvitanovic, Gibson, Fischer. Front Row: Jonathan Fratella, Maragret Hull, Esther Alexis, Laura Klein, Sarah G Fischer.)

August 2009

One Book One New Orleans, Delgado Adult Education Clean Up

Literacy* AmeriCorps was in full force in support of One Book One New Orleans"Gumbo Tasting Kickoff" which was held at Milton H. Latter Memorial Library, located on the historical St. Charles Ave. Guests were treated to a free gumbo tasting tour complimets of Mr. B's, Dooky Chase, Amce Oyster House, Redfish Grill, Bourbon House, and Felix's, with bread provided by Leidenheimer desert by Sucre'and free wine and beer provided by YellowTail and NOLA Brewery. The Literacy Alliance of Greater New Orleans provided an insightful discusson on the adult literacy landscape in GNO and how you can support adult literacy by dedicating their reading for someone who has helped them with their own reading or a friend or family member struggling with low literacy skills and declaring that "I Read Aloud!

As the last service project for the 2008-2009 service year members gather on the second to last Saturday of their service to help one of our service site by organizing students files, cleaning the classroom, and helping the program get ready for the upcoming school year. Member Molly Losey, who has along with  serving the other two 2008-2009 members at Delgado Adult Eduction has been hired on by the site, organized this final service project.

Above members Laura Klein, Margaret Hull, and Esther Alexis enjoy some down time from serving and enjoy some great Gumbo!

June 2009

Rhythmic Roots & Green Ability Fair,  Second Harvest Food Bank

In June despite a variety of training opportunties, members volunteered at two events. They conducted community outreach for the Literacy Alliance and the Literacy* AmeriCorps program at the Rythmic Roots & Green Ability Fair and helped package many boxes of food at the Second Harvest Food Bank in St. Charles Parish.

July 2009

Satchmo Festival

In July, members took to the streets of the French Quarter and helped out for the second year in a row with the annual Satchmo Festival. This annual outdoor concert celebrating Jazz legend Louis Armstrong and showing off the cool Frenchmen Street area of New Orleans is always a member favorite because of the good music and food that goes hand in hand with the volunteering. A service project that includes a second line could only happen in New Orleans!

May 2009

Jazz Fest, GED Graduation, PNOLA Kids Fair, Bayou Boogaloo, NOPL - Summer Reading Kickoff

Festivals Galore: Members started off the month volunteering at the Jazz and Heritage Festival and after working for a few hours they were able to enjoy the music festival as a bonus -a pretty nice bonus considering the small AmeriCorps living allowance and the pirce of Jazz Fest Tickets! (Read more about this service project and others in the May-June edition of AmeriWord.) Why work one festival when you can volunteer at two or three? After getting a taste of the music and food of New Orleans at Jazz Fest, members completed two days of outreach with the Literacy Alliance at the Bayou Boogaloo festival. Despite the threat of rain members enjoyed to beautiful and sunny days telling the public about our programs and issues of low literacy in the Greater New Orleans area, and even doing some recruiting for AmeriCorps. Members also helped out at the Phoenix of New Orleans Kids Fairs were they read to kids, inform the public about Family literacy and gave away free books. It was a great month for New Orleans festivals!

GED Graduation: For the second year in a row, the Literacy AmeriCorps members helped behind the scenes with the Greater New Orleans Regional GED Graduation. This year was a huge success as more than 100 GED graduates took the stage including Literacy AmeriCorps Member Courtney Bartet! A variety of dignitaries including Congressmen Cao and others spoke to the graduates on their big day and R&B Speaker and Vocalist Philip Manuel gave the keynote address, which included some beautiful singing. However, the highlight of the day came from the graduates themselves. Two speakers one from Delgado and one from NOPLAY told their personal stories and actually brought many of the audience and the speakers to tears. Check out a reprinting of one student testimonial as well as many pictures and student reflections in the May-June edition of AmeriWord.

Summer Reading Kickoff: This year, the teen reading program of the New Orleans Public Library is breaking out of the box. Teens have their own programs, their own reading logs and their own prize drawings, and teens who read six books will be entered into a drawing for electronic goodies, including an MP3 player and a mini camcorder. There will be game days and nights and several performances for teens this summer. There is an online reading program, so teens, who are busy with summer jobs and activities can participate 24/7. Literacy AmeriCorps members Judith Patrick and Kenneth Bryan were out and about for the Game Day Kick Off at NOPL's Children's Resource Center. Kids from the metro area enjoyed, reading, computer games, snacks and a mega dosage of the popular video game Guitar Hero.

Visit: http://host6.evanced.info/neworleans/sr/homepage.asp

April 2009

National Conference Service Project, Rhymthmic Roots Greenability Fair, ARNO Volunteer Day

In early April all of the full-time members headed to Pittsburgh for our annual Literacy AmeriCorps National Conference. This year we did something a bit different. On the second day of the conference, we headed out for a large service project. Despite the freezing cold and the snow our members helped clean up a park by removing trash and invasive plants, and rebuilding trails. For the second year in a row Corps members headed out to support the Rhythmic Roots Greenability Fair, which was held at Studio at Colton this year. The event had free music, food, and various informational booths for the community. One of the booths even had an NCCC group there! ARNO Volunteer Day, which was organized by Laura Klein, was a very successful event but mean something special to one member. ARNO (Animal Rescue of New Orleans) vaccinates, spays or neuters, and microchips every rescued animal. The members played with the animals, cleaned cages, and provided love. However, one member Kimberly Winkinson did not stop there. She fell in love with an orange tabby cat names Zack and took him home the following day! (Check out the March/April edition of AmeriWord for a special editorial by Zack!)

March 2009

Sheriff Gusman's Easter Egg Hunt, Volunteering at the Hornets Game, St. Charles Trash Bash, Earth Fest, Beautification of Akili Academy

Sheriff Marlin Gusman’s Easter Egg Hunt was a day of fun for hundreds of children from across the metro area.  Along with the highly anticipated Easter egg hunts, there were space walks, free lunch and admission to the Audubon Zoo, an arts and crafts booth run with the help of LAC member Molly Losey.  LAC members Caroline Warburton and Kimberly Wilkinson helped out by painting hundreds of faces.  The Hunt was a success and a great day of family fun! Many members of the Corps headed out to the Hornets game in early march to volunteer at the hive. After working hard, they got to enjoy the game in a special VIP room to boot! Kelly Madere along with staff members of the St. Charles Yes! program fought through the rain to help out at the annaulSt. Charles Trash Bash. According to the official website, "The event logged a total of 342 volunteers from community groups and industry, who filled 391 bags with roadside litter. Volunteers covered more than 69 miles of roadway in almost every St. Charles Parish community." Lauren Pigeon and BJ Narcisse (pictured left) are just two of the members who help man the New Orleans Public Library Children's Room outreach booth at he Audubon Zoo's annual Earth Fest Celebration. For the second year Literacy AmeriCorps members spent the weekend reading to children; distributing information about the children's room, Literacy Alliance, and Literacy AmeriCorps; and learning about the organizations and agencies in our area fighting to make New Orleans greener. To end off a busy month of service projects (we were making up for a lack of projects during Mardi Gras last month!), Miriam McGinn organized the Beautification of Akili Academy where Corps members, volunteers, faculty, and staff came together to plant the landscape and paint the school.

February 2009

YES! Classroom Clean Up

The Corps (including Robert Taylor, BJ Narcisse, Miriam McGinn, and Molly Losey pictured left) only had one chance to help out this month due to the carnival festivities but they made it count! We headed over to one of Literacy provider program the YMCA's Educational Services YES! Learning Center, located in the New Orleans Public Library's Main branch. The members who were present helped sort through old materials, update files, and reorganize bulletin boards. This was our second year helping YES! and to show their appreciation they gave us delicious breakfast and pizza for lunch.

January 2009

RUBARB Bikes, N. Rampart Community Center, and War Veterans Home

Members heading to RUBARB for our second year of service with the organization. They began the day helping to man the RUBARB Bike Shop out reach booth at the Sankofa Marketplace and then headed back to the shop to help local children fix flat tires, clean up the shop, and complete a variety of other projects. On January 17th, several AmeriCorps members ventured to the North Rampart Community Center for a day of service honoring Dr. Martin Luther King. Literacy*AmeriCorps has served this site for three years in a row now.Previous projects have included clearing the gymnasium of several years of back files and painting the gym and stairwells.This year we tackled the gym and its store room once again.By early afternoon, the storage room looked like a completely. In addition, on Martin Luther King Day, January 19, 2009 the River Parishes members of our Literacy AmeriCorps Group, participated in a service project at the Southeast LA War Veterans Home in Reserve. They typed the minutes of the last resident newsletter with guidance from Jerry Hardin, secretary for VA Council Board of the War Veterans Association, organized the supply closet and took down Christmas ornaments and redecorated the Christmas tree to adorn it with the Mardi Gras’ colors.They went back to volunteer, preparing a stage area for the Talent Contest.Complete with the sky, stars and actual toy model planes build by the Veterans themselves.

December 2008

Second Harvest Food Bank, Beacon of Hope

In December, members were able to participate in two service projects. First, the Urban League College Track students and staff held a service day event at the Second Harvest Food Bank in Harahan, Louisiana and brought Literacy AmeriCorps members to help out and get to know the College Track students.  Ten students and four Literacy AmeriCorps members worked in the food bank helping out by unpacking various food donations, separating those food donations and then packaging them into boxes. Staff at Second Harvest informed us that during those few hours of working, the boxes that were filled were going to help feed 9,000 hungry families in the Greater New Orleans area.  Members also helped out at the Beacon of Hope in Lakeview for the second year in a row. The Beacon of Hope “provides a model for recovery in neighborhoods devastated by Hurricane Katrina, as well as other areas affected by disaster. Encouraging civic action, fostering repopulation, providing information and resources is the foundation on which we build and grow. Beacon of Hope empowers residents to facilitate their own recovery while providing a hub of resident driven activities and a safe environment to create the synergy essential for restoring viable neighborhoods and improve the overall quality of life for residents.” This year AmeriCorps members trimmed and pruned all of the trees in the neutral ground on Harrison Avenue between Canal St. and West End Blvd.  After cleaning up the trees, the members then planted a dozen new trees in the neutral ground.  The project was a fun and rewarding way to help continue the efforts of the people of the Lakeview neighborhood.

November 2008

National Family Volunteer Day Bookcase Build at Even Start, RampART and NOLA Bookfair outreach

November was jammed pack with events including two outreach events at the RampArt Festival and  the NOLA Bookfair where members helped recruit students and volunteers for the YMCA's Educational Services YES! program. While in attendance at these community event members also tried to raise awareness about how low levels of literacy challenge the Greater New Orleans area. Members also had the opportunity to participate in National Family Volunteer Day in an event organized at the Even Start Family Literacy program. Volunteers ranging from the Even Start families and staff to AmeriCorps and VISTA members from programs across the city and other joined LACNOLA member to build bookcases for the families who attend Even Start. The hope was to bring literacy into the home with these bookcases, which were later decorated during Parent and Child Time. The bookcases were then filled with books that volunteers help to organize and that were donated to the families by Even Start.