Watch Our Video Interview with the St. Bernard Project

Husband and wife Zack Rosenburg and Liz McCartney traveled from Washington, D.C. to to New Orleans just a few months after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city in August 2005. Little did they know how the trip would change their lives, inspiring them to start an organization that would help this city and several others rebuild their homes and communities.
In March 2006, the couple launched the St. Bernard Project (SBP), which has gone from a team of three volunteers to a national network of AmeriCorps members who carry out this celebrated model for disaster recovery.
As part of a series of Google Hangouts On Air featuring service opportunities, NationSwell interviewed Rosenburg along with a current SBP fellow and an alum of the program. Click above to watch the full video. The conversation focuses on the work of more than 100,000 St. Bernard Project volunteers across cities including New Orleans, Joplin, Mo.; Staten Island, N.Y.; Rockaway, N.Y; and Monmouth County, N.J.
What do you want to ask the SBP team? Let us know in the comments below or tweet @nationswell using the #serviceyear.
In the meantime, click the Take Action button to learn how you can join NationSwell and The Franklin Project to spread the word on service year opportunities.

The Military Gave This Veteran the Permission Slip She Needed to Lead

From leading the 100,000 Homes Campaign to being recognized by the White House as a Champion of Change to founding the Billions Institute, an organization committed to supporting new solutions to global problems, Becky Kanis has committed her life to making bad things better.
Her motivation stems from one moment, which she shares in her Got Your 6 Storytellers talk. When she was a lieutenant in the 25th Infantry Division, a U.S. Army division in Hawaii, every single link in the communications system went from green to red. At three in the morning, Kanis stood at the colonel’s door — and with a knock, knock, knock — woke her up and explained the situation.
“She literally poked me in the chest and she said ‘un-f*** this lieutenant,’” Kanis says. The colonel could have kicked a trashcan; she could have micromanaged. But instead, she gave Kanis permission to fix the problem.
Kanis says that in order to do our part to make the world a better place, we should ask ourselves three big questions: What do you really want? What are you willing to let go of? And what lights up your heart? Kanis’s talk centers on how she has applied those questions and pursued answers to them in her own life. And it explores how we can all give ourselves permission slips to un-f*** things.
While her seven minutes onstage includes a lot of laughs, there is also a moment leaves the audience in awe. Kanis displays two images of a formerly homeless man named Ed Givens. First, he appears drunk, with his back against a brick wall, and later he appears in a suit at a party the White House threw to celebrate the success of the work that Kanis and others did to address homelessness.
“This is the kind of change that I know in my bones is possible in the world,” Kanis says. Watch the video, then join Kanis in her call to action to un-f*** big things together.

These Schools Are Opening Their Doors to Struggling Communities

College campuses are expanding, and it’s not due to higher acceptance rates. Rather, it’s because, more and more universities are emphasizing service as a core mission and integrating with the communities around them through service.
Here are a few leading the way in neighborhood engagement.
Penn Alexander School, Philadelphia
In the early 2000s, the University of Pennsylvania started a series of programs targeting the rejuvenation of the nearby Spruce Hill neighborhood. Many of UPenn’s faculty and students live in the area, so the school decided to invest in its stabilization through lighting programs, safety patrols and homebuyer incentives.
Their biggest initiative, however, was the formation of the Penn Alexander elementary school, (previously called the Sadie Tanner Mosell Alexander University Penn Partnership School). What started as a simple public school in a struggling neighborhood is now so vibrant with families that school acceptance is determined by lottery.
Creating Community Connections, Boston
Sponsored by MIT, this program started back in 2000 and benefits the residents of Camfield Estates. MIT connects the area with technology through computer training, free laptops and high speed internet connection. Three-quarters of the residents chose to participate in the program when it was first announced. Called “C3,” it has recently been expanded to provide training and equipment to businesses and institutions in the area, as well as a new computer lab available for residents of the Estates and the neighborhood.
Center for Civic Leadership, Rice University, Houston
At Rice University, the administration has created a curriculum dedicated to service through the Center for Civic Leadership. Students and faculty alike participate in community service projects, research and programs benefiting Houston’s Fifth Ward. For students, service isn’t a one- time deal, but a four-year-long commitment. Freshmen start college with a first-year orientation to the surrounding community, and, if passionate, students can even earn an undergrad certificate in civic leadership. Recently, the Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars granted up to four $5,000 scholarships to Rice University to participate in the Center’s activities.
To learn more about universities participating in neighborhood engagement, click here.
MORE: How an Innovative Scholarship Encourages Low-Income Families to Save

When Vandals Trashed a Park, a Group of Veterans Came to the Rescue

Where would we be without generous people pitching in to pick up what others have torn down? The actions of a group of volunteers in Florida show that for many veterans, helping out is a lifelong commitment.
The Little St. Mary’s River Park in Baker County, Florida is a place for families to get outside, relax and enjoy nature. But last spring, the park’s docks were vandalized. The criminals, who’ve never been caught, ripped the handrails from all the docks, crushed picnic tables and tossed them in the water and destroyed a bridge.
Larry Porterfield, a 70-year-old veteran who served in the Army as a combat engineer, was upset by the damage. “They even came in and tore the handicap ramps out,” he tells Clifford Davis of The Florida Times-Union. “Now, why would they do something like that?”
Luckily Porterfield, whose spirit of community service runs strong, had an army to back him up and help make the repairs. “I was in highway construction for 42 years. But I’m retired, so I thought I’d go ahead and do it,” he says.
Porterfield led a group of veterans from the Baker County Veterans Council, along with some civilian volunteers, in a park renovation project. Baker County supplied the materials, while the volunteers supplied more than 700 hours worth of labor, working four days a week for two months this summer to rebuild all the damaged property.
This isn’t the first time the Baker County Veterans Council has saved the day — they’ve repaired damaged porches for widows, raised funds to help disabled vets keep their homes and given cars to needy veterans, among other selfless acts.
Baker County Commission Chairman Jimmy Anderson says, “What I like about them is they are trying to teach people a sense of responsibility for their community, and for that, I give them high praise.”
MORE: Veterans Help Disaster Victims Through Team Rubicon
 

Watch: How YouthBuild Creates Better Communities and Stronger Leaders

YouthBuild provides unemployed young Americans ages 16 to 24 with opportunities to pursue their education, serve their communities, and learn job skills. Since Dorothy Stoneman, founder and CEO of YouthBuild USA, started the first YouthBuild program in East Harlem in 1978, the movement has spread across the country, with tens of thousands of YouthBuild students building affordable housing and becoming leaders in their communities.
In a Google Hangout On Air with NationSwell, Stoneman discusses her reason for starting YouthBuild, while Jamiel Alexander, YouthBuild alumni council president, and Filomena Chavez from the Just-A-Start YouthBuild program in Cambridge, Mass. talks about the way service has shaped their lives.
“Your neighbors see you building in the same neighborhood where they used to see you standing idle. Now you’ve got a hard hat, now you’ve got a book bag, now you’ve built a house, and you can tell your children, ‘I built that house,'” Stoneman says of the pride that YouthBuild students feel.
Since 1994, when federal money for YouthBuild first went into local communities, the program has put up 28,000 units of affordable housing in 273 communities across the country.
“Self, family, then community,” Alexander says of the way he worked to get on a better path before raising a family and building a better society. “You have to take care of yourself first. You have to heal.”
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People in low income communities should have the opportunity to improve their own communities, Stoneman says, adding “that’s an energy that needs to be unleashed, and AmeriCorps does have a priority on including low income people in giving service in their own communities.”
YouthBuild is one of the organizations doing the most to enhance the culture of service in America, a topic the New York Times recently explored in an editorial previewing the 20th anniversary of AmeriCorps. And General Stanley McChrystal is just one of a number of leaders who has outlined the importance of giving all young Americans the opportunity to serve.
Click the Take Action button to learn how you can join NationSwell and The Franklin Project to spread the word on service year opportunities, and make sure to tweet thoughts or questions with the #serviceyear hashtag.
NationSwell is featuring various service opportunities in a series of live Google Hangouts On Air. Next month, we’ll be talking with CityYear, a nonprofit that partners with public schools to provide targeted student interventions.
 
 

Is There a Connection Between Community Service and Happiness?

It’s no secret that giving back feels good, but a new study contends that perhaps it may be vital to living a happier life — but only if you’re being recognized for your efforts.
Gallup found that individuals who receive recognition for their community service report better well-being scores than those whose good deeds go unnoticed. Volunteers receiving praise scored an average Well-Being Index score of 70 out of 100 in contrast of the average score of 58.5 of those who did not.
But the pattern doesn’t stop there. Age and income have long been associated with higher levels of well-being, and Gallup found that even among affluent and older Americans, community service is a constant among happier people.
U.S. citizens who make less than $36,000 but are recognized for community service reported a higher score than wealthier individuals making more than $90,000 but haven’t received recognition for community service, 67.2 and  62.6, respectively.
Elderly individuals also typically score higher on the Well-Being Index. Older Americans, ages 65 and up who identified as participating in community service efforts, reported the highest scores of happiness. However, younger Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 — who’ve been given a shout-out for their volunteer efforts — received the second highest score of well-being, outperforming older age groups.
The survey also discovered a link between community service and reduced levels of stress. Only around 34 percent of respondents who are recognized for giving back said they experience stress in contrast to 42 percent of those who are not. And only 25 percent of active volunteers reported experiencing worry compared to 32 percent of those who are not involved or recognized for their efforts.
But perhaps more interestingly, around two-thirds of respondents contend they have not received recognition for community service, which underscores a greater need to illuminate the social good going on across the country.
Giving back feels great, and it’s time to start promoting that message.
MORE: If You’re Happy And You Know it, You Probably Participate in Arts

These Teen Newcomers Help Fellow Non-English Speakers Adapt

Immigrant children often help out their parents in ways most American kids could never imagine — serving as interpreters in interactions with English speakers and helping to make sense of bills and forms.
High school senior Yuling Chen is one such kid. Five years ago, Chen came to the United States with her family from China. Since arriving in America, she has always helped her family with the language that she was quicker to pick up. “When I go home, they all hand me a big stack of letters to read,” she told Chris Burrell of The Patriot Ledger.
But she doesn’t mind. “When I first came to the United States, my English wasn’t so good at all, and I wanted to help (the elderly) with their lives,” she said. Chen is one of a group of 235 Asian immigrant teenagers in Quincy, Massachusetts that are taking this assistance to the next level, volunteering to help elderly immigrants at Quincy Asian Resources.
Along with the other teens, Chen teach seniors how to use computers, help middle school students making the transition to America, and assist at the Lunar New Year party and August Moon Festival, among many other duties.
Peter Tam, a Quincy native, first came to the center in 2007 as an AmeriCorps volunteer; now he directs the youth programs, involving volunteers from both of Quincy’s public high schools. “We’re really looking to create the next generation of Asian-American leaders and recent immigrant leaders in the community,” Tam told Burrell.
To thank the teens for their hard work, Quincy Asian Resources awarded seven of them, including Chen, a college scholarship worth $1,000.
MORE: Neighborhood Centers Provide New Immigrants An Instant Community

How to Get Teens Interested in Saving the World

Young Americans have the passion and energy to help people across the world, but don’t always have the resources. That’s where New Global Citizens, a Tempe, Ariz.-based non-profit steps in. New Global Citizens provides information about global problems to teenagers and lesson plans for teachers that show how to make complex issues accessible to their classes. The group’s lesson plans break down issues such as global hunger, epidemics, and gender inequality. NGC also connects young people with volunteer opportunities, and through its after school programs, supports teenagers in starting their own movements and fundraisers.
NGC has supported students holding bake sales or talent shows to raise money for A Ban Against Neglect, which helps impoverished mothers in Ghana, and Sustainable Resources Ltd., which completes infrastructure projects in developing countries.
When she was in high school, Stephanie Arzate of Avondale, Ariz. participated in an NGC afterschool program to raise money for the Afghan Institute of Learning, which provides education to women in Afghanistan. Later Arzate  went to Georgetown to study for a planned career in the Foreign Service, and had the chance to meet that organization’s executive director.  “I didn’t need to tell her more than my name and where I went to high school,” Arzate told Larisa Epatko of the PBS NewsHour. “She immediately hugged me and thanked me and my high school team for the money we raised.”
MORE: He’s Only 16, But His Generosity is Already Worthy of a Movie

Not Even Brain Cancer Could Stop This 10-Year-Old From Caring About the Homeless

A fourth grader with a rare form of brain cancer had one wish: he wanted to make the world a nicer place for others. As ABC News reports, 10-year-old Keegan Keppner has Glioma, a cancer that affects the brain and spine. He also has Hyrdocephalus, a condition that causes spinal fluid to collect near his brain. To make matters worse, his parents are struggling with unemployment. Despite his problems, the Eugene, Ore. boy still wanted to make sure the local homeless don’t go hungry. As you can see in the video above, Keegan and his stepfather Steven Macgray brought a home-cooked batch of rice and beans to feed 18 homeless residents who were being evicted from their tent community, Whoville. Apparently, feeding the homeless was on the boy’s bucket list. “It’s sad to see them suffer,” Keegan, who is currently in remission, told ABC News. “There are a lot of nice people down there.”
MORE: A Solution to Outdoor Urban Living, by Homeless People for Homeless People

What Looks Like a Birdhouse and Promotes Literacy?

In 2009, Todd Bol of Hudson, Wisc., had a brilliant idea to honor his mother, a bookworm and retired schoolteacher: He built a small model of a one-room school house, filled it with books, and stuck it on a pole in his yard with a sign that said “Free Books.” His little library became so popular that Bol built more and gave them to people to install in their yards. Eventually he teamed up with Rich Brooks of the University of Wisconsin, who had an idea to turn this effort into something much grander—a way to promote literacy nationwide, give people access to free books in communities where they’re hard to come by, and encourage more reading. They initially set a goal of building 2,509 of these birdhouse-like “Little Free Libraries,” the same number of  libraries that Andrew Carnegie supported at the turn of the 19th century. But in the past five years, they’ve far exceeded their hopes. As of this month, Little Free Library counts between 10,000 and 12,000 registered small libraries across the world, with more built every month.

On its website, Little Free Library offers instructions on how to build and maintain libraries using recycled materials, and for the less-handy, it sells libraries that are already built and ready to install.

Every year, more people and organizations become involved in the Little Free Library movement. For example, The United Way of Northwest Georgia recently undertook a project to build and install 25 little libraries, inspired by member Carey Mitchell’s outsized book collection that he wanted to share with others. While Little Free Library warns people not to install libraries in public places without permission, communities throughout northwest Georgia have embraced the idea, and 25 libraries will soon be installed in public parks and areas. Now they’re just looking for a few volunteers to help maintain the libraries, keeping them clean and stocked with books. Especially in towns where bookstores have closed or libraries are distant, these little beacons of literature are welcome additions to the landscape.