2008 Woodie Awards
Human Services Team helps people in need
By Elizabeth Rekowski
Rocket Focus Editor
Issue date: 1/18/08 Section: Focus
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Volunteers for the AmeriCorps Program at SRU organize the majority of the volunteering opportunities on campus and spend their time giving back to the community.
The AmeriCorps' Connector Corps at SRU branch is located at the Lowry Center and focuses on several different areas of service.
One of the areas of service, called the Human Services Team, specializes in caring for and giving back to people in need.
Among the focuses of the Human Services Team is to help the elderly. Other focuses include working with the homeless and mentally challenged adults.
Val Kremer, a social work major and member of the AmeriCorps' Human Services team, has been working with the team since August 2006.
"I went on a Care Break to San Francisco," Kremer said. "Afterwards, AmeriCorps members asked me to join and I had such a great experience (in San Francisco) that I did."
Kremer works mostly with the elderly, but also likes to work with the homeless because she feels it relates more to her major.
"We get assigned to our team based mostly on our major," Kremer said.
Other service teams include the Special Projects Team that plans events and is organized by mostly communication majors with a public relations emphasis and the School Success Team, which is run mainly by education majors.
Jennifer Denardo, a 23-year-old graduate student in the community-counseling program is the Human Services Team leader. As an undergraduate at the University of Pittsburgh, Denardo was also part of the AmeriCorps program. However, at Pitt, she was a member of the School Success Team.
"I originally wanted to work for the School Success Team, but I wanted to broaden my experience a little more because I did (School Success) before."
As the leader of the team, Denardo is responsible for attending meetings with her members and helping them with service projects in which they are involved.
In addition to volunteering at local nursing homes, AmeriCorps also sometimes organizes trips to volunteer time and services outside the area.
Just this past December, a trip was organized to visit a nursing home in the Pittsburgh Area.
Kremer, one of Denardo's members, goes to the Slippery Rock Personal Care Home every Monday to spend time with the elderly who reside there. She usually brings three or four volunteers with her.
Volunteers that accompany Kremer sign up for service projects inside the Lowry Center and aren't required to be an AmeriCorps member.
"Usually we have around 20 to 30 people who go to the homes every week," Denardo said.
In addition to the Slippery Rock Personal Care Home, the Human Services Team also has volunteers go to another home in Slippery Rock called Home to Me.
While at the Slippery Rock Personal Care Home, volunteers spend one-on-one time with the residents doing activities they enjoy.
"A lot of times we play cards," Kremer said. "One woman even teaches me piano. I get piano lessons for free!"
Also, since the home is smaller, the volunteers are able to do one-on-one activities with the residents.
"One man likes to play cards with us, and there's also a woman who always wants to color," Kremer said.
At Home to Me, there are more residents and activities are more group-oriented.
"At Home to Me, the activities are in groups. They do a lot of crafts," Kremer said.
Even though they may be old in age, Kremer also said that the residents are still young at heart and like to have a good time with the volunteers who come to spend time with them.
"There is an old man there named Kurt who tells us a lot of dirty jokes. He loves to make us laugh," Kremer said.
Denardo has also had memorable experiences with the residents of the nursing homes at which her team volunteers.
"One guy I was talking to told me all about his life. He told me about his family, the depression, the war…It was interesting because it was a part of history we'll never get to experience," Denardo said.
Additionally, Kremer said the residents at the home look forward to all of the visits they get from the young volunteers who come in.
"We were gone for fall break, and they were waiting for us to come back," Kremer said. "Another time we were late and one of the residents was pacing back and forth waiting for us. They really like that we come there."
Kremer said she enjoys volunteering for a variety of reasons.
"I think it benefits the community and yourself," she said. "I feel better as a person through helping others."
Denardo also believes that volunteer work is important because it helps create a change in the people sacrificing their time.
"I started because I was looking for a way to get more involved," she said. "I was very involved in community service during high school and I wanted to get back to that and not have everything be about myself.
"I think (volunteering) really promotes an interest in community."
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