COMMUNITY SERVICES
For more information about or to participate in these programs, call Angie Sullivan at (660)-665-9855
JAMISON STREET COMMUNITY GARDEN:
The Jamison Street Community Garden in Adair County provides support, supplies, and garden plots to community gardeners. This program aims to help lower-income individuals, the elderly, people with disabilities, children, and others who might not be able to have a garden on their own. It’s our belief that the opportunity to garden helps people stretch their food dollar and improve their nutritional intake. Community gardens also improve the overall quality of life in neighborhoods by encouraging self-sufficiency and a sense of community among participants.
STEPS-TO-SUCCESS:
The Steps to Success program engages youth ages 14-18, and community members in understanding, believing, advocating and/or acting on behalf of youth in Adair, Clark, Knox, Scotland and Schuyler counties. Through the completion of this 12-week session, participants gain a stronger sense of self-worth and become empowered to seek answers and advocate for personal and community betterment. Volunteering within the school and community promotes a sense of ownership that lead to youth taking an active role in school and community issues. In addition, through these civic engagement opportunities, community members are mobilized to support the needs of area youth which will ultimately develop connections between program participants and community leaders.
THE VOICE:
The VOICE project began as a way to address the issues of vocational aspiration and career awareness in local elementary children. Low-income children may be exposed to a limited variety of vocations/professions and their personal aspirations may be reflective in this limited exposure.
The Program lasts from 60 to 180 minutes. Participants are led to a common area where they are given a brief overview of what they’ll be doing. Following this, children are issued Job Passport Cards. Volunteers assist in transitioning small groups of participants to various stations that represent one of the six career paths. Participants complete a 10-minute block with each station. Before moving to the next station, their Job Passport card is stamped in colored ink to correspond with the six career paths’ coloring. Following a visit to all of the booths, participants return to the common area and begin a process to “vote” on their favorite booth. Each participant is given an aspiration token that can be used to cast a vote for their favorite booth. The voting session serves as a catalyst for discussion regarding their experiences. All participants are given a home discussion sheet so they can continue their conversation about vocational aspirations and career awareness with their caregivers.
PHOTOVOICE:
PhotoVoice is a 7 week project designed to engage middle-school youth in learning skills to make change in their communities. Each youth participant is provided with a digital camera and instructed on photography skills. They are asked to utilize those skills to document the strengths and weaknesses of their communities through photographs and identify what changes they need within their communities that will provide them the opportunities to achieve their individual goals and dreams.
Each week a different theme: Basic Needs, Lifelong Learning, Nutrition, Advocacy/Rules, Social Changes and Influences, is discussed and the participants leave with the assignment of returning the next week with 5 photographs that represent the theme that was discussed. Throughout these weekly “classes”, participants also learn key skills including public speaking, advocacy, relationship building and conflict resolution. At the conclusion of the 7 weeks, CAPNEMO staff makes arrangements for public displays and presentations of the photographs to be made by the participants. Such presentations may be made to public school Boards, City Council, County Commissioners, civic groups, neighborhood associations and others.
FUTURE COMMUNITY LEADERS CAMP
The independent living skills curriculum compiled by Project LIFE for young people who are in need of learning, enhancing, or supporting life skills to effectively transition into adulthood.
REALL SIMULATION:
Reality Enrichment and Life Lessons simulation encourages students to analyze how career, education, skills and economic conditions affect income and goal attainment. The simulation takes approx. 3 hrs. from set up to take down. It has 4 weeks (equals 15 min increments) of a role play simulation. It makes the students gain an idea of what it may look like to experience low-income and identify ways to promote community change.
POVERTY SIMULATION:
Poverty is a reality for many individuals and families. But, unless you've experienced poverty, it's difficult to truly understand. The Community Action Poverty Simulation (CAPS) bridges that gap from misconception to understanding. CAPS is an interactive immersion experience. It sensitizes community participants to the realities of poverty.
CAPS is NOT a game. It is based on real Community Action clients and their lives. CAPS exist to:
Promote Poverty Awareness (During the simulation, role-play a month in poverty and experience low-income families' lives)
Increase Understanding (After the simulation, you will unpack your learning and brainstorm community change)
Inspire Local Change (Together, you can be a voice to end poverty in your family, friends and community)
Transform Perspectives (The goal of CAPS is to shift the paradigm about poverty away from being seen as a personal failure and toward the understanding of poverty as structural, a failure to society)
INFORMATION & PRESENTATIONS:
To get our message out and share information with residents of our servicing county area about all of our programs and services, CAPNEMO sets up a booth at numerous fairs and events to hand out brochures and applications, as well as answer questions and visit face to face with the public.
