#AmeriCorps Seniors

[margaretlsgp]

Baby Boomers Redefine Retirement | cbs8.com [Video]

[some1s-sista]

Taxi Mom

My last era of rising junior/graduating senior has commenced (hah! See what I did there?) and with it comes driving my child all over hell because for some reason my kids never get their licenses until they’re in their twenties.

Sixx had something to do every fricking day this week and I’m just exhausted and marveling at how fast my gas tank empties itself.

Monday: Class Marshall at the Underclassmen Awards Ceremony (at which she herself received 9 awards).

Tuesday: Physical Exam for Governor’s School this summer.

Wednesday: Americorps Tutoring work

Thursday: Americorps Tutoring AND Class Marshall at the Seniors’ Awards ceremony/dinner where she served ice tea for 2 hours and now wants to be a waitress.

I told her she comes by it honestly as that’s what I did all through high school and college.

Today. Nothing! All I had to do was pick her up from school

And thankfully, James picked up Subs on his way home from work (Veggie Lovers for me) so I didn’t have to cook or clean tonight, except pop a pizza into the oven for the boy.

Now I’m gonna pop on my sneakers and put some things away in the attic so I don’t have to tomorrow. And I need Sixx to play kitty hockey and keep them from trying to follow me into the attic.

Here goes!

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The Lost Cause prologue, Part V

I'm coming to Minneapolis! Oct 15: Presenting The Internet Con at Moon Palace Books. Oct 16: Keynoting the 26th ACM Conference On Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing.

In my upcoming solarpunk novel The Lost Cause (Nov 14), we get an epic struggle between the people doing the repair and care work needed to save our planet and species, and the reactionary wreckers who want to kill the Green New Deal and watch the world burn:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865847/red-team-blues

Amazon refuses to carry my audiobooks, which means that I make my own indie editions and pre-sell them on Kickstarter, along with ebooks and hardcovers. I narrated this one! It came out great! You can back it here:

http://lost-cause.org

This week, I've been serializing the prologue to give you a taste of what you can expect from the book, which Bill McKibben calls "politically perceptive, scientifically sound, and extraordinarily hopeful."

Here's part one:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/06/green-new-deal-fic/#the-first-generation-in-a-century-not-to-fear-the-future

And part two:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/07/met-cute-ugly/#part-ii

And part three:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/09/working-the-refs/#lost-cause-prologue

And part four:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/10/weaponized-interdependence/#super-soaker-full-of-hydrochloric-acid

And now, part five:

Look, I had weeks to go until graduation. I had a life to live. I had stuff to do.

Gramps and his friends would stew and shout. Idiots on the internet would make dank memes out of Mike Kennedy and deepfake him into a million videos, turn him into a main character whose image would be around long after he left the world.

I just had to keep my head down, collect my diploma, and get the hell out of Burbank. I’d already been provisionally accepted for a Blue Helmets AmeriCorps spot down in San Juan Capistrano, helping to rebuild the city’s lower half a mile inland, up in the hills. I was going to do a year of that and then go to college: I had applications in to UCLA, Portland State (they had a really good refugee tech undergrad program), and the University of Waterloo, where my mom did her undergrad in environmental science. They’d let me declare my major in my second year, so I could take a wide variety of courses before settling on something, and if anything, Canada’s free college was even more generous than the UC system or Portland’s, with a subsidy for dorms and meals.

To tell the truth, I’d be glad to go. My senior year hadn’t been anything like I’d anticipated. Gramps’s health had gotten a lot worse the previous summer and his shitty sexist and racist remarks chased away any home help worker Burbank sent over within a week or two, so I’d been trying to keep my grades up while picking up after Gramps, getting him to take his meds, washing his sheets and cleaning his toilet—­not to mention making sure he made his doctor’s appointments and even bringing him into the office a couple of times a month for the kind of exams you couldn’t do by telemedicine.

I wasn’t sure what Gramps would do without me to take care of him, but at that point, I was running out of fucks to give. Let his asshole Maga Club buddies look after him, or maybe Gramps could figure out how not to offend everyone that came over to wipe his ass and do his laundry. He was—­as he was fond of pointing out to me—­a grown-­ass adult, and this was his house, and he was in charge. So let him be in charge.

I put myself to bed stewing about all of this, thinking of San Juan Capistrano. Some of my older friends had graduated the previous years and had gone down there and I’d followed their relocation of the old mission on their feeds. It looked like hot, sweaty, rewarding work, the kind of thing where you could really measure your progress.

For the second night in a row, I was woken up at 2 a.m. This time, it wasn’t my screen, it was Gramps, who’d stumped into my room with his cane, flipped my lights to full on, and started shaking me and calling out, “Get up, kid, get up!”

“I’m up,” I said, getting up on my elbows and squinting at him.

He was shaking, and he reeked—­of both booze and BO, and I felt a flash of guilt for not getting him in the bath that day.

“God dammit,” he said, and staggered a bit. I leapt out of bed, pulling the sheets off with me, and steadied him at the elbow.

“Calm down, okay? What’s going on? Are you all right?”

“No, I’m not all right. No one is all right. Fuck all right and fuck you.” I’d had Gramps tested for early dementia the previous year, by showing his doctor videos of moments like these. The doc had run a battery of tests before pronouncing, “Your grandfather isn’t senile, he’s just ornery.” Which was undeniable, and also pissed me the hell off. “Ornery” was a polite word for “asshole.” What the doc was telling me was that Gramps didn’t have to be cruel. He was cruel by choice.

I untangled myself from the sheets and piled them on the bed.

“What is it?”

“It’s Mike Kennedy, that asshole. Someone shot him.”

“What?”

He shoved his giant screen into my hands. I tapped the video window. It was from the POV of a car cam, that weird fish-­eye view of a self-­driving car, split-­screen with the passenger in the front seat, and it was Mike Kennedy, looking even worse than Gramps, bloodshot and trembling, with that under-­chin camera angle that makes everyone look like they’re half dead.

I tried to watch both halves. There was Kennedy, whispering something to him. There was the cul-­de-­sac he was parked in, false-­lit with IR from the cameras. The timestamp was 1:17. Less than an hour before.

Then the external image flickered for a second and resolved itself into a man, who phased in and out. He was wearing a ghillie suit like the one Kennedy had worn on the roof, covered in telltale CV dazzle stripes, designed to exploit defects in the computer vision system. You had to wear a different specific pattern for every algorithm, but if you got the right matchup, the computer would simply not see you. The man was flickering into existence when his posture crumpled up the ghillie suit and made the pattern stop working, then out again when he straightened up.

He straightened and disappeared and Mike Kennedy’s eyes widened as he noticed the man for the first time—­computer dazzle worked on computers, not humans—­and he started to say something and then a round hole appeared in his forehead, his head snapping back against the headrest, then careening forward. The flickering phantom appeared again as the man in the ghillie suit turned and disappeared.

I dropped the tablet to my bed.

“Jesus Christ, Gramps, I didn’t need to see that snuff movie—­”

He tried to smack me then. I was ready for it. I was faster. I stepped out of his reach. I was shaking too.

“You don’t get to hit me anymore old man. Never again, you hear me?”

He was purpling now, and a decade’s worth of fleeing and defusing his rages rose in me, made me want to apologize. After all, I rationalized, he’d just seen a friend murdered.

But I’d seen that friend murdered too, videobombed with a snuff flick at 2 a.m. without warning or consent. It was a traumatizing, selfish, asshole move. I’d be watching that movie on the backs of my eyelids for years to come. And the friend who’d died? He’d been ready to kill me. Gramps had no right. He was a grown-­ass adult. He had no right.

“Listen to me, you little shit, you think you can live under my roof, take my charity, and talk to me like that? Now? With all the shit that I’m going through? No sir. No. Get out, you little bastard, get out now. Get out before I kick your goddamned teeth in.” He was vibrating with rage now, literally, actually shaking so hard his wispy hair swished back and forth across his forehead.

I didn’t say another word. I picked up some jeans and a jacket, put a pair of socks in a jacket pocket, and jammed my feet into a pair of sneakers without bothering to unlace them. I shouldered past him—­still vibrating, stinking even worse—­and banged out the back door and stomped through the nighttime streets.

My feet automatically took me up to Verdugo, and then across the empty road. I turned toward school—­as I did every morning—­and autopiloted in that direction. By the time I reached the Verdugo Aquatic Facility I had calmed down enough to realize that there was no reason to go to school at two thirty in the morning, so I stopped and headed for the playground in the park behind the pool. I sat down on a bench and kicked my shoes off and shook out the playground sand, pulled out my socks and put them on, then put my shoes back on properly. I was still furious, but now I could think straight and my hands weren’t shaking. Gramps and I hadn’t had a blowup like that in years, mostly—­ okay, entirely—­because I’d backed down every time we’d been headed in that direction. I wasn’t in any mood to back down. Not ever, to be fully honest.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/11/equal-opportunity-class-war/#part-v

My next novel is The Lost Cause, a hopeful novel of the climate emergency. Amazon won't sell the audiobook, so I made my own and I'm pre-selling it on Kickstarter!

[idiopath-fic-smile]

whenever i do something clumsy like trip over nothing or do the thing where you drop the thing youre holding but you keep catching it over and over and you're practically juggling it but it still ends up falling or yknow walk into a wall,, my brain immediately supplies me with "in my defense i was thinking about affirmative action"

also if youre still doing the ask meme :) ✨️⛔️🌞

haha amazing, love it!

from this:

✨️Give you and your writing a compliment. Go on now. You know you deserve it. 😉

aw, thank you!

ETA: completely forgot to actually give my fic a compliment, oops. i will say that i think the jokes in my fics are generally pretty funny!

⛔️ Do you have a fic you started, but scrapped?

oh my god, so many. i don't post anything on ao3 unless i'm 100% sure it will be completed. off the top of my head:

the les mis fake dating pirate au

the les mis americorps au

the untamed student co-op au

most likely the stranger things student co-op au although i loved the concept; if anyone out there wants to write a stranger things student co-op au where the kids are all college freshmen and the older teens are all college seniors and they all live in a weird old house together, go forth u have my blessing

🌞 Do you have a preferred time of day to write?

that is a great question! probably late afternoon. it's when i have free time but am not totally wiped out from the events of the day. i don't get much creative writing done after dinner anymore, although as i recall, i wrote large parts of World Ain't Ready that way. at the time, though, i lived alone so dinner was not a social affair, which made it easier to transition into writing.

[somnolent-scout]

so uhh

just received some bad news

apparently my dad's old job is withholding his post-termination benefits/compensations

they're also withholding his ability to apply for unemployment care so now we're screwed even more because we cannot apply for unemployment care until his old job decides we can

and these are the same assholes who fired my dad, a well known senior programmer with decades of experience with computers and an excellent work history and is known for having two kids

they fired him right before the holidays even tho they know he's the one paying for our entire family to live

they fired the family man right before Christmas

so uhh we thought we would be getting a paycheck on the 15th and 30th of this month and that would be enough to pay the bills but uhh

nope.

we no longer have the income needed to pay for everything we need in the house

my job is undercutting my hours so hard i can't even make more than $190 each paycheck

my mum's job is undercutting her hours too and refuses to pay for things they've been paying for since she got the job in September and even worse she makes the federal minimum wage since it's Americorps

idk what to do right now but um yeah i don't think my family will be able to celebrate Christmas this year

we're too focused on trying to make sure we can keep the lights on through January until my dad finds a new job

i don't want to have to ask for donations since my parents would be fucking guilty as hell and unable to cope with themselves if i did

i just

i just really really need a goddamn miracle rn

[rodspurethoughts]

Volunteering Together: Building friendships and strengthening bonds

(Family Features) Volunteering has always been a big part of Shelley Brosnan’s life, whether she was serving in her children’s school or in their Fairfax, Va., community. When Brosnan retired, increasing her volunteer efforts was a natural next step. Serving with Volunteer Fairfax, an AmeriCorps Seniors RSVP program, she spends about 10 hours a week teaching new volunteers about helping older…

[thxnews]

AmeriCorps Forest Corps: Youth-Powered Climate Action

  Empowering the Next Generation in Climate Resilience

In a momentous event today, AmeriCorps and the US Department of Agriculture's Forest Service came together for the ceremonial signing of a groundbreaking agreement. This marked the establishment of the AmeriCorps NCCC Forest Corps program, a significant milestone under President Biden's ambitious American Climate Corps initiative. The program aims to train a diverse cadre of conservation and climate resilience workers, setting the stage for a new era of environmental action.   Applications Open for AmeriCorps NCCC Forest Corps For those passionate about making a tangible impact on the environment, the call to action is clear. Applications to join the AmeriCorps NCCC Forest Corps, affectionately known as "Forest Corps," are now open at AmeriCorps.gov/ForestCorps. This unique opportunity invites individuals from all walks of life to contribute to the nation's highest environmental priorities, ranging from reforestation to wildfire mitigation.  

Unveiling the $15 Million, Five-Year Forest Corps Initiative

The Forest Corps initiative, backed by a five-year, $15 million interagency agreement, sets the stage for the first cohort of 80 members to commence their service in the summer of 2024. ' Their mission? To crisscross the country, actively engaging in conserving national forests and grasslands, mitigating wildfire risks in high-threat regions, and providing vital support in reforestation efforts and wildfire crisis response.   A Win-Win Partnership for Conservation and Workforce Development Randy Moore, Chief of the Forest Service, expressed enthusiasm about the partnership, stating, "This collaboration with AmeriCorps offers a unique opportunity for individuals from diverse backgrounds to learn about conservation and forestry, becoming an integral part of our future workforce. It's a win-win that aligns seamlessly with our Wildfire Crisis Strategy and our commitment to creating climate-resilient forests."  

A Generous Compensation Package for AmeriCorps Forest Corps Members

Breaking barriers to entry, the Forest Corps program ensures financial inclusivity by offering AmeriCorps members a compensation package equivalent to $15 per hour. This comprehensive package encompasses lodging, transportation, clothing, a living allowance, health benefits, and more. Notably, no prior education or experience is required, emphasizing the program's commitment to inclusivity and diversity.   Charting a Course for Youth-Powered Climate Action Ken Goodson, AmeriCorps NCCC Director, highlighted the imminent deployment of the first Forest Corps cohort in just six months. "This program is not just about environmental conservation; it's a catalyst for job creation, strengthening the climate resilience economy. We are grateful to the Forest Service for their pivotal partnership, ushering in a new era of youth-powered climate action."  

AmeriCorps: A Force for National Service and Volunteerism

Integral to this groundbreaking initiative is AmeriCorps, the federal agency dedicated to national service and volunteerism. AmeriCorps provides opportunities for Americans to serve their country domestically, addressing the nation's most pressing challenges, improving lives, and communities, and strengthening civic engagement. Each year, the agency places more than 200,000 AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers in intensive service roles. Additionally, AmeriCorps empowers millions more to serve as long-term, short-term, or one-time volunteers, fostering a culture of active citizenship and collective impact. In a society increasingly driven by environmental consciousness, the AmeriCorps NCCC Forest Corps stands as a beacon, offering individuals a chance to be at the forefront of impactful climate action while securing a promising future for themselves and the planet. Apply today and be a part of the change we desperately need.   Sources: THX News & AmeriCorps. Read the full article

[naturecoaster]

Nature Coast Volunteer Center to Host MLK Food Drive

Local food pantries often find their stock of non-perishable food items depleted after the holidays. Nature Coast Volunteer Center to Host MLK Food Drive The Nature Coast Volunteer Center and AmeriCorps Seniors RSVP will be holding a food drive in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr., who once asked “What are you doing for others?” Their goal is to help our local food pantries serve the citizens of Citrus County by providing nutritionalfood for their families. Non-perishable food donations will be collected Monday, December 11, 2023, through Monday, January15, 2024. Collection boxes will be set up at the Citrus County Resource Center in Lecanto, all five CitrusCounty Libraries and four Community Centers, as well as the Citrus County Tax Collector’s offices inCrystal River and Inverness. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. devoted his life to advancing equality, social justice, and opportunity for alland voiced that everyone has a role to play in making America what it ought to be. By serving on this dayand throughout the year, we honor Dr. King and help realize his dream of equality and opportunity for all.We are encouraging residents to gather friends, neighbors, church groups, clubs, and civic organizationsto join us in supporting these projects by registering to volunteer. The public is welcome to join at the Central Ridge Community Center (located at 77 Civic Circle, BeverlyHills) on Tuesday, January 16, 2024, at 11:00 a.m. to sort, count and pack the nonperishable food itemsthat will go out to local pantries. There will be light refreshments at the event, and participants areencouraged to register ahead of time. For more information, or to register for the event, please contact the Nature Coast Volunteer Center at(352) 527-5959 or via e-mail at ncvc@citrusbocc.com. Read the full article

[relaylibrary]

Relay Recommends!

Lark Ascending by Silas House (2022)

Click here to learn more! Recommended by Allison Moore Senior Manager, AmeriCorps (External Affairs) Description/Review: A book for this specific time in history, Lark Ascending is a tale of survival in the not-too-distant future reminding us all to hold onto hope. I recommend this book as Silas House is one of my favorite authors and was just named Poet Laureate of Kentucky (my home state)!

Recommended Audience: Everyone

[investoptionwin]

Tips For College Students Regarding Student Loans

Numerous grads have recently been confronted by the grim reality of student loan debt that they mistakenly took on. Those who borrowed money without carefully weighing all of their options frequently had to deal with enormous burdens. Therefore, gathering a significant quantity of knowledge concerning student loans before enrollment pays well. Read on to discover more.

Don't stress about not being able to pay a student loan if you lost your job or encountered a financial disaster. under most cases, your lender will cooperate with you under challenging circumstances. However, you should be aware that doing so can result in higher interest rates.

Do bad debt expenses on a student loan. Defaulting on government loans can result in consequences like garnished wages and tax refunds withheld. Defaulting on private loans can be a disaster for any cosigners you had. Of course, defaulting on any loan risks serious damage to your credit report, which costs you even more later.

Don't worry if you lost your job or ran into financial difficulties that you wouldn't be able to pay back your school loans. In the majority of situations, your lender will work with you in difficult situations. You should be warned, though, that doing so might lead to increased interest rates.

Work as many hours as you can your senior year of high school and the summer before college to pay off your student debt. The more cash you can provide the college, the less financing you need. Less future loan expense results from this.

Your annual salary should be taken into account when determining how much you can afford to pay towards your loans each month. Aim to pay off your student debts within 10 years if, after graduation, your beginning salary is greater than your entire debt. Consider an extended payback option of 10 to 20 years if your loan debt exceeds your income.

You should think about PLUS loans if graduate school is being paid for. When compared to private loans, these loans don't have a high interest rate. Although this is more expensive than Stafford and Perkins loans, it is still less expensive than rates for a private loan. For pupils further along in their studies, this is frequently an excellent alternative.

Follow through on your degree with effort and determination to make sure that taking out a student loan was the best decision. Taking out loans just to slack off and miss classes makes no sense. Instead, strive to achieve As and Bs in each of your subjects so that you can graduate with distinction.

If you haven't been able to find employment in your preferred field, think about your possibilities for directly lowering your loan debt. For instance, a full year of work as an AmeriCorps volunteer can earn up to $5,500. A part of your debt may also be forgiven if you serve in the military or as a teacher in an underprivileged area.

If you have student loans right now, be sure to remain up to date on all loan-related news. Just as crucial as paying them is completing this. Any modifications to loan payments will have an impact on you. Visit websites like Student Loan Borrower Assistance and Project On Student Debt to stay up to date on the newest news regarding student loans.

Almost everyone is familiar with someone who has advanced degrees but is unable to advance in life because of their astronomical student loan burden. Thoughtful planning and analysis, however, can help to avoid this kind of circumstance. Apply the advice in the aforementioned article, and the procedure will be lot simpler.

[margaretlsgp]

KAFASI AmeriCorps Seniors Foster Grandparent Program [Video]

[macgyvermedical]

Attention (U.S. American) High School Seniors!

Once again the time has come to pitch The Fourth Option(TM).

You have probably heard of the three post-high-school life options:

1: College

2: Workforce/Vocational Training

3: Military

In fact, they've probably been pounded over your head for the last year and a half. And you're probably facing at least some pressure to either go one of those routes in particular, or at the very least pick one of those routes before your senior year winds to a close.

And to be perfectly honest, there's a lot at stake no matter the direction you go in those first years out of high school.

But if you're not super excited about any one of the above, I want to offer a fourth option: AmeriCorps NCCC

AmeriCorps: National Civilian Community Corps. A federal team-based, traveling, residential national service program for young people aged 18-26. You live on a 8-12 person team for 10-11 months (a "service term"), travel the country, live in 4-8 communities per service term and do needed service in those communities.

Service includes projects surrounding disaster recovery efforts, education, environmental protection, infrastructure improvement, and others. You may clear trails, work in a food pantry or homeless shelter, build a community garden or park, cut fire line, muck and gut houses impacted by flooding, support COVID-19 relief efforts, build houses, and a multitude of other projects (click here to see what current teams are doing).

It's free to join- transportation, food, housing, limited medical care, training, uniforms, supplies, and PPE are provided during your term(s), and you even get a moderate stipend to cover personal costs. Plus, in addition to support in completing a GED (if needed) and other job skills training before and during your projects, for each 10-month service term (up to 2), you get $6,000 for vocational training and education expenses. Serve a little less than 2 years and that's basically a free associate's degree at a community college!

To be eligible as a Corps Member in NCCC Traditional, you need to be a legal resident of the USA and between the ages of 18-26. You also must be able to pass a drug test (including marijuana). You can apply at 17 and do not need a high school diploma. To apply as a Team Leader you must be 18 (no upper age range, no prior service needed), and to apply for the sister program NCCC-FEMA Corps you must be a US citizen and be able to pass a background check.

If accepted (most people applying as Corps Members are accepted), you will be flown to one of 4 campuses throughout the US to complete about a month of training with your team. Training includes communication and life skills, tools and safety training, shelter operations, physical training, van driving, and project-specific training if applicable or required by your host site. You will return to your campus between projects to present your project in a debrief, brief for your next project, and complete project-specific training.

The Next Deadlines to Apply Are:

NCCC Traditional Corps Member: April 30th, 2022

NCCC Traditional Team Leader: February 28th, 2022

NCCC-FEMA Corps Member: March 31st, 2022

NCCC-FEMA Team Leader: March 31st, 2022

I (OP) am a former NCCC Traditional Team Leader, and would be happy to answer any questions you may have via my ask box. For now, have a look at the website here.

(All pictures in this post were sourced from the AmeriCorps website)

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this New York Times story:

Democrats aim to pour tens of billions of dollars into a New Deal-style program that would hire young people to work on projects to protect communities and the environment from disasters that are growing more destructive due to climate change.

Momentum for a Civilian Climate Corps has been steadily building since President Biden called for its creation in March. Though the program will not directly reduce the greenhouse gases that are warming the planet, it is a top priority for environmentalists as part of a $3.5 trillion spending bill Democrats hope to pass this fall.

Republicans have denounced the program as a boondoggle that would create eco-vigilantes who, as one lawmaker recently warned, will “report who is watering their lawn, whose fireplace is smoking.”

But the biggest hurdle may be Democrats themselves, who have yet to agree on how to design a climate corps.

Liberal lawmakers aligned with prominent environmental groups say they want about $30 billion — three times the amount Mr. Biden suggested — to fund the program under the umbrella of AmeriCorps. Sometimes referred to as the domestic Peace Corps, AmeriCorps is a federally-funded national service program that supporters said could easily expand to take on climate-focused work.

But in recent weeks, several senior House Democrats have challenged that plan, arguing billions of dollars should not be rushed out the door to an agency that would be saddled overnight with recruiting and training thousands of workers in clean energy and climate projects.

“Everybody I think wants to help the climate,” said Representative Robert C. “Bobby” Scott of Virginia, who leads the House Committee on Education and Labor that will oversee creation of the climate corps. But he said, “If the goal is work force development, I think we have more effective ways to do it.”

He and others have instead advocated expanding existing apprenticeships and job training programs through the Department of Labor and other agencies. The discussion is expected to come to a head Thursday when Mr. Scott’s committee debates labor components of the $3.5 trillion budget package.

[disfordarkside]

Happy #motivationmonday 🙌🏽 My kids are the reason I work so hard. They inspire me every single day to be a better version of myself and never give up. I can’t imagine my life without them. They managed to beat the odds as #firstgeneration #immigrants and get into their dream schools! They have overcome so many obstacles at such a young age and I have no doubt in my mind that they will surpass all of their hopes and dreams. They make me so proud and I feel so privileged to have been able to be a part of their journey. Whatever you are going through, just know that you can do it! There is nothing that you can’t overcome. Believe in yourself and you will succeed. Don’t let anyone or anything deter you from your purpose. You are powerful!💪🏽 #manualartshighschool #seniorawardsnight #seniors #classof2019 #lapf #pala2019 #americorps (at Manual Arts High School) https://www.instagram.com/p/ByQJynhFgD5/?igshid=16dyfvnxs68ya

[tonysopranosfeverdreams]

the way i told my dad i got offered a senior level job lined up right after my americorps term ends before i even finished it and he just went oh cool well i was hoping youd go to  grad school instead. 

[thxnews]

Biden's Workforce Development Roundtable: Boosting Opportunities

  Fostering Local Workforce Growth

In a proactive effort to bolster local economies and workforce development, the Biden administration orchestrated a high-profile gathering at the White House this week. Black mayors and county officials from across the nation convened for a roundtable discussion, joining forces with philanthropic organizations, unions, and non-governmental entities to explore strategies for cultivating a skilled workforce capable of harnessing the potential presented by President Biden's ambitious "Investing in America" agenda.   A Diverse Coalition Unites The distinguished group of participants included notable leaders, such as the mayors of Baltimore and Augusta, both of whom preside over cities designated as White House Workforce Hub locations. Additionally, the gathering welcomed esteemed mayors from Atlanta, Georgia, Birmingham, Alabama, Little Rock, Arkansas, Long Beach, California, Mount Vernon, New York, and Newport News, Virginia. County officials from influential areas such as Shelby County, Tennessee, Fulton County, Georgia, Alameda County, and Tarrant County, Texas, were also in attendance, among others.  

Empowering Local Workforce

The primary focus of this assembly revolved around the dissemination of critical information regarding access to technical resources essential for engaging with the recently enacted Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act programs. Leaders gathered to exchange best practices, delving into effective methods for local governments to establish fruitful collaborations with philanthropic organizations, unions, and non-governmental entities to nurture and connect American workers with job opportunities.   Resources and Initiatives to Drive Equity The discussions extended to crucial resources and initiatives, such as the "Investing in American Technical Assistance Guide" and the groundbreaking "White House Workforce Hubs." These tools, participants agreed, have the potential to serve as vital conduits for ensuring equitable access to high-quality jobs for all segments of society.  

A Diverse Panel of Senior Advisors

This seminal meeting enjoyed the presence of several senior Biden-Harris Administration officials, each adding their expertise to the discourse: - Tom Perez, Senior Advisor, Assistant to the President, and Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs - Steve Benjamin, Senior Advisor, Assistant to the President, and Director of the Office of Public Engagement - Brendan Danaher, Deputy Director of the National Economic Council - Harin Contractor, Director of Labor Policy National Economic Council - Ryan Berni, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor for Infrastructure Implementation - Stephanie Sykes, Special Assistant to the President for the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs - Michael Smith, CEO of AmeriCorps - Tom West, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Domestic Business Tax, Office of Tax Policy, U.S. Department of Treasury Together, this diverse coalition is spearheading efforts to create a more equitable and robust workforce, poised to embrace the transformative opportunities of the "Investing in America" initiative.   Sources: THX News & The White House. Read the full article