Public Service
By Aaron Martinez
When a child gardens, a future is cultivated. When a group of children garden, a community can grow together. Teaching children about the intricacies of gardening is just one aspect to the University of New Mexico Service Corps curriculum for its community service program.
Working through the College of Education in the office of Community Learning and Public Service, the Service Corps is a campus-based community service project that practices long-term civic engagement in some of New Mexico's most diverse low-income neighborhoods.
Corps members work in a variety of community-based projects, which include many after-school and summer programs in which children from kindergarten to high school learn about neighborhood cultural heritage and community development.
The goal of the project is to implement literacy-based learning opportunities for youth that aim to reduce drug use and violence while assisting students in meeting or exceeding state and local standards in reading, mathematics, and science.
Leading the literacy efforts is a group of paid and volunteer employees comprised of UNM, TVI, and high school students from around Albuquerque. Currently, there are about 55 Service Corps members, 42 of whom are UNM students, and they work under AmeriCorps, a network of local, state, and national service programs. The students serve for one or two-year terms, working towards the education award, which they receive upon completing their term of service.
In 1999, the Corps increased from 50 percent students of color to 90 percent at the request of neighborhood leaders and community partners in order to become more representative of the residents living in the communities served.
“The children see themselves in the staff members and they're encouraged to succeed like them,” said Kiran Katira, interim director for the program, who started working with the program at its inception in 1998.
During 1998 the program experienced a funding crisis which sparked the creation of the Albuquerque Community Schools Project within UNM's College of Education. In 2001, another series of budget cuts by the city of Albuquerque for after-school programs reduced the UNM Service Corps budget by $450,000 seriously jeopardizing centers across the city.
That's when the United States Department of Education awarded Albuquerque Public Schools and UNM the largest 21 st Century Learning Center Grant in New Mexico history at nearly $1.2 million for three years. Currently, the program is operating on a second term of the same grant.
Children attending the centers are students who have been identified by teachers as children who need help or a place to go after school. The program is involved with 20 community-based projects throughout Albuquerque's “pocket of poverty” neighborhoods, which are federally designated, low-income communities.
One of those neighborhoods is Santa Barbara/Martineztown, where Veronica Apodaca works as the site facilitator. Apodaca said that despite being an after-school literacy program that has shown positive results, funding is still a problem.
“I can't believe the city of Albuquerque has the nerve to charge us rent,” said Apodaca referring to the initial deal made between the Santa Barbara/Martineztown Neighborhood Association and the city of Albuquerque.
That deal allowed the Santa Barbara/Martineztown community to operate out of the historic Santa Barbara School for free, but now the city is charging $8,400 per month to use the building.
“It's the kids who get hurt on things like that,” Apodaca said. “I can take a pay cut, but when we can't buy supplies or take field trips, then there's a problem.”
As site facilitator, Apodaca is paid an annual salary of $32,000, which is part of a total budget for the center of more than $90,000. Part of every site's budget is an amount reserved for contract services, which are for licensed instructors who visit the centers to teach a particular topic.
“Sustainability is a big issue for us,” Katira says. “We teach the children about sustaining language and community and we learn about sustaining an educational program in the world of politics.”
Contacts: Kiran Katira 277-9523, Veronica Apodaca 459-4481