• by IPS Correspondents (new york)
• Tuesday, November 15, 1994
• Inter Press Service

NEW YORK, Nov 15 (IPS) - A group of Hispanic children from a Bronx school surrounds some farm animals on a crisp, autumn afternoon and fires questions at Robert Auberger. The 23-year-old is helping them start a worm bin and understand the benefits of composting.

The curriculum in horticulture is just one of hundreds of social and environmental initiatives being funded by AmeriCorps, the national service programme signed into law by President Bill Clinton last September. And Auberger is one of 20,000 volunteers across the country.

"We're teaching kids about the growth cycle of plants, about harvesting, about composting, about recycling," Auberger said. "A lot of urban kids don't see the connection between themselves and the land. They literally think corn comes from a can."

Auberger works with 13 other young volunteers in a predominately Hispanic neighborhood of the South Bronx. Since September, they have joined city volunteers in transforming the school courtyard into a vast garden, complete with a meadow, a pond, and rows of crops. The site is now known as 'Success Gardens'.

With AmeriCorps funding, programmes like this one are being developed in impoverished rural and inner-city areas across the country.

The initiatives are as diverse as the communities they serve. One project along the Arizona-Mexican border seeks to help homeless youth find housing; in New Orleans, there is a project to build low-income housing; and in Syracuse, New York, an initiative is underway to restore and maintain 100 miles of trails.

Twelve initiatives have received AmeriCorps grants since September in New York City alone. The programmes are developed in concert with numerous non-profit organisations.

The AmeriCorps programme came to life this year after Congress approved 360 million dollars in funding. Much of the money goes to pay the 100-dollars-a-week stipends to the volunteers, most of whom are between the ages of 17 and 25. The volunteers receive an additional 4,725 dollars at the end of their one-year term to be spent on education-related expenses.

Public service advocates point out that the AmeriCorps initiatives are sorely needed in areas of the country wrecked by budget cuts, poverty and crime.

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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