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Empowering Other R.E.S.T.O.R.E. programs Project
"Restore" for Women The newest outreach component of Project "Restore" for Women. Dr. Wilson and other members of the Enterprise Community were concerned about the future of single head of household women in the community as welfare reform evolves. While many of these women had engaged in job training activities offered by various agencies in the city, and a few were able to move into the workforce, most had dropped out of training for a variety of reasons. Dr. Wilson is on the Board of the Trident Private Industry Council which has the authority to distribute Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) funds and he was searching for a way to benefit the Enterprise Renewal Communities through the use of these funds. Passage of welfare reform through the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 added urgency to his commitment to establish programs to aid the many AFDC mothers in the community. He had worked with faculty in the College of Nursing at the Medical University of South Carolina on other community projects and asked for help in designing a welfare-to-work program. Innovative Alternatives for Women is the result of many months of planning between Dr. Wilson, faculty members, community members, city, state and county agencies and local businesses The program was planned using a multi-systemic model in which the underlying premise is that multiple factors influence a woman's ability to succeed in the job force. While occupational skills are essential, other variables, such as having adequate transportation, arranging appropriate child care services, and having the social skills to be comfortable in the work setting, encourage success, as well. In addition, having knowledge of preventive health care and nutrition, basic financial management skills, and an understanding of the legal system can prevent untoward occurrences that affect job performance. The program is still in the planning stages and should be implemented on or before June 30, 2004. Eastside Men's Breakfast Club: The Eastside Men's Breakfast Club brings together 35-50 homeless and/or unemployed men each week. The men are given the opportunity to share their frustrations and deal with issues of homelessness, unemployment, family problems, substance abuse and other issues pertinent to life in the inner-city. In addition, participants are provided with information concerning job availability and job training opportunities, addiction rehabilitation and prevention, health and nutrition. The board of this organization consists of Eastside community members, Enterprise Community pastors and Charleston business owners TC's
C.O.A.T. Throughout his lifetime, the American philosopher William James worked to forge the connection between ideas and action. He sought to tie human ex experience -- those acquired throughout one's life -- with reflection on the shape and substance of living. With essays like "A Moral Equivalent of War" he persuasively shows us that theory must relate to practice and action must be taken reflectively. Nearly a century later, James' call to tie the world of ideas with the public life of the nation remains a moral challenge for most of our society, and is an especially compelling call for higher education. Like James, The TC's C.O.A.T. believes that there is often an artificial separation between thought and action and that there is a tendency in our culture for thinkers to be out of touch with the needs of communities ties and for activists to move without benefit of theory or context. Providing students and faculty commit R.E.S.T.O.R.E. to joining these perspectives with support for undertaking work that integrates research and study with the central public concerns of our day and R.E.S.T.O.R.E. will work with community groups to develop action research agendas that utilize the best strengths of the Enterprise Community. The TC's C.O.A.T. believes that building relationships is the central mission of service and that relationships are the foundation to vital, healthy communities. We will establish more than ten (10) TC's C.O.A.T. Projects ideas to engage students in meaningful partnerships related to the Arts, Health, and Youth, Adult, and Language Education. All of the projects will be aimed at bringing students and communities together to generate meaningful community growth and positive social change. R.E.S.T.O.R.E. will also works with staff and faculty to provide support in developing opportunities for personal family, and student involvement with local community partners. If none of the opportunities currently posted interest you and you would like to explore other possibilities, or if you are designing a service project for your Student Organization check out the Community Organization Directory This database describes programs and opportunities at over 200 local agencies. Students and Groups interested in designing or participating in short term projects can contact the Community Outreach Coordinator and check out the student-led One Day Projects Locally, getting to and from community sites is a challenge for many students. The TC's C.O.A.T. will strive for active community participation and
social responsibility to be central concerns of our organization. This
approach reflects the R.E.S.T.O.R.E.'s public trust to both prepare its
older Americans for meaningful engagement in the community and to be of
service to the county at large. Over the past decade these beliefs have
been informed by our experience and R.E.S.T.O.R.E. has evolved to reflect
the notion of a powerful intersection between service, vital community,
and social change. T.C.'s C.O.A.T. will establish inter active community-based projects that will be diverse in their approaches, values, and methods. These projects will be structured as partnerships with all existing aging community groups. These partnerships will challenge R.E.S.T.O.R.E to be flexible and open to different ideas, needs and cultures. To facilitate planning and learning, each of our programs will be organized into groups focused on specific learning and service areas. The popular idea of replicability through model or pilot programs often fails in practice because culture of a given group, neighborhood, or organization requires creativity and local participation in analyzing and implementing solutions. While we will clearly learn from the success and failure of others, we have painfully learned over the years that a program with great success in one place will fail in a neighboring community because the program has not valued the importance of culture. To that end we will encouraged components of TC's C.O.A.T. to be creative in their approach and not to hold on to easy successes. TC's C.O.A.T.'s will establish a "Creative Expression" program, which will be based on the belief that imagination and creativity are critical tools for personal development and for envisioning better communities. Our programs will partner with arts and non-arts organizations, seeking to create new spaces for personal expression and artistic exploration in the aging population. The "Creative Expression" programs will provide the entire professional community with an opportunity to facilitate workshops in areas of their emerging expertise, challenging both their own artistic talents and their ability to serve as educators. "Creative Expression" programs will work in a number of disciplines including poetry, playwriting, theater, visual arts and dance. Community Involvement through the Performing Arts (CIPA) CIPA will use the arts to build community through art classes at on- & off- facility sites. Volunteer teacher teams will be selected based on course proposals they submit. CIPA will use creative expression to build confidence, foster skills enhancement and generate enthusiasm for learning among older Americans. With the conviction that effective teaching is an art form, CIPA volunteers will operate as a community of learning teachers. Prison Liaison for the Arts and Creative Expression (PLACE) PLACE will be in partnership with the Charleston Detention Center. Older American volunteers will work with inmates in an intimate, entertaining, and educational environment, exploring the arts as a medium for fun, expression, and personal reflection. Teams of volunteers will conduct workshops in creative writing, movement, and theater. The Stage will provide public, private school and college students with direction and guidance to experiment and create as well as inter act with Older Americans in the theater arts. Through the Stage, area high school students will develop skills in play writing, acting, and design as they work toward a public performance. The Stage will seek to encourage students' imaginative and artistic potential, to develop loud voices, share in the fun of creating, and nurture new ways to understand and communicate with other generations. Author's Group will offer developmentally disabled Older American adults at various aging centers a forum to express themselves through creative writing while also practicing literacy skills and making choices. Charleston college students facilitate weekly Author's Groups meetings in which participants write and share their writing and their experience. The Author's Groups will produce a journal and host a poetry reading each year on the various college campuses during Piccolo Spoleto and the MOJA Festivals. Justified Amnesty (JA) is a Charleston County movement of dedicated staff and volunteers from R.E.S.T.O.R.E., Inc. (Project "Restore") who will crusade for recognized human rights for incarcerated non-violent parents in the State of South Carolina. Justified Amnesty's vision is that every person enjoys the entire human and moral rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards. In quest of this vision, JA's mission is to embark on research and outreach programming focused on preventing and ending inequity of the rights to physical and mental integrity, freedom of conscience and expression, and freedom from discrimination, within the framework of its effort to promote all creature and organizational rights. JA is autonomous of any outside government administration, political system of belief, economic interest or religious conviction. Based upon Romans 13:1-6, Justified Amnesty does not support or oppose any government or political system, nor does it support or oppose the views of the victims whose rights it seeks to advocate for or protect. It is concerned solely with the impartial protection of recognized human rights for incarcerated non-violent parents in the State of South Carolina. The LowCountry Family Coalition (LcFC) The LowCountry Family Coalition (LcFC) is an ten-county non-custodial system that will provide a sustainable solution to the problem for the following:
In quest of this vision, JA's mission is to embark on research and outreach programming focused on preventing and ending inequity of the rights to physical and mental integrity, freedom of conscience and expression, and freedom from discrimination, within the framework of its effort to promote all creature and organizational rights. JA is autonomous of any outside government administration, political system of belief, economic interest or religious conviction. Based upon Romans 13:1-6, Justified Amnesty does not support or oppose any government or political system, nor does it support or oppose the views of the victims whose rights it seeks to advocate for or protect. Therapeutic Cottages |
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