HAYS, Kan. - My first chance to see Kansas Corps in action was in Chapman last April, when more than 50 students from six colleges across the state of Kansas pitched in to provide tornado disaster relief. These students performed a wide-range of services; from removing metal from a creek bed to insulating, framing and dry-walling a home.
The Chapman project was the second pilot project of Kansas Corps. Its first project took place in Melvern in 2008, and saw students from across the state create a hiking and biking trail for that city. Working with the local "Friends of the Trail" committee and their partners, Westar Electric's Green Team, the Kansas Trails Council and the PRIDE organization, these students helped a small community convert a landfill into a health and fitness trail.
Now the real work begins...
Thanks to grants from the Kansas Health Foundation and the Kansas Campus Compact, Kansas Corps will be expanding its scope and mission throughout the next year. Kansas Corps is a statewide initiative that pools student volunteers from Kansas colleges and universities together to serve the community service needs of Kansas.
In order to get "boots on the ground" throughout the state, Kansas Corps' coordinator, Jill Arensdorf is working to hire 20 Kansas Corps Campus Leaders at colleges and universities throughout the state. These students will receive $1,000 education award and $1,000 living allowance, serving a minimum of 300 service hours by coordinating and participating in service projects and recruiting campus volunteers.
Kansas Corps focuses on three primary areas of public need: disaster recovery, social services, and community development assistance. These areas of public need are either geographically-based or issue-based. Geographically-based service events are to be hosted in a specific location with students from multiple locations coming together to fill a public service need. Issue-based services will be activities that are held in multiple locations around the state, focusing on the same service topic such as literacy or food drives.
Chantelle Arnold, Assistant Director of the Center for Civic Leadership and project coordinator for the Melvern pilot project said, "The response to the Kansas Corps initiative has been positively overwhelming. Schools, state agencies, private corporations and non-profit agencies alike have all been great to work with. They see the tremendous value that college student volunteers can provide to the state of Kansas."
More information about the Kansas Corps is available at www.fhsu.edu/ccl/kansascorps/ or by calling 785-628-4668.
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