Tuesday, July 18, 2023
Josh Fryday, Chief Service Officer for the State of California
Meeting In-Person and via ZOOM
Minutes
Present: Deborah Barmack, Carole Beswick, Bill Blankenship, Greg Bradbard, Mike Burrows, Sandra Cuellar, Michelle Decker, Kevin Dyerly, Otis Greer, Lowell King, Doug Kleam, Steve Lambert, Mike Layne, Bill Lemann, Michael Lewin, Darcy McNaboe, Miguel Mendoza, John Mirau, Dan Murphy, Robert Nava, Vikki Ostermann, Cid Pinedo, Thomas Rice, Michael Rivera, Dan Roberts, LaShe Rodriguez, Paul Shimoff, Michael Wells, Ray Wolfe, and Frank Zabaleta.
Announcements: 1) Inland Action will be dark for the month of August. The first meeting after the break will be on Tuesday, September12, 2023, when we will meet off-site at Garner Holt Productions located in Redlands.
Kevin Dyerly, Chair presiding.
Motion by T. Rice/Second/Passed: Minutes from July 11, 2023
Greg Bradbard, who was appointed to the California Volunteers Commission introduced Josh Fryday, Chief Service Officer for the State of California who joined us in person. As a member of the Governor’s Cabinet, Josh Fryday leads California Volunteers, Office of the Governor.
California Volunteers is the State office tasked with engaging Californians in service, volunteering, and civic action to tackle our State’s most pressing challenges while mobilizing all Californians to volunteer and serve in their communities. The Surgeon General recently announced the biggest health crisis is loneliness. Service and volunteering empowers and unites people which is critical since the isolation of the pandemic and our current social discord and mistrust.
The #CaliforniansForAll service initiative was launched in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to build on the efforts of California Volunteers to establish a statewide volunteer corps to help with the State’s response to emergencies and disasters. California Volunteers administers the AmeriCorps programs in California with over 80 programs providing critical services to more than 160,000 Californians annually.
Their mission, which is strongly supported by Governor Newsom, is to engage all Californians in service, volunteerism, and civic action to tackle our greatest challenges together. They will do this by building connections and community in addition to creating economic opportunities.
Service and volunteerism have many effects such as:
- Uniting communities and building trust among Californians.
- Creating connections and purpose.
- Creating career and education opportunities.
- Empowerment of our people.
- Creating better ways to solve our biggest challenges.
- Living a healthy and meaningful life.
California Volunteers will deploy, support, and mobilize tens of thousands of paid service members throughout the State in an effort to unite Californians in the coming years. Programs will include:
- Planting trees
- Tutor and mentor low-income students
- Recycle & compost food waste
- Support food insecurity efforts
- Create community gardens
- Conduct wildfire prevention activities
- Educate communities on climate action
- Work in disaster management.
California’s Volunteer’s commitment to the Inland Empire total $13.4M investments with the following programs:
#CaliforniansForAll College Corps has been compared to the GI Bill. They have $6.75M in grants dedicated to the Inland Empire for 375 Fellow Positions and 57 Dreamer Positions. They will provide a $10K scholarship upon completion of 450 hours of service. Their focus areas are climate action, addressing food insecurity and education through mentoring and tutoring. The statewide College Corps Network is available in virtually all the University of California and Cal State facilities and many community colleges. Those programs in the IE currently consist of UC Riverside, CSU San Bernardino, San Bernardino Community College District, College of the Desert, Riverside Community College District, Norco College, and Moreno Valley College. More colleges have shown an interest and the program is set for growth.
Youth Jobs Corps has $5.03M grants for the Inland Empire with 330 positions providing wages from $15-$27 per hour. Their focus areas include climate, food insecurity, Covid, and homelessness. Partners include Community Settlement Association, C3 Initiative, Feeding America IE, Lighthouse of Hope, Tree People and California Mountains Foundation.
California Climate Action Corps grant for the IE totals $407K for 8 Fellows positions with $30K stipend wages and a 10K education award at the completion of their term. This group will focus on urban greening, organic waste and edible food recovery, and wildfire resiliency.
AmeriCorps California has a $1.2M grant for 90 member positions. They offer living allowances and up to $10,000 in education awards depending on the community. Their focus areas are environmental stewardship, education, healthy futures, resource access, disaster services, and food insecurity.
New initiatives are the Experience Corps and the Neighbor-to Neighbor programs. The Experience Corps is focused on increasing the number of AmeriCorps Foster Grandparent and Senior Companion projects to address the needs and concerns of older Californians at the regional and local levels. The
Neighbor-to-Neighbor program will build strong connections and relationships between neighbors, providing opportunities to impact our communities from the ground up.
Josh Fryday asked the group to assist in recruiting for their initiatives, promote service opportunities in our region, work with them to meet volunteer needs in our region, and help them create a workforce pipeline for their Alumni. For more information, please visit https://www.californiavolunteers.ca.gov/
Q & A period followed
Meeting adjourned 8:30 a.m.