The Cornell University Public Service Center has been awarded AmeriCorps funding by the Federal Corporation for National Service, the New York State Commission on National and Community Service and the New York State Office of Children and Family Services, for the 2000-01 program year. The grant will fund the REACH (Raising Educational Attainment Challenge) Fellowship, which provides support and enhancement for several community education efforts.

Since 1996, the Public Service Center has invited motivated Cornell students to participate in literacy activities in communities across the country as part of the national America Reads Challenge. In July 1999, the center adopted the complement to the America Reads Challenge, the America Counts Challenge. The America Counts Challenge encourages personal attention and additional learning opportunities, through tutoring and mentoring, to help ensure the future success of young people in mathematics. Area schools and community agencies have come to depend on the participation of Cornell students as tutors for the programs. In the past academic year alone, 70 federal work-study students and 85 student volunteers from Cornell participated in the America Reads Challenge and America Counts Challenge at 10 Tompkins County sites, including local elementary schools, the Greater Ithaca Activities Center, Cornell Cooperative Extension and the Southside Community Center.

However, during a series of individual meetings and roundtable discussions in the fall of 1999, the Public Service Center heard from staff members at the sites that they felt limited by time and/or resources in giving quality training to tutors and encouraging tutors to be highly motivated and committed to their work. To address that need, the Public Service Center began the literacy fellowship program called the REACH Fellowship in the spring of 2000 to enhance and add structure to the already established America Reads and America Counts programs. The purpose of the REACH Fellowship is to recruit, mentor, coordinate and unify a diverse group of tutors, so they have the necessary resources and peer support to help augment the programs. During the spring semester, seven REACH fellows facilitated the activities of America Reads and

America Counts volunteers and work-study tutors in the local schools, as well as the activities of other Cornell students working in the community. Fellows served in a leadership capacity at sites where Cornell students work, tutoring, creating curriculum, disseminating information and coordinating the efforts of tutors.

AmeriCorps, the domestic Peace Corps, engages more than 40,000 Americans in intensive, results-driven service. AmeriCorps members receive education awards that help finance college or pay back student loans. By making REACH an AmeriCorps program, not only will the students involved become part of a national network, but they also will receive an educational stipend for their service. The additional funds also will allow the Public Service Center to increase the breadth of the fellowship by including more sites.

For more information, contact Lora Levy, coordinator of literacy and school programs for the Public Service Center, at (607) 255-0255.