Arkansas
UAMS, AmeriCorps Announces Food Security Initiative in Arkansas – UAMS News
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| College of Arkansas for Medical Sciences awarded greater than $255,000 in American Rescue Plan funds to serve rural and concrete communities
WASHINGTON, D.C. – AmeriCorps, the federal company for nationwide service and volunteerism, introduced greater than $255,000 in American Rescue Plan grant funding to the College of Arkansas for Medical Sciences as a part of the AmeriCorps VISTA program’s meals safety initiative over the subsequent three years.
The AmeriCorps VISTA initiative, launched in 2020, is a complete and collaborative strategy to finish starvation which impacts one in eight People and greater than 400,000 Arkansans. AmeriCorps has awarded over $2 million in grants to organizations addressing the affect of starvation of their state throughout the pandemic.
The UAMS Workplace of Neighborhood Well being & Analysis collaborates with Arkansas organizations who serve various food-insecure populations. Along with nationwide and native consultants, AmeriCorps and UAMS will work to enhance the native meals system.
On Thursday, Aug. 25, Daniel Dunlap, AmeriCorps South Central deputy regional administrator joined Amy Wenger, MHSA, vice chancellor, UAMS Northwest Regional Campus, Pearl McElfish, Ph.D., MBA, division director of the UAMS Workplace of Neighborhood Well being & Analysis, and Mayor Doug Sprouse of Springdale, Ark., to acknowledge AmeriCorps members and announce the grant award on the UAMS Workplace of Neighborhood Well being & Analysis in Springdale, Ark.
“The Biden-Harris Administration’s historic American Rescue Plan funding enabled AmeriCorps to broaden our meals safety efforts in communities with the best want,” stated Michael D. Smith, AmeriCorps CEO. “UAMS’ applications not solely handle instant starvation, however additionally they prioritize public well being schooling and agricultural manufacturing to disrupt the cycle of meals entry points.”
“Addressing meals safety in Arkansas is a precedence intention of UAMS Neighborhood Well being & Analysis,” Pearl McElfish, division director of the UAMS Workplace of Neighborhood Well being & Analysis stated. “AmeriCorps VISTA Meals Safety Initiative service members will construct the capability of our accomplice organizations to greatest serve their communities. Entry to wholesome meals is vital to constructing thriving communities, and we’re thrilled to deliver this program to Arkansas.”
UAMS is recruiting as much as 25 AmeriCorps members to serve within the VISTA program to assist organizations throughout the state working to satisfy the wants of Arkansas’ most susceptible and underserved populations. These AmeriCorps members will broaden capability and improve meals entry via their service within the charitable meals system, assist of native agriculture and manufacturing applications, enhance coordination and connection to important providers that affect meals safety, and improve availability to culturally and medically applicable meals.
Along with grants, VISTA’s collaborative strategy to poverty and starvation alleviation features a lately launched studying group for VISTA sponsors to satisfy each different month to share concepts, greatest practices and construct their community.
AmeriCorps continues to spend money on the nation’s COVID-19 restoration. With present applications in additional than 40,000 places throughout the nation, AmeriCorps is uniquely positioned to bolster group response efforts. In response to the pandemic, a whole bunch of 1000’s of AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers throughout all 50 states and U.S. territories have continued their service, rapidly adapting to satisfy the altering wants brought on by the pandemic and have offered important assist, group response, and restoration efforts, offering assist to greater than 12.5 million People, together with 2.5 million folks at vaccination websites.
Go to nwa.uams.edu/chr/applications/healthy-foods/vista/ to seek out out extra about starvation reduction in Arkansas, together with alternatives to use to function an AmeriCorps member.
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AmeriCorps, the federal company for volunteerism and nationwide service, supplies alternatives for People to serve their nation domestically, handle the nation’s most urgent challenges, enhance lives and communities, and strengthen civic engagement. Every year, the company locations greater than 250,000 AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers in intensive service roles; and empowers hundreds of thousands extra to function long-term, short-term, or one-time volunteers.
AmeriCorps affords alternatives for people of all backgrounds to be part of the nationwide service group, develop personally and professionally, and obtain advantages for his or her service. Discover ways to become involved at AmeriCorps.gov/serve
UAMS is the state’s solely well being sciences college, with faculties of Drugs, Nursing, Pharmacy, Well being Professions and Public Well being; a graduate faculty; a hospital; a most important campus in Little Rock; a Northwest Arkansas regional campus in Fayetteville; a statewide community of regional campuses; and 7 institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Most cancers Institute, Jackson T. Stephens Backbone & Neurosciences Institute, Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, Psychiatric Analysis Institute, Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Getting older, Translational Analysis Institute and Institute for Digital Well being & Innovation. UAMS consists of UAMS Well being, a statewide well being system that encompasses all of UAMS’ scientific enterprise. UAMS is the one grownup Degree 1 trauma middle within the state. UAMS has 3,047 college students, 873 medical residents and fellows, and 6 dental residents. It’s the state’s largest public employer with greater than 11,000 workers, together with 1,200 physicians who present care to sufferers at UAMS, its regional campuses, Arkansas Kids’s, the VA Medical Middle and Baptist Well being. Go to www.uams.edu or www.uamshealth.com. Discover us on Fb, Twitter, YouTube or Instagram.