“When John came into the office, he was living with his two children in his car after a family crisis had disrupted his employment and ultimately cost him his housing,” begins Maslyn Locke, as she tells a story of transformation that illustrates why she decided to serve as a United Way of Douglas County AmeriCorps member at Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas.

John was one of the first people Locke helped land a job at the Catholic Charities Employment Center she launched this year, as part of her mission to help more people in Douglas County move toward self sufficiency.

Locke is one of 17 United Way AmeriCorps members serving at nine Douglas County nonprofits. A program of the Corporation for National & Community service, AmeriCorps engages 75,000 Americans in intensive service each year. During their year of service, the members managed by United Way provide direct service to further United Way’s three community goals: education, health and self sufficiency.

Members are engaged in work such as providing one-on-one health coaching at the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department, helping children improve their reading skills at Kennedy Elementary School and equipping survivors of domestic violence at the Willow Domestic Violence Center with the skills they need to gain employment and housing.

Serving as an AmeriCorps member has enabled Locke to gain firsthand experience with an issue that is very important to her: social justice. In the fall she will begin a joint graduate degree program between the Kansas University School of Social Welfare and the School of Law. Armed with a master’s degree in social work and a juris doctorate degree, Locke plans to do legal advocacy work.

“They are living in the system I want to change,” she said. “Hopefully, I will be able to change the world when I am done!”

She has a good start. Already, Locke has helped 50 percent of the people she’s worked with at the Employment Center find a job, which has enabled them to secure housing as well. That’s a pretty remarkable outcome, she notes, when you consider that the people who seek help at Catholic Charities often face lots of challenges, such as untreated mental health issues, that make it hard for them to find work.

“It’s been interesting to see the people who come in and they don’t know we have employment services, and I help them one time and they get a job,” Locke said. “It’s been really powerful to see people who are experiencing homelessness, who have been turned down for jobs, facing a million barriers, to see them keep trying and to go out and interview and get a job and have that lead to housing .”

Nickie Daneke, director of emergency services for Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas, is the AmeriCorps site supervisor, and Locke is the second United Way AmeriCorps member to serve at the agency as part of the United Way’s self sufficiency goal. Next year, Daneke will have two members, one serving in self sufficiency and the other in health.

“So many people who come here are on the front line of crisis, and so much of our focus is on alleviating the emergency needs. So having an AmeriCorps member on staff has helped us take it to a different level,” Daneke said. “We wouldn’t be able to work at the capacity we are now. We have been able to go beyond stability to self sufficiency in our program.”

Get Involved!

“Serving as an AmeriCorps member allows you to share your skills, learn new ones, work as a team, yet develop leadership qualities,” shared Linda Brandenburger, AmeriCorps program manager for the United Way of Douglas County. “It looks great on your resume, as companies know that AmeriCorps members get things done.”

For the upcoming 2015-2016 service year, which begins in August, United Way will expand the AmeriCorps program to 20 members. Recruitment is just beginning, and Brandenburger hopes to have the new members hired and placed at their service sites by July.

For information on the AmeriCorps program, or to submit an application, please contact Brandenburger at (785) 843-6626, ext. 356 or americorps@unitedwaydgco.org.