General Discussion

sheshe2

(83,815 posts) Sun Jul 20, 2014, 07:51 PM Jul 2014

50 years later

Fifty Years After the U.S. Begins War On Poverty, Maria Shriver Launches “Shriver Corps”

Washington, DC (PRWEB) July 17, 2014

As we mark the 50th Anniversary of the War on Poverty, A Woman’s Nation, The Corporation for National and Community Service, LIFT, and Bank of America announced today the launch of The Shriver Corps, a new national service partnership utilizing AmeriCorps VISTA members to lift people out of poverty in low-income communities across the country.

Inspired by this year’s The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Pushes Back from the Brink, the inaugural cohort of Shriver AmeriCorps Fellows will serve full-time at LIFT sites, supported by a $500,000 grant from the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, to further realize the vision of Maria Shriver’s father, Sargent Shriver, who ran the War on Poverty for LBJ: Americans engaged in service to their fellow citizens, working together to build pathways to prosperity.

“The new Shriver Corps builds on and honors the legacy of my father, whose vision of an America made better by people engaged in service to their fellow citizens is as important today as it was when he created the VISTA national service program fifty years ago,” said Maria. “Our work on The Shriver Report revealed that in the U.S. today, 42 million women and the 28 million children who depend on them are struggling to get by while living paycheck to paycheck. The Shriver Corps will make a dent in that statistic by providing much-needed help to low-income families all over the country.”

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The Shriver Corps also reflects the spirit of a presidential memorandum issued in July 2013 that established the Task Force on Expanding National Service and calls for new public-private partnerships that use national service to help solve our nation’s most pressing challenges.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/ShriverCorps/prweb12026026.htm

About LIFT

What We Do

LIFT is working to help lift people out of poverty for good.

We pair rigorously trained advocates with committed community members to build the strong personal, social and financial foundations they need to get ahead. By setting their own goals and working hard to achieve them, LIFT Members are equipped to get a job, a safe home and a quality education for themselves and their kids. They also build a support network, confidence in what they bring to the table and the skills to manage tough times in the future.

LIFT operates resource centers in six cities across the nation where members of the community can come get help. Nearly 100,000 Members in six major cities have already committed to do the hard work needed to achieve their goals--and it is working. LIFT is putting an average of $1,300 back into the pockets of struggling families so that they can make ends meet.