Here are just a few general examples of the powerful role that JustServe AmeriCorps Members have played to increase the capacity of local organizations since the program's inception in 1994: (For specific stories about how JustServe members address and prevent violence in our community, see further below.) 

• Worked with Seattle Police Department to create the nationally recognized Domestic Violence Victim Support Team Program, which recruits community volunteers to provide emotional support, safety planning and referrals to victims of domestic violence at secured crime scenes. This JustServe project received the 1999 CNCS All*AmeriCorps Award medal for Strengthening Communities.
• Established the youth-staffed crisis line at Crisis Clinic's Teen Lin.
• Established the volunteer-staffed crisis line at New Beginnings Domestic Violence Program.
• Established partnerships between Chaya (an agency which assists South Asian domestic violence survivors), the Indian Association of Western Washington and the Renton Gurudwara (a Sikh place of worship). JustServe Members also played a key role in creating Chaya's Peaceful Families, an outreach and education collaboration with local mosques and Muslim leaders.
• Worked with the nonprofit Powerful Voices to expand life-skills workshops for girls in the King County juvenile detention and create the STAGES community-based education project.
• Created the Justice Club at Mercer Middle School (a service-learning and youth leadership program addressing cultural diversity and hate crimes) in collaboration with partner agency Hate Free Zone.
• Established peer mediation programs in middle and high schools throughout South Seattle and South King County.
• Planned and coordinated the first ever South King County Take Back the Night event.
• Helped to create the first Mayor's Youth Council, providing youth feedback from 13 different neighborhoods to the City of Seattle Mayor.
• Wrote a comprehensive manual for community volunteers at the King County Prosecutor's Office to better assist domestic violence survivors in obtaining protection orders and understanding criminal court processes.
• Piloted interactive teen dating and family violence prevention workshops within the City of Seattle's Academic Support Program and intra-agency alternative schools.
• Expanded county-wide efforts to recruit community volunteers from African American churches, to mentor youth who have been involved in the criminal justice system.
• Developed gang violence prevention presentations for El Centro de la Raza's cultural history and poetry classes for youth.
• Launched the Asian Pacific Islander Safety Center's youth programs, including the Young Men's Violence Prevention Project.

JustServe Member Cammie Carl Launches Teen Program in South King County

Here are just a few highlights from the work of JustServe Member Cammie Carl (pictured above), who created a new teeen program at the Intercommunity Mercy Housing’s Appian Way Apartments (an underserved area of South King County):

• ­At the beginning of the year, one teen was very negative towards herself and was not involved in any activities at school or in the community. Cammie spent many hours talking with her one on one about different life issues. Now, the teen speaks positively about herself. She is also involved in programs at Appian Way, volunteering at Homework Club tutoring younger kids, and attending every teen group program that Cammie plans.
•  When Cammie first started the Appian Way teen program she sought out teens anywhere she could find them in the housing complex: on the basketball court, at the bus stop, etc. Two boys were very skeptical in the beginning and disruptive in the programs. However, today they volunteer at every event and never miss a program session.
• One teen was not open to the idea of a teen program in the beginning.  She was shy about attending the programs. But over the months since Cammie arrived, the teen started attending programs and made new friends in the community. She no longer puts herself down or makes negative comments about herself to others.

Read more about Cammie's service to the community and her work to save the world one youth at a time in this article in the Seattle PI.

JustServe Member Hari Kondabolu Provides Support & Builds Community Involvement at Hate Free Zone

Hari Kondabolu, a JustServe AmeriCorps Member working at the Hate Free Zone (HFZ), received a call from a Sikh man “Harbhajan” (name changed) who was experiencing discrimination and abuse in his workplace due to the backlash against the Sikh community after 9/11.

Hari helped Harbhajan gain the information he needed to address the problems at work — but their work together did not stop there. Hari also recruited Harbhajan to become a volunteer at HFZ, helping others in the community who face similar discrimination and violence.