Many Monday nights Maggie’s Place Program Director Julie Carlberg can be found on the radio. She’s a frequent guest of the Man Up and Lead Radio Show hosted by Richard Cunningham and Chris Radoccia. Each week they tackle different ways men can make an impact and lead their families.
Perhaps this week they got more than they bargained for when Julie invaded the studio with two AmeriCorps members, a mom with newborn twins and The ARIS Foundation’s Katherine Kouvelas-Edick to talk about the work of Maggie’s Place, the governor’s office and ARIS. And, yes, throughout the broadcast, there are small baby coos.
Julie, and radio hosts Richard and Chris, ask AmeriCorps member Natalie, who lives in one of the Maggie’s Place homes, what she’s learned. She laughs, “Things I didn’t know I could do.” She adds helping with recovery from a C-section and becoming an expert at baby puke,” to her list of talents.
She came to Maggie’s Place first as a volunteer. AmeriCorps gave her the opportunity to stay. “I was ready to leave college but not ready to leave Maggie’s Place,” she says.
What is AmeriCorps? It is a voluntary civil society dedicated to “helping others and meeting the critical needs in the community.” Things like increasing academic achievement, mentoring youth, fighting poverty, sustaining national parks and preparing for disasters make up some of what AmeriCorps members do all over the country.
Maggie’s Place was awarded an AmeriCorps grant through Governor Ducey’s Office of Youth, Faith and Family, which oversees the program in Arizona. Maggie’s Place has openings for service, both in the homes and at the resource center. That means members have the option of living in or living out. You can learn more here.
What do you need to be an AmeriCorps member? Julie says what’s needed most is, “to be that kind voice.”
Natalie adds, “I feel like I’m saying yes to saying yes.”
Mercedes, along with her ten-day-old twin boys, tells Julie she could not have made it through pregnancy, delivery and now home life without AmeriCorps, Amy, at her side. “She can change a diaper when I feel I have only two hands. She can help feed them when they’re both hungry at the same time. I can sleep. I couldn’t have done it without her.” She notes that Amy also went with her to prenatal appointments.
Then we meet Katherine of the ARIS Foundation. The connection? She and Julie met at their children’s soccer game. Katherine later referred Mercedes to Maggie’s Place. The ARIS Foundation was, “created to clothe, feed, teach and care for homeless youth, ages 18-29 in the Phoenix area.” Katherine recognized after getting to know Mercedes that Maggie’s Place was where she needed to be.
You can listen to the complete show here.
