Speech #890186438

Thomas P. Hardeman. the funds president. the volunteers are doing exciting and most worthwhile things in all the six regions of the Florida program. They are creating community awareness of the needs of the migrants. and from this awareness is coming a much greater degree of community involvement than ever before. The accomplishments of the VISTA volunteers in Florida are too numerous to describe in full. But a few examples are worthy of our attention. For instance. the citizens and communities of 11 counties are now deeply involved in A coordinated attack on the problems of Floridas migrant population as a result of the volunteers efforts. The use of 35 buildings has been offered for volunteer activities by individuals and public and private agencies. Volunteers in one community have been given space in a city hall. Certified teachers and specialists in industrial arts are now volunteering their time. Physical education and recreational experts have also stepped forward to offer their talents. Sewing machines. materials. thread. leather goods. patterns. and special arts and crafts material have been donated by individuals and firms to help the migrants learn by doing. This appreciable response was brought about by the VISTA volunteers who are serving as the catalyst necessary to transform community apathy into community action. Working on their own. they have renovated dilapidated buildings and secured equipment necessary to open a community recreation and meeting center in Pompano Beach. In another area. they have helped sign up more than 100 older citizens for medicare. Other volunteers have organized Boy Scout troops among migrant youths. they are tutoring more than 2.000 children. and in one community 51 disadvantaged children are being given intensely personal. onetoone tutoring by a VISTA volunteer. In short. the VISTA volunteers are performing well in the areas of day care. home improvement. literacy. tutoring. youth counseling. home management. and citizenship education. Their supervisors have said that in some respects their work is more important than the work of the professional staff members because of the unique position they occupy as volunteers--and because they live among the poor whom they serve. This enables them to participate deeply in the lives of migrant families. As an example of this. I would like to cite the case of one young lady who works among the migrant families in the strawberrygrowing area near Tampa and St. Petersburg. She has established a day care center for the children of the fathers and mothers who work in the fields.