ReServist Rev. Charles Gilmore Jr. represents ReServe among the crowds.

Nearly 20 ReServists answered the call and joined ReServe and Mayor Bloomberg for the highly publicized launch of NYC Service in April.  The initiative launched April 20, 2009, promotes civic engagement in New York City and coincided with President Obama’s national call to action and the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, which was signed by the President the following day.

The event, was held during National Volunteer Week at the 168th Street Amory in Washington Heights, and was part of the Mayor’s efforts to promote civic engagement and volunteerism.  The high-energy multi-media event was also attended by high-profile personalities and civil servants including Caroline Kennedy, NYC School Chancellor Joel Klein, Silda Wall Spitzer and Congresswoman, Carolyn McCarthy.

The Mayor’s office requested two ReServists to join members of other nonprofit service groups in various event related activities.  Helen Mayfield and Rev. Charles Gilmore, Jr. represented their ReServist colleagues, and also joined the Mayor on the presentation stage.

“What people are doing in their later years is as interesting as or more interesting than their younger years,” said Mayfield.

Mayfield worked at the Department of Social Services in Human Resources Administration for almost 30 years and was a principle administration associate.  Currently Mayfield is serving NYC HRA’s Children’s Corner, supervising children as young as two years old while parents access City services.

Rev. Gilmore, Jr. who has a Masters of Divinity from the Princeton Theological Seminary, recently completed an assignment as a ReServist, Outreach Social Worker for the Geriatric Mental Health Initiative at the Upper Manhattan Mental Health Center.

ReServe was among several City service organizations to help the Mayor launch the initiative.  NYC Service, the Mayor said, “will make New York the easiest city to serve in.”  The Mayor outlined the initiative’s goals including “recruiting an army of volunteers,” with special skills and creating opportunities that address “most urgent needs.”

The Mayor also said that NYC Service will focus on “impact service projects” while helping nonprofit and government agencies find volunteers and to develop a system of “accountability,” to make sure that projects and volunteers are making the greatest impacts.

Built into the initiative is NYC Civic Corps, a collaboration with Corporation for National and Community Service and its AmeriCorps VISTA program, to provide remuneration for volunteers who serve on selected full-time but temporary assignments.

ReServe’s model closely relates to NYC Service, and ReServe was recently awarded three Civic Corps personnel to assist in launching its newest programs.

“Civic engagement is critical to the future of our country and our City, especially in these tough economic times” said ReServe’s Executive Director, Mary S. Bleiberg in a press statement.  “Mayor Bloomberg has taken a wonderful lead in encouraging New Yorkers to make a social impact.”

Host Beverly Danields with guests (L-R) Barbara Gaines, Scott Kariya, Pat Scott, Mary S. Bleiberg, Jesse Dean, Dennis Redmond, Evi Blaikie, Alexis Greene

ReServe was featured recently on “Power Tools for Life,” a Queens Public Television program. Beverly Danields is producer and host of the one-hour show that focuses on organizations and individuals serving  the Queens community. The segment that aired June 16-17 was a panel discussion of ReServe’s mission, its partners, and the professionalism of ReServists. It also focused on what it means to give back to a community through service.

Danields spoke to the core of the ReServe program: “They find the perfect match. Here they are fitting a real need, not only for the organizations they partnership with, but for the individuals who are actually ReServists.”

Panelists included, Mary S. Bleiberg, ReServe’s Executive Director; Scott Kariya, a ReServe Program Officer; Dennis Redmond, Director of Staff Development and Support at the Queens Community House, a ReServe partner; ReServist Barbara Gaines, who works with Redmond as a Human Resources Assistant; Evi Blaikie, Assistant to the President at the Community Environmental Center, a ReServe partner, and ReServist Alexis Greene who is helping the CEC as a Marketing and Public Relations Consultant.

Addressing today’s problems Redmond said, “These are very difficult times for all nonprofits as they are in general for society. With shrinking resources, we’re very much committed to providing, to maintaining, our core services.”

He said he appreciated the flexibility and talent pool provided in the ReServe model.  “It forces all of us to be a little more creative in how we do it and also to count on others a little more than we did before.”

Bleiberg pointed to the recent success of ReServe’s partnership with the NYC Serve initiative launched in April.  “We work with one group of people, but we work with many organizations…and I think [serving] is becoming a citywide activity which is to try and say, “OK, how are we going to make this city better and get through this?”

“Aging is what we’re all doing…and it is good to know that you’re needed and useful” said Gaines about her work at the Queens Community House.  “It is not the stipend pay. I’m not saying it doesn’t help, but it is being useful and contributing what you have and what you know and even what you’ve forgotten,” she said.

Pat Scott, a ReServist assigned to the nonprofit’s office, connected ReServe with Danields and assisted in pre-production setup.  Queens Public Television reaches up to 400,000 households.