Action Resources International

See Schedule OAction Resources International (ARI) continues to serve as the sponsoring organization for Foster Grandparents of the Wyoming Rockies (FGP), which currently operates in seven Wyoming counties covering an area of just under 36,000 square miles: Albany, Carbon, Sweetwater, Uinta, Lincoln, Sheridan and Johnson. Focus continues in the area of community strengthening activities of K-12 success and school readiness, with a small percentage of complementary activities in child safety, welfare and health. ARI provides infrastructure support and program management oversight including a community-led advisory council; a home base, office space and materials support; and fiscal, personnel and programmatic responsibility for the program. Over 40 FGP volunteers continue to serve this program across the state. Their contributions to the community helped southeast Wyoming prevail over the pandemic and are now poised to help with the remaining long-term social, health and financial impact.The primary focus area of this program is education. It measurably contributes to improved educational outcomes for economically-disadvantaged children, and for children with special and/or exceptional needs. Wyoming is made up of predominantly rural mountain communities that are geographically isolated, location and climate challenged, facing a variety of challenges that affect educational success, while being populated by people who come from varied life experiences that are anchored in a local culture of self-sufficiency, resilience and a great capacity for developing and implementing solutions to complex problems. The cost of living in the project's seven county service areas is high, and the wages available to most community members are low; chronic health challenges, poverty and persistent food insecurity are significant. The geography of Wyoming is a key factor in the story and challenge of daily life here. Wyoming is the tenth largest state by land size, yet has the second lowest population density. The population of the state has declined every year since the economic downturn started a few years ago. Just over 586,000 people lived in the state in 2016; today, there are just under 580,000 residents in a geographic area that could contain all the states of New England and then some. Additionally, Wyoming has an economy which closely follows a boom-and-bust cycle typical where extractive energy resources are key to state revenue. Foster Grandparents of the Wyoming Rockies' 7 counties are divided into 3 distinct service areas: Laramie and Sheridan, for which there is a Project Coordinator each, and the Western Wyoming area which is served long distance. The program as a whole is well positioned to continue to move forward and continue to grow. As a leader in establishing and facilitating partnerships for the advancement of community strengthening and the reduction of educational, social and health disparities, ARI will continue to meet priority work-plan directed outputs and resulting outcomes by all FGP volunteers. ARI will also aid the program staff and coordinators in identifying successes, barriers and opportunities for not only retaining FGP volunteers, but increasing service-learning opportunities for current volunteers and outreach to increase diversity among staff, volunteers and program recipients. ARI provides its own network of collaboration and communication with Wyoming's elder population. In Albany County, ARI's flagship food security program, Feeding Laramie Valley (FLV), works extensively with community elders as advisors, volunteers and program service recipients. Since 2011, FLV has provided locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables every week to a large number of Foster Grandparents through its Shares program, at no charge. FGWR remains committed to the goal of developing and implementing training and outreach that is more inclusive of minority and traditionally disenfranchised populations, and pays careful attention to proactive involvement of people of color; members of the LGBTQ community; immigrant populations and people for whom English is a second language; people living with disabilities and chronic health issues; veterans and their families. ARI and its food security program Feeding Laramie Valley have had great success in promoting this philosophical commitment and translating that into practice.

See Schedule OAs always, work on program development for the 2024 ARI AmeriCorps VISTA Intermediary Program resulted in continued advancement in sustainable direct service for organizations seeking to increase community based and led health and wellness efforts.With a special emphasis on rural, frontier, and underserved communities, ARI's AmeriCorps VISTA program provides individualized services to grassroots and community-based organizations, assisting them with achieving short and long-term objectives leading to sustainable programs within the organization and in benefit to their community.Twelve sites of greatly diverse service offerings throughout Wyoming were served by one or more AmeriCorps VISTA members throughout 2024: 4H of Washakie, Cheyenne Foster Closet, Compass Center for Families, Laramie Downtown Clinic, Laramie Foster Closet, Laramie Interfaith Good Samaritan, Salvation Army, Laramie United Way, Worland Community Garden, and Wyoming Department of Health, The Center for Popular Research, Wind River Reservation; Wind River Food Sovereignty, Wind River Reservation.Since its inception as an AmeriCorps VISTA program in 2017, Action Resources International has gained a great deal of experience and many accomplishments for both AmeriCorps VISTA members and the communities being served. ARI was successful in helping to establish numerous new program sites, and in the process to increase valuable partnership-building between ARI and those sites, including supervision and guidance on AmeriCorps VISTA member recruitment, training and retention. Member service under this program in 2024 included: placement and management of 12 AmeriCorps VISTA members on 12 sites. Each AmeriCorps VISTA member assignment is uniquely designed to meet the needs of the site where placement is being offered, guided by MOUs that are developed together by the site and the ARI AmeriCorps VISTA Program director, with an eye toward appropriateness and feasibility. The general goals and objectives covered by these individual documents and guiding principles include providing direct service to people living with health challenges including housing, personal safety, general health, poverty and food insecurity, in particular people facing challenges noted in the overarching project goals of each member site, and with local community health and food system organizations, assess influence of constituent voice and leadership on program development, implementation & evaluation; facilitate the development of procedures, outreach and methods for increasing participant involvement at all program levels, and sustainable methods of supporting those programs.