UNITE Service Corps (AmeriCorps)

Celebrating our 16th year

UNITE will engage 62 Kentucky AmeriCorps members during the 2023-24 school year. These members will serve 59 elementary schools in 22 school systems across 21 counties within its service region. In addition, Kentucky AmeriCorps members will serve as interns in summer 2024.

Kentucky AmeriCorps members serving with UNITE provide math tutoring and drug prevention education to elementary school students using the “Too Good for Drugs” curricula.

The “Too Good for Drugs” program has been found to be effective in decreasing a youth’s intention to use alcohol or other drugs. The lessons introduce and develop social and emotional skills for making healthy choices, building positive friendships, developing self-efficacy, communicating effectively, and resisting peer pressure and influence.

In addition, AmeriCorps members serving with UNITE volunteer as sponsors for anti-drug UNITE Clubs in their schools and recruit volunteers for school-based prevention programs.

Success in the Classroom

Success of the UNITE AmeriCorps initiative is determined through pre- and post-test surveys evaluated by the University of Kentucky. But UNITE Service Corps members are also actively involved in helping their schools and communities.

2022-23 End-of-Year Celebration

The UNITE Service Corps (AmeriCorps) program celebrated the end of another school year at the Mountain Arts Center in Prestonsburg on Friday, June 2. Special guest speakers for the event included Tiffany Mullins and her son, Cameron Worrix, Serve Kentucky Program Officer Andrew Stith, and UNITE Deputy Director Tom Vicini. A total of 58 members served elementary schools across southern and eastern Kentucky during the 2022-23 school year.

A National Model

UNITE first began working with the Kentucky AmeriCorps program in May 2006 through a partnership with Eastern Kentucky University. Through this partnership, UNITE coordinated drug education programs and teacher trainings throughout the Fifth Congressional District for the 2006-07 and 2007-08 school years. UNITE received a grant to form its own “UNITE Service Corps” AmeriCorps initiative during the 2008-09 school year with 10 AmeriCorps members.

The UNITE initiative quickly expanded and was heralded “as a model to other rural counties across the country” in October 2012 by the head of the former Corporation for National and Community Service, now known simply as AmeriCorps.

UNITE Service Corps Contacts

Crystal Smallwood
USC Director

csmallwood@OperationUNITE.org
606-369-4409

Marionette Little
USC Program Staff Assistant

mlittle@OperationUNITE.org
606-234-5341

What is AmeriCorps?

In the fall of 2020, the federal agency responsible for AmeriCorps and Senior Corps programs, the Corporation for National and Community Service, officially became “AmeriCorps” in the first major update to the agency’s identity in a quarter century. As part of this rebranding initiative, all national service programs are united under a unified AmeriCorps identity and promoted under the AmeriCorps or AmeriCorps Seniors banner. This effort streamlines opportunities to serve for all Americans, at a time when their help is needed most.