NCLR AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer Chloe Kremidas made the most of her service time. Chloe completed her year of service with the Latin American Youth Center (LAYC) in Washington, DC in January 2005. During her year of service she made a major impact serving the Latino community of Columbia Heights, and helped LAYC to gain new funding and strengthen its Youth Opportunities (YO) program significantly.

Most notably, Chloe spearheaded an effort to incorporate the YO program into PEPNet, a system designed to identify and promote what works in youth employment and development that is administered by the National Youth Employment Coalition. PEPNet gives annual awards to organizations that display exemplary programming, offering them national recognition. Chloe researched the history of the PEPNet Awards and completed a lengthy application on behalf of LAYC’s YO program. In part due to Chloe’s strong efforts, LAYC has been recognized as a PEPNet Builder, the first step toward completing the award program. This distinction has paved the way for LAYC to become incorporated into the National Youth Employment Coalition network, giving them greater access to valuable resources and partnerships.

The mission of YO is to help youth find jobs and achieve self-sufficiency. YO provides job-readiness training (GED, Microsoft Office, HTML, and web design classes) and life skills training. The program targets youth ages 14-21 in select neighborhoods of Washington, DC. The reach of YO is constantly expanding based in part on the help of Chloe’s work as a VISTA volunteer.

Last year YouthBuild and YO staff from LAYC attended the Campaign for Youth Advocacy Day on September 15, 2004, sponsored by the National Youth Employment Coalition. The event, co-hosted by YouthBuild USA and the National Youth Empowerment Coalition, allowed youth to talk to important members of both the John Kerry for President Campaign and the George Bush Reelection Campaign about each candidate’s positions coming into the November 2 presidential election. Tanya Esparza, an NCLR AmeriCorps member working with LAYC’s YO program, was chosen to participate on a seven-member panel that asked chairs from each campaign questions relating to youth issues.

Tanya spoke in front of a crowd of more than 350 people. She shared her concerns with former New Hampshire Governor Jeanne Shaheen, national chair of the Kerry-Edwards campaign, and former Montana Governor Mark Racicot, national chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign. Although she was nervous, Tanya says she came away from the event feeling confident and satisfied that she had represented the Latino community well.