Ohio Campus Compact AmeriCorps*VISTA strategically connects college resources with communities in need. A VISTA member placed at Hiram College has assisted in developing and expanding the college's community service programs and partnerships over the past year, including a mentoring program, an after-school tutoring program, and a new college access initiative. These efforts have engaged over 150 students providing nearly 500 hours of service benefiting around 40 local youth while strengthening relationships between the college and community organizations. Continued partnership opportunities around education and college access exist between Hiram College and local centers.

1. Engaging campuses in service to the community.
OCC VISTA Impact Report: Hiram College
Ohio Campus Compact AmeriCorps*VISTA strategically connects college resources with
communities in need. Corps members gain valuable experience and educational awards.
Campuses expand their civic outreach. And community partners receive critical support.
Poverty Alleviation Focus Area: College Access
HISTORY & BACKGROUND For more information contact:
Portage County is a small, largely rural county VISTA Corps member: Richard Shafranek
in northeast Ohio. In terms of area, the county (440) 321-1652 • shafranekrm@hiram.edu
is one of Ohio’s largest. For this reason, Site Supervisor: Jason Bricker-Thompson
among others, Portage County faces unique (330) 569-6094 • brickerja@hiram.edu
challenges. Geographically dispersed residents Ohio Campus Compact VISTA Sr. Program Director:
may lack access to distant social or welfare Lesha Farias (740) 587-8571 • lesha.farias@gmail.com
services, and the loss of manufacturing and www.ohiocampuscompact.org
industry has hit some parts of the county hard.
Today, there exist intense concentrations of
poverty in places like Windham and Ravenna.
Hiram College, over the years, has played an
important role in seeking to address poverty in
Portage County, and has initiated a variety of
programs too numerous to enumerate here.
Hiram, notably, has long found pride in its
diversity and engagement of first-generation
college students. As an institution of higher
learning, college access is an important aspect
of Hiram’s approach to poverty in Portage
County.
Today, a confluence of factors have made the
time ripe for Hiram to forge new community Under the leadership of Ohio Campus Compact
partnerships designed to tackle college access VISTA Richard Shafranek, Hiram students and
in Portage County. Hiram’s community service office have
maintained key partnerships with community
agencies and taken steps to develop new
programs, including a mentoring program for at-
risk girls, an after-school tutoring program at a
CAMPUS IMPACT local community center, and a college access
Hiram College has hosted VISTA members for three
consecutive years, and most of the college’s current program targeting area middle school students.
civic engagement-related programs are the result of
the work of Director of Civic Engagement Jason
Bricker-Thompson and the VISTAs he has supervised.

2. In the past year, Ohio Campus Compact VISTA Richard Shafranek has
assisted with the development and expansion of Hiram’s community The VISTA Impact
service office. Relevant efforts have included a website revamp and the by the numbers:
integration of social media; a substantial strategic planning process; the
recruitment of a student worker to help coordinate and publicize Students engaged ~157
community service efforts; a community service newsletter; and a
campus poverty simulation that involved nearly 100 students and Spring service hours ~471
multiple staff and faculty. Area youth served ~40
Richard has also worked to maintain and expand Hiram’s education Grant money $5,593
and college access-related initiatives. Nearly two dozen Hiram tutors (pending)
served local youth at the James A. Garfield Elementary School, and
students volunteered their time to help develop new programs at two
local community centers. In the spring semester alone, VISTA Richard
Shafranek helped to coordinate 73 students, who performed a total
471 hours of service.
COMMUNITY IMPACT About Ohio Campus Compact
Over the past several years, a number of grassroots anti-poverty AmeriCorps*VISTA
initiatives have cropped up in Portage County, such as the King-
Kennedy Community Center in Ravenna, Ohio, and the Renaissance Ohio Campus Compact is a statewide nonprofit
Family Center in Windham, Ohio. It is vital that Hiram College coalition of colleges and university presidents and
continues to support community efforts such as these. their campuses working to promote the civic
purposes of higher education. Ohio Campus
Progress has been made to this end. VISTA Richard Shafranek Compact provides resources, services &
connected members of a Hiram sorority to Ravenna’s King-Kennedy partnerships to help Ohio campuses deepen their
Community Center, where they helped to develop a mentoring ability to educate students for civic and social
program aimed at at-risk girls. Members of the Hiram Education Club responsibility and to improve community life.
volunteered its time to help establish an after-school tutoring program
at the Renaissance Family Center. Richard Shafranek initiated contact AmeriCorps*VISTA is the national service program
with the Portage County College Access Network, with the aid of designed specifically to fight poverty. Founded as
whom he wrote a sub-grant to establish a college access program in an Volunteers in Service to America in 1965 and
incorporated into the AmeriCorps network of
area middle school.
programs in 1993, VISTA has been on the front
lines in the fight against poverty in America for
KEEPING THE PARTNERSHIP STRONG: OPPORTUNITIES FOR more than 40 years.
THE FUTURE
The Ohio Campus Compact AmeriCorps*
This past year has seen the groundwork laid for a variety of programs. VISTA Program places and supports VISTAs who
Old partnerships have been strengthened, and new ones have begun to create and expand programs designed to bring
develop. In particular, there are important opportunities for Hiram at individuals and communities out of poverty. VISTAs
Ravenna’s King-Kennedy Center, Windham’s Renaissance Family serve in the poorest areas of their communities to
tackle poverty-related problems such as hunger and
Center, and each of the county’s public school districts. Given the
homelessness, financial literacy, veteran student
common thread of Hiram’s involvement at these sites – education – it
services, public health and college access. More
seems potentially beneficial for the college’s community service office
information at: www.ohiocampuscompact.org
to weave these disparate initiatives into a broader college access-
oriented array of programs.