The experience of providing help to others is often times one that gives more to the person providing the help than to those who receive it.

This is the observation of the AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers In Service To America) team that runs STEP (Schools Teaming with Empowered Parents). VISTA leader Elois Cobb and VISTA STEP coordinators Rose Harris and Melvene Dennis are mobilizing the expertise they gained during their careers to help empower parents to provide their children with the skills necessary to succeed in school.

“It is unreal how many people are leaving high school uneducated and need to get a General Educational Development degree,” Cobb said. “We try to encourage every student to stay in high school and to graduate, but those who can’t, we try to push them forward to get their GED and move on to further their education past that.”

STEP serves seven counties in Middle Georgia, including Baldwin, Bibb, Crawford, Jones, Putnam, Monroe and Twiggs. The program’s goals are to provide educational resources to parents who did not graduate high school to help them get GED accreditation and to help parents who did graduate to remediate their skills and seek post-secondary education.

STEP connects learners with volunteers who provide tutoring in different subject matter. But STEP also acts as a resource center to connect people with the services they need.

“If people need food we can refer them to food banks or the Department of Family and Childrens Services. If we notice the children are in need of medical attention, we can refer them to health agencies,” Cobb said.

STEP also runs a clothing bank to help Baldwin residents redistribute surplus clothing to those who need it around the county.

“When I retired as a nurse, I saw [a VISTA volunteer experience] as a continuation of my calling from God to help people,” Dennis said. “That’s what Christ did when he was on Earth, he served people.”

But STEP could not be in that business without the help of others. The Central Georgia Technical College Adult Education Program and Dean of Instructions Sallie Devero sponsors the program. STEP also received an in-kind donation of office space from the Milledgeville Housing Authority. But most of all, STEP depends on the service of local volunteers who help tutor the program’s clients and assist in other administrative and office roles.

As AmeriCorps VISTA service is finite, part of STEP’s mandate is to lay the groundwork for the program to be self-sustaining after the VISTA member’s service is over. In that capacity, STEP formed the Bridges Association, which operates in each of the counties serviced by STEP. The Bridges Association trains volunteers to do the coordinating duties done by STEP’s VISTA staff. They meet monthly and also circulate a newsletter to association members. Through Bridges Association, the VISTAs will see their work carried on in the community.

“The reward is seeing people finally get [the education] they’ve been working for,” Harris said. “There are no words for it.”