COMMUNITY SERVICE PROGRAM TO BEGIN

A national community service program -- President Clinton's vision of a domestic Peace Corps -- is taking shape locally through the efforts of Southeast Missouri State University officials and other civic leaders.

"Quite honestly, this country wouldn't be what it is today if we didn't have men and women who over the last several hundred years didn't volunteer in the community," said SueAnn Strom, Southeast's vice president of student affairs.

"I think what Clinton was hoping to do was really encourage people to rethink their priorities," she said.

Strom said it makes sense for the university to be involved because Southeast students will be among those benefiting from the program. Students, she said, can do community service work and also receive money toward their education.

Congress adopted a $300 million national service program last summer. The act, signed into law on Sept. 21, sets up the Corporation for National and Community Service.

The National Service Trust Act combines educational incentives with community service. Workers will receive $7,400 a year in wages plus health insurance. For each year of service, the government will give a worker $4,725 to attend college or a post-secondary vocational school. Participation is limited to two years.

The act charged each state with establishing a state commission on community service, said Matt Benton, community service coordinator and an aide to Missouri Lt. Gov. Roger Wilson.

Wilson has been the point man in Gov. Mel Carnahan's efforts to start the program in Missouri. He has been invited to attend a half-day meeting at the university March 3 to discuss the program. State Rep. Mary Kasten, R-Cape Girardeau, is also expected to participate, said Strom.

She said educators and representatives of state and public agencies and charitable groups from the Southeast Missouri region will be invited to the meeting.

Benton said the state stands to get funding for about 100 to 150 participants in the first year. Nationally, the program is expected to fund 20,000 workers for various community service efforts.

"The amount of money we will be getting from the federal government is a nice chunk, we think," said Benton.

The state is getting an administrative grant of $215,000 to start the program.

Funding for community service work in Missouri is expected to total more than $1 million, he said.

Last month Carnahan appointed members to the state's new Community Service Commission. Benton said the governor has appointed 22 people to the commission.

Its members include Dunklin County Sheriff Jim Elliot and Karla Cooper, coordinator of Teen Spirals, a youth program in Hayti.

Under the law, state commission members must include labor, business and education leaders.

"Once the state commission has formed itself, it must come up with a three-year plan for volunteerism in the state," he said.

The plan must list the state's needs and priorities and how to sustain the various programs once the funding ends.

"We don't want this to be another welfare type program," said Benton.

Funding decisions will rest with the state commission and Washington, he said. Not all the funding comes from Washington. The state has to come up with 25 percent in matching funding, either in cash or services, he said.

"The state gets a portion of money to dole out based on the population of the state, but the state commission also gets to send in a couple of programs they think are really exemplary, and they compete on a national level for additional funding," explained Benton.

"So a program in Cape Girardeau might be competing with a program in Newport, Maine."

Missouri, based on its population, stands to receive funding for 76 workers. It's estimated it could receive funding for another 25 to 75 community service workers directly from the national corporation.

Participants must have graduated from high school or have their GEDs. A full-time participant must compete 1,700 hours of community service work in a year.

The state commission must submit its three-year application to the national corporation by June 15, said Benton.

"By late summer or early fall, the placements will start to occur ... and the money will start to flow," he said.

"Our hope is to spread them (the funded workers) out across the state," he explained.

As part of the planning process, Missouri has been organized into five regions.

The Southeast region is a large one. "Our line is from Crawford and Washington and St. Francois and Ste. Genevieve counties on down," said Benton. "It goes over to the western side of Phelps County and runs on down to Oregon, and all the way over to the river."

Benton said he began working with Strom and other officials at the Cape Girardeau school last September.

A regional planning group called Southeast Missouri Partners for National and Community Service has been formed. The group is spearheading the meeting, which will be held March 3 in Cape Girardeau.

The planning group includes, among others, the state commission's Cooper and the university's Patricia Volp, assistant vice president for student development and interim director of the University Center.