My Year of Service

Hi, there. My name is Andrea and I am volunteering full-time for a year with a Volunteers in Service to America, a federal service program,  at a youth development nonprofit in  Baltimore County, Maryland. The goal of the project is to expand out of school opportunities for young people in underserved neighborhoods near the city. Structured, high-quality afterschool programs have been proven to keep children safe, improve academic performance and decrease destructive behaviors for children and youth. Unfortunately, these programs are often beyond the reach of many families and I am working to change that.  I wanted to give back to my country which has been so good to me and I am passionate about equitable educational opportunities for all young people. I am paid a small living stipend and I have several side jobs tutoring students to support my service year. However, in my fourth month of service, just as my project was recruiting volunteers and beginning to bear fruit, the transmission in my car, which is 16 years old and has 200,000 miles on it, died on me. There's no public transportation that takes me to my service site and I can't get to my evening and weekend jobs to support my service project.

Would you be willing to help me fund reliable transportation to help me finish my service year for this worthwhile cause? Thank you so much and God bless,
Andrea Miotto