Last O.C. AmeriCorps Branch to Shut Down

As 12-year-old Regina Zodiacal hunches over her homework in the library, she is not only studying for a test on Egypt, but benefiting from the only surviving branch of President Clinton’s AmeriCorps program in Orange County.

Zodiacal, who enjoys the quiet of the library, is in a conference room turned study center staffed by AmeriCorps workers.

But by December, the AmeriCorps program that sends 45 tutors to the three Santa Ana libraries and six additional city locations will be out of money after three years of providing the service.

The city of Santa Ana, which administers the program, decided not to seek funding for 1998 because officials confronted an untenable amount of required paperwork, said library director Rob Richard, whose agency oversees the tutors.

“It became kind of crazy around here,” he said.

The city had only two months between the time it took over the program in October and the application deadline to submit progress reports about what it had accomplished and how much money it would need--all information the new administrators were struggling to learn themselves.

The federal government contributed slightly more than $395,000 to the library’s AmeriCorps program, called “Building Community,” for 1996-97, officials said. The library will contribute about $60,000 more in matching funds.

The money provides stipends for the tutors. The 42 part-time tutors receive $4,248 each for performing 900 hours of work, Richard said. The three full-time tutors are to receive about $8,500 for 1,700 hours of service.

Full-time tutors receive an additional $4,725 for college costs. Part-time tutors receive about half that amount.

The remaining money is spent on administrative and other costs, such as supplies.

Richard said he hopes to maintain some tutorial sites in 1998 by establishing programs that make use of college students or using library staff.

The library study centers, which predated the AmeriCorps program, were previously run by paid tutors and volunteers, but they have been more successful with AmeriCorps workers, Richard said.

Richard also plans to apply for funding to restart the AmeriCorps program in late 1998 or early 1999.

“We’ll piece something together,” he said.

President Clinton, who launched AmeriCorps during his first term in office, has called the program one of his proudest achievements. It was created as a domestic version of the Peace Corps--which was launched by Clinton’s boyhood idol, President John F. Kennedy.

AmeriCorps has come under criticism from some members of Congress as inefficient. But lawmakers budgeted $400 million for AmeriCorps this year, the same amount budgeted in 1996, said Bill Barrett, the AmeriCorps spokesman in Washington.

In Orange County, AmeriCorps has struggled to prove itself.

Santa Ana-based Catholic Charities had four AmeriCorps workers from October 1995 to August 1996 but dropped the program, in large part, because the paperwork was overwhelming, said administrator Kathy Lenney.

But Barrett said complaints about paperwork were not common at other AmeriCorps sites. “It’s necessary to document accomplishments to be sure funds are well-spent,” he added.

Besides the recent bout with paperwork, the library’s “Building Community” program has had a troubled, and unusual, history.

The program was created and administered by Santa Ana-based Civic Center Barrio Housing Corp., known for its work renovating low-income apartment buildings. But the program failed to reach as many people as expected during the first year primarily because of lack of community interest, although workers tried everything from health fairs to English classes.

A state agency, acting as a liaison between local sites and the federal government, then mandated that the Santa Ana AmeriCorps narrow its focus. During the second year, AmeriCorps workers concentrated on tutoring.

But near the end of the second year, Civic Center Barrio turned control over to the city.

Once the state mandated that AmeriCorps tutors work out of the more well-equipped schools and libraries, Civic Center Barrio felt it would not reach its core audience of low-income residents in the neighborhoods surrounding Civic Center Barrio apartments, said Civic Center director Helen Brown.

Brown said that the AmeriCorps program paid for itself, and that money was not the issue.

“We chose to give it up,” she said. But, she added, “It is a good program.”

Such a change was unusual, but still allowed by state officials, said Suzanne Fisher, spokeswoman for the California Commission on Improving Life through Service, which oversees the local AmeriCorps.

Fisher said her office does not have a final report on the effectiveness of the AmeriCorps program in the second year, in part because control switched from Civic Center Barrio to the city library system.

Local AmeriCorps officials have filed progress reports on the program, but said it is near impossible to measure the changes tutors may have brought to Santa Ana because many factors may contribute to a child’s grades. However, they believe the tutors have helped children stay in school and complete their homework.

The dozen or so students in the library study room one recent afternoon did not waver: They gave the program a thumbs up.

Many said their parents cannot afford computers like those in the library study room, and that their parents did not speak enough English to help with homework.

Zodiacal, who was studying for her test on Egypt, said her social studies grades have improved since she started attending the study center in January. She praised the way the tutors were able to help.

“They don’t give you the answers,” she said. “They make you reach through the book and realize, ‘Wow, I didn’t know that was there before.’ ”