Thursday, July 2, 2009 | 2:06 a.m.
A nonprofit organization known as Nevada Volunteers has played a major role in administering AmeriCorps programs and recruiting volunteers to help serve homeless veterans, provide food and clothing to the needy, tutor disadvantaged children and assist communities in response to natural disasters.
Since it was formed 11 years ago under its previous name, the Nevada Commission for National and Community Service, Nevada Volunteers has benefitted from the participation of more than 2,000 members — mostly college-age students paid minimum wage. Add thousands of volunteers to the mix and the effect on social services has been substantial.
In 2007 and 2008 combined, the organization provided support to 721 homeless veterans, giving most of them the ability to maintain a stable place of residence. What relatively little money the group has had at its disposal has been well spent and has improved the lives of tens of thousands of Nevadans.
That is why it is a poor reflection on the state that Nevada Volunteers is now scrambling for its survival because Gov. Jim Gibbons and the Nevada Legislature dropped the ball.
As the Associated Press reported Monday, Gibbons in his proposed state budget for the next two years didn’t provide any of the $365,000 the group sought to qualify for $7.5 million in federal grants. (It is ironic that Dawn Gibbons, the governor’s estranged wife, was honorary chairwoman of the state commission in 2007 when she announced the name change to Nevada Volunteers and a broadening of its mission.) The Legislature could have corrected the governor’s budgetary gaffe but failed to do so, allowing a bill that would have provided state money to die in the Senate.
If the organization doesn’t come up with money soon from state or private sources, Nevada will become the first state to lose its federal funding for AmeriCorps programs, Nevada Volunteers CEO Shawn Lecker-Pomaville said.
How pathetic.
This is yet another example of failed leadership in Carson City.
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