SEAPAX-Sponsored Screening of A Towering Task
SEAPAX is thinking about hosting a virtual screening of Alana DeJoseph's film A Towering Task. The proposed dates are in mid-July, during the time when the PCC2020 Conference was going to be held.
If you could complete a short survey, this will help us decide how best to move forward with a potential screening. The survey will close on 6/7/2020.
We thank you in advance for your participation!
General and COVID-19 Specific Resources
Transitioning from Peace Corps to life at home can be challenging and stressful under the best circumstances, and being evacuated in the midst of a global-pandemic can present many other difficulties. The following resources were compiled to assist evacuated and returned Peace Corps Volunteers. We will be updating this page with additional information often.
National Peace Corps Association Resources for EvacueesWe will be updating this page with additional information often.
National Peace Corps Association Resources for Evacuees
Update on 2020 Continued Advocacy Progress: Efforts to Help Evacuated Peace Corps Volunteers | National Peace Corps Association has been working with Congress on a variety of Peace Corps initiatives. The announcement of the Phillips-Young House legislation is the latest in a long string of positive steps to support the Peace Corps and recent evacuees.
NPCA Global Reentry Program | Connect with RPCVs, steps to begin your transition, health & wellbeing, jobs & careers, webinars, scholarships, continued service opportunities.
Covid–19 Resources Washington State
Testing Centers for Covid-19 Covid testing is increasingly available in King County. Click here if you need access to the King County mobile testing sites or via King County Public Health if you are unable to get tested via your healthcare provider.
Covid-19 Financial Help in Washington State
Resources regarding unemployment, rent, housing, student loan deferment, utilities, food assistance, and more.
2-1-1 Washington State
Connects you to community resources statewide.
CDC COVID-19 Fact Sheet | What you should know about COVID-19 to protect yourself and others
WA Coronavirus Response – How You Can Help | Personal protective equipment, volunteering (emergency volunteer health practitioners), blood and plasma donation, food bank, and other
Emergency Housing Resources
Housing Resources through Hopelink in the Seattle-Bellevue Metro Area
King County Resources:
Eastside for All – COVID Resources Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland
United Way of King County Covid-19 Resources
Resources regarding unemployment, rent, housing, student loan deferment, utilities, food assistance, and more. *If you don’t find what you need here, please call 2-1-1 or text your zip code to 877-211-9274
Health and Wellness
Therapist/Counseling Resources available to RPCVs
Low cost or no cost. Evacuees are encouraged to contact their SEAPAX mentor (or a board member) for the contact information (for yourself or fellow RPCV) for confidential counseling via Teledoc. (With or without a 127A form.)
Online Resources Compiled by Health Resource Partners | Education, college students, mental health, meditation and yoga, fitness and dance, fun for kids, virtual tours and live theatre, and more
Career + Life Coaching for RPCVs – 1:1 or small group | Online resources for how to have a fulfilling life after Peace Corps, 1:1 and small group virtual coaching (limited space) (Life coach is a former PCV and offers online resources, virtual coaching for individuals, and virtual small group coaching.)
Employment Resources
Federal Government Covid19 Response Jobs
Most RPCVs w/ 2 full years of service and bachelors qualifies at GS7, if they have a masters then GS9.
Graduate Schools with Benefits for RPCVs
SIT Graduate Institute
We currently offer the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) Scholarship to returned Peace Corps volunteers (RPCVs), which has a benefit of 25% off tuition and can be used towards any of our master’s degree programs. We are now increasing this scholarship to 35% off tuition for spring returnees who needed to come home due to the coronavirus pandemic. The benefit is valid for two years, starting in fall 2020.
Syracuse University
The Syracuse University - Maxwell School is offering Peace Corps Volunteers who have been recalled due to the global health crisis caused by COVID-19 the opportunity to apply for 2020 admission to the #1-ranked MPA program and the MA in International Relations. Qualified students applying by May 15, 2020 will have the $75 application fee waived, the GRE requirement waived, and students accepted to the program will be awarded a 50% tuition scholarship. Email paia@maxwell.syr.edu with subject line “Peace Corps Offer” and we will send you the information on how to apply.
Clark University: https://gradstudies.clarku.edu/returned-peace-corps-volunteers
Clark University Graduate Studies is offering specific support for Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) who apply to Clark IDCE master's degree programs for Summer or Fall 2020 study, making it possible to get your advanced degree by 2021.
Clark University’s International Development, Community, and Environment Department (IDCE) offers degree programs specially designed to cross boundaries and address major social and environmental justice issues facing the world today. With a flexible, interdisciplinary, and practice-oriented curriculum, our programs allow you to pursue your passion by giving you the skills and experience to make an immediate impact by crafting solutions for the challenges facing our world.
Washington State Graduate School Information
Evan’s School of Public Policy and Governance- recruitment email evansadm@uw.edu
Would you like to get more involved with SEAPAX and with our local RPCV community? There is no better way to do this than to serve on our Board. The following are non-elected board positions that we would like to fill immediately:
Communications/Membership Chair
If you are interested or would like to learn more about any of these positions, please contact us at info@seapax.org.
New Book Published by Local RPCV (Susan E. Greisen, Liberia 1971-1973; Tonga 1973-1974)
In Search of Pink Flamingos is a story of a young woman who defies her parents’ demands to become a farmer's wife. At age nineteen, with a suitcase full of farm-smarts and a license to be a practical nurse, Susan joins the Peace Corps in Africa. She meets multiple challenges in her remote Liberian village and falls short of her unrealistic goals. An interracial romance further aggravates her parents who eventually disown her. When Susan finds the pink flamingos, she discovers what she had been searching for all along. Her journey is one of passion, strength and finding forgiveness and unconditional love.
More information of Susan’s memoir, how you can purchase the book, and contact information can be found at susangreisen.com.
SIT Graduate Institute
We currently offer the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) Scholarship to returned Peace Corps volunteers (RPCVs), which has a benefit of 25% off tuition and can be used towards any of our master’s degree programs. We are now increasing this scholarship to 35% off tuition for spring returnees who needed to come home due to the coronavirus pandemic. The benefit is valid for two years, starting in fall 2020.
Clark University
Clark University Graduate Studies is offering specific support for Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) who apply to Clark IDCE master's degree programs for Summer or Fall 2020 study, making it possible to get your advanced degree by 2021.
Please join us for another virtual book club on Google (fingers crossed the August meeting can be in person!)
Sunday, June 14 4-5 pm (NOTE: start time pushed back an hour but end time is the same)
What Truth Sounds Like: Robert F. Kennedy, James Baldwin, and Our Unfinished Conversations About Race in America - Michael Eric Dyson
Google link: meet.google.com/cjs-bviv-jvo
National Peace Corps Association has been working with Congress on a variety of Peace Corps initiatives. The announcement of the Phillips-Young House legislation is the latest in a long string of positive steps to support the Peace Corps and recent evacuees. Click here for the full announcement and list of 2020 Advocacy Progress for Evacuated Peace Corps Volunteers.
New Peace Corps legislation continues to emerge to help evacuated Volunteers, this time in the House of Representatives. On April 30, Representatives Dean Phillips (D-MN) and Don Young (R-AK) announced the “Utilizing and Supporting Evacuated Peace Corps Volunteers Act,” which addresses several issues to support present and future needs of evacuated Returned Peace Corps Volunteers. The legislation is also supported by Representatives John Garamendi (D-CA), Jared Huffman (D-CA), Betty McCollum (D-MN), and Jennifer Wexton (D-VA).
In a press release issued by Representative Phillips, National Peace Corps Association President Glenn Blumhorst notes that “At the heart of this legislation are initiatives to engage these volunteers in what they do best — opportunities to continue serving others, both here at home to contain and overcome the pandemic, and overseas as soon as conditions permit Peace Corps to redeploy.”
SEAPAX has recently partnered with the United Way of King County to help us expand our service opportunities. Please see below and use the links included to apply, sign-up or seek further information.
SEEKING 100 full-time AmeriCorps members to be a part of this United Way Anti-Hunger team, which will help families and youth access healthy meals when school isn’t in session. COVID-19 HungerCorps Member will be assigned to a food bank or meals site, where they will prepare and serve meals, pack boxes of food, engage with community members, and conduct grassroots community outreach to get the word out about available resources. They will deliver meals directly to families’ doors at an apartment complex, serve Grab and Go meals at a park or community center, or distribute groceries to families at a neighborhood food pantry.
START/END DATE: 5/26/2020 - 8/3/2020 (must apply by May 12th, 2020)
Application Link: https://www.uwkc.org/about-us/careers/americorps/summer-associate-vista/
SEAPAX has recently partnered with the United Way of King County to help us expand our service opportunities.
Please see below and use the links included to apply, sign-up or seek further information.
Support Food Banks with Packing, Meal Preparation and Home Delivery
Many food banks and meals programs need volunteers to help pack and distribute boxes of food. Opportunities include sorting and packing food in a warehouse setting, helping to prepare meals in a kitchen, and delivering food boxes directly to client’s homes.
To find food bank volunteer opportunities near you, visit United Way’s COVID-19 volunteer portal. New opportunities are being listed daily.
SEAPAX has recently partnered with the United Way of King County to help us expand our service opportunities. Please see below and use the links included to apply, sign-up or seek further information.
Distribute Meals to Kent School District Students
o Kent School District is in need of volunteers to help distribute meals to students. Volunteers will distribute boxes with a weeks’ worth of meals to families on bus routes and at community-based sites. Kent School District has a critical need for volunteers, to ensure that their meal sites can continue operation.
o Sign up here to help! Volunteers are needed on Mondays from 9:30 – 11:30 a.m. Volunteers should be willing to be outdoors during that 2-hour period, and should be comfortable being within 6 feet of an individual for less than thirty seconds per encounter.
SEAPAX has recently partnered with the United Way of King County to help us expand our service opportunities.
Please use the links included to apply, sign-up or seek further information.
Deliver Meals to Low-Income Seattle Families
o United Way of King County is partnering with Seattle Housing Authority to provide no-contact home delivery of meals to families at 10 low-income apartment complexes. Volunteers are needed to bring meals from the apartment complex office to individual units. Though volunteers will not have direct contact with community members, volunteers may be serving in groups with 2-3 other volunteers. Note that the operation of these sites has been approved by the State of Washington and Public Health, and procedures are in place to ensure the safety and well-being of all participants.
Sign up here to help! Volunteers are needed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
SEAPAX has recently partnered with the United Way of King County to help us expand our service opportunities.
Please use the links included to apply, sign-up or seek further information.
Phone Bank to Connect Community Members to Critical Resources
Help phone bank to connect your neighbors with community resources! United Way is reaching out to more than 60,000 people in King County to connect them with the critical resources they need during COVID-19. As a phone bank volunteer, you’ll provide community members with information about meals sites, food banks, public benefits programs (including SNAP/EBT and WIC), and the Washington State eviction moratorium.
Sign up here to help! This is a remote volunteer opportunity, and scheduling is flexible. Calls can be made anytime between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., on any day of the week, according to your schedule. For questions, please contact Natalie atnmarques@uwkc.org.
