Trainings Offered - Public Welcome

Call Life Works at 360-577-9093 to get a full list of classes.

Would you like to volunteer with a dynamic group of people that make a difference in Cowlitz County communities?

Volunteer with the Cowlitz AmeriCorps Network

The Cowlitz AmeriCorps Network has many opportunities to volunteer at projects throughout Cowlitz County.  If you would like to take part in a project, call Jason at (360) 577-9093.  No experience necessary!

The Arc of Washington State has collected a great group of videos on their website.

ARC of Washington State You Tube Videos
 

Hear directly from self advocates who live in the community as they speak up about institution living versus community living. 

Click here for a link to a variety of videos.

Community benefits from services of LifeWorks

April 29, 2009 Daily News Editorial

Life Works, one of the area’s largest nonprofit organizations, bills itself as “the best kept secret in Cowlitz County.” That may be true. The name is new and, technically, so is the organization.

But many in this area will recognize the three programs that merged this spring under the name Life Works. Residential Resources and ADC (Adult Developmental Center) Pathways to Employment have been serving developmentally disabled people in this community for at least 25 years. Cowlitz AmeriCorps Network has been in the county almost a decade. The new agency also encompasses the Farm Dog Bakery in Longview, where people learn needed job skills.

It shouldn’t be long before the name Life Works becomes as well-known as the nonprofits that formed it. Or more well-known. Life Works is a bigger nonprofit with a broader mission. The new agency has 267 employees and an annual payroll of more than $4 million. Residential Resources will continue its focus on finding homes for developmentally disabled and helping them learn life skills, such as money management. ADC Pathways to Employment helps disabled people find local jobs.( read more )

A place for Alex: Mom struggles to keep family together despite son's severe autism.

By Cathy Zimmerman Longview Daily News | Posted: Sunday, June 29, 2008 12:00 am

Young mom, boy on swing, little sister spying bugs in grass. It’s a picture so normal it barely snags a glance. The mother is Lacey Cairns, however, and normal is not in her vocabulary.

So explosive and aggressive is Cairns’s 9-year-old autistic son, Alex, that the Longview woman is begging the state to provide a separate place for him to live and 24-hour care by trained workers.

While she waits, Alex is being housed at Fircrest Residential School north of Seattle. Cairns, a 33-year-old divorced mother of four, goes up to see Alex every 10 days while her mother watches the other children.

A local house for the boy is close to reality, said Marti Johnson, the director of Residential Resources in Longview, an agency that coordinates housing for the developmentally disabled. ( read more )

AmeriCorps merits our legislators' backing

March 29, 2009 Daily News editorial

AmeriCorps, the successful national and community service program launched in 1994 with 20,000 volunteers, is on a fast legislative track for a dramatic growth spurt. The Senate voted 79-19 last week to more than triple the program’s size over the next eight years, from its current 75,000 volunteers to 250,000. The House is expected to take up the legislation as early as Monday, meaning the bill could be on the president’s desk by the end of the week.

Co-sponsored by Sens. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the legislation appears to have strong support on both sides of the aisle. AmeriCorps members earned that bipartisan support, not the program’s early backers or paid lobbyists. Their work with local charities in communities around the nation won over conservatives who were initially critical of government involvement with volunteer organizations.

Democrats and Republicans, alike, have come to view this national service program as a wise, cost-effective investment in the nation’s future. Steven Waldman, writing for the Wall Street Journal, noted that AmeriCorps is “often a way to increase a charity’s ability to use unpaid volunteers — a key reason it’s won over hardcore conservatives like Hatch …” Waldman adds, “Based on past patterns, the 250,000 AmeriCorps members will help recruit or manage seven million unpaid volunteers.” ( read more )