New Hampshire Students Offer Time During Giving Tuesday Effort

CONCORD, NH — Students involved with Granite State Independent Living programs are spending some Tuesdays in November helping others at a number of locations in New Hampshire, including Concord and Nashua.

The students are a part of Project IMPACCT (Inspiring the Mastery of Postsecondary Achievement in College) as well as Earn & Learn. IMPACCT is a partnership of New Hampshire Vocational Rehabilitation, GSIL, and high schools throughout the state. The program helps students with disabilities learn skills and become part of the workforce as they navigate from high school graduates to employment and career training or post-secondary education.

On Monday, the students were in the North County working at two locations, with a master gardener, winterizing beds and removing invasive plant species at the Sacred Heart Convent. The students also ground kiln shelves as well as studio maintenance at the Little Studio School.

Earn & Learn students in Manchester created cards for veterans on Monday and also worked on crafts that will be donated to The Caregivers, a community partner of the program. The Manchester students will also be writing “thank you” notes to health care workers at Dartmouth-Hitchcock in Lebanon.

The week of Thanksgiving, students in Concord and Nashua will be volunteering, too.

On Nov. 22 and Nov. 23, IMPACCT students in Nashua will be volunteering at the Nashua Soup Kitchen. They will also be making Christmas ornaments for a local nursing home. On Nov. 23, IMPACCT students in Concord will be preparing Thanksgiving meals for the homeless at EJ’s on Main.

“Our students are remarkable and we are deeply touched to see their youthful enthusiasm for various community projects all around the state,” Deborah Ritcey, the CEO of GSIL, said. “From serving holiday meals to community clean-up, it’s a great way to showcase the kindness and generosity of these young people. They contribute every single day in some way.”

In April, Project IMPACCT received $2.2 million in federal money to fund the program through September 2023. In 2018, the program received $1.23 million via another federal grant after funding for the program was cut due to overspending by vocational rehabilitation, dating back to 2012, that was discovered during an audit in 2018. Fifteen percent of all federal money received by vocational rehabilitation is required to go toward pre-employment transition services like IMPACCT. The program first started in New Hampshire in 2016 and more than 700 students have participated in the program.

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