A group of 12 young adults just arrived in Seattle to serve with United Way of King County’s Free Tax Campaign.

The group, called Gold One, is an AmeriCorps NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps) team comprised of 12 young adults between the ages of 18 to 24 each dedicating 10 months of community service across the country. The team’s last project was in the San Francisco area. During their time in California, the team planted over 11,000 native species and transplanted 3,000 native seedlings to assist in the Hamilton Wetlands Restoration Project which is led by the Army Corps of Engineers and the California Coastal Conservancy.

In mid-January the team has joined United Way of King County’s efforts to impact the financial stability across the county through their work with the Free Tax Campaign through April 20^th, 2015. The team has been prepared with three days of training in advanced tax returns, client intake, benefits referrals and community outreach. The team has evenly divided into 2 groups to service a total of 4 different locations in Seattle: YWCA Greenbridge, SeaTac Angle Lake Resource Center, Renton Salvation Army, and Burien Goodwill.

In addition to working at the tax sites, members will be doing weekly outreach with the community to bring more awareness about United Way’s campaign and all the benefits offered. The goal of the AmeriCorps team is to file at least 2,350 tax returns during the 2015 tax season. So far the team has filed over 150 returns and has done outreach in 8 different communities. The AmeriCorps team is very excited to assist United Way of King County in helping as many clients as possible get the most out of their tax returns!

Meet the three authors of this post:

Welcome Regina!

19 years old from Wisconsin

Goal for this project: To learn more about the community that we are serving in Seattle.

Meet Josh!

24 years old from North Carolina

Goal for this project: To learn to exercise my  mind and my ability to focus while doing office work.

Say hello to Kesley!

22 years old from Minnesota

Goal for this project: To make a very tangible impact in the lives of those who are less fortunate.