It was with real dismay that I read about the gutting of AmeriCorps on Thursday.
The civil service program was created in 1993 as a domestic version of the Peace Corps. AmeriCorps volunteers serve for a year in a variety of different programs. They receive a stipend, housing and food allowance, and a grant towards higher education.
I served as a Literacy AmeriCorps volunteer in Seattle for a year after I graduated college. I was a GED tutor at the Orion Center, a drop-in center for homeless and runaway youth ages 12-24.
I loved the work. It was challenging, rewarding, and incredibly insightful.
The respect I gained for mental health counselors, social workers, youth advocates — for those who work with the most vulnerable in our society — is immense.
As an AmeriCorps volunteer, I reported my hours every two weeks, filed quarterly reports, had on-site and program supervisors, and documented almost everything.
I still remember my students’ names. I was working with students who slept on the streets, who fled abusive homes, who had nowhere else to go. I hear from them every now and again. This was over 15 years ago.
SO TO READ the Department of Government Efficiency has placed 75% of AmeriCorp’s National Civilian Community Corps staff on leave, when they and its volunteers are dedicated to responding to national disasters, wildfire prevention and environmental conservation — I am left dumbfounded.
What’s the goal, again?
AmeriCorps isn’t the best thing in the world. Volunteers aren’t miracle workers. They don’t walk on water. But their work merits support.
How have we lost sight of that?
