An Important Guest Blog on the Americorps Program

Anna Walker is a first year law student at the University of Michigan Law School. Last year she served as an Americorps VISTA with Pathways PA and United Way of Southeast Delaware County. Before her year with AmeriCorps, she attended Temple University and graduated with a BA in Political Science and Economics.

It upsets and troubles me that the House last Friday approved a Federal Budget that abjectly ignores the needs of struggling families across the country. Included in the list of education and social service programs to be cut by the $61-billion-budget-purge are all AmeriCorps programs including 75,000 AmeriCorps services positions nationwide.

Without AmeriCorps, communities across the country will become victims of an overwhelming loss of resources and assistance, such as education, job development, financial literacy classes, free tax preparation, heat and utility aid, health care, childcare, food support, housing assistance, and much more. In Pennsylvania alone, there are 3,700 AmeriCorps volunteers currently working to improve the lives of residents and communities across the commonwealth.

As a former AmeriCorps volunteer, I am one of more than 34,000 Pennsylvania residents who have served more than 43 million hours in AmeriCorps programs since AmeriCorps’ foundation in 1994. AmeriCorps programs, which include AmeriCorps VISTA and AmeriCorps NCCC (N-triple-C), attract men and women between the ages of 18 and 24 to service positions aimed at empowering individuals and lifting communities out of poverty. In exchange, AmeriCorps volunteers receive a small living allowance, food stamps, and an education award.

During my VISTA year, I served the Greater Philadelphia area through my work with PathWays PA and the United Way of Southeast Delaware County. I worked as a tax coordinator and a tax preparer, as an advocate for families and for low-income individuals, as a community builder and a resource developer, as a financial educator and a grant writer, as a community representative and a community participant, as a reporter and a listener, as a social networker, and finally, as friend and a coworker.

I urge every employee, board member, and beneficiary of an organization that has ever hosted an AmeriCorps volunteer like me to ask your representatives to think twice about eliminating such an important service for individuals and communities our country. Not only do AmeriCorps programs ensure sustainable service programs, but they also perpetuate the spirit of service among young leaders of our Nation. Destroying such a crucial and influential program will not only hurt Americans today, but also weaken our nation in the future. Please act now. Tell Congress to save AmeriCorps.

For more information on Americorps please visit the Americorps site: http://www.americorps.gov/