It is hard to believe that a mere three years have passed since President Barack Obama signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act. It was a great moment:  we anticipated that AmeriCorps would be on a record pace for expansion, the community volunteering infrastructure across the nation would be bolstered and opportunities to serve would abound.

Three years later, the demand to serve is at an all-time high but the great vision of the Serve America Act is yet to be realized. This year, the Corporation for National and Community Service had 582,000 applications for 82,000 AmeriCorps slots. This is up 56,000 from the previous year's applications, leaving more than one million people without a national service position over the past two years. AmeriCorps has seen stagnation, not growth, while programs like the Volunteer Generation Fund have been more directly threatened.

We need to preserve the bipartisan cooperation that led to the signing of the Serve America Act. We need our leaders to continue to provide funding for these vital programs and offer opportunities for future generations to serve our communities.

What can we do?

Take a moment to tell your personal story of service in a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. By sharing your AmeriCorps story, you can help articulate how these are integral and impactful pipelines for thousands of Americans of all ages to be a part of real and sustainable change. The same change envisioned in the 2009 Serve America Act.

Let's recapture that vision.

To learn more, please visit AmeriCorps Alums for ways you can help share your voice for service.