Change Notes: AmeriCorps Week Showcases Impact of Service
Friends,
This year’s National AmeriCorps Week, May 14 – 21, is a particularly important opportunity to elevate the value and importance of AmeriCorps and national service. In light of recent budget debates in Congress and the threatened elimination of funds for the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) in 2012, AmeriCorps Week showcases the extraordinary impact of national service members every day across our nation.
AmeriCorps Week shines a light on the more than 80,000 members currently serving in communities across the country – individuals who are effectively serving and meeting critical needs in our country’s communities. We see this impact front and center in our HandsOn Network where, over the last 12 months, HandsOn Networks’ AmeriCorps members have recruited and mobilized more than 53,900 volunteers in more than 1,200 service projects impacting more than 70,000 citizens.
In addition to 80,000 current members, more than 600,000 have joined AmeriCorps Alums, a division of Points of Light Institute, and have given more than 860 million hours in service since 1994. We believe in the leadership potential of these individuals and have supported them both as an organization and a strategy to continue to create change. We have 26 chapters of AmeriCorps Alums throughout the country actively engaging thousands during AmeriCorps Week in service projects, networking events and thought leadership with elected officials.
The value of AmeriCorps service has been felt in communities both large and small – at Points of Light Institute affiliates, managing volunteers in disaster relief efforts and at the countless organizations that we partner with. Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter has said he believes the future of his city depends on citizens rolling up their sleeves and working together to tackle complicated challenges – and AmeriCorps Alums have played a major role.
“AmeriCorps Alums working in city government and nonprofit organizations throughout Philadelphia bring a level of experience and commitment to service that directly impacts our collective capacity to engage every day citizens in solving problems and strengthening their communities,” said Mayor Nutter.
The National League of Cities highlighted the impact of AmeriCorps volunteers in an editorial by AmeriCorps Alums Executive Director Ben Duda this week. The article reaches 30,000 mayors, city council members, city managers, police and fire chiefs, public works directors and others who make decisions about local operations. It is important that these individuals understand the valuable impact of service and how they can engage both current AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps Alums to address local challenges and create change.
To share best practices, AmeriCorps Alums has convened a national training and professional development webinar called “How to Translate Your AmeriCorps Experience into Future Leadership Opportunities” on May 18 at 12 p.m. EST. This session will showcase the transformational force of service and how it can make an impact in solving our country’s challenging issues.
To register for the webinar or get engaged with your local AmeriCorps Alums, please visit www.AmeriCorpsAlums.org. National service has a critical role to play in our country as we face tough challenges and restricted funds. At Points of Light Institute, we look forward to celebrating AmeriCorps Week with our service partners and colleagues and lifting up currently serving members and the hundreds of thousands of Alums – they are at the forefront of possibility for community change.
Yours in Service,
CEO, Points of Light Institute
Co-Founder, HandsOn Network
Change Notes: Federal Budget
Friends,
The long, drawn-out budget battles around federal spending for this fiscal year ended on April 8. On the service front, the budget agreement yielded some disappointments but also revealed both the strengths of the service and volunteering sector, as well as the challenges for us going forward in a charged and demanding fiscal environment.
After multiple temporary extensions, Congress ultimately approved a deficit-reduction measure that included $75 million in cuts to the budget for the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). Fortunately, the Corporation was not eliminated as the House of Representatives had proposed, but there were some reductions:
The entire CNCS will be subject to a .2 percent rescission
AmeriCorps state and national was cut by $23 million
The Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) was cut by $12 million
Learn and Serve America was eliminated
Obviously, the end of federal support for service learning in the nation’s schools was disappointing. Points of Light Institute and its youth division, generationOn, have engaged with other advocates to urge policymakers to identify alternative funding platforms for service learning programs. Service learning, we believe, is foundational to building a lifelong commitment to civic engagement and we support its restoration in the federal budget. Support for youth service engagement is the pipeline for future generations of engaged citizens.
Overall, the calls, letters, meetings in congressional district offices, op-eds, letters to the editor and good old-fashioned talking that our sector marshaled meant that CNCS was funded at 94 percent of the fiscal year 2010 level. This hard work was invaluable, a real-time example of the creativity and energy of citizens engaged in public problem solving. Special thanks goes to the Save Service Coalition led by AnnMaura Connolly, Greg Propper and a team of organizations.
Points of Light Institute was pleased to support this campaign. Through the coalition of allies in the sector, service and volunteering advocates visited 440 congressional offices and thousands of calls were made to the offices of members of Congress. HandsOn Network affiliates and AmeriCorps Alums members were integral to the Save Service campaign. An AmeriCorps alum was responsible for initiating a petition that enlisted 100,000 individuals to Save Service.
The disappointment in the outcomes of the budget debate are clear, and we will face even more daunting challenges in fiscal year 2012. But the importance of service was also recognized in the outcome. Lawmakers are faced with difficult choices and we will have increasingly constrained resources. It will be incumbent on our sector to demonstrate the high economic and civic value of service and citizenship and the return on investment in the forms of problems solved, impact created and lifelong citizen volunteers cultivated.
Yours in Service,
CEO, Points of Light Institute
Co-Founder, HandsOn Network
Change Notes: Tribute Lifts Service Sector
Friends,
On March 28, more than 4.2 million Americans tuned in to NBC and watched “All Together Now: A Celebration of Service.” That extraordinary event, a tribute to President George H. W. Bush’s leadership in inspiring a nation to give back, filled with powerful profiles of service from across the country and performances from some of the biggest stars in music, was a moment to lift up the entire service sector and point a spotlight on the power of individuals to create change.
The Tribute was also the culmination of Points of Light Institute’s efforts to demonstrate the power of voluntary action and recruit Americans from coast to coast to commit to their communities. The event, and the activities leading up to it, introduced Points of Light Institute to millions of Americans as the leading enabler of service opportunities.
The event garnered significant public attention and successfully brought focus to the tribute’s bottom line: the power of individuals to effect change. More than 200 press outlets, including Associated Press, NBC Nightly News, Newsweek, Politico, Today Show, Time, USA Today and Washington Post, among others, showcased inspiring stories of service and the change ordinary Americans can make in their communities. Many of these stories included a strong call to service.
These stories of individuals making profound change were also pushed forward by a generous, bipartisan group of members of Congress, including Speaker of the House John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who celebrated service by posting tributes on our innovative Tribute Wall. That helped inspire more than 220 Americans to post their own tributes to points of light – people making changes in their communities – and launch what will certainly be a living celebration of service. A special group of pundits, politicians and thought leaders, from Tucker Carlson to Terry McAuliffe and Maria Shriver to Dana Perino, came together to serve as the Tribute Ambassador Corps, tweeting a commitment to service to more than 2.4 million collective followers.
Americans responded with their own support for service. “All Together Now: A Celebration of Service” even showed up in pop culture with clips showing up in the monologues of the “Late Show with David Letterman” and “Conan.”
And momentum continues to grow.
While the Tribute was a unique moment in the history of our national commitment to service, it is just the beginning. The new community inspired by this campaign must be nurtured and directed to meaningful voluntary action. With your continued support, we are poised to build on this foundation and accomplish great things together.
Yours in Service,
CEO, Points of Light Institute
Co-Founder, HandsOn Network
, changed the world and touched the lives of millions. With passion, dexterity, boldness, and idealism he set out to create institutions and movements to alleviate suffering, cultivate bonds of empathy and reciprocity across difference, and usher in a world where every individual realized their own unique potential. In reflecting upon his life, we are reminded in the most profound ways possible, the power of an individual to change the world.
I was at the University of Michigan a few months ago to celebrate the 50
th
anniversary of the founding of the Peace Corps. At the event, Senator Harris Wofford told us the story of the agency’s founding. He shared how the idea was born of an improvisational interaction with President Kennedy and a group of students who took President Kennedy’s words and challenged him to turn rhetoric into reality. The students created a petition with 1,000 signatures asking the President to launch a program that called upon the nation’s young people to serve the world.
President Kennedy took note and asked Sargent Shriver and others to create a major policy proposal for what was, within 10 days, coined and framed as the Peace Corps. Harris told us that in the initial frenetic months of its foundation, Sargent Shriver was given a long memorandum that drew out a cautious and conservative approach to the incremental growth of the Peace Corps. Harris recounted that Sarge would give this memorandum to every person who came in to interview for the job and ask them their opinion of it. If they liked it and expressed approval for its safe and prudent approach, he politely dismissed them and continued to search for individuals who would reject caution and aspired to exponential growth and change.
As we consider the world before us and the sometimes seemingly insurmountable challenges, I hope that our dreams and actions are enlivened by Sargent Shriver’s spirit of boldness and expansive innovation. Movements are built over the generations and I believe that we truly are, after 50 years, on the precipice of a vision that Sargent Shriver and President Kennedy and the thousands of grassroots students originally envisioned- hundreds of thousands serving internationally,
. (In fact, the Service World policy proposal that Points of Light and a coalition of organizations are advancing is a wonderful opportunity to advance this vision.)
In celebrating Sarge’s life, may we all be inspired by his uncommon idealism, tenacity, and compassion. And may we be emboldened to re-double our own pursuits of a world that recognizes the singular worth of every individual and the unity which binds us all, forever, together.
In service,
Michelle Nunn
CEO, Points of Light Institute, and Co-Founder, HandsOn Network
Friends,
In addition to 80,000 current members, more than 600,000 have joined AmeriCorps Alums, a division of Points of Light Institute, and have given more than 860 million hours in service since 1994. We believe in the leadership potential of these individuals and have supported them both as an organization and a strategy to continue to create change. We have 26 chapters of AmeriCorps Alums throughout the country actively engaging thousands during AmeriCorps Week in service projects, networking events and thought leadership with elected officials.
The Tribute was also the culmination of 
Americans responded with their own support for service. “All Together Now: A Celebration of Service” even showed up in pop culture with clips showing up in the monologues of the “Late Show with David Letterman” and “Conan.”
Today’s post comes from Michelle Nunn, CEO of 