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John,
My service in AmeriCorps reaffirmed what I was taught growing up: that compassion and empathy develop when strangers come together to serve their communities and help their neighbors, and that democracy requires an engaged citizenry. At a time when so much of our politics seeks to divide us, when social media encourages us to isolate, and when our communities have such great need, AmeriCorps Week calls all Americans to recommit to national service.
AmeriCorps is one of the country’s best-kept secrets. Created in the 1990s through legislation signed into law by President George H.W. Bush, its mission is “to improve lives, strengthen communities, and foster civic engagement through service and volunteering.” Among its various programs, AmeriCorps focuses its work in the areas of education, economic opportunity, disaster response, environmental stewardship, healthy futures, and veterans and military families.
After college, I served in AmeriCorps’ National Civilian Community Corps, a 10-month program in which teams of young people between the ages of 18 and 26 partner with national and local non-profits to address community needs across the country. When I served, a majority of AmeriCorps’ resources was devoted to Gulf Coast recovery from Hurricane Katrina–and so my team worked mostly with Habitat for Humanity in Mississippi and Louisiana.
When I was there, I heard from many people that AmeriCorps NCCC members were some of the first people in the region after the devastating storm. In the humid summers of the south, they slept in tents and used port-a-potties; day in and day out, they did grueling physical labor. And years after the storm–long after the news stopped covering the breaking of the levees and people stopped donating–AmeriCorps was still there.
And that is one of the greatest benefits of national service: it is a meaningful demonstration that we care, that our fellow citizens are not forgotten, that we will dedicate the resources needed to educate our children, rebuild communities devastated by natural disasters, and create better opportunities for everyone.
It also exposes its participants to new people, ideas, and ways of life. Within my NCCC class, I met young people from all over the country from different racial, religious, socio-economic, and educational backgrounds. On my team–with whom I spent nearly every minute for ten months–one of my teammates is an Evangelical Christian who hadn’t had much interaction with an out gay person before. Throughout the course of the year, we learned from each other and became friends. Well, family actually. And, I met people who were recipients of service as well as those who work for community organizations that provide that service.
National service creates an engaged citizenry that is central to the preservation of American ideals and American democracy. And it shows how government–through its people–can help address some of our most pressing societal needs.
AmeriCorps NCCC members take a pledge, which includes the line: “I will get things done for America.” The time I spent in AmeriCorps really felt that way: that I was helping my country get things done. It’s something we should all commit to doing–now more than ever.
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