Editor’s note: This commentary is by Benji Thurber, who is the communications director for Mobius, Vermont’s Mentoring Partnership, a nonprofit organization that supports youth mentoring programs throughout the state. He is an AmeriCorps VISTA alumnus, and a resident of Burlington.
“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” Those were the words of Mahatma Gandhi, whose peaceful protest movement led to India’s independence from Britain in the 1940s. Gandhi’s message, that we can achieve a sense of purpose through helping our fellow man, and serving our communities, is a universal one, and one that has also come to define the growing service movement across the ocean here in America, and locally in Vermont.
On Thursday, March 17, the White House released its proposed budget for FY 2018, which calls for the elimination of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), the agency that oversees the AmeriCorps, AmeriCorps VISTA, AmeriCorps NCCC and Senior Corps programs across the country.
This potential cut comes in the wake of a polarizing presidential election that has left friends, family members and neighbors taking opposing sides on a variety of hot-button issues. Service is not, and should never, be one of them. A post-election poll by TargetPoint Consulting revealed that 80 percent of the electorate, and 75 percent of people who voted for President Trump, want to maintain or increase the federal investment in national service. This overwhelming bipartisan support speaks to the success of programs like AmeriCorps as a cost-effective strategy for engaging citizens, strengthening communities and helping to alleviate poverty.
The price for hosting a service year corps member is minimal — nonprofit or governmental agencies are responsible for paying a small cost-share to help subsidize the small living stipend that members receive during their service — but the benefits are huge. As a former AmeriCorps VISTA member through the Vermont Youth Tomorrow program, and supervisor for VISTA members for the past four years, I have seen firsthand the positive impact that national service programs can have across the state of Vermont. At my organization, Mobius — where I had the privilege of spending my service year — we have utilized AmeriCorps VISTA members to help grow the number of mentors in Chittenden County from 350 to more than 900, and expanded our service area statewide, where we now support more than 140 program sites and their 2,300 adult-to-youth mentor matches.
Here in Vermont, I’ve seen Republican Mayor Thom Lauzon and Democratic Mayor John Hollar stand together in bipartisan unity to honor AmeriCorps members for their service.
Supporting mentoring programs is just one example of the many ways AmeriCorps and Senior Corps members are serving communities in our state. People of all ages and backgrounds are helping to meet local needs, strengthen communities, and increase civic engagement through these service positions in Vermont. That includes 1,967 Senior Corps members and 340 AmeriCorps members serving at more than 530 locations. According to SerVermont, our state’s designated Commission on National and Community Service, since 1994, more than 5,100 Vermont residents have provided more than 7.6 million hours in volunteer service. From supporting military families to improving affordable housing opportunities to expanding local food systems, these various service members all play important roles in the collective effort to build stronger, more connected communities.
AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps VISTA often attract young people who are new to the workforce, and are looking for a way to give back and develop important skills that will help them forge a successful career path. My VISTA service culminated with me getting hired as a staff member at the organization where I served, and all three of the VISTA members I’ve supervised have ended up in jobs that directly utilize the skills they honed during their service years. One of them recently told me that her experience as a VISTA member helped her “discover her passion for engaging with nonprofit organizations” and that “service remains a pivotal aspect of [her] life.” This sentiment is typical for AmeriCorps alumni — nearly 80 percent of them nationally say that their service was a defining professional experience.
All of this vital work that service programs provide, both for local communities and for the members themselves could all disappear in this upcoming budget cycle. Eliminating CNCS from the federal budget would only save a minimal amount of money (less than three hundredths of a percent of the federal budget), but the cost of losing national service programs would be devastating.
Here in Vermont, I’ve seen Republican Mayor Thom Lauzon and Democratic Mayor John Hollar stand together in bipartisan unity to honor AmeriCorps members for their service. Nationally, prominent politicians from independent Sen. Bernie Sanders to Republican Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma have vocally voiced their support for CNCS over the past year. While those two politicians might disagree on a majority of issues, what they agree on is, as Cole puts it: “No question in my mind, [national service] is a worthwhile use of money.”
Past presidents of both major parties have felt the same way, and many of them have made significant positive changes to our national service infrastructure over the years. VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) was inspired by John F. Kennedy, and began as a part of Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty, as a domestic version of the Peace Corps. Bill Clinton’s administration expanded national service by establishing the AmeriCorps program (which took VISTA under its wing as well). George H.W. Bush was a prominent supporter of service, but it was his son George W. Bush whose administration significantly reformed CNCS by symbolically adding the word “Community” to CNCS’s name, localizing the distribution of funding at a state or regional level, and actively encouraging participation from local faith-based organizations as well as secular ones.
Despite the administration’s initial stance on CNCS, it is my hope that President Trump will learn about the impact of national service and create his own legacy of supporting and enhancing these vibrant programs. We, as informed citizens, have the opportunity to educate him and members of Congress who will be the final decision-makers, on what would be lost by eliminating or cutting CNCS. Join me, and other supporters from Vermont and nationally, in advocating for national service. Learn how you can best support the effort by visiting http://about.serviceyear.org/save_americorps.
