By Barbara L. Stewart
CEO, Corporation for National and Community Service
Day in and day out, AmeriCorps demonstrates how service builds bridges and leads to greater understanding of others. We celebrate these aspects of our AmeriCorps programs and the impact our members make every day — but especially during AmeriCorps Week.
To kick-off this occasion, it’s only fitting to recognize the accomplishments of more than 1.1 million AmeriCorps alumni and salute the service of our current members. Each of these Americans share a commitment to “get things done” during their year of service and in all the days that follow.
These men and women take action, seek common ground, and overcome adversity in order to make their fellow Americans safer, smarter, and healthier. As they carry out this pledge, our communities — and the nation as a whole — grow stronger.
During their service, AmeriCorps members learn about the country we love in a literal sense and tap into their innate abilities to lead, work with a team, build resilience, and make a difference. These skills are needed and valued in not just our communities but our workforce as well.
But what does this look like in real life?
During my time as the CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service, I’ve had the pleasure to meet some of our amazing members and alumni. Through these experiences, I’ve found incredible stories of service across the country.
In Baltimore, I met the principal at Commodore John Rodgers School who served with AmeriCorps through Teach for America. His service helped him explore his passion to improve educational outcomes, which led to a career in school administration. Now his school hosts an AmeriCorps program, Literacy Lab Reading Corps, to improve academic skills in this community where only 13 percent of fourth-grade children are reading at their grade level.
In Tennessee, an AmeriCorps VISTA member created a program called BetterFi to provide affordable consumer loans and financial coaching as an alternative to predatory payday and car title loans. As of the fall of 2019, BetterFi has lent more than $75,000 to low-income families in the region at a much lower interest rate, saving clients more than $124,000.
These are just two stories that show AmeriCorps’ impact, and there are thousands more like them.
While not all AmeriCorps members will become educators or create nonprofits, they will develop important qualities that create a domino effect where good begets good. And that “good” changes communities and lives for the better. Whether as our friends, neighbors, or civic leaders, these Americans create a legacy that can continue from volunteer to volunteer and generation to generation.
During AmeriCorps Week, help us celebrate the AmeriCorps members, alumni, and partners who fuel the success of national service. Share how you were #MadeinAmeriCorps online or visit AmeriCorps.gov to learn how you can help us “get things” done for America. The national service community is large and growing, and there is always room for more.
Barbara L. Stewart is the CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service, the federal agency that leads AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, and the nation’s volunteer efforts.
