Posts Tagged ‘Save Service’

Supporting National Service Is As Easy as Picking Up the Phone

Tuesday, September 13th, 2011

Over the next 18 months, Congress will make critical, budgetary decisions that will fundamentally shape the future of the Corporation for National and Community Service and its programs.  AmeriCorps, the Volunteer Generation Fund, AmeriCorps VISTA, Senior Corps programs such as RSVP, and the myriad of initiatives associated with the Corporation could be in jeopardy.

Since February, AmeriCorps Alums, our HandsOn affiliates and all of you have mobilized in support of the campaigns to Save Service.  With so many difficult decisions to be made as Congress returns to Washington, we must continue to keep the pressure on by calling your Senators and Representatives on Thursday, September 15.

Today, make a pledge to call your Senators and Representatives on Thursday, September 15. When you make the pledge you can find talking points and a sample script for your phone call. These help to make calling your Senators and Representatives easier.

If you have the time on your call, tell your personal story with national service programs. Did you serve through an AmeriCorps program? Did you benefit from services that were supported by an RSVP volunteer? Did you volunteer through a program that was supported by the Volunteer Generation Fund? Do you volunteer and make a difference in your community?

For day-to-day updates on the Save Service campaign, you can visit and Like the .

We hope that you’ll tell your friends about the importance of national service programs. Take the pledge and join us on September 15

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Help Support National Service on Your Lunch Break

Wednesday, August 10th, 2011

Today, supporters of national service programs across the country are coming together to bring awareness of the importance of national service programs like AmeriCorps, Senior Corps and RSVP, VISTA and others to their elected representatives.

Save Service District Days give supporters of national service programs an opportunity to come together to let their representatives know that service is important to them as individuals and to their communities. If you’re interested in joining a District Day event, you can find one near you here.

If you’re not able to participate in a District Day event, please take the time to write or call your member of Congress and let them know why national service is important to you. You can find your representatives’ contact information here and your senators’ contact information here.

If you’re looking for more information to share with your members of Congress, you can find more resources here, where you can find fact sheets on the impact of national service programs in your state.

National service enables people to make meaningful contributions to their communities, build organizational capacity, generate community-based social capital and leverage more than 1.4 million additional adult volunteers to tackle some of America’s toughest social, environmental, educational and economic challenges.

Without the thousands of Americans that serve every year, emergency response programs, education programs, environmental protection and restoration programs, and programs that help support our communities would not be able to provide the level of support that they do thanks to our national service members.

AmeriCorps members were at the heart of disaster response in Joplin, Missouri. They were on the ground setting up an infrastructure to manage the volunteer response within hours of the tornado touching down. They were on the ground in New Orleans, in Mississippi, in Alabama, and in Iowa. They are in our schools, helping to support the programs and students that need the most help. They are in our communities every day working to support volunteer programs, preparing citizens for emergencies, and working to get things done for America.

Please join us today in letting your members of Congress know that national service programs are a vital part of our communities.

 

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Standing for AmeriCorps

Thursday, March 10th, 2011

Today’s post comes from Whitney Soenksen, External Relations Manager for AmeriCorps Alums

Thousands showed up in response to the proposal in the US House of Representatives to eliminate the Corporation for National and Community Service, AmeriCorps Alums rallied the troops across the country on Friday, Feb. 25. Through their partnership with Voices for National Service, ServiceNation and America Forward, AmeriCorps Alums across the country went into action.

Over 200,000 Alums and supporters shared the message to Save Service. Petitions were signed, the cause was shared with friends on Facebook and the call to action was tweeted and retweeted; alerting friends, family and co-workers that AmeriCorps was threatened.

Then people took to the streets. District Day visits brought supporters of national service out across the country as they led groups of up to 65 people into our elected officials offices and made clear the value of the AmeriCorps program to this nation’s health and strength.

Alums participated in Congressional office visits in Boston, Dallas, Des Moines, Milwaukee, Nashville, New Orleans, Portland, Topeka and many other cities.  They showed up as ordinary Americans who cared deeply about the impact of national service with over 2,600 individuals participating across the country.

, an AmeriCorps Alums Chapter Leader in North Texas, took a Stand for AmeriCorps with a visit to four offices in Dallas, including Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison — joining hundreds of other passionate alums across the state.

Dominique Marsalek, an AmeriCorps Alum living in Frederick, MD, wrote an impassioned editorial that was published by the Baltimore Sun just last week. Dominique reflected on her AmeriCorps experience where she traveled to some of the poorest counties in the United States, working with programs like Habitat for Humanity and helping to build vocational programs for at-risk youth, and how it opened up opportunities for her.

And finally, Caleb Jonas, an active AmeriCorps Alum, started an online petition that has garnered over 112,000 signatures to date!

The latest federal budget agreement does not include cuts to AmeriCorps but we must remain vigilant and be ready to take up the cause as Congress tackles deficit spending.

We need to mobilize more alumni and supporters of national service to ensure that AmeriCorps and national service programs are funded for years to come. But we can’t continue the fight without you.

 

  • Call your Representatives & Senators and tell them to Save Service

Your support and leadership in this important fight keeps us working hard to make sure that Americans will always be given opportunities to serve and to give back to this great nation.



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