A Push for National Service

More volunteers on the horizon for Brooklyn....

There are 450 Americorps volunteers serving at 25 organizations in Brooklyn, and soon that number may grow.

On Thursday, the House of Representatives passed a bill to increase funding to the Corporation for National Service and similar organizations. I’ve been wondering how the Obama administration would tackle this, and I’m not surprised to hear the President is in favor of the GIVE Act, which would pump over $6 billion into national service programs in the next five years.

These programs give living and education stipends for volunteers to work for selected non-profits over a contractual time commitment. Often these are positions that cannot be filled by community members who already have full-time jobs. But Americorps gets a lot of flak from opponents who say it’s just paying people who would do the work for free. And bill opponents are peeved about an amendment stipulating that, while in service, volunteers must refrain from teaching Sunday School, have a for-profit job, work for a labor union or otherwise protest or petition. There are also rumblings in the blogosphere that this Act would lead to mandatory volunteerism for all citizens, inspiring some Facebook freak-outs.

Full disclosure: I was an AmeriCorps VISTA from 2000-2001 in, doing early childhood literacy programs through Sitka Community Schools in Alaska. The experience changed my life forever, and, I hope, benefited the lives of the children and families I worked with. But during that time, and to this day, I am unsure of how well the the VISTA program performs in its mission to end poverty and illiteracy. I do think that the program is invaluable in raising awareness of local people in need and encouraging involvement. (Those interested can peruse the performance reports on the website.)

The bill may go before the Senate as soon as next week. Here’s a neat-o Bill Status widget that I have to figure out how to put into the sidebar of this blog. Patience, friends…