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Hours of National Service Testimony Washington, D.C. Tuesday, Sept. 2 to Saturday, Sept. 6, 2003 |
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Please REPORT any transcription ERRORS to: info@saveamericorps.org
DAY 2, NIGHT SESSION, 9/03/03
7PM - 10PM
John Kalafatas, Moderator:
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I want to encourage you to take your seats. We're getting started. Welcome to prime-time. This is the second evening of prime-time for Voices for America, hundred hours of national service testimony. Thank you for coming.
My name is John Kalafatas and normally I'm on staff at City Year at our national headquarters in Boston, and I'm pleased and honored to be with you tonight for the Voices event. I'm going to take a few minutes to introduce this segment of the testimony and I promise to be brief no matter how long it takes. I want to thank everyone who's here, our speakers, audience members, members of the coalition that organized this event. By joining us, you're all being citizens and not spectators and we appreciate it. Although there'll be times over the course of the evening when we don't have a huge crowd in this room, the testimony really matters regardless of who you might see in the room at any given time. And we're recording it for posterity on video and as of seven o'clock we're web-casting the audio live on the Internet, so every testimony counts and is important.
HOUR 33
OK, before we get started, I just want to reiterate the three goals of our testimony this week, those that were laid out by David Gergen yesterday at the beginning of our event at one o'clock and, by the way, I can't see the sign, but we're now into our thirty-third hour of testimony. We're a third of the way done, and in fact the other venue at the Hart Senate Building, they're still going and we'll go a little past seven o'clock. Here we're in the Hall of States, where we have all of our evening testimonies. Our three goals, as I started to mention we have three. Our first, most urgent goal is to highlight the need for the President and Congress to approve a hundred million dollars in emergency supplemental funding for AmeriCorps for this year. That's by far the most urgent goal.
Our second goal is to support President Bush's call to expand AmeriCorps to 75,000 members in his budget proposal for the next fiscal year. And our third and more long-term goal is to create and unite the national service movement here in Washington D.C. and demonstrate to legislators and to the public that national service should be expanded much more dramatically even than 75,000 Corps members per year, because it's critical. It's not a nice-to-have. It's critical for making America healthy and strong in the 21st century, and that's the big picture goal here. We've had so many voices this week and will continue to hear from all kinds of different people. Alumni of AmeriCorps representing the 350,000 alumni of AmeriCorps who have made a difference in people's lives and communities and transformed their own lives in the process. We'll hear from young people who want to serve next year or the year after and can't because of the funding situation. We'll hear from children and community organizations who are at risk because the Corps members they depend on won't be there for them unless this funding is renewed. We'll hear from corporate CEO's that believe that national service is not only good for communities but good for business. We'll hear from members of Congress from both sides of the aisle, from engaged philanthropists who know and have seen that national service is a good investment, as well as leaders and staff and board members and current Corps members from national service organizations, from all over the country, from Florida to Alaska and everywhere in between.
I just want to give you a taste of some of the testimony we've already heard yesterday and today. A few quick quotes that I think capture some of the big themes that your testimony is a part of. We heard from David Gergen, Editor-at-Large of the U.S. News and World Report, who's also a well-respected person here in Washington D.C. on both side of the aisle who said service should be a rite of passage for all Americans. Robert Corrigan, the President of San Francisco State University yesterday said National Service should be part of what it means to be an American in the 21st century. Walter Isaacson, a biographer of Benjamin Franklin, talked about his civic service was a guiding principle of the nation's founders. Mark Fuller, who is chair of Monitor Company said America is a program that matters and a program that works. And if there's anyone who knows whether or not something works, it's the head of a world-class business consulting firm. He said AmeriCorps is a public/private partnership that delivers real measurable services, and poignantly talked about one of his own staff members, a first-generation American who said after serving for a day with AmeriCorps members, "This is what I dreamed America was all about."
And Mark Fuller went on to say the private sector has already invested a billion dollars in national service and challenged the government to come back to the table on this. We had a series of senators and there's, I think, another one speaking as we speak at the other venue, but we had Senator Dianne Feinstein yesterday challenge the House of Representatives to, quote, "Do the right thing," as the Senate has already done and vote for the hundred million dollar supplemental funding. Today, Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota said, "I strongly support AmeriCorps. This is money well-spent." Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas said, "I believe that AmeriCorps can rebuild the fabric of who we are as Americans. And finally, just one more example, Senator Jack Reed from Rhode Island said, "When we serve others, we better ourselves. AmeriCorps is consistent with the highest ideals of this nation. The President has largely ignored his promise to America. It's time to put our resources where our rhetoric is." So that's just a taste of some of the testimony we've heard so far today. We're going to tonight hear from both organizations, groups of people from organizations as well as individuals, giving testimony and our first group is from Teach for America. We heard from Wendy Kopp yesterday during the testimony, and tonight we have a series of folks affiliated with Teach for America, so I'm happy to introduce Cynthia Skinner who is a regional alumni director with TFA who will introduce the other people who are testifying.
Cynthia Skinner, Regional Alumni Director, DC and Baltimore/AmeriCorps Alumni, Teach For America:
Hi. As John said, I'm Cynthia Skinner. I'm the Regional Alumni Director for Teach for America for the D.C. and Baltimore region and also an AmeriCorps and Teach for America alumni, having taught here in Washington D.C. for two years. Our first speaker is going to be Valyncia, or as her friends and colleagues call her, Vee Lindsay, who is a sixth-grade teacher at Ann Beers Elementary School in southeast Washington, and she was an AmeriCorps alumni from the '95 through '97 year. Thank you, Vee, and welcome.
Valyncia (Vee) Lindsay, 6th grade teacher/AmeriCorps Alumni, Anne Beers Elementary School:
First of all, let me say good evening. I'm a true teacher. Good evening, everyone. Good evening. When I was asked to do this, I wasn't sure if I would be able to contribute, but I thought about what we've been doing at Ann Beers Elementary School. On September 17th, Ann Beers will be formally presented as one of the 50 NASA Explorer schools in our country. So everyone's probably saying, OK, so what does this have to do with AmeriCorps. Let me back up. Let's go back into time.
In 1995 I felt the urge or the calling to give back to my community, and I actually left another profession and through Teach for America and AmeriCorps I was able to go into teaching, come to D.C. where I lived, also fortunate enough not only to teach in my neighborhood but go back to the school that I attended as a child. So I was truly able to go back. While there, Teach for America would sponsor TFA week, Teach for America week, where different notable celebrities would come into the classroom and teach a class. In 1996, we had Franklin Smith, who was the former superintendent for D.C. public schools. 1997, former Congressman Lewis Stokes of Ohio came into my classroom and worked with my first grade students at the time. My former principle who was very industrious, she said, "V., do you think he'll talk to me?" I said sure, why not, everyone that talks to Teach for America talks to everyone else. And she said, we have this great idea in mind. We want to get science, math, and technology really going in our school. Can you help us? And lo and behold, our association with NASA began. Through AmeriCorps, Teach for America, and then next with NASA, Ann Beers partnered with NASA Glenn, which was formerly NASA Lewis in Cleveland, Ohio, as well as NASA Goddard in D.C. and U.D.C., and we were able to get an aerospace science program going, which also focused on mathematics and technology. Not only are we influencing the students, but we brought in community partners as well as community members. We have quite a bit of support in our school from families.
Now, this is because of what started with AmeriCorps. Think about "It's a Wonderful Life." George didn't realize just how many people he has touched. I really believe that AmeriCorps has not realized the impact of the people that we're touching. I'm sure at my school there are people who don't realize that all of this began because of AmeriCorps. AmeriCorps was the seed that started what's going at Ann Beers Elementary School. Since our partnership with NASA, a handful of teachers including myself participated in the NASA Educator's Workshop. There, we were able to write a space science curriculum that we have not only used in our school, but was also available for use in the school system in Cleveland, Ohio. So there's something else that is just growing and growing and growing. We have also been able to get an aerospace education curriculum going within the school. We were able to put an in-house planetarium and we also have a shuttle simulator. I invite anyone to come and see what we're doing at Ann Beers. Once again, it all goes back to the association with AmeriCorps. Since we've gotten started, we have been able to do a lot with our students, not only within the confines of the school, but we've been able to send teachers as well as students to Space Camp in both Alabama and in Florida. We sent students to Wallace Island to study rocketry. We hope to get something actually going on some mission, which is the science experimental mission next spring. That's one of our goals for this year.
We have also been able to send students to the aerospace conference which is held every year in Dayton, Ohio. Mind you, were were able to get students to leave Washington who ordinarily may never leave D.C., some who rarely leave southeast Washington. We've had an overnight star party, where the students actually took time to look at the stars and see and dream about what they can do. We have a student who left last year for the last three years in his involvement with the aerospace program has plans to be an astronaut. I'm looking for his name. I really believe this little boy will be an astronaut and what I'm going to do is say, "Bo, do me a favor. When you get there on the International Space Station," because it still should be around at that time, I'm going to ask him to say hi to AmeriCorps for me," and I would like him to do that. We've done things where we're taken parents and students to the Naval Observatory and that was an interesting experience, not only for my parents but for myself. I'm from Washington D.C. and I had never been to the Naval Observatory. Maybe if I had not been associated with AmeriCorps, I still may not have gone to the Naval Observatory. We've also had the opportunity to have a number of students when -- if you remember Sojourner, the Mars rover, when it was initially launched there was a huge celebration at the Air and Space Museum. Hillary Clinton helped with the kickoff. Because of what we're doing at Ann Beers, because of NASA, because of Teach for America, because of AmeriCorps, we were able, and invited, to send some students down to help with that celebration. Can you imagine the wonderful experience those students have had? Also, because of what we're doing with NASA, Teach for America, AmeriCorps, we had students invited to the White House with former President Bill Clinton for one of the White House matinees and there was a matinee regarding space science as well as deep sea exploration. Our students were able to discuss and talk about what they were learning regarding space science.
That's what's been going on when I say directly affecting the kids in the community. Let me tell you a little of what has happened to me since my involvement with Teach for America. I was able to get my Masters in Curriculum and Instruction. To date I have written two curricula, one in the area of Earth Science and I've written another in the area of Space Science. I do professional development workshops for new teachers. I also do workshops for parents regarding space science as well as fundamental elementary issues. I've done workshops with National Science and Teacher Association. I sit on the advisory board for NSTA, that's the National Teacher's Association. I've also presented with the Norfolk State University NASA conference and I know had it not been for my initial involvement with Teach for America and AmeriCorps, I doubt if I would be doing any of the things that I'm doing now. Prior to coming, I said, "Can I really do this?" and I talked to a colleague and she said, "Vee, you mean all the talking that you do and all the people that you've seen, what do you mean you can't do this?" She goes, "Remember, they were all students at one time too. Shouldn't be any problem." And this is another way that AmeriCorps is really reaching out and impacting our community. We're impacting our students. We're impacting our parents, impacting schools, communities, bringing in partners, because we all have the same goals in mind.
So therefore, in conclusion, I do say what we're doing with AmeriCorps is something that my heart is there. And I am very grateful to have the opportunity. When I told my principal what I was going, he said, well, what does AmeriCorps have to do with this? My current principal. I said, oh, let me tell you the beginning. Let me tell you how we started. Let me tell you why Ann Beers Elementary School in southeast D.C. is on the map. It's because of our direct and indirect involvement with AmeriCorps. Thank you.
Cynthia Skinner:
Thank you, Vee. And I, myself, as a first-year teacher had the honor to visit Vee in her classroom and she's just as fantastic as she was speaking right now, so thank you. Our second speaker is Dana Ross, who was a Teach for America Corps member in the south Louisiana area who's currently a special education coordinator at the KIPP D.C. Key Academy public charter school here in Washington D.C.
(Applause)
Dana Ross, Special Education Coordinator/AmeriCorps Alumni, KIPP DC, Key Academy:
Good evening. I'm happy to be here and share my experience in AmeriCorps and Teach for America with you. My name is Dana Ross. I was a Teach for America Corps member in 1996 and 1997, where I taught children with behavior disorders in the small town of LaPlace, Louisiana, a truck stop on the way to Baton Rouge. Today, in my eighth year of teaching, I'm the director of special education at Kip D.C. Key Academy, an extraordinary D.C. public charter school. Even though the AmeriCorps commitment might be a year or two, many of us have made education or service a profession and a career choice. Many of the teachers at the KIPP network of schools have also served in Teach for America, an AmeriCorps program which has literally changed the path of our lives.
Thanks to AmeriCorps, which provided me with the funding so I could get my Masters in Special Education, I learned that there is no more rewarding a career than teaching. During my first year of teaching, my father said to me, Dana, when you're in the trenches, it's hard to see how you were changing the world. No matter how small it is, it is important work. My father was referring to my experiences as a teacher, while reflecting on his own experience in the South during the civil rights movement. Looking back, he can see his contribution, yet when he called my mother from an Alabama motel room, he felt tired, discouraged, and disillusioned. His words give me perspective when I reflect on why I've chosen teaching as my life's work. Through AmeriCorps' program Teach for America, I experienced first-hand that the road to educating all children is not easy. In my classroom in LaPlace, Louisiana I learned the value of what an individual teacher can do despite limited resources and lack of support. Imagination, compassion, and perseverance kept me steady.
When I joined Teach for America in 1996, my goal was the change the world. It did not take long for me realize that my presence in the classroom would not change the entire educational system in our country. My students labeled behavior disorder would still have aggressive outbursts and most of my students would continue to have academic levels far lower than I wanted them to have. I often felt like my father did in 1965 -- tired, discouraged, and disillusioned. But I have come to realize that when I stand too close to my goals, I miss the important growth that my students are making. Take the story of Isaac. In 1996, Isaac, who had been diagnosed with behavior disorders, greeting classroom visitors by climbing under his chair and screaming at the top of his lungs, "Get out! Get out!" Many times, I had to physically restrain him so that he would not attack another child or adult. This was no easy feet, considering that he was almost as tall as me. His regular classroom teacher did not want him anywhere near her class or her students. All of the other teachers in the school told me he was just bad. Two years after I met Isaac, thanks to a consistent behavior management plan, a lot of hard work, a little added maturity, and an understanding regular classroom teacher, Isaac had come a long way. In his second year with me, he no longer had classroom rights and he knew how to take time-outs when his thermometer went up. He could complete his worth without becoming volatile. Most importantly, this child who had initially functioned on a first-grade level when I met him was mainstreamed in his regular third-grade classroom for all subjects.
This is but one example of the magic that can take place in a classroom. I love the process a child goes through when he or she is growing. Whether learning social skills or academics, each child's needs are individual. The challenge is to figure out what makes each child tick. Isaac opened my eyes to the promise of education. He represents millions of children who deserve a teacher who will fight for his education and ensure that he gets what's best for him. Thanks to AmeriCorps, I was able to finance my Master's degree in special education. I was able to stay in the classroom while teaching. I am not going to leave my calling. I belong in education. I am dedicated to advocating for and teaching children. Still inspired by Isaac, I am determined to find the right solution for each Isaac that comes my way. Thank you.
(Applause)
Cynthia Skinner:
Thank you, Dana. Our next speaker will be Maureen Milligan, who is a Teach for America alumni who taught in the Washington D.C. area, currently a law student at the American University School of Law. Welcome, Maureen.
Maureen Milligan, Law Student, AmeriCorps Alumni, Washington College of Law (American University:
Hello, my name's Maureen Milligan, and I am a Law Student at the Washington College of Law. I think just giving you a little bit about my background will tell you how AmeriCorps has affected me. I taught for two years in the District of Columbia in first grade, and then moved to Baltimore City and was a library media specialist in Baltimore City for a year. And then the year after that, I entered law school, which was last year. And in law school I'm still involved in education.
This year, in fact, I had another experience to educate through the Marshall Brennan program. The Marshall Brennan program sends law students into D.C. public school high school classrooms to teach constitutional law, and so just on Tuesday I had my fourth first day of school, teaching high school students. By the time I'm done with this, I will have taught every grade pre-K through 12 except for 7th and 8th grade, and I don't think I'll miss that. Also, this summer I worked with children and in education too. I worked for the D.C. Appleseed project, where we're trying to improve special education due process hearings in the district. And I also worked for the corporation council, where I worked with lawyers who represent social workers in abuse and neglect hearings. And then finally, this year I'm also going to be working for the Department of Justice in their civil rights division, educational opportunity section, where again I'll have a chance to improve the education of students. So on with the show.
One day I walked into my fellow Teach for America teacher's classroom as a student sat quietly at their desks doing their morning writing exercises. And he leaned over to me and whispered, "Teaching is psychological warfare." "What?" I said. "No really, if those seven-year-olds, all twenty of them, realized that there were twenty of them, and only one of me, it would be chaos." Teaching in many ways is psychological warfare. You not only have to convince the students that you know what you were doing and you were in control, but you have to convince their parents as well as your fellow teachers and school administrators. Well, I entered teaching fully convinced that I had everything under control. I had held leadership positions, I had worked with kids, and I was comfortable speaking in front of an audience. Bring 'em on, I thought. I can handle them. But I hadn't realized that on my first day of class I didn't know where the school bathrooms were. And I never thought about when a student goes from green to yellow to red in my behavior management system, all in the first five minutes of class. And I certainly hadn't considered that I had to make up about fifty lesson plans a day because six-year-olds can only sit still for approximately three and a half minutes.
By the end of my first week of class, I wasn't as convinced that I knew what I was doing. I began to realize that my summers teaching swimming lessons hadn't really prepared me to introduce the concept of carrying numbers to six-year-olds, and being president of the mock trial team hadn't really made me ready to lead a class for six hours a day. And nothing prepared me to cope with my overwhelming dread and frustration when I finally realized in January of my first year of teaching that my classroom was out of control, and that there was no going back. Start out strict, the veteran teachers had told me, because it's a lot harder to be lenient and then try to be strict. I only fully understood the full import of that statement when I looked at my calendar during one of my fifteen minute lunch breaks and came to grips with the fact that I had to manage my class for five more months. My six-year-olds won the battle that year. They were firmly in control. But that year taught me about teaching and it also taught me a lot about myself. I went through emotional peaks, high points, and low points, sometimes all in one day. I saw my patience tested, my intellectual abilities stretched, and my temper triggered. I matured emotionally, learned how to be humble, and saw neighborhoods and met people that I might never have otherwise met. It was an experience that few people have in their life, especially so early in their life, and one that fewer will have this year if AmeriCorps funding is not restored.
Therefore, with the time I have remaining I just want to tell you one or two stories to tell you how AmeriCorps and Teach for America changed me. Jaleel. Jaleel taught me to understand the importance of setting realistic goals. See, Jaleel was an incredibly rambunctious and inquisitive child. He had difficulty sitting still, talked incessantly through my lessons, and zoomed from one activity to the next, completely forgetting what he had done or said in the previous five minutes. He was the poster boy for ADHD. So one day, when I was sitting at the board teaching subtraction, I was struck by the eerie silence that was coming from Jaleel's side of the room, and as a teacher you quickly realize that silence isn't always a good thing, and so I turned and I saw Jaleel intently focused on me with his hands sitting on his desk like a perfect little angel. He was completely oblivious to the part that probably thirty seconds earlier he had stuck two red crayons in his ears, and so he just sat at me listening, sat looking at me listening with two red crayons in his ears. I looked at him. My first instinct was to tell him to take those out of his ears. But then I was able to step back and realize he was listening. He might not have been listening in the manner that I wanted him to listen, but he was listening. And since listening was what I wanted him to do, I wiped the smile off his face and kept on teaching. Wilmonte taught me to be proud of your victories, even when they're immediately followed by defeat. See, in first grade, the farm and farm animals is one of the major themes that we address throughout the year. We read fables about animals, we learn how to spell "hen" and "cow" and pig. And we even watch a Reading Rainbow series about how a chicken comes from an egg.
Well, the day after we learned about how chickens come from an egg, as I was standing at the door greeting my students, Wilmonte, one of my quietest students came up to me and started tugging on my skirt. "Miss Milligan! Miss Milligan! I have something to show you!" I said, OK, Wilmonte, wait a second. I have to get all the other students into the classroom and collect their homework. Just please wait. And thirty seconds later, "Miss Milligan, Miss Milligan! I have something to show you." I said, "Please wait, please wait, and forgot about him completely until I had all of the classroom in. And then he came to me and he said, "Miss Milligan, Miss Milligan, I have something to show you." And out of his pocket he pulled a brown egg. This wasn't a hard-boiled egg. Brown egg. And suddenly I realized he had been listening to me speak the other day and he had been listening to the lesson I had taught. I felt very proud at the moment, because not only did he listen, but he went home, he looked through his refrigerator, he found an egg, he somehow put it in his pocket and managed to walk all of the way to school with a brown egg in his pocket without breaking it, and handed it to me. With the few moments of time I had left before my entire class got out of control, I explained to Wilmonte that some eggs turn into chickens and they stay on the farm, and some eggs don't turn into chickens and we sell them at the grocery store. But I told him that I was very, very happy that he had brought the egg to show me and I gave him a hug. Thirty seconds later, he handed the egg to Raymond, who subsequently dropped it on my carpeted floor.
In closing, I wouldn't trade my Teach for America teaching experience and my AmeriCorps experience for anything. And I certainly wouldn't be the person I am today without having gone through the trials and tribulations of teaching. Let me tell you, when I'm a full-fledged lawyer and I'm in court for the first time, I will put my psychological warfare skills to use, because when I first address the jury I won't have to calm myself that the judge and jury are sitting there in their underpants. Instead, I'll close my eyes and when I open them it won't be a bunch of adults sitting there in the box staring back at me. It'll be Wilmonte with a brown egg in his hand, Tenicia adding up three and four digit numbers, Tremaine drawing a picture of an alligator in his living room. And then as I turn to address the judge, saying "May it please the court," sitting up high on the bench will be Jaleel, dressed in a flowing black robe, with glasses pushed up on his nose and two red crayons sticking out of his ears.
(Applause)
Cynthia Skinner:
Thank you, Maureen. Our next speaker will be Penny Myers, who is a Teach for America alumni who taught in the Houston, Texas area, is currently working as an assistant principal in the Fairfax Country public school systems. Welcome, Penny. Thank you.
Penny Myers, Assistant Principal/AmeriCorps Alumni, Fairfax County Public Schools:
Good evening. My name is Penny Myers and I'm an assistant principal at Herndon High School in Fairfax County and an AmeriCorps Alum. I love my job and wonder where my career would be without Teach for America. Would I be where I am today? Twelve years ago, I was a 40-year student at the University of Virginia. With a double major in Spanish and English, I was like many college seniors. I had all this education. Now what was I going to do with it? That all changed the moment I saw a flyer announcing a program called Teach for America. Still a baby, having graduated just two groups of Corps members, the program touted that they were looking for the best and the brightest to serve in some of the nation's toughest schools. Although I was very involved with volunteering throughout high school and college, the idea of full-time national service had never occurred to me prior to learning about Teach for America. After a rigorous application process and eventual acceptance, I packed up my belongings, left the East Coast, and went to Los Angeles, California. I student-taught second grade bilingual in L.A. Unified, working with students whose native language was Spanish.
After my brief stint in L.A., I was placed in Houston, Texas. In Houston I taught first grade against students whose primary language was Spanish. At the young age of twenty-two, I was seen by the community was "Maestra," the all-knowing and wise teacher. At twenty-two? Did I know everything there was to know about being a first-grade teacher? Absolutely not, but I poured my heart and soul into my students and their community. I spent day and night learning everything there was to getting my students where they needed to be academically. It was a challenging position but I was idealistic and hard-working and knew that I could do what laid before me. I realized quickly, however, that unlike so many of the other goals I had set for myself in life, I could not do this one alone. I enlisted the help of every parent and stressed their involvement as much as I did what happened in the classroom each day. Together we were able to achieve the goal and I stray from my notes for a second to let you know about one of my students whose name was Daniel, Daniel in Spanish. Kind of like Maureen's student Jaleel, very rambunctious, a six-year-old who I thought, "Why can I not get this child to sit in a seat and do what I'm asking him to do?" So like a lot of the other teachers around me, I followed their lead and students who misbehaved in class got some of their recess taken away. And while their recess was taken away, they stood on this fence that lined our blacktop. Well, several years later I went back and Daniel was in fifth grade, and keep in mind this is a student who was born with Spanish as his native language and only learned English in first grade. So I went back to visit the students. It happened to be recess time. I went outside and Daniel was one of the first students I saw running towards me. Of course, from the fence, and his teacher was yelling at him, "Daniel, get back to the fence!" And this student had gone from being a first-grader with no English skills to being in the gifted and talented program throughout the rest of elementary school.
From Houston, I moved back to the D.C. area and secured a position teaching at Paul Junior High School in northwest Washington. The principal, a long-time supporter of Teach for America, hired me on the spot. This experience was much different than my experience in Houston, although I credited it along with my connection to Teach for America for turning me into the passionate advocate and educator I am today. In the district, I taught Spanish to junior high school students. With classes nearing forty students each, no books, no Xerox machines, and no air conditioning, it is putting it mildly to say that I was in a challenging situation. I recall my first year in 1994. D.C. was having a lot of fire code problems with their schools, so on my very first day of teaching junior high, I met my nearly forty homeroom students in the parking lot of Paul Junior High, and we had to load a bus and go to nearby Coolidge High School. What were we going to do all day, no one was able to tell me. But I certainly survived and I'm here now. What I learned from that experience is the power of one -- one positive leader, something I found in a school system many complain is failing students. I found a woman named Mrs. Middleton, the principal, a lady as passionate about kids as I am, someone who led every day by example. Have high expectations of yourself and of your students. Despite the conditions I described earlier, we created a positive learning environment for kids at Paul Junior High and our students achieved. They achieved because that was what we expected them to do, and we did our part in assisting students with resources, positive role models, and outstanding instruction led by caring and empathetic teachers who strive to remember each day that even our toughest students are someone's children.
I am here tonight to say that without Teach for America I would not be where I am today. And that statement is true for every one of the more than five thousand Teach for America alumni. We are all better for having served America's neediest public schools, better teachers and principals, better doctors and lawyers, better legislators, and perhaps even better moms and dads. Teach for America has worked very hard over the past thirteen years to recruit a more diverse Corps and to better train the young people it selects. It provides a service to its communities across the country, from right here in Washington D.C. to the Mississippi Delta and the Rio Grande Valley to Oakland, California. During a time of national crisis with the events of 9/11 behind us, yet with so many of our brave young men and women overseas, we as a nation need to continue to cultivate service in our young people. We need the continued support of AmeriCorps to keep placing the best and brightest college graduates with their idealism and hard work ethic in our nation's toughest schools, where they are needed the most. The result, an ever-growing Corps of Teach for America alumni who will advocate for our public schools, its children, and their communities in whatever profession they ultimately choose.
I have worked in the public school system for the past eleven years and in two AmeriCorps communities, Washington D.C. and Houston. I know our young people well. Those of us in public education, in the trenches so to speak, are doing our part to cultivate the American ideals of patriotism, citizenship, and service in our young people. It is critical that AmeriCorps receives the necessary additional funding so that its programs like Teach for America are able to operate at the greatest level possible, giving our young people an opportunity to serve and impact hundreds of communities across the United States. Thank you.
Cynthia Skinner:
Thank you, Penny. Our next speaker will be Jason Kamras, who is a teacher and AmeriCorps alumni still teaching at his original school, Sousa Middle School here in D.C. Welcome Jason.
Jason Kamras, Teacher/AmeriCorps Alumni, Sousa Middle School:
Good evening. My name is Jason Kamras. My relationship with AmeriCorps stems from my service as a Teach for America Corps member. Through this program I was hired to teach mathematics at John Philip Sousa middle school in southeast Washington D.C. in the fall of 1996. I'm proud to say that seven years later, I am still teaching math at Sousa Middle School in southeast Washington D.C. This fall, I had the uniquely inspiring and humbling privilege of helping prepare some of my original sixth graders for their first days of college. I hope that my tenure at Sousa will serve as an example of the long-term impact that AmeriCorps programs have in communities across this nation.
I applied to Teach for America in 1996 because I was inspired by its goal of providing every student regardless of socioeconomic status with the opportunity to attain an excellent education. I'm pleased to report to you today that because of AmeriCorps and Teach for America I have had the opportunity to effect real, quantifiable change in the traditional public school setting. As evidence of this, I point to a series of innovative mathematics initiatives that we undertook last year at Sousa that cut in half the number of students scoring below basic on the Stanford 9 achievement test, D.C.'s annual standardized test for its K through 12 students. Instrumental to our success were the effects of Sarah Godlove, a 2002 Teach for America Corps member.
Let me briefly tell you about two other Teach for America Corps members at Sousa. Sava Bireta (sp?) is a 2002 graduate of Stanford University who began teaching with me last year at Sousa. Sava shares her love of literature with her students as their English teacher. She made a tremendous impact at Sousa during her first year of teaching, contributing to significant gains on the reading portion of the Stanford 9 achievement test. Megan Douglas is a 2003 Corps member who just began her two-year commitment yesterday. Megan is one of eight first-year Teach for America Corps members who are serving as special education teachers in the district, meeting a critical need in the system. Her enthusiasm, professionalism, and high level of commitment to her work are already apparent on just this, her second day as a teacher. There are over 120 Teach for America Corps members like me and Sava currently serving in the District of Columbia public school system.
But Teach for America's strength lies not only in its ability to impact students directly in the classroom, but also in its ability to impact the larger educational process through its alumni. I'd like to tell you about three alumni who are no longer in the classroom but are still impacting children's lives in meaningful ways. Nerav Vacaria taught with me at Sousa from 1997 through 1999. Nerav is now a third-year medical student at Harvard Medical School and is working to design a public health curriculum for middle-school students. Julia McCouta taught high school science in New Orleans as a Corps member then went on to found the Seed Public Charter School, the nation's first charter public boarding school. Now Julie serves the students, families, and teachers of the D.C. public schools as a member of the D.C. Board of Education. She was elected with an overwhelming majority after a campaign led by a group of Teach for America alumni who wanted to foster positive systemic change in the D.C. public schools. And finally, Tracy Wright was with me in the 1996 Teach for America D.C. Corps. She now serves as the principal of Nall Elementary School, a D.C. public school. Before becoming principal this year, Tracy served as the vice-principal of Simon Elementary School, one of the highest performing transformation schools in the district.
As these individuals demonstrate, Teach for America is impacting children's' lives in a myriad of ways. There are now 3,300 first and second year Corps members and over 7,000 alumni who are building a movement to eliminate the achievement gap in today's schools. One way in which AmeriCorps supports this movement is through its program of education awards. I was fortunate enough to use my award to help pay for tuition, for a Master's program in education that I completed at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2000. This Master's program helped me return to Sousa a stronger, more skilled educator. Let me close by taking a moment to tell you about one individual who I consider to be the most inspiring young adult I've ever met and the personification of why I teach. His name is Wendell Jefferson. Wendell was in my very first sixth-grade class in 1996. I was quickly impressed with Wendell, as he would routinely defeat me in my weekly chess tournaments despite being only eleven years old. After middle school, Wendell went on to Banneker high school, D.C.'s flagship academic high school. But after his sophomore year, he decided to transfer to Eastern, not because the work was too hard or the competition was too tough at Banneker, but because his younger brother who had begun to stray from his family, needed more attention. I was deeply moved by this, particularly because I have two brothers myself. Wendell and I worked closely throughout high school, first on geometry, then chemistry, and finally on the SAT's. His modest background and the crime that existed in his neighborhood, never took hold of him and never stopped him from focusing on his future, and I'm truly proud to tell you that Wendell began his first day of classes at Morehouse college yesterday.
(Applause)
It has been a true honor to work with Wendell and the 800 other students who have entered my classroom since the fall of 1996. I thank Teach for America and AmeriCorps for giving me the opportunity to be a part of these students' lives. I urge all members of Congress on behalf of the nation's children to continue to support these programs with your voices and your votes. Thank you.
John Kalafatas, Moderator:
Before we continue with testimonies from our Teach for America cohort, we have a special guest that I'm very excited to introduce who's stopping by the add his voice to the testimony, Harris Wofford, who is a founder of the Peace Corps, a former U.S. Senator, a former head of the Corporation for National Service, a leader of America's Promise and a mentor to probably dozens and dozens of leaders in the national service moment. Thank you, Harris, for coming. Please welcome Harris Wofford.
Harris Wofford, Co-Chair, America's Promise:
You're on clockwork and I came to hear you. Army Air Corps World War II salute and our hours on America's Promise and AmeriCorps, seven o'clock tomorrow night, maybe the same room. Is it? Good. I look forward to hearing you. I loved hearing that voice just heard.
John Kalafatas, Moderator:
Thanks.
(Applause)
Cynthia Skinner:
OK, our last voice from Teach for America is Chad Rubalcaba, who is a math teacher at Sidwell Friends, who taught here in the Washington D.C. area. Welcome, Chad. Thank you.
(Applause)
Chad Rubalcaba, Teacher/AmeriCorps Alumni, Sidwell Friends:
Hello, everybody. My name is Chad Rubalcaba and I am a 2000 Corps member for Teach for America here in D.C. and I'm still a teacher, and I'm sure at this point you've probably heard a lot of testimonies from teachers and this particular time of the year when for most of us school just started and I can speak, I'm just going to speak for myself here, I have about ten billion other things that I also need to get done. But this is something that I considered very important and I think that the fact that so many teachers came out here to deliver their testimonies is a very powerful statement for how strongly we all feel about this, about AmeriCorps, about Teach for America, and what the experience has really meant for us. So, for all the teachers, thank you so much for coming out here to show your support.
How did I find Teach for America? Well, I don't want to say it was an accident, but I entered the job market back when the economy was still good and before the Internet bubble had popped. I was an economics major coming out of a Midwestern university and it seemed like the road from college to Wall Street was like a very smooth, well-paved superhighway and it seemed like most of my peers were in the express lanes, and I guess I applied to a couple of those jobs but my heart just wasn't in it, and I had a friend who was a Chicago public school teacher and she sensed my lack of interest in that and she actually walked all over campus and found a flyer for Teach for America and she handed it to me and she said, "Here, this is for your soul. Do it." So I went to the information session and liked what I heard, so I signed on. Teach for America picked me up. They saw a potential in me that maybe I don't think I would've saw in myself, and I can honestly say that if from college to Wall Street was the superhighway, going to Teach for America was like on a dirt, mountain road with a bunch of boulders and potholes and landmines and every other obstacle you can imagine.
It wasn't easy. For starters, Teach for America was advertising these jobs, work in the inner city, they need you, they need you, there's a huge shortage. And you had to apply. They weren't just giving the jobs away, you had to apply. I did that and I got accepted and they assigned me to teach at Eastern Senior High School here in the D.C. which is probably less than a mile from where we are today. I was assigned to teach secondary math there, just like Jason, and I just want to give Jason a little shout-out here because he is legendary in D.C. Teach for America corps and I feel very honored to be able to follow him. It's a tough act to follow, but I'll do my best. In its heyday, Eastern was the largest public school in the district. It had over 1,600 students and it had a faculty of over a hundred. And it had a reputation, a lot of its reputation was built behind its music programs, a reputation that persists to this day. Eastern is known for its marching band and for its choirs, which routinely perform at very grandiose events throughout the city like presidential inaugurations or the Christmas in Washington celebration every year. By the time I got there, Eastern was well-past its prime. I started teaching in the fall of 2000. Enrollment had fallen below 1,100 students, but on the best of days maybe 800 students showed up for classes. The hallways and classrooms inside were dilapidated and poorly lit. Paint was peeling from the walls. Mice and other vermin scurried through the halls when the children weren't around, and most telling, student achievement was abysmally low. In math, close to 90% of the student population tested below basic on the Stanford 9 Achievement Test, which roughly translated into a fourth or fifth grade proficiency level, and you're talking about high school students, ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth graders who have a fourth or fifth-grade knowledge of math. On the third floor of the building, through the cracked window of the teacher's prep room, next to the copy machine that never had any paper and rarely worked, and you could see the Capital Dome, and the cruel irony of this, the fact that our poor school which was so close to copious human intellectual and financial resources of our Federal government, that irony was not lost on our staff or on the students.
Yet, in spite of these things, hope remained at Eastern Senior High School. The run-down on the inside, the building's façade was beautifully maintained. The choir continued to sing, the band continued to march, and a lot of hard-working dedicated teachers came to school every day with a commitment to teaching in spite of these challenges. Like so many new teachers, I began my career in the hardest, most challenging situation. Fortunately, I never had to look too far for inspiration. I saw it every day in the eyes of my students. Within the first couple of months of teaching, I remember hearing either on television or a commercial the adage "Those who can't do, teach," and I flew into this irrational, crazy rage, and I'd say how dare you, and how could you possibly say like that. I was like the Hulk. I turned into this, instead of this big green thing, I turned into this crazy chalk-wielding monster. It was crazy. But more than that, I thought that it really made me sad to hear about these things because I thought, well, gosh, it makes me sad to think that the art and craft of teaching has been denigrated so much that people feel sarcastic and cynical enough to say something like that. It really hurt my feelings, and I can honestly say that I never worked harder, never in my life have I worked harder than in those two years at Eastern, and I'm also willing to bet that no job will ever be as challenging. Maybe I was over-programmed.
In addition to teaching, grading and lesson-planning, I ran after-school tutoring sessions, I coached the ski team. Yes, D.C. public schools has a ski program. And I helped kids with their college applications and SAT preparation, and plus you have that additional challenge of looking dignified when you have chalk everywhere. Maybe that's just a math thing. Other Teach for America teachers at my school were heads of department. Talking about people that had two or three years of teaching experience, and yet they were empowered to be the heads of their departments. They began advanced placement classes which had never been offered at Eastern. They organized field trips. I had a colleague that organized a trip all the way to Princeton, New Jersey, if you can imagine taking a group of about a hundred Eastern students clear out to New Jersey. And the same peer of mine also acquired substantial grants to purchase new science equipment for her outdated and dysfunctional science labs, and I think that's a testament to the fact that once you get to these schools and once you see the conditions in which these children are required to learn, you understand how much can be done to improve their education, and that also sort of solidifies you commitment. Once you see the conditions, there's really nothing that you wouldn't do. Every good teacher I know adamantly insists on being fair, consistent, and objective but we all have our favorites, too.
I can honestly say that Quiana was probably one of my favorite students. I taught her for two years, first in algebra and then in geometry. Math was never easy for her, by her own admission, and she had a reputation around the school, amongst the teachers and staff, for being difficult, which should've been my first clue that I was going to absolutely adore her. You always like the difficult ones. After receiving a not so great grade during the first quarter she started coming into school after school for extra help, and soon she was one of the top performing students in my class. Later that year she wrote me this beautiful letter and I've saved it because it means so much to me as a teacher and she said, "I used to hate math. I guess I just needed a teacher that would sit down and work with me and that was you," and I thought, huh. Well, I guess the best teaching isn't necessarily flashy or grand or memorable. Maybe it's just something that you do. I know that it's maybe not always gimmicky but it does always take a lot of time and it just struck me as always the things that you think they're never watching that really stand out in their minds. I think one of the saddest stories that I ever heard was the story about a student of mine named Alicia. She came into my room one day after school and she told me that she had been suspended, and Alicia was not that kind of student at all. I mean, there's a profile that you come to recognize and Alicia didn't fit that. She was a good student, hard worker, and she was also involved in the band, and when I asked her what had happened she promptly burst into tears, which made me feel awful, and then she told me what had been going on in her home life. She had been basically charged with taking care of her infant brother because her mom had to work two, sometimes three jobs in order to support the family, so she was living with no adult supervision and little food and she had been sleeping on the floor of her room because her bed had actually been pawned to help pay rent. And the stress of living in these circumstances just caused her to snap one day. My response, I got together with another Teach for America Corps member. We got her a bed. We loaded it up in my truck and we took it to her house in southeast Washington, and we set it up for her, we left, and I think the greatest feeling that I had coming out of her house was that I wish I could've done so much more, and that's a feeling and a sentiment that I attribute directly to Teach for America and the compassion that they really instilled with me, and the desire to serve others. OK, I'm almost done here.
Since I've taught in inner-city schools for a couple of years, people often assume that I know what's wrong with them. "What can we do to fix our public schools?" they ask. I always feel frustrated by this question because I don't know the answer. The problems at Eastern seem so enormous that it's hard to identify one, two, or even ten things as a solution. I don't know if the solution lies in standardized testing or teacher certification but I do know that Teach for America works. TFA demands that its Corps members become intimately involved in the communities they serve. A huge source of inspiration for me during my experience was listening to the stories and successes of my fellow Corps members. We celebrated each others' small victories and found solace in the knowledge that we're slowly creating a movement which would continue to grow as more and more people made the commitment to serve others through organizations like TFA. I left Eastern after my two-year commitment with TFA, in a move that some of my colleagues regarded as high treason.
I took a job teaching in a private school in northwest Washington. But I think they misunderstood the profound impact that my two years at Eastern had on me as a person and as a professional. A deeply respected colleague and friend of mine told me that once you've made the commitment to inner city education, you never leave it. I continue to advocate for urban education and I helped my students, who are mostly privileged, to understand that there is another part of D.C. that they don't see in tourism guides and textbooks. By doing so, I hope to instill the same values of service and compassion in the next generation of AmeriCorps volunteers. Thank you.
John Kalafatas, Moderator:
Thank you. I'd like to thank all the members of the Teach for America group. Vee Lindsay, Dana Ross, Maureen Milligan, Penny Myers, Jason Kamras, Chad Rubalcaba, all of you for raising your voice in support of America. And hearing from all these teachers reminds me of a quote from Christa McAuliffe, the teacher who tragically died in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. And during her interview for that spot, she was asked, "Why are you a teacher?" And she said, and I might not have this exactly right, but she said something to the effect of, "I'm a teacher because every day through my kids I get to touch the future." And that's why teaching is so important. I also want to point out a few themes from these testimonies, that speak to the value of AmeriCorps. First is that AmeriCorps members work on this country’s most challenging and important issues and problems, in this case, public education. Second, that AmeriCorps members add real capacity to community-based organizations and schools, capacities in terms of not just bodies but expertise and energy, lots of other things that these community-based organizations might not otherwise have. And then, finally, and I think one of the most powerful themes from these testimonies for me is that going through a year of national service experience can spark a lifetime of service. So many people who become AmeriCorps members go on to a lifetime of public service, service in community-based organizations and things like that. And I think most of us who hear these testimonies know that if you look at the cost benefit analysis of AmeriCorps, just the impact in that year that AmeriCorps serves makes it worth it, but if you think of the lifetime value, the lifetime return on investment of so many of these Corps members who spend the rest of their lives serving others, the investment to me seems like a no-brainer.
HOUR 34
I think we can now announce that we’ve moved into our next hour of testimony, our thirty-fourth hour of testimony.
(Applause)
It’s terrific, thank you. OK, next I am pleased to introduce Gene Sofer, who is part of the Save America Coalition, who will then introduce the next speaker. Welcome, Gene.
(Applause)
Gene Sofer, Save AmeriCorps Coalition:
Hi, my name is Gene Sofer, I had a small role in the creation of AmeriCorps, some number of years ago now, and had been slated, actually, to speak in this time period, but have volunteered, as it were, to give up my time period, for somebody who I think is actually a much more eloquent spokesperson for national service than I, and someone who fits much more closely into the theme of service and school and education, so I would like at this time to introduce to you my son, Nelson Sofer, who participated this past spring in the City Year Young Heroes Program in Washington D.C. Nelson.
(Applause)
Nelson Sofer, Young Hero, City Year:
Hello. My name is Nelson Sofer. I am fourteen years old and I live in Washington D.C. I am an eighth grader at Capitol Hill Day School. Last winter and spring I participated in the City Year Young Heroes Program. I decided to join after five Corps members visited Capitol Day School. They explained what Young Heroes was. They told us that as Young Heroes, we had to commit to serve fourteen Saturdays and help the community in some way, shape or form. I remember being intrigued by the idea; while I had participated in walks for various charities and performed good works through my synagogue, I had never been involved in a program that lasted almost four months. I signed up and I'm glad I did. The day I started, there were over seventy kids from all over the Washington D.C. area. There were kids from public schools and private schools, white kids, black kids, and Hispanic kids; small kids and large kids; friendly kids, and not so friendly kids; kids of different religions and kids of different ideas and opinions. However, despite our differences, the Young Heroes stuck together. Every Saturday morning we would always start the day with physical training. Physical training, or P.T. as it is called, is to pump everyone up and get ready for the day by performing movements involving our legs, arms, and voice. Then we would read the weekly briefing, together that would describe the activity for the day. Washington, D.C. and the world face great problems.
Young Heroes learned about issues that most kids our age don’t learn about. For example, we learned the life of a homeless person, the problems facing new immigrants to the US, problems facing people with AIDS and HIV, and problems facing people who are handicapped. We had guest speakers for most of the activities we did, who told us of the life stories, going into great depth, and answering every question we could think of before even asked it. They inspired us the most. We spent time with senior citizens, and helped comfort them and give them company. One of our biggest achievements was turning a very run down Langden Park and community center into a health environment for kids and adults of all ages. The park was cleaned through determination and energy from kids and the team leaders who supported us in every way possible. We started with seventy kids, and ended with around forty. The kids that left in the early weeks never gave the Young Hero Program to flourish or a chance, and threw it out the window before it even began. The kids who left halfway learned morals and lessons, yet they did not live the program to its fullest. Those of us who stayed to the end learned what many kids would not learn for a long time or not learn at all. Those of us who stayed have a greater sense of community that we gained through the program; we learned tolerance, patience, courtesy, perseverance, spirit, determination, energy, and the importance of serving our community. But if you didn’t learn any of those values, you learned respect.
This is by far the most important value to learn from the program. From this experience we now respect people of different race, religion, and background. We know what not to joke about and how to be serious. But also, how to have fun. We all live under one tree together. And no matter how you look at it, no matter the differences or the problems that occur, no matter the race, size, or how smart you are, we are all human beings, and we must respect each other. If you have a community, you must learn the respect or the community will fail. With respect, you can touch any limit you want. I want to do Young Heroes again, and I hope that other kids will make the decision and get the opportunity to do this program that has taught me so much; helped Congress and the President help to save AmeriCorps. Thank you.
(Applause)
John Kalafatas, Moderator:
Thank you Gene and Nelson. Another powerful story that can’t be denied. Thank you so much. Before I introduce our next speaker, I want to remind people of a couple of things about our testimony this week. First, for more information and other ways to get involved, in addition to the powerful way you’re getting involved tonight, you can always go to www.saveAmeriCorps.org more information about the testimonies, about what’s going on in Congress, articles and editorials, and ways to get involved, most importantly, I think, is the petition. You can go online and sign the petition or you can do it right out here at the registration table. It’s a petition asking the President and Congress to approve the $100 million in emergency funding for AmeriCorps for this year. I think, if I remember correctly, at this point earlier today, we had about 43-44,000 people sign that, our goal is to have 100,000 people sign it by the end of the week. So if you haven’t signed it, go ahead and hit that website, and for you folks listening to us over the web right now, open another window in your Web browser and you can go right to that website while still listening to us, and go ahead and sign the petition, and encourage your friends to do so. And by the way, if you’re listening, I want to welcome you and thank you for joining us. Hi, Mom. And that’s the story there.
OK. Next we have some folks associated with the National School and Community Corps, and first up, I believe, is Mr. Martin Friedman, who is founder and Executive Director of Education Works. Welcome.
(Applause)
Martin Friedman, Founder and Executive Director, EducationWorks :
Thank you, Jim. It is really our privilege to be here and it’s great for us to follow both Nelson and to follow Teach for America. We have a lot in common with Teach for America, working in urban schools, and yet there are a lot of things that are different about us. There are eight of us here tonight, including someone who is close to Nelson in age. We actually brought along another student who is participating in our programs who is twelve years old, who will speak a little bit later. What I want to do first is set the context for what we are all about, what we do, so that each of the persons then who comes up can talk about their particular roles, and their experiences, and what they have done.
The National School and Community Corps began really in response to the National Community Service Act of 1990, signed into law by the 41st President, George Bush, and in that law was an opportunity to create what were called "model demonstration programs." Eight of them were funded in the first year of that, and the National School and Community Corps was one of those along with City Year, Georgia Peach Corps, Delta Service Corps, and a few others. We started back then and that was before Mr. Clinton became President, and that’s when a lot of these models were developed. In a second year, 15 national demonstration projects were established, and they were all in place when Mr. Clinton became President, and AmeriCorps then started. They were, to a large degree, the foundation for this. Who started National School and Community Corps, I think is something worth telling here. The National School and Community Corps was created by 120 people in the state of New Jersey. Those people were from Camden, Atlantic City, Newark, Patterson, actually twelve different cities across the state; they were teachers, principals, nurses, parents, business leaders, students, people involved in urban education, all of whom shared a common thought, which was "we need to do much, much better than what we’re doing now," and those 120 people created a program which they believed would provide something that schools needed.
A hallmark of the program, in their view, was a flexible resource for urban schools in recognition of the fact that not all schools are alike, not all of their needs are the same, but yet there can be some commonality in resources provided for them. And that’s what they did, and that’s where this program came from, one of the first and foremost principles was that this program needed to work in schools in cities that are themselves diverse, so that in those cities, in the schools that had absolutely the least to offer, in the neighborhoods with the fewest opportunities for kids, and given that starting point, one of the things we focused upon was being there for kids when school wasn’t. So from 1993 on, we have been running after school programs, summer programs, programs on Thanksgiving Day and the day after, programs on weekends, involving kids in service in their community, as one of the hallmarks of what the National School and Community Corps does. We have been doing this now for a decade, and we have served close to 200,000 students, and involved tens of thousands of adults in our programs. The programs are incredibly varied but there are a couple things which are very common across most of our sites. We focus on literacy, and that includes not just literacy for young people but adult literacy as well; we focus on service learning, engaging students and their families in service throughout communities; and we focus on the arts. And we focus on those three things in particular because each one in its own right, and then the three of them in various combinations has the power, really, to transform lives and neighborhoods in very, very strong and important ways, and what we do is of course not unique to the National School and Community Corps, the kind of thing found in many, many programs.
We are currently at our largest strength in the city of Philadelphia, where we have been since 1994; we’ve also operated in New York City; Baltimore; Oakland, California; Fort Worth, Texas; and Wilmington, Delaware. That’s a little bit about the context for who we are. Let me turn to, then, some of the people we’d like to invite up here to talk about their particular experiences and also say that we’re going to take a break in the middle to show a video tape. We have some school staff who are not able to join us because school is in session, for them to come this week was really hard, but they wanted to be a part of this in some way, so we videotaped them, we brought that videotape with us. So, let me get started by inviting, looking at the people who are here, let me invite Kelly Strunk, to come up here and talk about her experience. And while Kelly’s coming up, let me also point out, because Kelly is an example of this, that a number of the people who are here as part of our group with the National School and Community Corps, actually have other AmeriCorps ties, not just through our program, in fact one of the persons speaking goes back to his days in the Peace Corps, his own experiences, so they may be covering their experiences with AmeriCorps beyond the NSCC. Kelly.
(Applause)
Kelly Strunk, Training Coordinator, National School and Community Corps:
Good evening everyone. My name is Kelly Strunk. I am the training coordinator for the National School and Community Corps. I wasn’t expecting to come up right now, so
(Laughter)
-- I can’t remember whether I was a freshman or a sophomore, but I do know that I was at the University of Pittsburgh, and it a beautiful morning. There was a slight chill in the air, which leads me to believe it must have been the fall. And there was quite a buzz about campus. I know there was a huge stage with several large loudspeakers, and blasting from those speakers was the song, "Don’t Stop Thinkin’ About Tomorrow," by Fleetwood Mac. There were local residents, professors, students, people from all walks of life, crowding around, trying to get a closer look to see what was going on. Former Vice-President Al Gore was coming to campus to tell us about a service opportunity that would help us pay for school.
Now I remember my mom taking me inside and saying, "Hey, Kell, there’s this thing you can do, and it’ll help you pay for school, and you just have to give up a year of your life to do it." And I said, "who’s going to pay for that year of my life, to live?
(Laughter)
" and she said, "Well, I don’t really know a whole lot about it, so you just go to school and get it started, and you’ll figure it out from there." So here I was, like I said, a freshman or sophomore at Pitt, and I'm listening to Al Gore talk about this thing he likened into the domestic Peace Corps, work that would be done here in the US, so I paid little mind to what he was saying, I was 19 at the time, and more concerned with College Algebra and helping myself, and more concerned than I was with helping others, especially if it was someone I didn’t know. Almost nine years have passed since my brief encounter with AmeriCorps, and in this time I've been involved with various service organizations, I've participated in the World Smart program of "Up With People," internationally, volunteered in day schools for school-age children in Boulder, Colorado; where I actually received my undergraduate degree; worked in a women’s crisis center in Potstown, Pennsylvania; and I even instructed English as a Second Language classes for adults in Philadelphia, PA.
Service in any form is rewarding, or at least that has been my experience thus far. Although I truly enjoy the work I did with each of these organizations, I was involved only so long as there wasn’t something better to do. Until I found an advertisement in the Philadelphia Enquirer, for an AmeriCorps program called the National School and Community Corps. It looked like a great service opportunity, difficult but structured; after further research, I learned that I would be involved in extensive training throughout my term of service, and I would be placed in an environment that was very new to me. Sounded like just the challenge I was looking for. It was my first experience in an urban school setting, Dr. Tanner G. Guthrie Elementary School, or "Guthrie," as students and staff fondly refer to it, is located on Diamond Street between 15th and 16th Streets in the heart of North Central Philadelphia. Temple University is located approximately two blocks east as you cross over Broad Street. The school is average size; there are about two classrooms of each grade, and each class consists of 20-28 children. Except for the pre-kindergarten and kindergarten classes, each class is staffed with one teacher. Some classes are mixed, which means they consist of students from two different grade levels, such as third and fourth grade, or fourth and fifth grade. Most of the children who attend Guthrie live within a three block area west and north of the school.
As an AmeriCorps member, I served at Guthrie for eight months. My job description changed with the day, but for the most part I was a classroom assistant. Many days, I worked with children in the third and fourth grade class, individually or in groups, practicing reading and math skills. I found that most of the children in class were unable to read above a first grade level. Their math skills were equally low. Students walked in late every day without their homework, the books that children were using were falling apart, and were dated from before I was a third grader. Children fought over pencils, and were scolded by the teacher for taking more than one piece of drawing paper, specialty classes like Music and Library, classes that had been most important to me in my time as a student, were cut because the school could not afford to pay a teacher. Throughout the course of the day, a fight broke out in the classroom, in the lunchroom, and in the school yard, inside the school, the halls emanated a potpourri of yesterday’s lunch, urine, mold, and sweat. With a flick of the bathroom light, cockroaches dropped from ceiling tiles and scurried back in the holes in the walls. The outside of the school was littered with trash, cigarette butts, empty beer and soda cans, broken glass, and used condoms; this wasn’t the elementary school I remembered as a child.
I was but one member of a team of eleven. The largest team in the National School and Community Corps. The work we did was testimony to the power of community involvement. It was just one resource available to a school reform wish list stretching from here to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I am currently enrolled in a dual Master’s program at Bryn Mawr College in Social Services, and Law and Social Policy. My decision to apply to this graduate program is a direct result of my experiences as a Corps member and now as a training coordinator in the National School and Community Corps. In a fashion more grand than any civics lesson in any social studies book in this country, I learned the value of service and the role it can play in the life of a US citizen. My term as a Corps member taught me that I can effect change, but more than that, it taught me that I must effect change. Now more than ever, Margaret Meade’s words ring true for me, when she said, "never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it’s the only thing that ever has."
AmeriCorps has had a direct impact on me as a citizen, a 27-year old woman who grew up believing that I was just another apathetic young member of American society, someone who didn’t vote, involved myself only if it was in my best interest, and blamed my Baby-Booming parents for my life circumstances, but these words no longer describe me, or you, or thousands of AmeriCorps alumni. Without AmeriCorps programs, American citizens will have less opportunity to be actively and directly engaged with other American citizens working to build better, stronger communities. Thank you.
(Applause)
John Kalafatas, Moderator:
Like many other AmeriCorps programs, we are committed to hiring many of our staff from amongst our own alumni. Kelly is an example of that, as is our next speaker, Kim Wharton.
(Applause)
Kim Wharton, AmeriCorps Alumni, National School and Community Corps:
Good evening. Not only will I be speaking to you today as a former sports specialist, that’s what I am, as an alumni of the National School and Community Corps but will also be speaking to you as a parent. And my daughter’s name is Lorraine and you’re going to hear Lorraine’s story, in a few moments. I left her back in Philadelphia because she’s too expensive to bring on trips like this. She’s 16, so I left her where she’s happy, with her radio. AmeriCorps, service with a purpose. Oft times, as children our parents told us that we were precious, wonderful, talented, extraordinary, and special, that we were created, and born, to fulfill some grand plan in life, reminding us that we should not take life for granted, but to appreciate all that we have received and to give selflessly because of our many blessings. Our grandparents, aunts and uncles, they told us stories of days of old, stories that will fuel our search for knowledge and propel us to even greater works of service for humanity. As children, we were even further guided by teachers, administrators, even clergy, those that deemed children important enough to sacrifice their time and efforts. However, the reality is, and sadly stated, that many of today’s youth were not greeted with kind words as children, they were not encouraged in the home, they were not loved in the home, and they were not respected in their home. These children become frustrated, angry, and lost. They have no sense of pride, hope, direction, they have no sense of purpose.
AmeriCorps national service programs provide venues for children to engage in activities that will assist them in finding their purpose. These programs provide support to parents to help them find more productive ways of relating to their children. National service programs build character and develop children into productive, confident, and proud human beings. Ladies and gentlemen, this is what I do. This is what we do. This is our purpose. AmeriCorps programs mold not only children but adults as well, giving them both purpose and a sense of belonging and ownership. Both will walk away from our programs fulfilled, knowing that their selfless acts of kindness and love help them to make someone feel special. Frankly, stated again, this is what we do. And this is how I joined the AmeriCorps program: my daughter was a fourth grade student at the John Greenleaf Whittier Elementary School in Philadelphia. She came home excited, with this permission slip, that she wanted to be in a tutorial program for reading at the school. She read well, she comprehended well, but she was excited, so I didn’t see the problem, you know, I said, "why not." As time went on, she would bring little books home, and she would bring a slip home that I had to sign, she had to read so many minutes, and I signed it, and each time, she was more excited than the time before. At the end of the program, they wanted the parents and the extended family members, and whomever was the support of the child, to come to the school, this is the culminating event, they had pizza, they had sodas, they had certificates for the children, the children were happy, their parents were happy because the children were happy, the AmeriCorps members were happy because their parents were happy because the children were happy because the children were happy because they received certificates; everybody was just happy. This was just a happy day. I was impressed because they were in uniform; they looked professional, they act professional; and their approach to the parents were sincere.
In anything that you do, I believe you should be sincere, and you should have a passion for what you do. They had a passion. Lorraine’s tutor was Mr. Saeed (sp?) and again, going back to Lorraine’s story, she talked about Mr. Saeed (sp?) all the time. And after speaking to him, I found out that she was, again, she was an excellent reader, she comprehended well, she just talked too much. Again, Lorraine is now 16, she was on the Honor Roll, she just entered her Junior year in high school; I'm very proud of my daughter. When I perform my service, I take my daughter with me. When we cleaned yards, I took my daughter with me. When we marched down 33rd Street, I took my daughter with me. She needed to see what was important to me, therefore it was important to her. As it stands now, I spoke to Saeed (sp?) a year ago and he used his ed-award to go back to school again, to give to the community. This is what we do, we give back. We give of ourselves, we give of our time, we give of our effort, because we know there’s a grand plan, there’s something greater than us. We’re selfless people, we believe in our children, we believe in our future, we mold people, we mold children, and we appreciate everybody that comes in contact with what we do. That’s just who we are. We’re an AmeriCorps program. In conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, I implore you, please remember the countless hours, that both children and members spent in service; remember the lives that were changed because of a Corps member; remember just because somebody cared, this child’s life was touched. AmeriCorps programs are not just special because they foster service; they’re special because they serve with a purpose, and that purpose is shaping America’s future. We need the funding, we need the bodies, we need the voices, ladies and gentlemen, let’s get out there, let’s get things done, and do this for our children, do this for America. Thank you.
(Applause)
John Kalafatas, Moderator:
Thank you, Kim. We not only hire our own, we sometimes hire someone else’s AmeriCorps alum. So I’d like to invite Ricardo Martino to come up.
(Applause)
Ricardo Martino, National School and Community Corps:
Buenos noches. Good evening, and again my name is Ricardo Martino, and I'm a staff team leader with the National School and Community Corps; I'm also a parent of two, and a child of blue-collar working parents, Spanish-speaking, of course, and just to tell you a little bit about my first two years of service was with the Just Serve AmeriCorps in Philadelphia, and in that time, I worked a lot and did a lot of things, but I'll explain that a little bit later. I continued my service at my site as a staff member for another eight years before becoming staff team leader with the National School and Community Corps. I joined AmeriCorps at a point in my life where I really had no clear direction. I was in college, pursuing a degree, but also I was newly divorced and broke. So I found this opportunity that had a living wage; it wasn’t a lot of money; it had an ed-award so I could pay off my student loans and it ended, so it ended after a year, so I could go back to college and finish. The only thing that happened was, that I didn’t count on, was I would fall in love with the children that I was serving, and that’s how come I ended up being a staff member for the next eight years, and then being part of the national service.
I also found out while working that I really had a talent for working with young people. Patience, sternness, and humor were all part of my style, and everything that I had in me up to that point I was able to contribute to helping children. I feel that the children and families that I've served have benefited greatly from my service. I've taught children how to cook, because at one time I had a whole bunch of jobs; one of them was cooking at an Italian restaurant, so I was able to teach children how to cook, prepare for a job, do a job search, check a pond for bacterial levels, that was very interesting
(Laughter)
, play a musical instrument, because in my younger years I was also a musician, I had long hair and tiger shirts and all kinds of things; and also taking urban kids camping. Now if you ever want a fun experience, take urban kids camping. Some of these kids are used to sleeping with gunshots, sleeping with arguments, domestic violence outside their doors, and sometimes inside their doors, but you take them to the woods, and they hear one crack they’re inside their tents. I've also taken kids in some cultural trips to Puerto Rico, to create some kind of cultural identity; and these are children that have some heritage but they’ve never been to the island, some of their parents have never been. I've also tutored, and mentored, and counseled, hundreds of children; I have attended plays, birthday parties, youth detention centers, and hospitals, and on a very rare occasion, I've attended some funerals.
My children also became part of the national service program, so when I was accepted into the AmeriCorps, they not only got me, but they got my two children. They were also pretty young at that time. My son now is about 17, and he used to say that "how come it’s service if you’re making me do it?"
(Laughter)
And then he a knucklehead for a couple years, just like most boys, and all of a sudden last year, I found out, he’s in his senior year of high school now, he’s the Vice President of the Student Council, and he’s on the wrestling team; and I just never knew, I was waiting for something to happen all these years, and all of a sudden it just happened, and I asked him, "what happened?" And he said, "all those things you took me to allowed me to be able to take some initiative in myself, and have some courage, and actually do what I wanted to do," and who knew -- I never knew. So as a parent I'm very proud of him, and I just wanted to say that. I still continue to have very positive lasting relationships with the participants. A few of them are now adults, and they still remain in contact with me, and like, some of them are doing service in the Armed Services, they’re in Iraq, and they actually write to me, I write them back, and some of the letters are very scary, so I make it a point to write back to them. So some of those things that I've done and some of the children that I've worked with are going to be with me for a very long time.
Without AmeriCorps, I would probably not have a career in serving, or working with young people. I was able to find that I had some kind of talent in working with young people, am able to continue that and keep going, even through all the hardships, because it’s not easy working with children, it’s not easy working with a system that doesn’t appreciate everybody that works with children. And it’s been very difficult, but I feel that if it’s not difficult, it’s not worth doing. Without AmeriCorps I would not have a career in serving; without AmeriCorps I would not be able to serve more than 3,000 children and youth and adults in different programs. Without AmeriCorps the communities and small agencies would not have had the support that they have needed.
If service ensures the future, then AmeriCorps must have a place in it. This thing is very important to me because a lot of people that do service, traditionally, before any kind of national service program, traditionally people who did service were people of privilege; they had the time, and they had some money to be able to serve. AmeriCorps gives the opportunities for those to serve who cannot and services to children and families who have naught. I ask you to do all you can for AmeriCorps, and to do whatever you can. Thank you.
(Applause)
John Kalafatas, Moderator:
We’d like to show the videotape now of some people in Philadelphia who weren’t able to join us.
START VIDEO
(Inaudible) We’re located in South (Inaudible)on 33rd and (Inaudible) Streets.
My name is Dana Portnoir, I'm an English teacher, and I was teaching at University City High School in West Philadelphia.
I am Robert Orden Reed in February 2003, and I followed the previous administration, who for a variety of reasons were removed from the school, and I was asked to come to help facilitate a new change for (Inaudible) High School.
One of the AmeriCorps people there was pretty expert in Art, and I arranged for him to actually teach an Art class to my kids, every day, for a semester. And a lot of these kids actually had a lot of talent, but because of the cutbacks in the schools, everybody could not take Art, so they never had an actual Art class during their four years in High School.
One of the things that we noticed when we first arrived was student apathy was low, student morale was extremely low, the climate in the building was at its minimum, students were not accustomed to following rules and procedures of the school and students were not in uniform; and the attendance, of course, student and staff, was extremely poor.
As part of the Harlem Renaissance project that we had done, when they were in the 11th grade, they designed and painted a mural on the third floor of our building. And then the next year when they were seniors several of them wanted to complete that mural as part of their senior project, so again, Todd worked with them after school, sometimes until 7:00 and 8:00 at night, and helped them to complete that mural, which is quite a beautiful mural. Part of it is pictures of important artists and figures in the Harlem Renaissance, and the other part of it that Todd helped them with, is actually a mural of the students themselves dressed in costumes of the Harlem Renaissance, so they’re sort of immortalized on the wall of this high school.
The mentoring program that the AmeriCorps program allowed us to establish for male and female students, and because of that mentoring program which included probably 25-30 young people, we were able to use those 25-30 students to become the leaders within the school due to the mentoring program.
And one of the people who’s assigned to my smaller community was an older man who had lived in the community all his life, in fact I think he had a couple of grandchildren who were attending the school. And he had, in a previous life, been a police officer, and he knew the neighborhood and he knew the school and he knew a lot of the kids; and he functioned as another very important adult in the lives of many of these kids; they often went to him for help with projects, they went to him for help with some of their emotional needs, he was in some senses sort of fatherly or grandfatherly figure for them, and that’s really important for kids, in inner-city high schools, where there really aren’t enough adults to meet the needs that the kids have. That’s not something that we could have had without AmeriCorps, because he was able to connect to them in ways that sometimes the teachers couldn’t.
On the secondary level, the AmeriCorps program allowed us to extend summer youth employment or summer work, or service learning projects to another cohort of young people who, for a variety of reasons, could not access other employment opportunities or extended year programs and activities in other places, through the Beacon, those young people were able to move their school-year activities into the summer program, and we have seen that to be a big boost in the young people who participate in that program. What we have noticed is that the young people who are students at (Inaudible) High School who were instrumental in providing some kind of mentoring support or academic support to the younger kids, their esteem has been boosted tremendously within the school, and we know in conversations that we’ve had with the elementary school principal, that the students at the elementary level have also picked up in their academics and they’re doing much better in their studies as well, so we see a trickling effect in the multi-generational project that was established through the AmeriCorps program. Well, one thing that we do know is that learning extends beyond the four walls within the school. What the AmeriCorps program has proved to us is that by allowing kids to be enhanced by external supports, to be available to outside resources and outside projects, we are bound to see an increase in their test scores and (Inaudible) we’re grateful that the program has been sort of a (Applause, inaudible) beacon for us (Inaudible) leading our young people into other opportunities outside of the building, whereby increasing attendances in schools, increasing their understanding of (Inaudible), and increasing an understanding of (Inaudible) other programs that exist outside.
It is very apparent to me that in terms of the kids, in University City, AmeriCorps is able to meet a lot of different needs, and AmeriCorps workers could provide many, many functions, both academic, artistic, after school, emotional needs, naturally we encourage that, and all of these things, are somewhere or another, at some time or another, (Inaudible, music playing loud over the dialogue)
END VIDEO
John Kalafatas, Moderator:
Just pick up on one thing that was mentioned in the video, she referred to one of our Corps members being a grandparent, our Corps members range from 17, our oldest member so far has been 82 years old, we’ve had many grandparents serving in AmeriCorps, some of whom actually use their ed-awards, not all. Well, we’re not talking about an 82-year-old being our next speaker, we’re talking about a 12-year old being our next speaker, and it is really our privilege to be able to bring one of our camp goers, one of the persons who’s actually participated in our programs, here to share about her experiences, Kate Schwartz.
(Applause)
Hi everyone, my name is Kate Schwartz, and I'm twelve years old, and I got to know about the AmeriCorps program seven years ago. When I was five years old, my sister and I went to summer camp, an (Inaudible) neighborhood project, where the camp leaders were AmeriCorps members. Our leaders took really good care of us, while our mom was working. My mom had to work in a neighborhood that was filled with crime, and camp was held to keep kids safe while their parents worked. There was lots of graffiti and lots of trash all over the playground. I remember going into (Inaudible) Park across the street and seeing needles and vials, used to hold drugs. AmeriCorps helped to change that. They cleaned up all the trash and painted over all the graffiti; they even tore down the old rusty playground and put up a new one. The AmeriCorps members didn’t just keep me safe, but they made me feel very special. Margo picked me up and helped me finish our nature walk, on one of our field trips. Sandra talked with me whenever I missed my mom during the day. Sandra taught me a dance from Puerto Rico. Amy taught me silly games like Fishy Fishy, and Ricardo taught me how to play the bongo drums. Carlin became my friend, and we started calling each other silly names like Kitties and Grandma. And I have to say, they make the best chicken and rice in (Inaudible) Square. I learned a lot about the environment in summer camp, and that you need to treat nature and people with respect.
I attended this camp for four summers. AmeriCorps and its members have really affected me. I've learned how important it is to make change happen. Because of AmeriCorps I've been able to meet people from all different backgrounds and races. I bet not many first graders can say that they’ve cleaned up a vacant lot. That’s right, I cleaned up a vacant lot when I was only in first grade. I've also painted over graffiti, and painted a mural in the community center. Painting is kind of my specialty. Every Martin Luther King Day, I join new AmeriCorps members in making a difference to the community. I've learned it is up to me to make a difference. I've learned how important it is to be a good neighbor, and to look out for one another. I've learned about good people who made a commitment to make difference to others. They sure did make a difference in my life. I also learned a lot about non-violent conflict resolution. I never heard those words before AmeriCorps. Now I understand them, and what they mean. I learned that it is OK to be mad, but not OK to take it out on other people. It is never OK to take it on other people because of my anger. I learned how to use "I" statements too, that when someone does something bad to you, you should say, "I feel sad or angry when you do that," instead of "why did YOU do that."
I really like helping people, and AmeriCorps has helped me do that. AmeriCorps has helped me to understand the importance of volunteering in my own community and the communities of others. The feeling that you get after you help someone is so good, and because of these programs, I get to have that feeling more than most kids do. As you can see, AmeriCorps has really changed my life. When I heard that it was in trouble, I knew I wanted to help. They have helped me be a better person. So now it is my turn to help them. I hope AmeriCorps receives enough funding to help other five-year-old girls like me. When I get old enough to serve my nation, I can only hope that AmeriCorps will be able to help me to get things done as an adult in my community. Good night, and thank you very much.
(Applause)
John Kalafatas, Moderator:
Thank you, Kate. Like to call Chris Jackson, who started his career, to the best of my knowledge, in service as a Peace Corps member, years before he joined us. Chris.
(Applause)
Christopher Jackson, Peace Corps Alumni/HR and Government Compliance Director, YWCA of Plainfield, NJ :
Thank you. I just want to say that I'm just thrilled to be in the presence of such patriots, is all I can say. I'm blown away by the power of the presentations and the power of the people who have spoken, I'm moved by that. I am an RPCV, a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, I served in the Dominican Republic from 1983-1985. And I also worked at the National School and Community Corps for two years as a recruiter, signing people up to become AmeriCorps members. And what I'm going to try to do today is draw a parallel, or draw similarities between the two programs and why these programs are valid and powerful to create patriots like what you’ve seen today.
In 1983 I embarked on an adventure, the collective experiences of which moved and changed my life forever. It was the year that I started my Peace Corps experience. I was an upper or middle class, just out of school, plucked out of the Midwest and plunked down in the Dominican Republic, where there was no running water, no electricity, and needless to say, culture shock beyond belief. That experience, the training, they taught me to speak Spanish which I am able to do today. I worked as a small business consultant, but I have to tell you honestly that the experience of working was secondary to the love affair I had with the people I worked with. And theirs with mine. It was a powerful experience that touches me to this day. And it touches me in ways that I still find incredible; for example, I can’t pass a flag without feeling it, because once you’ve experienced another culture outside the United States you come to appreciate what you have. Eighteen years later I worked for an AmeriCorps program, the National School and Community Corps as a recruiter, and I helped AmeriCorps members become AmeriCorps members.
In the eighteen months I was with the education works for National School and Community Corps I saw incredible things, and I thought Roberta was 85, actually, 85 I think she was, an 85-year-old AmeriCorps member, Roberta, on the 12th of September, 2001, took the drawings of children's’ expressions of grief and had them sewn into a quilt -- I have to swallow hard. It was a powerful, powerful thing that she did, because she had the children sewing the quilt and it was displayed in the school, and it was a healing project for everyone. And those kinds of experiences, the "Roberta" experiences, that helped me to see similarities between what the AmeriCorps members experienced in their time with me in Plainfield, New Jersey; and the experience that I had. The benefit I had of experiencing, or being part of two national service programs, is that both programs are about service, about touching other people, and I loved, I think it was Kim, who said that it’s about touching, touching others. And you know, it really touched me to hear that "touching" comment because there’s power in touch; there’s power and there’s healing in touch. And I mean not just the physical, but the touching of the soul of the person, and both those organizations touch lives, and because every time an AmeriCorps member touches somebody else, they are transformed and they are changed, forever; and that’s what AmeriCorps means to me. Thank you.
(Applause)
John Kalafatas, Moderator:
It’s very common for people to describe AmeriCorps as something where members give a year of service but those of us who do this know that in fact many AmeriCorps members give more than a year of service, many AmeriCorps members give two years of service as AmeriCorps members. Our next speaker is one of the 60% of the National School and Community Corps members who actually will be up for two terms of service, Nicki Saunders.
(Applause)
Nicki Saunders, AmeriCorps Alumni:
Good evening everyone. My name is Nicki Saunders and I'm a recent two-year graduate and alumni of AmeriCorps through national school and community corps. I am currently scheduled to resume classes at the Art Institute of Washington with the help of the AmeriCorps education award. Before joining AmeriCorps I worked typically a 9-5 corporate job in commercial arts. I thought little about the local community and my contribution to it. The most active I was as a citizen was giving blood through the Red Cross, jury duty, and voting. The National School and Community Corps advertised at the local library and I inquired.
In the fall of 2001 I joined the National School and Community Corps. Working with AmeriCorps has enabled me to give back to my local community in a way that I could not do otherwise. National School and Community Corps works in the challenged Philadelphia public school system. Through cutbacks in the school district’s budget, many after school program such as sports activities, arts programs and mentoring programs had been removed. National School and Community Corps fills these gaps. Working with a team of five to seven corps members and a team leader, I had a chance to help design and implement enriching after school programs. Some of the enriching programs included environmental awareness and appreciating, girls’ mentoring, homework assistance and guidance after school programs, and arts and crafts programs.
Many times these programs provided a safe and supportive environment in which students could express themselves and grow intellectually, mentally, and socially. Frequently, while serve and supporting others, I realized myself growing in these areas also. For example, through National School and Community Corps I worked with a middle school student named Karim. Using the 100 book challenge program, I identified the sixth grade student who was reading on a fourth grade level. I consistently met with him and had one-on-one one hour sessions in which we read aloud and I assisted him. Within one year, he went up two levels to his grade appropriate reading level. Seeing his confidence grow as his reading ability enhanced was priceless and very rewarding. Many AmeriCorps members did not receive a lot of income for their priceless services. It really is a work of the heart by many committed, passionate, and dedicated individuals. Another example of my service experience was the Girls Mentoring Program which I led both in the Blankenburg Elementary School in Philadelphia and Vaughn’s Middle School in Philadelphia. This program provides a supportive atmosphere where girls learned self-awareness, gained further understanding of thief own power to make positive choices, they learned conflict resolution skills and built self-confidence as well as self-esteem. Over the course of the school year, I saw girls grow in their social skills, manners, sisterhood, and pride within themselves. There are so many negative images out there. This program is essential for young women we served. Through National School and Community Corps I had a chance to serve my Philadelphia community through two public schools, two summer camps, various service days including Martin Luther King Day of Service and National Youth Service Day as well as other community service and events. I have participated in activities targeted at improving local communities such as organizing an intergenerational project in which a group of third grade students went to a local senior center and had autobiographical interviews with seniors. Or taking a Saturday off and painting the yards and walls and planting flowers in the garden of a local public school. Or helping a local community center develop a play describing the Civil Rights movement and painting the backdrop for the play.
AmeriCorps enhances every community in which its members serve. Many of the communities served are low-income crime-ridden disadvantaged neighborhoods. Without AmeriCorps programs many communities will have very limited, if any, choice of safe, productive, organized, and supportive programs for children, and young adults. AmeriCorps members serve not only as role model and program leaders but also as extended family to these youth. Providing positive reinforcement, a listening ear, and genuine concern for the welfare of the children and youth they serve. Cutting funding for these programs will be detrimental to the development of these youth. Many having no choice but to follow destructive behavior shown in local communities such as stealing, destroying property, and drug use. Many of these programs give students a sense of self-worth and value which in turn will produce positive adult citizens. Cutting funding for these programs cut short a productive future for many of our youth. Youth who are our future workforce, consumers, taxpayers, voters and citizens. Cutting these programs would affect everyone. Let’s do our best to save AmeriCorps. Thank you.
(Applause)
John Kalafatas, Moderator:
And the last speaker for the National School and Community Corps, formerly with the National School and Community Corps, is Anthony Bland.
(Applause)
Anthony Bland, AmeriCorps Alumni, New Jersey Department of Education:
I would like to thank the Save AmeriCorps Coalition, our national leaders of AmeriCorps people for inviting me here today. There are people now who would like to serve and who would answer the call to service. Dr. Martin Luther King said everybody can be great because everybody can serve. He also said you don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to have your subject, your verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have to know about Einstein, the theory of relativity to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love, and you can be that servant. As stated earlier, my name is Anthony Bland, I'm a Regional Education Specialist for the New Jersey Department of Education and most important today, I'm an alumnus of an AmeriCorps program. At a young age, I personally realized that our country needs the help of our citizens to build our communities. We need mentors to influence our children. We need more talented teachers such as Teach for America and tutors in our troubled schools. We need students who also believe in service and we need a mechanism like AmeriCorps to facilitate this process.
AmeriCorps has truly had a tremendous impact on my life. As youth, I was very transient. I lived in cities such as East Orange, North Urbington, the Bronx, and various locations in Long Island. I did not have that perfect storybook life growing up. I lived countless years in absolute poverty, living without water, electricity, and sometimes even food. I witnessed one of my childhood friends shot and killed a few feet in front of me. I grew up in a single-parent home, never having any contact with my father still today. But through everything I realized and I always knew that I wanted to give back, especially to a child who had to go through some of the similarities that I had to go through. Upon graduation college, that opportunity finally became my reality. I accepted a position with the National School and Community Corps as a team leader for the West Philadelphia cluster. While most graduates were ending up with jobs that paid salaries of $25,000 to $35,000 my job paid me a salary well under $16,000 and way below that, leaving me with, and this is a true story, 53 cents at the end of every month. In addition, I had to take my apartment shuttle bus to the corner and I had to catch the New Jersey Transit Bus to the Pacco Speed Line, and from the Pacco Speed Line I had to catch a train to Athan Market, then I had to catch a train from Athan Market to the Frankfurt L which I took to 57th and Market Street. That’s a lot to be dedicated to service.
Some may wonder why as a college graduate did I take such a low-paying job. Or would I spent countless hours going back and forth to work or service, whichever one you would choose to call it. My answer is simple. I was finally able to give back through AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps that makes a difference in the lives of so many children and the lives of communities that we live in today. I was actually and personally living my dream through this AmeriCorps program. My greatest achievement as a team leader was helping at risk youth through a program I created called Penpals. I'm not sure if Marty remembers this program, but I'm going to take some of you back. Penpals was a program linked with the Wilson Elementary School Track Team in Philadelphia and I linked them with my alma mater, a collegiate track team called Mount Malmouth University, which is located in West Longbranch New Jersey. Mind you, I was a great track runner, I want everyone to know that. The first half of the program involved the children being assigned pen pals and the elementary school students wrote back and forth to the collegiate students and they wrote back as well. They also sent group video tapes to kids who would ask the collegiate athletes questions about college and track and field et cetera. And in return, the videos would go back and forth, so we used letter-writing and video-exchange to work on this particular program and it began to be very successful. The second half of this program was a three-part series and I really truly loved this part. First the athletes at Malmouth University came to West Philadelphia to Wilson Elementary School to talk to the students during Pen Relay Weekend. They came and talked about saying no to drugs, they came to talk about higher education, commitment, dedication, what it takes to be a great citizen, and what it takes to be a good person. Second, two days later, after this particular meeting that they had, both set of athletes sat together at the Pen Relays, which is known as the Pen Relay Carnival as on of the largest track meets ever in the history of the United States. These individuals, the elementary schools, students and the collegiate athletes sat together in the midst of 46,000 cheering fans and they cheered each other as they all ran in the pen relays. As a result of this program, all participating elementary school students, writing, homework completion, and school attendance improved. Also 100% of the participating students’ parents, which I'm most proud of, said this program had a tremendous impact on their child. I had an opportunity to give back through AmeriCorps and I began to feel great.
I was promoted to become a Regional Manager with the National School and Community Corps. This new position gave me the opportunity to continue to serve, but it expanded my reach of service instead of working with one program with about 18 AmeriCorps members, I now work with about four to five National School and Community Corps teams, that I was charged with in West Philadelphia, South Philadelphia, and North Philadelphia. Through my work, I had the opportunity to meet with and work with some great leaders such as David Hornbeck, Ed Randell, Harris Wofford, who was here earlier, John Street, Bill Clinton, George Bush, Colin Powell and others. I also began to create and experience partnerships via the National School and Community Corps AmeriCorps such as Home Dept, the Philadelphia Eagles and Sixes, Temple University, The United Way, homeless shelters, Women Against Abuse, the Red Cross, Anderson, and I could go on.
Consequently, my AmeriCorps experience and training and commitment to service, provided me with the opportunity to work with a lady by the name of Miss Rowena Madden, who is the Executive Director of the New Jersey Commission on National and Community Service where she brought me on to her staff to become an AmeriCorps program officer. This position afforded me the opportunity to give back to my home state of New Jersey, reach back and help New Jersey citizens and AmeriCorps programs and give back to the communities that I lived in and loved so dearly. This new position offered me the avenue to support and direct all New Jersey citizens who are answering the call to service via AmeriCorps. I managed and directed 17 AmeriCorps programs, supported over 400 AmeriCorps members per year in the state of New Jersey and seeing first hand the fruits of their labor. I have seen the following. I have seen Brenda Perry and the juvenile justice commission work with adjudicated youth, to work with younger adjudicated youth, to make sure they didn’t continue down that path. I have seen the New Jersey Watershed Ambassador’s Program, and New Jersey Community Watch Program facilitate over 2,500 in-class water safety presentations to New Jersey students while still performing 1,000 River Assessment Test called RATs and Biological Assessment Test called BATs on New Jersey waterways which are one of the worst in the state and worst in the country. I have seen Winford Gaines and the Urban League of Hunted County work with early childhood literacy and helped countless Welfare to Work participants attain their G.E.D. I have seen Jackie Elkin and the Union County College Digital Divide Program attempt to eliminate the digital divide by providing computer training and workshops to low-income residents and English as a Second Language students and learners. Lastly, I've seen Lisa Declerk in Cumberland Country fight illiteracy with America Reads, an AmeriCorps program in Vilin, New Jersey, a city with the illiteracy rate of 45%. That’s astounding.
Programs such as the National School and Community Corps, New Jersey Watershed Ambassadors Program and other AmeriCorps programs should not be cut but should be expanded. All of these programs have provided community service opportunities and educational awards to over 350,000 people young and old. On August 31, 2002, I heard President Bush deliver a radio address to the nation. He ended his segment with the following: "As September 11 approaches, difficult memories of planes and buildings will resurface, but so will images of great individuals come into the aid of neighbors in need, that spirit of courage and selflessness has shown the world why our nation is the great force for good in history. I urge all Americans to honor the memory of those lost by serving others," he said.
So today I say I ask our nation’s leaders and the American people to heed to the voices for AmeriCorps and answer the call. Let us let AmeriCorps, Americans, and America be great. The future of service is hanging in the wind, we need to reach back, get back, and give back.
(Applause)
John Kalafatas, Moderator:
Thank you so much. I want to thank everyone associated with this last group, the National School and Community Corps for their testimony. Thank you Marty Friedman, Kelly Strunk, Kim Wharton, Ricardo Martino, Kate Schwartz, Chris Jackson, Nicki Saunders, and Anthony Bland. Mark Twain said few things are harder to put up with than a good example, and we’ve just heard seven or eight, I lose count, very good examples of why AmeriCorps is a good investment, and this week, over 640 citizens are providing testimonies and good examples of why AmeriCorps is worth it.
The other thing that I was reminded of and Marty’s comments in the beginning when he talked about service learning as being an important part of the program, is that AmeriCorps is a high-leverage program, meaning it accomplishes big goals and multiple goals, multiple benefits. We talked about how it addresses pressing problems in America, how AmeriCorps members add capacity to community-based organizations, about how in AmeriCorps, experience sparks a lifetime of service for those who do it. The other area of leverage is the idea of service-learning and volunteer engagement. Many AmeriCorps members, either because it’s officially part of their program, or because it’s what they’re inspired to do, teach other people, young people or people of other ages, the same lessons about service and citizenship, civic values, civic leadership, civic skills that the corps members are learning themselves, and so another way that AmeriCorps gives a big bang for the buck is that in many cases that investment transforms at least two generations at a time, and that’s another reason why AmeriCorps is worth it.
HOUR 35
I have some especially good news about our clock. Not only can we now turn the clock into our 35th hour, we can turn it to our 36th hour, and let me explain why. This is not fuzzy math. In fact, we’re flipping ahead two hours, because the testimony at our daytime venue over the top of Capitol Hill ran one hour long which means we overlap for an hour which means we get an extra hour here. And if you have questions about this accounting, I've checked with both the Office of Management and Budget and the General Accounting Office and for the first time in history, they agree. It’s 36 hours.
(Applause)
OK. All right. What we’re going to do in the next segment is hear some written testimonies and see some video testimonies. There are hundreds of people who wanted to testify this week. Not everyone could actually be here in Washington but every voice counts, so what we’d like to do is share just a few written testimonies and other material to add those voices. And the first is an editorial by David Gergen, who moderated our opening program who’s editor at large at U.S. News and World Report and an advisor to four different presidents, republicans, and democrats. And our reader is an AmeriCorps alumna, and a great colleague of mine at City Year, Alyssa Zemanski.
(Applause)
Alyssa Zemanski:
Good evening everybody. As John mentioned, this is an editorial written by David Gergen who is Editor at Large at U.S. News and World Report. This editorial was posted July 14, 2003 on USNews.com and it is titled "A Flame That Must Not Die". "This one is hard to believe. Since September 11, President Bush has issued a series of stirring calls to America’s young people to volunteer their services to the country. Hundreds of thousands have responded. The President has focused special attention to AmeriCorps, the domestic counterpart to the Peace Corps, seeking to increase its size to 75,000 volunteers a year. No fewer than 67,000 signed up to serve last year and long lines are waiting to join this fall. Sister Mary Jonnice is one of many who testified to the results. She runs the Saint Adalbert Response to Love Center in Buffalo, a faith-based program supporting poor people on the city’s east side. When heavy snows paralyzed the city last winter, she said "I worked with AmeriCorps packing thousands of food bags, delivering heavy packages of food to the homebound. I saw AmeriCorps walk miles for a prescription a new mother needed after having a baby. I looked at the workers shoveling snow for hours so emergency vehicles could move, and I witnessed faith and love in action." There are countless stories across the nation of AmeriCorps volunteers tutoring young children, working with HIV/AIDS patients, and helping the elderly.
As anthropologist Margaret Mead said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." But now, unbelievably, AmeriCorps is heading for a smash-up. Officials in Washington say that they have only enough money this coming year to support 28,000 volunteers, a calamitous cut of more than half. Of some 700 community programs, at least 300 could be wiped out, an additional 100 will be at serious risk. An easy fix. How could this happen? Especially to a program embraced not only by the President but also by Laura Bush. The answers aren’t pretty. Officials in Washington, it turns out, mismanaged the finances of AmeriCorps in recent years. In order to pay for past mistakes, they must siphon off operating funds for this coming year. Senators Kit Vaughn, a Missouri Republican, and Barbara Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat, have steered a bipartisan bill through Congress to fix the management problems, but that still leaves the program desperately short of operating funds.
This is an easy problem to fix. Congress need only pass a supplemental spending bill of $200 million or less, chump change in Washington. But Washington is all tangled up here too. Republicans in Congress say they’ll pass a supplemental if the President asks first. The White House, afraid that Congress will add too many spending baubles to a supplemental, says the President will happily sign a clean bill if Congress passes it first. Alfonze, meet Gaston. (sp?) Only in Washington do such explanations make any sense. Yes this program has been mismanaged in Washington, but penalize the people who did it, not the kids in the field. Yes, it would be easier for the White House to wait for Congress to act first, but the call to national service came from President Bush himself and having sounded the trumpet, he should lead the charge.
Some Republicans are dragging their feet because AmeriCorps was started by Bill Clinton, and they think, as Republic Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania once said, that "it’s a program for hippie kids to stand around a campfire and sign Kumbaya at taxpayer’s expense." But Santorum, like so many others was converted when he went and looked at AmeriCorps in action. So was Marc Racicot, then Republican governor of Montana. Seeing the results, he rounded up fellow governors all over the country a few years ago to support funding of AmeriCorps. Rocicot, now chair of the Bush Reelection Campaign is a firm backer of emergency funding for the program.
I was among those blow away by what I saw on the field and now serve on the board of City Year, the model for AmeriCorps. The Republican charge that AmeriCorps members are not truly volunteers because they receive modest salaries is specious. We celebrate our all-volunteer army and paid volunteers who carry a rifle more than twice what we pay volunteers who teach poor children. Petitions on behalf on emergency funding for AmeriCorps are piling up especially from the kids themselves.
What everyone sees is that there is a whole lot more at stake here than may meet the eye. It is nothing less than the idealism of an entire generation. Thousands of young people who signed up for AmeriCorps this coming year are now being told to stay home. Uncle Sam doesn’t need them anymore. We have long lamented that young people don’t vote. Now we’re telling them they shouldn’t serve either. Many are hurt and disillusioned. Surely we will reserve ourselves. Surely Washington will act, surely a President who so nobly called them to service won’t let this flame die. Surely." Thank you.
(Applause)
John Kalafatas, Moderator:
Thank you Alyssa. I also want to say for those of you who are here to give testimony, you’re welcome to stick around afterwards. We’ve got some pizza here and refreshments, we’re here all night. And we have air-conditioning tonight as opposed to last night, so it’s much more comfortable. And if you’re listening to this on the web and you’re in D.C. come on down. OK, we’re actually ready for the next live testimony. And so I am please to introduce Julie Evans, CEO of NetDay, welcome Julie.
(Applause)
Thank you very much. I'm very pleased and proud to be here this evening. To tell you a little bit about NetDay and our experience with AmeriCorps and national service. I also have with me this evening Dr. Linda Roberts who is a NetDay board member and formerly was with the Department of Education as the Director of Office Education Technology, and she will give her comments at the conclusion of mine.
For those of you who may not be aware, let me start off by telling you a little bit about NetDay. We are a National Education Technology non-profit, a 501C3. We started in 1996 as a grassroots community driven activity to get schools wired for the internet. We did not start as an AmeriCorps program. We are very successful in our internet wiring activities. As many of you know, over 99% of our nation’s school today have internet access. Over the last couple of years, we have matured into an organization that is truly a national voice for the effective use of technology to improve education and student achievement. We do that through a community-based program, such as our AmeriCorps program, through our web initiatives, and also through our original research. We also have been very successful in those efforts. Our websites are visited annually by over 300,000 educators, who visit our sites to find information about education technology. Our community programs have been models for other school and communities to follow on the effect of use of education technology and our research is often quoted and used by school and communities in developing their own programs. We are currently proving input to the U.S. Department of Education for the National Education Technology Plan.
So what is our involvement with AmeriCorps and National Service and why are we here today? For the past three years, NetDay has been a national direct grantee with an AmeriCorps program. So in the field of AmeriCorps programs, we’re still young. And still learning. Our AmeriCorps members have served in the last three years as technology coaches and mentors in four highly challenged communities in our nation: Oakland, CA, Detroit, MI, Santa Ana, CA, and the Rio Grande Valley of TX. The objectives of our program are to increase the access of technology for both the schools and the communities, to increase the knowledge and skills of the teachers and how to use technology effectively with their students. We do that through classroom-based coaching and mentoring of the teachers. Increasing student knowledge and skills through technology and curriculum-based projects including role-modeling and a lot of hands-on support provided by our members. We also recruit and train community volunteers to help with technology in the schools, providing opportunities for the community members to be involved in their schools and for the schools to be more involved with the community. And we’ve been strengthening the local communities that we serve in by increasing the knowledge and abilities of the locally-recruited AmeriCorps members and by doing many community service projects.
So why are we involved with national service? How did we get involved and where does that all come from? Well, it comes from some very basic values. NetDay, from the very beginning, has believed in community engagement around schools and the importance of community engagement in schools, and we share that core value with many other corps programs and with national service in general. We also believe that our nation’s schools need to improve, and that the impetus for that improvement needs to come from within the community itself, that local communities need strengthening, and that by recruiting local members of the community to help with that strengthening, we’re building ongoing sustainability and capacity for that change. We also believe very strongly that technology can be a tool for school improvement; however, we realize that many schools the knowledge and lack the human support to take that next step with technology. By combining our long-standing history, our legacy, our skills and knowledge about technology with national service, we’ve been a very effective tool for helping schools not only bridge the digital divide, but bridge the divide in terms of improving education.
So what has been the impact of our program over the last three years? Over the last three years, we have racked up an impressive array of statistics. I’m going to tell you first about the statistics and then I’m going to humanize it by telling you some actual stories. As I said, we are working in four different communities: Oakland, CA; Detroit, MI; Santa Ana, CA; and the Rio Grande valley of TX. This past year, we placed 95 AmeriCorps members in those communities. Over the past three years, we have installed and/or refurbished over 6,200 computers for direct student use. We have trained over 2,200 teachers on how to effectively use technology within curriculum. We have worked just this past year with over 26,000 students in those four communities on a daily basis, working on technology-based projects, and increasing their skills in the 21st-century skills that every student needs to have today. We’ve created over 60 meaningful community partnerships and build the capacity within those community organizations that sustains itself today. And we’ve recruited many, many adult volunteers, youth volunteers, community volunteers to not only work in the schools, but also to be more committed to their communities. In -- over the three years in total, we have provided over 120,000 hours of volunteer service to the schools that we’ve been serving.
Let me tell you now about the real impact beyond the statistics, and what I want to do is pick up a few stories from each one of the communities that we’ve been serving in. I’m going to start off by telling you a little about Detroit. The schools that we work in in Detroit are two particular schools that we’ve worked in for the last three years. One is the Detroit Day School for the Deaf, which is a magnet school in Detroit for children that have hearing difficulties and are deaf. And also, the Poe Development School, which is for children that have very severe mental and physical handicaps. The opportunity to provide technology access for the students in that school may seem like an extra activity for those students. They all have many, many challenges involved with learning and adapting to life. However, as the principal at the Detroit Day School has explained to me, Mrs. Coleman has told me many times that providing technology access for her students, her students that are deaf, goes beyond learning. It actually provides them with very much-needed self-esteem. When a child at the Detroit Day School for the Deaf goes online, with an AmeriCorps member sitting next to them, and they’re able to e-mail a student at another school in Detroit, or another school in Pennsylvania, or another school in Texas, that child at the other end of that internet connection does not realize that the child from Detroit is deaf. That child is just like any other child and is able to communicate.
That is totally possible today, because of the work of the NetDay AmeriCorps members. We wired that school for the internet; we taught the teachers how to set up e-mail accounts; and we worked daily with the students in that school to help them, not only with their basics skills and technology use, but also how to communicate, and that has a long-standing impact. Let me tell you a little about Oakland. In Oakland, we have some different sets of challenges. We’ve been working in Oakland with many of the lowest-performing middle schools and high schools in Oakland, and one of the things that we saw in Oakland was that, where the schools had received a lot of technology -- many of it not new, many of it refurbished, but the schools had a lot of technology -- it was very difficult for the schools themselves to keep that computer equipment always operational. It was very, very hard to do that. It was also difficult to keep the children in the school, particularly at West Lake Middle School, involved in their learning, and engaged in the school environment. There are many, many temptations in Oakland, not the least of which is obviously a very high gang activity that happens in Oakland. Our AmeriCorps members in Oakland this past year created a very innovative program that they called Tech Gumshoes, where they took a group of students, sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students, and trained them in basic computer maintenance. They were able to do some very basic installation of software, to make sure that the printers were working, to make sure that connections were in place. And they took over responsibility for maintaining the equipment at West Lake Middle School. The students themselves really bought into this idea. What started out as just a one-day-a-week, lunchtime program has now grown over the summer to be a three-day-a-week program, that the students are actually sustaining themselves, and teaching the next group of the students in how to do the same skills. This not only gave those particular students some needed skills, some great skills for them to take on to high school, but it also gave them a reason to every day come to school and to be part of the school environment.
The next story I want to tell you is from the Rio Grande valley, and it involves the schools we’ve been working in in Mercedes, TX. Mercedes is the eighth-poorest school district in the state of TX. There are many children in Mercedes that do not even come from homes that have electricity. They live in the colonias and so the opportunity to have access to any sort of technology at all, is going to only come through their environment and the school. When we started working with our AmeriCorps program there, we had some computers that were available within the classrooms, but really not many--not enough to be able to facilitate having every child have access every day to technology. When we first started there, the ratio of computers to students was about 12 to one, 12 students sharing one computer. What we were able to do, and it really was by virtue of the value of the AmeriCorps program, is that we were able to broker a wonderful donation from a very generous foundation in TX to provide over 700 computers to this school district. One of the philanthropists within this foundation explained to us that the reason they were generous with their donations because the knew the computers would be put to good use, because the AmeriCorps members were there. The knew that the AmeriCorps members would make sure that every child had access to the technology, that they were using educational software, that they were surfing the internet appropriately, that the teachers were using it within instruction. The foundation did not want to make a donation just for the sake of making a donation, but this was a donation that actually had meaning. We now have been able to bring that ratio of computers to students down to three students for every computer. That’s an amazing opportunity to do that, and that was because of the fact that we had the AmeriCorps program.
Let me tell you a little bit about two of our members in our Santa Ana program, ‘cause I think it’s also very interesting, as many of the speakers have talked about, to look at the impact on the members themselves. Two members that I’d like to tell you about in Santa Ana: one is Lizette. Lizette is a 20-year-old mother of two. Lizette did not go to college right out of high school -- did graduate from high school, but wasn’t quite sure exactly what her options were. She sort of fell into our program because a girlfriend of hers decided to sign up for the NetDay AmeriCorps program, and sort of brought Lizette along for the interview, and one thing led to another, and suddenly Lizette signed up. Lizette knew that she needed to find a better way for her life so that she could take care of her two little girls, but she really did not have an idea of what she wanted to do, whether or not she wanted to go to college. No one in her family had gone to college, so that was not a thing that immediately came to her. We placed Linette (sic) in one of our charter schools in Santa Ana, and it’s a wonderful story: the teachers just took to Lizette beautifully. So not only was she coaching them on the use of technology and how to use technology effectively, but they were coaching her on her life skills and helping her make her plans. The happy part of the story is that Lizette is now enrolled in college and she’s taking a couple of classes part-time, while she’s still taking care of her kids, and she also has a commitment to be a teacher, and the charter school has given her the opportunity to be a teacher’s aide while she’s in college, and then they have promised her that they will hire her as a teacher. What a wonderful story for Lizette.
Another member that we have in Santa Ana is Miguel. Miguel is 20 years old, once again was not really directed in where he wanted to be in life or what he wanted to do. As many of the young male youth in Santa Ana, he was drawn to the gang activity that was there. He has an older brother who was already spent time in prison. He has two parents that are not of good health and are not currently working, and Miguel was definitely lost and not quite sure what he wanted to do. He heard about this program, once again through some of the other members that we had recruited in the local Santa Ana community, and he joined up with us, and has been working this past year at Pio Pico Elementary School, helping some students create their own video news station at the elementary school. From this experience, Miguel has also been mentored by the teachers at the school, and I’m also very proud to say that, starting this fall, starting in just about two weeks, Miguel is gonna be also starting college for the first time. So we have good hopes for both Miguel and Lizette.
So what is the status of the NetDay AmeriCorps Bridge Program today? It was our goal to expand our program so that we would be serving 30,000 students in 30 schools and five communities next year; however, we were not refunded for this year. The impact of that loss on these communities is both short-term and long-term. What I’ve done today is just bring with me just a few letters from the communities, am I’m just going to read a couple snippets to give you a feeling for the loss of this program on these communities. I have two letters here from two of our members in Oakland. I’ll just read them just very briefly. This one is from Lena, who’s been working at the Calvin Simmons Middle School in Oakland: "This year, I was stationed at Calvin Simmons Middle School in Oakland. At Calvin Simmons Middle School, I and another NetDay AmeriCorps turned two mice-infested rooms into working computer labs. Out of these labs, we ran programs to help students with their reading, writing, and typing skills, which will help them get into high school. We also started computer literacy classes in which the students learn to do effective internet searches for school reports and papers. We also replaced or fixed outdated or broken computers through the school.
The most important program we got running this year at Calvin Simmons is the Take-home Computer Lab Program. This program makes it possible for any child to get their own computer. Many of these children come from low-income families, so buying a computer is not an option. I know how this program can help a student, because when I was in school, I was given a computer, through the Take-home Computer Program. At the time, my family could not have afforded to buy me a computer. Without the support of NetDay, there will not be anyone to maintain these labs that we set up, and the Take-home Program will be canceled, as the school district cannot afford to keep it up without the AmeriCorps members’ support. Over the past year, I’ve watched students who were labeled ‘below average’ become more involved and excited about their schoolwork." The second letter is from Gary, who’s also a NetDay AmeriCorps member in Oakland. And Gary writes that he -- "I helped organized a science club where students build balsa wood bridges to enter California’s MESA (Math, Engineering and Science Achievement) contests. In the course of building the bridges, the students develop research schools from using the internet, and exercise math skills in using bridge-modeling software. The impact of the loss of this program to the Oakland community will be very significant.
In addition to providing invaluable technology skills to students and teachers, NetDay AmeriCorps members work with other organizations to train volunteers in computer skills. In one organization, its volunteers, as well as the NetDay AmeriCorps members, teach a general audience who queue to receive a free computer with their computer skills. Without NetDay AmeriCorps Bridge Program, there’ll be no facilitation of technology knowledge to volunteer organizations, no training of teachers in technology, and no training of specialized technology skills for the students of Oakland." Just as an aside to Gary’s letter -- he’s very modest here -- that program he talked about, the Math, Engineering and Science Achievement program that he mentored in an after-school environment with a group of students, went on to win first place in physics in the state of California, because of the work that they did. An amazing thing when you think about these were students at a high school in Oakland that no one would have ever brought that type of program to their attention before, because people made the assumption those kids would not be interested in it. Some of the other letters that we have here: we have a letter from the city district manager from the city of Santa Ana.
"Looking back on the past year, it is clear that Santa Ana community has greatly benefited from our partnership with the NetDay AmeriCorps Program. Our Pio Pico, Monte Vista, and El Sol Academy schools have collaborated on NetDay AmeriCorps Bridge projects, bringing greatly needed academic and technology enrichment to our elementary school students. Clearly, this work has set a new standard for programs that promote enhanced student achievement through the effective use of technology. We, the city of Santa Ana, are particularly pleased to have awarded our 2003 Resource Network Community Builder Award to the NetDay AmeriCorps Bridge Program."
One other letter that I have here is also from Santa Ana. It’s from the principal of the Pio Pico Elementary School, one of the schools that we worked in in Pio Pico. "NetDay AmeriCorps Bridge members have provided the technology support to our classrooms, which has had a direct impact on our instructional programs. It’s clearly been a win-win situation, as teachers have benefited from learning right alongside their students without ever being pulled away from their classes. In addition, the added benefit of technology integration and utilizing the computers on a daily basis provides our students with exposure to the English language. This provides our students with a much needed interaction with English language media, and contributes to language acquisition. This result would not have been achieved without the NetDay AmeriCorps Bridge Program at our school. The schools that we worked in in Santa Ana were what are called ‘port of entry schools’: they’re the first place the immigrants from Mexico come in southern California, and they are 100% English learners."
We have additional letters; I just wanted to give you a little bit of a snippet of that. The longer-term impact of the loss of this program is not directly on these particular schools; it’s more in terms of the community, in terms of the economic opportunities within that community, the job potential for those students, the college matriculation opportunities for those students, school reform, community engagement, and of course, the leveraging of human potential.
So what needs to happen? Well, first I want to say that I’m not here, really, because of NetDay tonight. I’m not here because of the Corporation for National and Community Service. In fact, I’m not really here for AmeriCorps. I’m really here -- and I come here tonight all the way from California -- to speak for the children and the communities that we serve, because they’re the ones that are losing out by not having this program next year. What our children and our communities need is for Congress to appropriate the additional funds, so that more programs can be funded, hopefully programs like the NetDay AmeriCorps Bridge Program. What we also need for our children and our communities is more of this type of human assistance, or what we call the human support piece of the technology-digital divide equation. And we need Congress to approve raising the funding ceiling for fiscal year 2004, so that more Americans can serve and help the children in the communities. What I'd like to do now is invite Dr. Roberts to come up. And Dr. Roberts would like to give you a little bit of perspective on the, more on the impact of these type of programs and why they're important in the communities and for the children we serve. Dr. Roberts.
(Applause)
Doctor Linda G. Roberts, Education Consultant, formerly with U.S. Department of Education:
Well, thank you, thank you, Julie. It's a pleasure to be here, I'm Linda Roberts. I served as the Director of Educational Technology during the eight years of the Clinton administration in the United States Department of Education. And NetDay was one of those success stories that came not originally from the federal government. Much like the AmeriCorps, the NetDay efforts were community-driven, community and business-driven all across America. And so much of what we accomplished in this country in the last decade, in terms of bringing information technology tools into our schools and into our communities has been a combination of both federal programs, state programs, local programs, and community effort. And as a former public official, what strikes me so much about what we're here for tonight, and what we're talking about over the next, I can't remember how many hours it is, but —
HOUR 36
(Unidentified):
We're on 36.
Dr. Linda G. Roberts:
-- 100 hours, but over the next, the total of 100 hours is really about doing the right thing. And particularly from my perspective, and the value of the AmeriCorps program to NetDay and to countless other programs, because there are similar examples of AmeriCorps volunteers providing their expertise, their knowledge, their ability to do technology well in schools and in communities. To make a real difference in the very communities that would be significantly left behind. And we talk a great deal about the digital divide in America, and I'm here to tell you that it's very real, and without the kind of expertise that we see in the AmeriCorps, the NetDay AmeriCorps bridge program, we would be much further behind than we are already. So, you know, it seems to me that what we need to think about is not just the here and now, but how these programs really assure our country's future. And particularly when we talk about technology, there is virtually no one who doesn't think that technology can make a difference in their lives today, and particularly our kids, particularly our kids who are in school now. And we do them a terrible disservice if we don't prepare them for the 21st century by enabling them to use the 21st century tools and skills at their disposal.
So that's why this program and other programs like it are so very important. And I'm going to be very, very brief, because I know there are lots of other people here who have lots more to say. But I did a simple calculation. I used to do this all the time, whenever I was trying to make the point about our programs in technology. But in the NetDay AmeriCorps Bridge program, I believe, and I'm going to make sure I've got the right numbers here. I calculated that over 120,000 hours of volunteer services have been provided. Services in what I would describe as a high-cost, very, very important area for the schools, particularly the schools that would have nobody there to do what the AmeriCorps volunteers have done. Repairing computers, building technology programs, training teachers, working with students, setting up the networks, all the things that make that technology valuable in the classroom. And by my simple calculation, because I know what these services cost, and I've discounted what those costs are, in this program alone, the AmeriCorps value was over $6,000,000.
Now, if you play out the power of all of the AmeriCorps participants, and you calculate those hours, and you look at this $100,000,000 shortfall, what you end up saying is that this is really worth to the country billions. I mean, I'm not talking millions. It's worth billions of dollars. And when I sit here tonight, and I think that we are spending, and I say this with not meant to be critical, but we are spending much more than that every week in Iraq. I say to myself, where is the Congress? And where is the leadership in this country, that really needs to come to the table and say, this is really what we need to do. And this is worth so much, so much more in dollars and in the power of people and in the power of our future that we can't make the wrong decision, we should make the right decision. And not only fund the shortfall, but fund the program to its full potential, so that so many more of our young adults and our young students in our schools and so many more people in our communities can truly benefit. Thank you very much.
(Applause)
John Kalafatas, Moderator:
Thank you, Julie Evans, and Linda Roberts, for a couple great testimonies. And touched on a couple of things. One is yet another area where AmeriCorps members make a difference in society, and that's in leveraging technology for education and social change. And I think the other thing that, the important thing I heard was the cost of not funding AmeriCorps, and not getting these corps members into service. I also just want to take another opportunity to thank everyone who's providing testimonials this week. Winston Churchill said, "history will be kind to me, because I intend to write it."
And so, I want to thank folks for not sitting by as spectators and letting history be written for you, or written for your communities, or written for your nation. But that you're standing up to influence history. These 100 hours of testimony, of people's testimony, citizen's testimony, is historic. It's never been done before, as far as I know. So thank you for standing up and speaking out for AmeriCorps. Up next, I am pleased to introduce the Chair of the California AmeriCorps Alliance, Martin Weinstein. Welcome, Martin.
(Applause)
Martin Weinstein, Chair, California AmeriCorps Alliance:
Well, good afternoon from California. I wonder if Julie's on the same plane as I was, it was United and it was packed. I was going to take Jet Blue, but my secretary got me on United, and I don't think, unfortunately, a lot of us from California were not here today, but I felt compelled to come, not only to talk about what's going on in California and our organization, but to represent all the programs in California. And let me tell you a little bit about, sort of, my relationship to AmeriCorps. And it's sort of multi-level.
First of all, I’m the Executive Director of Bay Area Community Resources, which is an organization in California, fairly large-scale non-profit. And we have been the sort of lead and founding agency for an AmeriCorps program called Bay Act AmeriCorps. All of our programs have Bay area in their names. Bay Act was one of the initial programs in California, and has a very interesting history. Right now, fortunately for us, we have funded, and we sort of have survivors guilt back, actually did very, very well in a national competition which we were both shocked, amazed, humbled, and as I said now, we have a whole bunch of survivor's guilt. I will tell you a little bit about Bay Act, and I want to tell you mostly about what is going on in California, which we all know is a complete and utter disaster. Bay Act, I think, when we first started Bay Act it was considered this bizarre sort of outrageous, too complex, too decentralized, out of the sort of norm of more the City Year type of model. It was, it started as an intermediary kind of program, where about 30 non-profits in the Bay area got together and organized this consortium in which a lot of small non-profits and a lot of medium-sized non-profits could benefit from an AmeriCorps participation, and that's been sort of the basis for this organization from the get-go. We've been there from the beginning. We've been able to work with probably 50, or 60 or 70 non-profits through our nine-year history.
I would say that most, if not all, of these organizations have had an incredibly powerful, meaningful, and in some cases transformative experience as a result of their participation in AmeriCorps. My agency went through, basically, the same sort of transformative experience. Not only did we have a chance to be the leaders of an AmeriCorps program, but actually AmeriCorps chanced the nature of Bay Area Community Resources, which is really sort of the exciting thing. We were mostly sort of a direct service, professionalized organization. And because of our participation in AmeriCorps, the whole sort of ethic of the organization changed. And now service is sort of part and parcel to everything Bay Area Community Resources does. Not just because of AmeriCorps, because of what happens within our organization. So it's sort of a very powerful and interesting story. How sort of an external force can change the internal workings of an organization. And I've been the CEO for Bay Area Community Resources for, God, I won't tell how many years, probably 20 years, and we run around 30 or 40 local programs in the Bay area. Everyone in my agency knows that my favorite program is AmeriCorps, so I don't say it too often, but it's because it's really had a great, I think, impact on our organization. It's had a direct personal impact on me, which I'll tell you about a little bit later. And it's something that, you know, we're really proud of sponsoring in the Bay area.
A couple of years ago, some friends of ours, some friends of mine and myself decided to sort of reorganize the whole California field of AmeriCorps programs. And as you know, California is the largest state in the country, so it's pretty difficult to get a handle on what's going on in the whole state of California. But we were able to pull together what's called the California AmeriCorps Alliance, which now represents and has represented all of the grant-funded programs in California. Unfortunately, the numbers of course are declining, and they're declining pretty dramatically, but we're still committed to our four core sort of goal areas, and we plan on continuing the alliance, even through this difficult time. And those goal areas are advocacy, which we're doing here today, leveraging resources, supporting each other, and building our own sort of California-based community. So it's been a great opportunity and I think great responsibility to sort of lead the non-profit sector through this extremely challenging time.
The state of California has a very strong and I think effective commission that is responsible for AmeriCorps programs. But I must say that this time had, you know, big impact on them. It was difficult to get sort of the word out to programs, because the word was usually not good. And the alliance had to sort of step up and sort of build people's sense of strength and commitment to moving forward, even these difficult times. You know, it's, I don't want to sound angry, but it's, I am angry, I'm disappointed. Our agency is fine, but my colleagues throughout California are getting hammered. And to me, it's sort of a tragic thing in some ways that the Save AmeriCorps coalition, which has done a fabulous job, I know some of the organizations we've worked with through the internet, City Year, and Public Allies and some of the other groups have really stepped up and done an incredible job. And in some sense, it's sort of sad that all of that energy had to go towards focusing on a problem, rather than building the whole AmeriCorps program from a position of strength. So it is disappointing for those of us who have been in the field for a long time. Someone said that I hate representing non-profits, and I always say I'm proud to represent the non-profits. The non-profits are sort of the foundation of many good things in the United States, and people who work in non-profits deserve the, you know, respect and honor of all of our citizens.
So I'm here representing actually not the communities as much as the people who are being directly affected, because not only will they not have AmeriCorps members, because their programs will be dramatically affected. A lot of non-profits come to rely on AmeriCorps as a way to leverage resources a way to expand resources, and a way in California to solve problems that we all know are massive in California, because of the, you know, the incredible fiscal crisis that California faces. So on top of the $38,000,000,000 that California had to cut this year and next year, we now have to cut dramatically into the AmeriCorps program. And I want to give you some statistics. Last year, California had 7,000 AmeriCorps positions, had 60 programs, generated $30,000,000 from the federal government, which was probably matched by three or four-fold from private sector. The numbers are as follows, and they're dropping. And I'll tell you why in a minute. Potentially, 2,000 positions, 20 programs have survived. The impact on local communities is devastating. California has set up sort of a very strong after-school effort through the Governor's Office. Those programs are going to be dismantled, because AmeriCorps members have often been sort of the linchpin for making those programs viable.
I'm going to read to you some of the programs that are no longer going to be in existence in California, and I was, you know, sort of, I don't want to use the analogy, but when I listen to (Inaudible) at the end of my, they have that, sort of the roll-call of people who are unfortunately (Inaudible) over here, and here are the programs in California that will no longer be here. Lay County AmeriCorps, eliminated. Foster Youth Mentoring, eliminated. Accord For Youth in the Bay Area, which is a UC Berkeley program, eliminated. Eco Program, the San Francisco Conservation Corps, eliminated. Kids Care, eliminated. Central Valley Communities For Children, eliminated. Teach For AmeriCorps program in California, eliminated. California Community Colleges Alert Program, eliminated. San Francisco State University Community Service AmeriCorps program, eliminated. Vital Links, eliminated. Straight Up, eliminated. Hope For Homeless, eliminated. Destination College, which is a program in the Bay area that works with kids to get them into college, eliminated. Youth Serve, eliminated. Sonoma State University California's Promise, eliminated. Coco Spirit, eliminated. Companion Corps, eliminated. AmeriCorps Health Ministry program, eliminated. The Watershed Stewards Project, the founding program in California, eliminated. Fit Kids, eliminated.
And that's not all of them, I think it's a pretty healthy list of the folks who are no longer going to be around. A number of other programs that will be around are going to be substantially cut. One of them is, you know, I think we all know the City Year program in San Jose will be cut dramatically. The California Alliance For Prevention, which is a statewide program that has done some excellent work in child abuse prevention and has really had some excellent outcome data regarding the reduction and substantiated child abuse has been cut by 30%. The YMC Service Corps, 51% cut. Ambassador Mentoring Program, 31% cut. Just to say that is sort of something I want to do right here. Make that public, make it known that the scale of cuts in California is dramatic. And I think as you heard today is it's not just about, you know, this year. This is about the, sort of, the infrastructure, the foundation of the future. What I don't think people realize, I'm sure that you do in this room, is that cutting a program for one year is not just one year. It took us ten years to get to this position. The infrastructure for California programs was built, it was built with a collaboration between the public sector of the state of California, the private sector, non-profits, schools, partner agencies, etcetera. When an organization is going to go back to their local school district, to their local funding partners, and say sorry, we're not going to be in existence this year, that is not going to make a real easy case for '04 funding.
So we're not just talking about an '03 glitch, we're talking about, I think, a systematic and long-term, negative impact on the potential of what AmeriCorps should be and could be in California and throughout the country. So I am here to just testify to the fact that, as someone said before, like doing the right thing. Leaders, do the right thing. Unfortunately, some of our leaders, in my opinion, are not doing the right thing. Whether or not this problem is solved, I think the people in this room deserve a great deal of credit for all the work you've done to put this together. I know myself, my colleagues on the board of the California AmeriCorps Alliance, and many of our programs will continue to support you, to do everything we can in California to make sure that '04 does improve, and to make sure that AmeriCorps has an opportunity to grow, and realize its full potential. I just want to (Inaudible), I'm going to show you a really incredible video. A couple of years ago, our program, Bay Act AmeriCorps, was the actually the year-long feature of it, turned out to be a two-hour documentary on our program. You're now going to see sort of the 20-minute version, and my words will pale compared to what you're going to see in this film.
(Applause)
DAY 2, NIGHT SESSION, 9/03/03
10PM - 12AM
(music) (children sounds)
(Unidentified)(Unidentified)(male):
Since I was really young, it's always been in my heart to want to do something positive for my community, do something positive for kids, and make difference with my life. And, I'm at a point now where I just feel like I have to do that, I have to find what I want to do.
(Unidentified)(Unidentified)(female):
I haven't figured out exactly where my passion lies as far as where my work goes. I wanted to try something new, to figure out if working with kids was something that I wanted to and could do well.
(Unidentified):
If you go out and talk to most people of society, they'll say, "Well, I want everyone to work together. I want us to all get along. I don't want there to be any more racism, sexism, you know, no more -isms. I want everything to be wonderful." Well, how do you go about doing that?
(Unidentified):
I know that a lot of you who are new here are thinking, "What is this? What have I joined? Oh my God!" This generation, similar to other generations, cares about what is going on around them. AmeriCorps is an opportunity for some of these people to live out the belief that they can have an impact. The idea is is that you are serving your country via your community, for a year of your life.
(Unidentified)(Unidentified)(male):
So here's the deal folks. The commitment you're going to have to make is to do a 100% this year: a 100% of direct service; 100% of your own personal development, and a 100% of helping us to build the kind of communities we need. You make that commitment to us...
(pause) (musical interlude)
Daniel:
My pow... patch a catch. The cat...
Felicia:
Daniel's in a fourth grade class. I get Daniel for 30 minutes out of the day and I take him and he reads to me on his level.
Daniel:
B-bouncy's a dog on a map--
Felicia:
Diction. (?)
(Unidentified):
Felicia, when she first started, had very little training. She came in as a brand new person in September, and started an after-school literacy program.
(Unidentified):
What I'm going to--
Felicia:
What's this word?
(Unidentified):
Felicia somehow tends to gravitate more towards the kids that need the most. And that's how she started with Daniel.
Felicia:
I'm a try and come out there today and see your mom and say hi to her, OK?
Daniel:
The reason why I get to meet with her, 'cause I used to be in her after-school program, but, she said that I just can't come, 'cause the way I'm acting. 'Cause she gotta help other people, not just me.
(Daniel's Mother?):
I wanted to know how you felt about not being in after-school program with me, because yesterday when we were going home, that was the first time that you did not hug me and I was so surprised...
Felicia:
This kid needs attention so bad, he doesn't let me go anywhere without me giving him a big hug, so you know, I brought a new way for me and him to me besides the after-school program in hopes that he wants to learn more, he wants to do more, he's pleased with himself, and that's what excites me. It's a little hard to enjoy reading when you can't understand the words.
(Unidentified)(Unidentified)(sung):
Please don't leave me here. Don't you leave me alone.
(Unidentified):
The book that we are finishing up is Chicken Sunday. Can we put that down too?
(Unidentified):
Oh please, just let me go and sit down...
(Unidentified):
We had 20 kids who did not know Felicia, and they were the lowest achieving students, and how were we going to make this work?
(Unidentified)(Unidentified)(group):
...need help on math.
(Unidentified):
We feel bad.
(Unidentified):
Oh, wow, so why don't you draw me a little picture.
(Unidentified):
No put downs! Or talking about family members. You remember that?
(Unidentified):
It's a challenging place to work at. It's low-income, it's a marginalized community. The kids need a lot of services, and not just services, but they need a lot, period. And Felicia was able to do that.
Felicia:
Yeah, I think it's best that you are my helper because we need to talk.
(Unidentified):
OK, I need some spotters. C'mon! C'mon! C'mon, c'mon, c'mon. You're spotting. Everyone's spotted for you.
(Unidentified):
(Inaudible)
(Unidentified):
Everyone spotted for you.
(Unidentified):
There's challenges I didn't foresee, especially working with kids.
(Unidentified):
Put your arms up!
(Unidentified):
I don't think I took into account enough some of the cultural barriers that I'd be coming across.
(Unidentified):
When I tell you you need to step back, you need to step back.
(Unidentified):
I didn't mean--
(Unidentified):
Anthony!
(Unidentified):
They tried to keep it--
(Unidentified):
I think I was hesitant because, basically a white female, coming in from a middle class background working with inner city kids with a lot of problems, whether or not I'd be able to understand where they were coming from, whether or not they'd be able to respect me.
(Unidentified):
All right, let's do it. Ready? Ready, go!
(Unidentified):
Woo!
(Unidentified):
Yeah, go all the way to the top of the ladder.
(Unidentified):
I can't!
(Unidentified):
You're doing great! C'mon! C'mon!
(Unidentified):
A lot of these kids that I work with, they don't have enough attention, and the attention they receive is negative.
(Unidentified):
There you go, there it is.
(Unidentified):
The essence of what we wanted them to get from this was, to have some kind of understanding of their own strengths, and just to try to challenge themselves. That's really important to us. We want these kids to take a step farther than they think they can do.
(Unidentified):
Oh, Sarah, I'm so proud of you! (children's shouts)
(Unidentified):
Tired than I've ever been. It felt like I was like the piece of clothes getting hanged up on a hanger.
(Unidentified):
It was scary at first, but when I got down I wanted to do it again.
(Unidentified):
You going to make it?
(Unidentified):
I'm going to make it to the wire. I don't know if I'll stay on the wire for very long.
(Unidentified):
Spotters ready?
(Unidentified):
Ready!
(Unidentified):
Climb--ready to climb.
(Unidentified):
Woo--Cody! C'mon, Cody!
(Unidentified):
Asking for help is a challenge for me. I like to, you know, work things out on my own, and sometimes I'm not so open as like, letting people know the situations that I'm in that are difficult.
(Unidentified):
Go, Cody, go!
(Unidentified):
C'mon, Cody! Woo! C'mon Cody!
(Unidentified):
I'm not really afraid of heights, and I've done rock-climbing, and I think all I could do is focus and try to concentrate.
(Unidentified):
Aaaaaa!
(Unidentified):
Just one step!
(Unidentified):
Don't fall down!
(Unidentified):
That's what's really good about that kind of experience, is that, you have to look, you know, at what's ahead of you and what's on the side. And you can't focus on all the other things that are going crazy around you. Wish it was that easy to do things like that everyday. Especially with children.
(Unidentified):
OK, so today we're going to talk about a subject called bio-diversity. Does anyone know what biodiversity is? Jeremy.
Jeremy:
Bio means "life,"--
(Unidentified):
uh-huh.
Jeremy:
--and "diversity" is like, a lot of people, like, like whites living with blacks and blacks living with whites and like, different races living together.
(Unidentified):
OK, so it's different things living together, talking people from different backgrounds, maybe different races. That's--
(Unidentified):
In a classroom of 30 kids, trying to keep everyone engaged. How do you deal with the kids who's not paying attention?
(Unidentified):
And the cattle they grow up, and they eat all that grass. But the problem is, that they can only farm that land for a couple of years. So, there's a lot of things in the rainforest that we can use that can help cure cancer. They found cures for leukemia there, possibly a cure for AIDS. And there's all this information, and right now what we're doing is, we're cutting down, burning it, and making hamburgers out of it.
(Unidentified):
I like my role right now because I feel like it fills a needed role between the teacher and the student. And I feel like I'm more than just like a mentor, just like a big brother or a tutor who comes here, like, I feel like I'm teaching something but I'm also relating to them in a way that the teachers aren't able to, both practically because they have so many kids and just because the way, you know, school's set up, there is a hierarchy, and this is a teacher, this is a student.
(Unidentified):
Everyone go get some gloves!
(Unidentified):
I feel like the traditional classroom is useful. It's useful for a certain kind of student, and we need to provide a bunch of different alternatives of education. One of them is out here in the garden. It's a hands-on, experiential way of learning.
(Unidentified):
OK, Brian, Joe, and Hermando, here's you're table over here.
(Unidentified):
Woohoo! (Inaudible) Woohoo!
(Unidentified):
Some kids that are really on top of things, I want them to understand, you know, the biochemical mechanics of photosynthesis, because that's where they are. But the other kids, I want them to make it through the day without getting a detention is really something to celebrate. C'mon down to the garden and let's hang out for a while and talk about it.
(Unidentified):
Do you think they all need to be planted in the same, in the same way?
(Unidentified):
No, no.
(Unidentified):
They're different seeds, you think they probably got to be planted different ways, right?
(Unidentified):
These probably going to have to be planted (Inaudible)--
(Unidentified):
The magic is just the interaction with the kids on one level, the interaction with the garden on another level, and then the grand interaction of all of those elements. I mean, for me, this is about right livelihood, it's about building a community, so over the long-term I want to really invest the kids with a sense that they can make a difference, you know, they can really, the really can, like...and it does start in your backyard, you know? And they don't have to think that they're powerless, you know, their choices mean something.
(Unidentified):
Feels slimy.
(Unidentified):
It is slimy.
(musical interlude)
(Unidentified):
OK, Manny! All right you guys...
(Unidentified)(Unidentified)(sung):
It's just me against the world, me against the world, baby.
(Unidentified):
Well, we about to cross Richmond High. And they always remind me of little kids that I'm working with. This is where they're going, and it's like, if I can just have any type of positive influence on them before they get here, so that they can really take advantage of the time that they're going to be here, and in middle school, because life changes once you get up out of there, once you get out of high school. It trips me out to wonder how many of these kids know it, 'cause I know I didn't know it.
(Unidentified):
I'm tired. I've been reading enough books about how we ain't had it, and (Inaudible), how we're minorities and we've got it bad, and I'm ready to write some books. If I could just have it cooked in their mind that reading is cool and how they'll love reading, 'cause I'm a bookworm, so, if I can influence other people to become that, I think that'll be the best thing I'll do, here at AmeriCorps, with these little kids.
(musical interlude)
(Unidentified):
OK, so, the players--this is going to be a tough one, just so you know this--the players in the Negro Leagues, did they make a lot of money, or--
(Unidentified):
No.
(Unidentified):
--no, they didn't, right? They didn't make too much money.
(Unidentified):
When you work in an inner city school, you have to be willing to be flexible. If you can't find a space you've got to get some chairs and sit down right outside and do what you've got to do.
(Unidentified):
What were some of the places that black people and white people couldn't come together? You guys remember any of the places--
(Unidentified):
School?
(Unidentified):
--School, good, that was one.
(Unidentified):
Now I flunked the third grade, because I like never, almost never went, right? But that was definitely a wake-up call, and I knew, I don't want to be here no more.
(Unidentified):
Espanta haros queas (sp?)
(Unidentified):
Espanta...
(Unidentified):
Espanta haros queas. Que un espanta ...
(Unidentified):
The Latin kids get a lot of negative stereotypes about black people. I am Latin, but I am a black Latin. I was working with one of the kids, and then, all of a sudden, he said something about all black people being bad. Those are the issues I can deal with, you know, I can deal with from a personal level, you know, not somebody telling them that all black people aren't like this, or that Latin people are like this, but I'm, that's who I am, I'm Latin, I'm black, and this is who I am. Now do you feel that way about me?
(Unidentified):
All right, all that doesn't matter, though, OK? It don't matter who started anything, all that--OK, Ilana, I'll see you guys tomorrow, all right, Tito. Hey, I'm glad you read the book, Tito! Read some more, read to your mom!
(Unidentified):
I feel I have a lot to offer this job and these kids, and I have a lot of energy, and I want to do this, so, I have a lot to offer and that's what I'm focusing on. I'm not going to focus on what I don't have. I'm going to focus on what I have, and try to get it to these kids.
(Unidentified):
Some of the thoughts that crossed my mind this week were, whether or not after this, if I still want to work with kids, 'cause I had a really hard week this week with them. One kid we had to expel from our program because of his very aggressive, violent verbal abuse. Because I came from a very culturally isolated area, I'm finding I don't have a lot of the skills I need to do my job effectively, especially with children of color, and I never really thought that was going to be, guess I never really thought that was going to be an issue for me, but coming to an urban area, I feel kind of crippled, and so my goal is going to try to use, the people--I don't know why I'm crying--use the people in this group more, and so--aw, shit--so, if anyone has...some words or some advice or some resources, I would really appreciate them.
(Unidentified):
Katy, I would just say that, don't, don't quit. I mean, you really seem like a really cool person to me, and the girl--the person--the one teacher in my life that actually had an effect was a white lady. She was a black history teacher, black lit teacher, and I mean she just really, like, loved me, and she really tried to tell me that I was really important, and she was just very important to me, so don't quit. We're not going to save every kid, trust me. I mean, I'm black and I deal with black kids, and I'm not going to save all black kids, and I--you know what I'm saying? So don't give up, I mean, one kid--we're going to lose a lot of kids, you know what I'm saying? We have to know that, and so, one kid, you just got to let it go.
(Unidentified):
Ivan just helped me keep the faith. He told me not to give up, which was really important. It think I just needed some perspective, and to find my strength. (background laughter)
(Unidentified):
My promise to the earth is to start trying to talk my mom into bringing her canvas bags in to the store and using those more often.
(Unidentified):
I'm going to cut the little six rings for the soda cans instead of just throwing them away. And then they'll kill the fishes.
(Unidentified):
This is going to be a big one for me but it's trying to go to McDonald's once every two weeks or any fast food chain restaurant every two weeks. Just to stop the rainforest cut down.
(Unidentified):
Can you do a wish on someone who has AIDS or something like that? OK. I hope that my friend Josh gets better because he has AIDS.
(Unidentified):
My promise to the earth is to recycle and to reduce the trash that I use and the wish is that I can become a doctor and then travel around and help the other countries that are less fortunate for medicine and stuff.
(Unidentified):
I want to thank the whole gardening crew because this is the best gardening year I've ever had.
(Unidentified):
I just wish you guys that you'll have a great summer. Everyone will be safe and I'll see you again next year, that you guys will come and visit us in the garden, even when you're cool seventh graders. Oh, they're you go, see Fisher's got it. Wow. Wow. Thanks, Chris.
(Unidentified):
There's a certain need for validation for what we're doing. We didn't expect it at all but we walked in there today. All the kids have cards. It's great. It makes you feel great.
(Unidentified):
Dear Lenar, one reason that I like gardening is because I have a great group leader. My favorite memories were when I was holding the soft rabbit and it kept scratching me but you taught me how to hold the rabbit. I want to thank you for being my group leader. You taught how to respect nature. Thank you for being so nice to me. OK, hope to see you later, sincerely, Alex Chavez.
(Unidentified):
That's cool.
(Unidentified):
And you get a little.
(Unidentified):
Smiley faces.
(Unidentified):
I made the joke it's like these kids are better at closure than we are, you know, it's like they've got like they're giving us diplomas, like we're graduating from them.
(Unidentified):
That's the long way. That's the long way. To make sure I get your mom's phone number. And she was like where is Daniel, how's he doing. So I told her you was doing fine.
(Unidentified):
So what you been doing?
(Unidentified):
I went on a retreat (music) how you feel about your new neighborhood, is it better?
(Unidentified):
Yeah.
(Unidentified):
That's good. You made any new friends over there?
(Unidentified):
Yeah, a lot of friends.
(Unidentified):
Oh really?
(Unidentified):
You talk about how do I feel when we aren't together and how do I feel about the old school and stuff like that and make me feel much better when she do that.
(Unidentified):
Matt mops the floor.
(Unidentified):
Very good.
(Unidentified):
Matt gets a rag. Matt says I can mop up, sad Sal.
(Unidentified):
When he's reading and he knows the words he's excited, he's energetic, he is so overwhelmed and so happy and he's ready to conquer and challenge the next step. You going to be in the fifth grade, hmm.
(Unidentified):
Yeah. (music)
(Unidentified):
This whole year I don't know I probably had the wildest year of my life so far, still young though but. AmeriCorps helps just because I kept hearing good things about myself from people, like people in this group and just Bay Act Wide, the people I was working with through AmeriCorps, and so when people tell you good things about yourself it helps to keep you motivated.
(Unidentified):
I've grown a lot, it's so incredible, it's like think about who I was when I graduated from high school to think about who I am now.
(Unidentified):
Being in a group and seeing the process of arguing and working to a conclusion and I'd never had that before. The headaches and the arguing and you come out the other side and we accomplished things.
(Unidentified):
All that I wanted was to figure out if working with kids was something that I wanted to and could do well. I pushed my comfort level a lot, which was very important to me.
(Unidentified):
Really believe in the AmeriCorps experience and that sounds really cheesy but the fundamental belief that together a group of people of different backgrounds can make a world of difference, I really believe in that.
(Unidentified):
What I think about my work here at Perry's, I am so totally fulfilled, challenged, overwhelmed, loved, and just totally committed to the school and this community too. I know that I'll be working with the youth in the future.
(Unidentified):
I said yeah I'm making a difference that I'm not necessarily going to say here it is. You can see it. I'd say it's a process, we're on that way and enough people believing that and doing good work will make a difference in the end.
(Unidentified):
This is our last one. Ready?
(Unidentified):
Everybody in here? One, two, three (yell, music, Applause).
Martin Weinstein, Chair, California AmeriCorps Alliance:
The two-hour film is pretty incredible but I just want to reflect a couple of things that the film brings up for me. First of all I think it was Elizabeth Shore talked about we know what works. We don't need to do the AmeriCorps evaluations. We know this stuff works. That's number one. Number two, our organization has a total commitment to diversity. And I think you can get a sense of that in the film is that I'll match a year in AmeriCorps except maybe for the military service as one of the best ways to really address and conquer the issues of diversity in this country. A year serving among a wide group of people like at least we have is an incredible, powerful experience and is worth all the trainings in the world. The other thing that the film implies is this whole notion of who are going to be our future leaders. We did a survey and you could see some of the folks that are doing those. In our program 70% of our AmeriCorps graduates are staying in the public sector, either as teachers, youth workers, other kinds of nonprofit leaders. And the last thing, and this is to some extent a tragic ending, Felicia Winston, who you saw in the film, unfortunately died. She actually died last year right after our Bay Act graduation. She had a heart attack. She's a single mom and she passed away. So we're dedicating, actually we've been dedicating this whole year of service to Felicia. Ivan, whose sister came to work for my agency as a clinical social worker, husband was shot in downtown Richmond this year. And so what that brings up for me is that one of the things that AmeriCorps really I think gives people an opportunity to do is really search for meaning in their lives. And life is a very very tenuous situation. We don't know what's going to happen. And I think the opportunity to be an AmeriCorps member and learn about meaning and also help young people to search for their own meaning in lives is something that I think is not fully understood that is a real important and if not a direct a long-term benefit of what AmeriCorps can do not only for corps members but for the young people who get a chance to participate in AmeriCorps programs. So hi John. That's it. Thank you.
(Applause)
John Kalafatas, Moderator:
Thank you, Martin. I think another thing I took from that video is that the work AmeriCorps members do can be really really hard. And despite that they bring to their work energy and hope and heart and talent and idealism and if this funding remains cut we'll be turning them away despite that. We need these people to do these things. This is hard work that not everyone in this country wants to do but everyone benefits from and it's very important. The other thing, Martin, that I appreciated from your comments was that you helped paint the stark picture of what these funding cuts represent in terms of actual programs being eliminated and as a specialist in organizational development I agree with you on the point that the infrastructure matters and can't be built, dismantled and built again overnight, that the organization behind the program is as important as the program, and with cuts these drastic the organizations go away too. And I also appreciated the fact that you expressed anger and frustration and disappointment at what's going on. It's OK to do that and I'm glad folks are doing that in these testimonies.
Yogi Berra said, "I want to thank everyone who made this day necessary," and it's unfortunate that we're in this situation where we need to save AmeriCorps, and one of the speakers last night said, "We should be here talking about how to strengthen and expand AmeriCorps, not save AmeriCorps," and I agree with that. At City Year where I work we say that City Year was built by witnesses and champions and I think that's true for national service in general. And once people hear about and witness what AmeriCorps can do, which is happening through these 100 hours of testimony, they can then become supporters and then champions. And so the important thing to do and what you did, Martin, just now is to channel that anger and frustration into our goal for this week which is to educate and inform and persuade and convert those people who made this day necessary. But to help them understand. And I think the people that we think of as not getting it, that's the issue, that they don't understand, they haven't been exposed, they haven't heard the voices, and once they do it'll make a difference. OK.
HOUR 37
We're actually well into our next hour. Which I believe is 37. Thank you all for sticking with us. Up next we're going to continue with some of the sharing with you some of the written testimony and so I'm pleased to introduce Dave Moore who's an alumnus of AmeriCorps, alumnus of City Year Boston, welcome, Dave.
Dave Moore, AmeriCorps Alumni, City Year:
Thank you, John. I would just like to share a testimony from AmeriCorps member working for Habitat For Humanity in Holland, Michigan. Actually this light makes it really hard to see the paper. Sorry. His name is Josh Berger. And I'm just going to start reading it.
"As an AmeriCorps member, I learned valuable lessons about the importance of hope. I came to believe that every day it was my job to help people find hope. To coax it, to prod it, to bring it out of its hiding place and into the light. This past year I was an AmeriCorps member with Lakeshore Habitat For Humanity in Holland. Working alongside many volunteers I helped build a dozen simple and decent homes. These new homes brought hope to families. Sometimes the days were long and difficult. I spent days of 11, 12 and 13 hours painting and roofing in the hot summer sun. I also dug waterline trenches through frozen earth in December to meet a New Year's Day deadline. One of my favorite memories of my AmeriCorps year was a project I did with the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Holland. I taught a woodworking class to teenagers. Classes included lessons in safety, learning about tools and materials, and the opportunity to build something. Something like a toolbox, birdhouse or bug habitat. Now on one particular day I thought that I'd really wow the kids. So what did I do? I brought power tools with me. After receiving permission from the Boys and Girls Club, I came ready to class with a drill, a circular saw, and a 2x10 board that was six feet long. This was going to be a great class. I had several students help me carry in all the equipment. As they did they paraded the power tools in front of their friends, eager to show that they were special because they got to carry the drill or the saw. Class began. Kids were lined up outside the door, peering through the windows, climbing over each other so they could see.
"Every seat was filled. Excitement was in the air. It was like being on the set of Tool Time. I laid the 2x10 out on the table, donned my safety glasses, measured and strategically marked off the spot I would cut. And as a trained member of Habitat For Humanity I do know that a 7 3/4-inch titanium tip plywood blade is terrific for cutting plywood or siding, but I don't know why I didn't remember that it doesn't work so well when cutting through a piece of number two pine. After the smoke cleared, the kids and I all had a great laugh. I'll never forget that day and I'll never forget the day four months later when those same kids built a ramp for a seven-year-old boy with spina bifida. They learned a lesson about hope that day because they gave hope and happiness to that young boy and his family. So now I encourage everyone to plant hope. Hope makes change happen. It may not happen overnight. It may take years to grow. I believe that the hope that I planted during my year as an AmeriCorps member is still making a difference in the lives of people in Holland today." And that was a testimony from Josh Berger.
(Applause)
John Kalafatas, Moderator:
Thank you, Dave. For those of you who have just entered the room, I'm John Kalafatas and I want to welcome you and anyone who's joined us in the last hour or two listening to our audio broadcast over the Web. And if you're doing that I want to remind you to open up another window of your Web browser and go back to www.saveAmeriCorps.org and go to the petition section of that website and sign the petition. We've now generated something close to 45,000 signatures, I don't have the exact count in front of me, with a goal towards gaining 100,000 signatures on the petition by the end of this week, and the petition calls for the President and Congress to pass the emergency supplemental funding, the $100 million in funding, for AmeriCorps for this year. So please sign that petition and encourage your friends and even strangers to go ahead and do so. OK. Next I'm pleased to introduce another City Year alumnus, Matthew Little. Welcome.
(Applause)
Matthew Little, AmeriCorps Alumni:
Good evening. Well after over a day-and-a-half of testimony I'm sure we all know why we're here. And it's located right behind me. It's part of a two-step process. The first step of course is to do what it says on the back which is to save AmeriCorps and to do so we need the emergency funding. And of course the second step is to grow AmeriCorps. And I think we all know that's why we're here. But what you don't know is why I'm here. I'm here because I'm Matthew Little. I'm from Chattanooga, Tennessee, and I'm a walking stereotype. I'm from the mountains of east Tennessee, I'm the son of teenage parents, and I spent most of my young life growing up in a trailer park. With that sort of experience, most people probably would not have expected a lot out of me. But luckily for me my parents did. And one of their dreams was to provide me with a college education. And unfortunately our economic situation didn't allow that to happen. And despite all their saving and scrimping there was no way they could assist me in achieving that dream.
But in the face of that hardship came City Year and with it AmeriCorps. And with that opportunity I had a chance to not only perhaps achieve that dream of a college education but also a chance to serve. So that's why in the summer of 1994 three weeks after my 18th birthday I moved 1000 miles away from my home into a situation I had no idea what was going to happen with it. When I got there I was placed in an inner city elementary school in classrooms where a student having a parent that wasn't in jail was rare. And with a team that was different in every way to me. I began to worry, not only would I be able to help, but would I even be able to relate to my teammates. Those worries were replaced by opportunities. Opportunities to create a pre-reading curriculum for kindergarteners. A chance to provide a remediation for second and third graders and a homework club and a chance to co-direct seven free vacation camps that served over 2,000 students in the Boston area. Through it all, I was given inspiration. Inspiration from my students. Students who came to me with Fs and left my homework club with As. I was inspired by my kindergarteners, who couldn't even read all the letters on the board, but by the end of the year were reading me stories.
And most of all, I was inspired by my team. We'd come to City Year and AmeriCorps for a variety of reasons, but all those reasons had to do with serving the community. Through that inspiration, I was inspired to continue to serve, which I've done over the last nine years with organizations like the Student Conservation Association, the YMCA, the Breakthrough Collaborative, the Chattanooga Family Service Corps and school districts in five states. And because of AmeriCorps, I was able to achieve a dream of a college education when I received my bachelor's degree from the University of Memphis.
(Applause)
Of course, it's only fitting that I got a degree in a field that AmeriCorps and City Year had introduced me to, elementary education, so that I might continue to serve long after I'm too old to serve in an AmeriCorps program again.
Now in spite all the incredible service I've seen and been a part of, that's not the main reason why I'm here. The main reason I'm here is because if you ask my sixteen year old brother what he wants to do after high school, it's serve with AmeriCorps. Now unfortunately, already this year, there are people just a year older than my brother that we've had to say sorry, there's no way you can possibly do that. And with every day that funding doesn't come, it increases the chances that I'm going to have to say to my brother, "I'm sorry, but that's just going to have to be a dream deferred." And that's something that I really can't bear to do, which is why I hope that the voices you hear tonight, tomorrow and throughout the week inspire you, inspire anyone else who's listening to continue to fight. Fight for AmeriCorps so not only will it survive, but it will grow. I want to thank you for giving me a chance to hear my voice and thank you to everyone who made it possible for me to serve in City Year and in AmeriCorps.
(Applause)
John Kalafatas, Moderator:
Thank you, Matthew. Although the funding and legislative and accounting and political issues are complex, what we seek here is actually very simple. What we seek is simple. It's to enable people like Matthew's brother and other people like him to serve. All we want is to give every citizen, especially young citizens, to opportunity to serve their country and put their idealism and talent and patriotism to work. And it's really in the end, that simple. Put their idealism to work for the common good. I'm very pleased to make the next introduction of someone who not only understands the programmatic side of national service, but also the organization building that's required to sustain national service programs. A mentor of mine, someone who has taught me many things about social entrepreneurship. A lot of my job at City Year is implementing great ideas that come from its president and co-founder, Michael Brown.
(Applause)
Michael Brown, President, Co-Founder, City Year:
Thanks, John. My name is Michael Brown and I'm the President and Cofounder of City Year, a national youth service organization that was founded in Boston 15 years ago and today is serving in 15 cities across America, and I am proud to be a voice for AmeriCorps tonight. I like to say that America was founded in 1776 with essentially a declaration of idealism that goes something like this. "When in the course of human events things don't work, people must invent something new." And America is the only country on the planet that wasn't created because of a common gene pool, because of a common history, a common tradition. It was created out of an idea about a country that should exist. About people coming together to invent itself. And I like to believe that America's founding value is idealism. The very idea that you can change things, that you must change things. Things that you find that are broken and need to be fixed. And that citizens by coming together can recreate their world. That's America's number one asset. It should be our number one export to the world. And it has to be the number one thing that we generate as a society.
If idealism is our founding value, the question is how do we institutionalize that in American life. In some ways it's happened over the many years through challenges the country has faced, times of war, we've banded together, and we've sent young people to war to fight battles in the name of the values that we believe in. Wars have produced some of our greatest leaders and some of our most thoughtful moments. During times of great injustice from our very founding through to today when leaders have emerged who've said there's something wrong with this country, we must fix it, and they have taken action, those kinds of movements have built some of our most thoughtful and committed leaders. But we can't and should not depend on war and social injustice to be the primary way which we institutionalize the building of our most thoughtful and committed citizens. The way that we actually tap into generating the idealism of a society. Because without those war or injustices that people feel so committed to they have to just break out of their lives to make good on, if we depend on those too, then we're a society that is basically saying unless those are going on and unless you can find a way to be part of them there's no way to participate in the great movements, the great ideas and the great things that have to happen in your country, and that idealism has to be built into the very fabric of our society.
And so for that reason, many people have said that national service is an idea that should be institutionalized in American life. It's an idea that goes back to the citizen soldier concept of the American Revolution up through the Civilian Conservation Corps, today we heard from an alum of the Civilian Conservation Corps that was so inspiring, and that we were inspired by that program from the 1930s when we were starting City Year, through Jack Kennedy and the call to the Peace Corps, up through the modern national service movement, which was really started by President Bush who created the Commission on National Community Service, extended dramatically by President Clinton with AmeriCorps, and in recent times with President George W. Bush has called on Americans to give 4000 hours of service, and for a dramatic increase in AmeriCorps.
Interestingly enough, though, the idea of national service was really put forward in 1910 by William James, an American philosopher. He put it forward in its probably in its most theoretical concept, that this is how we will tap what he called the martial virtues by which he meant the virtues that when we ask people to go to war for our country, the idea of believing something larger than yourself, the idea of camaraderie, being committed to your country, patriotism, hard work, all of these martial values could be tapped for the common good in times of peace for work here at home on meeting critical needs. That idea has been around for 100 years. National service, though, as a concept, is still in its infancy. It's still small. We like to say at City Year that one day the most commonly asked question of an 18-year-old can and should be where are you going to do your service year. What would happen, what would the country be like, if that was the most common question? National service is essentially like a Swiss Army knife for idealism and democracy-building. But why do you carry a Swiss Army knife? Because it does so many things at once. It's so useful.
What can national service do? It can meet critical needs. It can do things that in no other way can be done by actually tapping the idealism of our citizens. The second thing that national service can do is it can train new leaders and committed citizens by exposing them to their country and its ills and challenging them to change what they see and to grow in the process. The third thing that all the theories of national service have said is that it would generate civic engagement on a broad scale, that if you had a cadre of full-time people in service, they would inspire thousands of others to serve. National service it was said would also help to complete the American Civil Rights Movement, which as we know through so much hard work and by so many committed people, a number of which, many of which, too many of which, gave their lives for changing our country through the Civil Rights Movement, which changed America in so many ways, but one thing that it did, it may have changed our laws, most of our laws are no longer discriminatory, there isn't de jure as they say in law school, by law, legal discrimination in America, or if there is it's being ferreted out every day, but there still exists discrimination within our hearts and within our heads, with where we live and where we go to school and who we socialize with and how we think about our neighbors and our colleagues. And the idea is that through national service we could break America's founding agony, the social divides, the racial divides, among us by uniting for a common purpose.
And finally the fifth element of this Swiss Army knife that all these theories of national service from William James on have talked about is said that through life-changing benefits tied to national service you can actually give access to the American dream to millions of people, such as tying college education or the ability to buy a home or start a business through service. And that's why this theory gripped me as a 20-year-old when I was in Washington working for Congressman Leon Panetta. I was 20 years old and I had a chance to work on national service legislation that if passed would have studied the idea of national service. It wouldn't have created any programs. I had a chance to work on that legislation. I came across these theories. And I can say that it hit me like a thunderbolt. Nothing in my life has hit me as stirringly as these concepts. And I hope everyone has an opportunity sometime to be stirred by something so much that the moment you hear it, the moment it hits you, you know it has immediately changed your life forever.
And that's what happened for me when I got exposed to this concept of national service. And I've worked on this concept now for nearly 20 years with my partner Alan Khazei who I was assigned to be a roommate with at Harvard College. We remained roommates for 15 years until the day I got married, kicked him out. Then we spent all night talking on the phone. About how to build national service, and now City Year is celebrating its 15th anniversary. It's in 15 cities. Last year at this time we had a corps of 1000 young people heading off into service. There's been over 7500 graduates of a City Year program. It's done 10 million hours of service. The corps members have built scores of playgrounds, they've turned scores of vacant lots into community gardens. They run vacation camps for latchkey kids that have nowhere to go on school vacations. In Boston alone where we started City Year every spring and every fall there's over 1000 children that have a caring, educational and patriotic place to spend their weeks of summer vacation because of the City Year corps.
I have seen through not just theory but now through practice of 15 years national service meeting critical needs. I've seen it develop leaders before my very eyes. The crucible of service, having to run that camp, having to convince someone to come out for a day of service. I remember there was a housing project in East Boston where there was a senior citizen who would never come out of his home. He had all kinds of physical ailments. His house was unsanitary. His neighbors didn't like him. And there was a great deal of feeling around a danger to his own health and wellbeing. City Year corps members went into that senior center. The first person ever to get in to open his door and let somebody in in years was a City Year corps member, and I remember talking to the head of the center, who was amazed that this had happened, and it was the power of young people, their idealism, even the innocence of that idealism, they're without guile, they are without other agenda, they are there for the common good, and it is sensed by a shut-in who has rejected everyone else around him, and for weeks afterwards people would come by and say oh, there he is, he's sitting out there now, he's talking with his neighbors, and with his City Year corps members.
I like to say that City Year corps members, AmeriCorps members, national service participants, they bring light to dark places. And they illuminate the American ideal and American values of idealism. So we're meeting critical needs. We're training new leaders. We're generating civic engagement on a broad scale. Every year City Year corps members organize the Boston Serve-a-thon. Ten thousand people come out for one day to do community service. Sometimes as many as 100 different projects at 100 nonprofits that would never otherwise have this service. All in one day and all throughout the City Year corps members are engaging others in their service. Completing the Civil Rights Movement, one of the most important things that we did when we started City Year was we said we wanted to bring together young people from all backgrounds, from the city and the suburb, Caucasians, Asian Americans, African Americans, Latino Americans, to serve together, and it is an extraordinary thing, I never forget when the principal of the Blackstone School tells me when he saw those corps members every morning coming over the hill to come into his school and they were from all backgrounds, the smile that he got on his face, and this is an inner city school, the largest in Boston with 1000 children that go there every day, and when that team comes in he says it lights up his building, and it shows this urban community how this community of young people can get along. And interestingly enough, I remember a corps member once said to me, they become such friends, the corps, and they go out at night, and of course they're not in their uniforms, they're in their civilian clothes, and people stop them and say you guys are a rock band, right, you guys are some kind of sports team, right, and you know what they're saying, if you deconstruct what they're saying, they're saying what the heck are you guys doing together, this is America after all, why are white and black and Latino and rich and poor and from all these different backgrounds and you all look so different, what are you doing together enjoying each other's company? They're not putting it that way and they're not thinking through what they're saying, but that's what they're saying, how can this be, it's happening through national service. It weaves America back together.
America was founded with this founding agony written into our very Constitution. When the Constitution said that Caucasians represent one person and an African American represents three-fifths of a person and those three-fifths were not free. And we institutionalized that alongside all of our wonderful founding ideals. And we have been working on reuniting this society. And the interesting thing about America that is so important to where national service fits in is that I like to say that America is not perfect but it's perfectible. And the reason it's perfectible is because we have nearly perfect ideals and we can use those ideals to criticize, to challenge what isn't America and to make the changes that we need to have happen. And so it was in the 1830s when an Abraham Lincoln said that the Declaration of Independence doesn't say that all men who are white and are property owners are created equal. It says all men are created equal, and he began to challenge America's reality of slavery with its ideals of equality. And so it was in 1963, we're celebrating the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King's dramatic speech that I heard again and again last week and the resonance of every line was extraordinary, there's a thesis on democracy and justice in every single line and he refers to our founding documents, to the promissory note on those documents that need to be paid.
Well, how do we get there as Americans? We get there through national service and through 15 years I have seen that. I have seen corps members help to heal those founding wounds, going into neighborhoods where otherwise they would feel like oh, I wouldn't be welcome unless I'm wearing that uniform, and then they go back at night without that uniform and the bonds are created. And I've seen corps members lives change and I don't need to testify it, you just heard from Matthew Little. Who wanted to go to college and came to an AmeriCorps program, came to City Year, which is just one of 900 programs, and got inspired and got that opportunity through the education award to change his life and to go to college and in one generation the American dream is met in the Little family, that's extraordinary, Matthew, and there are so many Matthew Littles in the world, in America, that need this opportunity. So 15 years later there's 15 programs, there's 1000 City Year corps members, City Year was one of the inspirations for AmeriCorps, not the only one but one of a number, and it's an incredible public private partnership. We started privately and we're proud of that. We were able to have 100 corps members with the private resources we were able to bring to bear in Boston. But because of AmeriCorps it took us three years to get to 100 corps members, maybe four years in Boston privately, with AmeriCorps we got to 1000 corps members in five years following that first grant. And that was because we could leverage those AmeriCorps dollars. Because we could work with communities that wanted us in their communities and say with an AmeriCorps grant we can go match that. Every federal dollar that's been put into City Year has been matched at least one to one and usually two or three to one. But without that federal dollar there's nothing to match, without that federal dollar there's no corps member stipend and there's no corps, there's no national AmeriCorps, and there's no educational award that says this is your life-changing benefit, Matthew Littles and all the Matthew Littles in America.
So we're seeing that something extraordinary is happening within AmeriCorps and at City Year we're seeing that it works. It's been working now for 15 years as a program and it's been working powerfully for ten years with AmeriCorps. And then suddenly and literally overnight we got the word of these cuts. So a year ago at this time we had 1000 corps members ready to serve. This year because of the cuts there are 500 City Year corps members ready to serve. There are 17 inquiries to City Year for every spot in our corps. We turn away so many young people who want to serve anyways, and this year all these young people were ready to go, all 1000, 500 we have to say you can't serve your country for minimum wage and working basically round the clock like these hours we're doing here, you can't turn on your justice nerve and your idealism at City Year. Go pursue some private pursuit. Go do something else that's about yourself because that's what society is saying to them instead of joining City Year.
The financial impact on the organization from this overnight decision, rather of these devastating cuts, is large. Five point six million is lost to City Year around the country in our 15 programs. That support members and program operations. Two point five million is taken away from the Matthew Littles of the world who will not get education awards through City Year anymore, gone. Done. Totaling $8 million of cuts. To just one program, City Year, as it operates around the country. But more importantly than even all of that is the services that are lost. Because of these cuts to City Year. Fifty-nine hundred children will not be served through City Year after school programs because of the cuts. Ninety-six hundred children will not be served through academic tutoring and mentoring in schools because of the cuts to AmeriCorps. Twenty-four thousand three hundred youth will not receive City Year's curricula on substance abuse, social justice awareness, dropout prevention and environmental education. Because of the cuts to AmeriCorps. Seventeen hundred children and youth will not be led into service through City Year's Young Heroes program, which takes sixth, seventh and eighth graders, the middle school years, the critical years, when young people are deciding who their civic identity is, who their social identity is, who their educational identity is, who their economic identity is, they're deciding all those things then and we're saying you know what you can be a civic superhero, but now they can't be in the program, Young Heroes, which is a program of 20 Saturdays where young people in middle schools learn how to be leaders. Because of the AmeriCorps cuts.
Seventeen thousand five hundred children and youth will not be led into one-day community service projects, and you can think, well, one-day community service projects, what's that, we can all think about an extraordinary experience we've had, going to a museum, having some kind of experience at school that was out of the ordinary. One day of community service can change everything. So many of our corps members have said they joined because they came to our Serve-a-thon one day of community service leading to a year of service. Fifteen thousand eight hundred adults will not be engaged in community service through City Year. All of this overnight because of these devastating cuts that can be cured through $100 million in emergency funds. And that's just one program of City Year.
I want to address four issues that I'm hearing. We talk a lot about AmeriCorps and how powerful it is. I like to talk about the theory of it all. And then we get some hard questions. Questions that are being asked to us, I've been just on CBS News the other night, being asked these questions, on CNN, and I think they boil down to four questions. So let's take them on. The first one is about mismanagement. How can AmeriCorps ask for more money? There's been mismanagement. Well first of all, we know that these issues have been fixed. There is new management at the Corporation for National Service. There's a new CEO, there's a new CFO, and there's a new COO. All ready to go. There's a new accounting structure. Part of the so-called mismanagement was confusion over how much money had to be put away in the trust fund so you'd have money for the Matthew Littles of the world at the end of the day. And the system was largely working OK but there was a dispute, it wasn't necessarily mismanagement but it's been characterized as that, a dispute over how to do that accounting, essentially how much money to put in the bank in advance. It's been settled through the terrific leadership of Senators Bond and Mikulski and the President signing the Strengthen AmeriCorps Act. It was settled this spring. It's done.
There's the issue of committing too many volunteers to AmeriCorps, that the federal agency that runs AmeriCorps, the Corporation for National Service, committed too many spots in AmeriCorps and therefore it didn't have the funding for it, and that's really the heart of the mismanagement issue that we're hearing. Well first of all let's take that apart for a minute. President of the United States went on national TV in his State of the Union 2002 address and he called for young people and really Americans of all ages to serve. Give 4000 hours he said, join AmeriCorps, I want to grow it by 50%, and people wanted to join. AmeriCorps is a decentralized system that gives out its grants to programs across the country. That is a new millennial way of doing things, it's what the Republicans rightly call devolution and it's working, there are 900 AmeriCorps programs. So giving out those kinds of grants the way to do it. Should there be more policies in place and systems in place so that those spots aren't given out by the federal government in advance of the funding? Absolutely, and there are clearly assurances now at the Corporation for National Service that it's not going to happen again. But the reason it happened is because so many want to serve. It's not going to happen again. And we know for a fact it's not because of the programs in the field. There's a system at the Corporation for National Service that it got away from them. It's back under control. It's not happening again. Why punish the programs in the field? Why punish the communities that are ready and need this service? Why pull the Matthew Littles of the world out of the schools where they're serving and mentoring? Why stop the school vacation camps? Why stop the mentoring because of that?
There probably isn't a single federal agency that hasn't at some point been unauditable or had problems but at the end of the day you don't say we're not going to have veterans anymore because the veterans programs are having problems. We don't say that we're not going to have a National Guard even though just last week it was said we're not sure how many Reserves we actually have and there was a story on that. You just fix those things because of your priorities. Second one. Is $100 million still needed? The federal fiscal year starts anew again on October 1, so how can you need $100 million now? It's September. It's very simple. The way that AmeriCorps operates is organizations compete for funds and they get grants that start at the end of the fiscal year through the next fiscal year. So right now AmeriCorps programs would be starting. A hundred million dollars given in September could immediately be deployed to the tens of thousands of young people ready to serve that have been recruited by these organizations to the hundreds of organizations that would otherwise close and are running on bare bones budgets now cutting back their services and staffs, they are ready to go now. This $100 million is needed now. There doesn't need to be a new competition at the Corporation for National Service. They already ran it. And they were only able to give away a minimal amount of grants instead of all the ones they could have. Adding money now simply completes the process that should have happened naturally three months ago.
Programs are ready to go. Young people are ready to go. And certainly we know that communities are screaming where are our AmeriCorps members in our schools, where are our AmeriCorps members in our environmental programs, where are our AmeriCorps members tutoring and teaching our children? Hundred million dollars not needed, let them come to Voices for AmeriCorps, listen to what we have been talking about, listen to the 701 speakers. Of course it's needed. It's needed now. It's needed immediately. And I must in the name of all the young people who want to serve, I must ask Congress and those of you and those of us that can influence our Congress, and the President, to say we need these funds, we need them now. Third of four issues is a little more ideological and a little bit of a practical issue within there. It's called paid volunteerism. Why are we paying volunteers when people should do it out of the goodness of their heart, they should do it naturally, they do it anyways, and two, doesn't this paid volunteerism crowd out people who would otherwise do it for free? This is not volunteerism. This is full-time service, just like the all-volunteer force we call our military. The young people in City Year work at least eight hours a day and usually ten or 12 or 15. They suit up in a uniform. They're out doing calisthenics in San Antonio at the Alamo and at Copley Square in Boston and Kennedy Square in Providence, in Daley Plaza in Chicago, they say we're powerful, ready to serve, by 8:00 a.m. they are fanning out, they are an army, a civic domestic army of idealists.
This is not -- I'm going to -- well maybe I'll put an hour in here, or something there. That's needed too in America. But this is different. You can't run an after school program every day if you're just trying to do it with a few volunteers. It can't be done. You can't meet the kinds of needs that AmeriCorps members are doing. It's extraordinary what's able to be done by full-time volunteers, and we pay full-time volunteers or really full-time service providers. That's what it means to say you're in the service, whether it's the military service or the domestic service of AmeriCorps. Do they crowd out volunteers? Just the contrary. All of our experience at City Year has shown that they generate volunteers. That's one of the whole ideas of national service I mentioned. Ten thousand on just one day. And if you spread that of course of the year it's still tens and hundreds a day. And never mind that all through the year they're generating all kinds of volunteers to come in and tutor with them in the schools, to help build the community gardens, to build the playgrounds at the schools, AmeriCorps members don't crowd out volunteers. AmeriCorps members inspire Americans to remember what it is to be an American. To want to serve. To want to come out of their houses. To want to go into their community. To want to take civic risks. To want to build civic trust. To actually want to believe in these concepts of America. That's what they do. They don't crowd out anything. They generate will. They generate volunteers.
Finally the criticism is we're going through tough budget times. I get this question, I've got it three times in the past few days, how can we afford money, more money for anything, much less AmeriCorps, right now, through tough budget times. Well now's the time we really need AmeriCorps. AmeriCorps is on the front lines in communities. And communities across the country, I live in Boston and the cutbacks in the schools and the cutbacks in the community services are devastating. In some cases City Year members are almost the sole volunteers still running small nonprofits in Boston. That's extraordinary. It's sad but they're needed. And now more than ever if you can generate people in full-time service for about minimum wage and that scholarship at the end, that's an incredible return on investment. Now is the last time that we should be thinking about cutting back on AmeriCorps. Are emergency funds needed? They're needed now. And we must, we must convince Congress and the President to provide it, $100 million, without it not only will all of those services not happen, not only will there not be young people in service, the programs that have been built, and it's not just City Year, it's Youth Build, it's Jumpstart, it's Teach For America, it's all of the programs of NASC, they've been built by citizens through a stool where one leg of the stool that's being held up is these federal dollars, and the other legs are the private sector and the other legs are the nonprofit and civic sector, and if you just kick out one leg of that school you just basically say forget about all that building that's been happening, all that civic inventiveness that's been happening, these aren't government agencies, these are nonprofits that have been built to be AmeriCorps programs through the civic inventiveness of the American mind when it's attuned to justice.
And if you take away ten years of work, 25 years of work, of Youth Build, and then you say to a next generation, yeah, you can go build things, and the government will support it, but at any one point you'll come and just kick one of those legs of the stool out from under you, that's no way to make devolution happen, that's no way for government to be as a partner and a trusted partner in building things. So much of the work is being done by the private sector and citizens. The government must do its part and it's terrible to think of all of the loss of all the energies that are putting into these programs, the disillusionment that is going on right now, and that's why more than ever we need these funds. We need 75,000 AmeriCorps members. The President of the United States called for this at the height of the most patriotic moment in 50 years. He said this is what it means to be American. We need to help him pass that. We need to call on Congress to grow AmeriCorps to 75,000 members. That's a drop in the bucket for a country that has 25 million people between the ages of 17 and 25. That's just 75,000, that's a drop in the bucket.
But it's an important next step. And then after that we need to grow it by magnitudes. We need to get to a quarter million young people in service and eventually a million Americans in service, and then if we do that all kinds of wonderful things will happen. Most of all America will actually refound itself, those ideals of idealism will be fundamentally institutionalized into our life, and it won't be a liberal or conservative vision, it won't be a Democratic or Republican, it's just fundamentally American. So many people when they hear about City Year, AmeriCorps, any of these programs, they light up, if it's the first time they've been exposed to it, they say that's exactly what I always wanted America to have. And what they're tuning into is what they understand what they want their country to be. And if we could have a million young people in service, America will live up to all those founding ideals. America will have its justice nerve turned on. Americans' civic inventiveness will be turned on in an institutionalized way such that if you have an idea for change, for building a better mousetrap to meet a need in America, you can use national service to build that program to meet that need. And that truly if we do that it'll be the day when we can say to any young person who's 18 years old where are you going to do your service year. Thank you very much.
(Applause)
John Kalafatas, Moderator:
Thank you so much, Michael. Thank you, Michael Brown. Couple of numbers for you. My handlers inform me that 45,429 citizens have signed the petition that you can access on the website at saveAmeriCorps. OK, our latest update, 46,127, the good news is it's constantly changing. And if you haven't signed it you can sign it right outside at the registration table. So Michael at the end hit on the three goals of this week's testimony, $100 million in supplemental funding this year, 75,000 AmeriCorps members in FY04 and our long-term goal of a million young Americans in service each year. Someone else who faced some very big challenges and very big goals in his time, Abraham Lincoln, said that the best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.
HOUR 38
And for us this week the future is coming one hour at a time and so I'm pleased to let you know we're now into our 38th hour of testimony. Which brings me to the next speaker. There are over 350,000 AmeriCorps alumni out there. Three hundred fifty thousand citizen heroes and another one of them that I'm pleased to introduce is Mark Blacknell, an AmeriCorps alumnus. Welcome.
(Applause)
Mark Blacknell, AmeriCorps Alumni:
Hi. As he said, I'm Mark Blacknell and I've come here to ask Congress to restore all of our AmeriCorps programs to the level that they've earned over the past ten years and we want $100 million and we want it now. Why? Because AmeriCorps works. I know AmeriCorps works on a number of levels. I know AmeriCorps works on a personal level, I've seen it work in my community, I've seen it work in my adoptive state of Georgia and I'm seeing it work on a societal level. Again, Congress, we want $100 million, we want it now, we've earned it. In May of '93 I had just decided that I hated school. In fact I wanted to make real sure so I repeated ninth grade twice and then I did tenth grade again. So I left. And I was faced with being a third-year person, no real degree, looking into the summer of '93, and I was leafing through The Atlanta Journal Constitution and I saw an ad said something, can't remember the exact text, but it said something, give back this summer, come work with Hands On Atlanta. OK, well, what the hell's this? Well, that looks kind of interesting, you know, better than working down at some of the local options in Riverdale, Georgia and Atlanta. Let me look into this. And as I've come to make a habit over the years, I picked it up sort of the day before it was due. And so I ran down to Monroe Avenue and I asked them well what's this all about, can I see the application, they said sure, sat down there, ran back to my car, filled it out on the spot, now keep in mind that sort of what I was coming to this to, idealism just really didn't figure into my life, maybe self-help at this point, I had been arrested for breaking and entering, grand larceny, a few other things, so I wasn't exactly somebody who was raised with an ethic of service, somebody who was just rearing to give back, I was looking for something to do that summer.
That summer changed my life. It changed my direction. It changed my thinking. I was lucky enough that day after I handed back in my scribbled application to be invited back the next day for a group interview the likes of which I'd never gone through before but I've always used as a model for many of the programs that I helped give training and technical assistance to later. Well what do you mean, what do I think? Why do I care? Nobody's ever asked me these things before. I spent that summer at College Park Elementary in a fourth grade classroom as a teacher's assistant. It was supposed to be me and one other person and the teacher. The teacher herself decided well she was going to take the summer off. That's not exactly how programs are designed to throw people into educational settings feet first but that's what happened. And I saw what it meant to be responsible for other people. I saw what it meant to be responsible for somebody's education for their entry into the world. It was just a short summer for me. Again this was Summer of Service, this was meant to be the model, it was the result of a year of long planning by some very good people, on the original Community and National Service Commission, Wayne Misell, Dave Sawyer, some other people who just really contributed a lot to national service. And in that summer like I said I learned what it was like to be responsible for other people. I learned what it was like to be asked well what do you think. I learned what it was like to look up and see wow, here's a future here in front of me. That was amazing.
Why was this possible? It was possible because of AmeriCorps. It was possible because again on a governmental level somebody got together and said hey, this is a good idea, why don't we pull together these citizen corps, they modeled it again on good programs like City Year, like the Georgia Peach Corps, like the old Civilian Community Corps. It was something that was done not out of the private sector, not out of the academic sector, but out of the public sector out of government. And that's something that I think people need to realize, that that's where it came from and that's one of again the three legs of the stool that this program really relies on. That summer again it was transformative. It excited me, it got me into the concepts of service learning, it made me think, well maybe I should finish up school one way or another. And through some of the people I met there and some of the ways that I found to get information I found a way into college. I didn't quit school because I was an idiot. I quit school because I was bored and I didn't really like it. I was lucky enough to get into Georgia State University at night where I could take classes there to complete my high school degree. I did that with the help of some of the people that I had met in the program and while I was there I got involved in the Service Learning Program and got very excited about it. I got involved in the Campus Outreach Opportunity League. I got involved in a lot of the programs that form the base of national service, really contributed to really starting it off in those first couple of years. It was amazing.
And so that's what I did. I thought maybe well I'll stay involved, stay on the sidelines a little bit. I still went back every Saturday to my kids in the fourth grade classroom and I followed them by grade year in the Discovery Program. And I learned the value of not just short bursts of service but sustained and regular service. And the next summer I got a call from Lynne Thornton who I'd never heard of before. She used to be the Peach Corps Director and she had been appointed as the Executive Director for the Georgia Commission for National Community Service, something that I hadn't heard of when I was doing Summer of Service. And she explained to me that oh, you know, Summer of Service turned out so well, I hadn't really followed the results that well, that there's this program called AmeriCorps and we're launching it in September and we'd like you to come helps us do that. And this was out of the blue. I had never met her before. But again it was through people who I'd met in Summer of Service and through people who saw that I really tweaked onto this idea and thought that it was something worth doing. It was just a little part-time position at first. But that turned into eventually I was the Program Coordinator from '94 to '97 that was responsible for the training, technical assistance and evaluation of Georgia's AmeriCorps programs. This gave me both invaluable personal experience and professionalism that eventually led to me making maybe not the best decision in my life but heading off to law school and becoming a lawyer but it gave me a good background.
I tell you all that because for me I went from somebody who a good arrest record, no real direction, to a Summer of Service that turned into a good few solid years of service which turned now into sort of a lifetime hopefully of service, and that's the sector that I want to return back to. It's worked for me. I know on an individual level this works. But is that worth $100 million? No, it's really not. But it was worth it to me. So that I came here to tell you again that it works on an individual level. On a community level, this is going back to that Summer of Service, I was put in College Park, some of you guys might have heard College Park if you ever listen to Outkast and sort of the dirty south, we're talking about Southwest Atlanta, this is not an area of Atlanta that got a lot of funding, at the time, didn't get a lot of attention, and the school was a mess, an absolute mess, and this was a school that was in the middle of a community that was just well, a number of my friends had been arrested in that community and a number of my friends made a lot of money in that community, and believe me it wasn't by regular old businesses, they did a lot of damage to the community, and it was a community that was hurting. That program started that year again in College Park Elementary. They turned the school back into what it should be, which is a center of the community. Hands On Atlanta was able to leverage its contacts in the private sector along with its contacts in the Atlanta educational school system to put together a program that made the school, which is a year-round school, not only a place for the kids to come to learn but for their parents to come to learn and for families to come back together and sort of get around the concept of families and then again looking out at each other and looking at the larger family of community. That community there was a big impact that year. The mayor was involved. The mayor was thrilled to death. Most of the teachers, unlike the one that was in my classroom, were very very excited, couldn't believe that all of a sudden these resources and these people, people, not just dollars, not just computers in boxes, but people were coming in there, and people cared. That was the thing that they were most excited about. And because of AmeriCorps these people didn't just come in and go away that summer. They came in and for that next year from '93 to '94 they came back every Saturday. And then after that they came back every year. They were there year-round, AmeriCorps members. And you have seen this institutional building of this civic and service infrastructure in College Park, Georgia that never would have happened but for AmeriCorps.
And to this day, whenever I get a chance to go back to Atlanta and I'm going to be there for the weekend, I know that I can drop by without calling ahead, without checking to see if it's running that day, because the Discovery Program's going to be there. And while my kids are a little bit too old to be there anymore, I know that their little brothers and sisters will be there that weekend. AmeriCorps worked for the community of College Park, Georgia. I know that. I lived in College Park before it and after it and it just made an incredible difference. Worth $100 million? I don't know but there's a lot of College Park, Georgias out there. And if you look across the country and you realize $100 million, I still have a hard time calling it chump change but it's not a lot when you compare it to the other budget items that are up there on the Hill right now. I think the place where I had the most profound experience, even putting aside my personal experience, was looking at it from the Program Coordinator's viewpoint in the state of Georgia. Atlanta, the '90s were a boom time, it didn't get anyplace better to be than Atlanta, especially if you were young and excitable, the world was looking at us for the Olympics, the money was pouring in right and left, business development everywhere. Great. But what about the rest of Georgia? There's the Highway 85 and 75 it might have opened up a few extra gift stations along the way. Maybe 20 going up to Birmingham because everybody wanted to see the Civil Rights Museum. But not a whole lot was going on. But what you had here was with AmeriCorps starting was you had the federal government saying hi, we can provide you with significant resources if you can provide us with a good solution that you can partner with other people, other local governments, other private businesses, and a good solution that not only you can claim happens but that you can show happens. And that was something that sort of took everybody aback.
The first year it was hard to drum up enough applicants for the money that was available out there but we did it. We got some incredible programs going. We strengthened the Hands On Atlanta corps. We strengthened the Georgia Conservation Corps. We started the Macon Police Public Safety Corps. We renewed the Georgia Peach Corps. We started the West Savannah After School Program corps. We started Southwest Georgia Easter Seals After School Programs. And we started the Douglas Coffey County AmeriCorps Program. This reaches the whole range of the state of Georgia, from top to bottom, from mountains of Appalachia down to the coastal plains of Savannah and down into the scary swamps of Albany, Georgia, and then we even reached out and touched somebody who needs no help with that, down in Plains, Georgia and Millard Fillmore down in Americus and we got things going again strongly with Habitat For Humanity. It was an incredible thing to see. You had state funding, you had federal resources coming down to the state level, the state engaging local people, local leaders, on an individual and community level, saying we've got the resources, if you can match them, let's see what problems we can solve. It was something that was amazing. It was something that many of these rural communities would not have but for AmeriCorps and I am absolutely certain that if AmeriCorps remains cut the way it is that these communities will no longer have these same opportunities.
Hands On Atlanta as much as they're probably facing in cuts for this year, they'll be OK next year, it's going to be a shame that they're going to have to get out of some of the schools but they have an infrastructure, they have the professional ability to go out and find more funding. Douglas Coffey County AmeriCorps will disappear absolutely. There are not the resources in some of these communities. Now there's in kind donations, there are incredible individuals who are very generous with their time but in terms when it comes to paying these educational stipends and these cash living allowances, they will not show up, there are not the resources there. Now would that the needs would disappear with these resources, but these needs will remain. And I'm utterly convinced that rural America and exurban America will suffer greatly if AmeriCorps funding is cut. You have good committed programs like City Year which again it's a damn shame that they're going to be knocked out of as many cities as they would be, but they'll survive, they'll be around. And I think that they've got the infrastructure to get back up, dust themselves off, and do their damnedest to improve. But so many of these programs this extinguishes them and it extinguishes them forever. And that's something that each one of our Representatives needs to think very carefully about when they look out on their district and realize that they probably don't represent a large city, they probably don't represent an area with huge amounts of private funding. And they need to think about the needs that'll go unmet.
So I've seen AmeriCorps work on an individual level for myself. I've seen it work on a community level in College Park, and I've seen it work on a state level in Georgia. It's also working on a national level. I don't know, probably most of you have been involved at one point or another in the King Day of Service, the Day On Not A Day Off, national service the infrastructure there is largely responsible for being able to pick that up and run with it. All the King Commission funding and infrastructure was sunsetted some time ago, there wasn't the money to push it forward, there wasn't the high-profile ability to push these programs around, that's still there now, you still see things around, Day On Not A Day Off, because of national service. I saw in the film that a lot of people went back to their programs, some of the people went back, they were hired on as supervisors, and all that, that's great, and I think that's wonderful that somebody can find a full career in national service, but for every one of those there's ten that go out into the rest of society. There are more people who go to their banks, to their law firms like I did, back to their schools, back to their car dealership jobs, and they know about national service, they know about service learning, they can tell you about the importance of community service. When you have an advocate in every segment of society like that it's hard to go wrong.
That's why this is such a popular program. It is amazing how across the board this program is popular. I think it's what 44 governors signed on to support this, can you find anything else that 44 governors can agree on besides give us more money, it's absolutely amazing, I think one of the scariest times when I was down in South Georgia, a friend of mine who was running the Easter Seals Program there had taken me out after going to see one of her programs and this is down in Dooley County which is absolutely the middle of nowhere, and nobody's ever heard of it, and we were sitting up at a bar and we're next to these five other people and Beth leaned over and said hey, hey Harold, I'd like to introduce you to Mark, he runs one of them there Clinton giveaway programs and got up and walked off. She thought it was funny. I was terrified at this time. I had hair down to here. And Harold sort of looked at me, said, one of them there Clinton giveaway programs. Well sir, it's not really a giveaway program, it's called AmeriCorps, and we -- Oh, AmeriCorps. Yeah, doesn't Crisp County have one of those over there in their school system, do you know if that's going to be coming to every state? So here I came terrified, because talk about some of the stereotypes, so that's sort of conservative old guys just don't like Billy Clinton, absolute fan of the program and I'd never talked to him before. He had heard about it from people in his community and he was asking me well when can we be a part of it. AmeriCorps works. We know that.
I've learned a number of lessons in watching this for ten years. I thought that I'd be getting -- in preparing for this I went back through some of my materials and I saw some of these names that I just hadn't thought about in forever and I really thought that I'd be getting back together with some of them in 2003, sort of a celebration of wow look at what we were doing ten years ago, have we lived up to it? Well, yeah, we have lived up to it. I just didn't think we'd be in such a defensive posture right now. And that's a real shame. I have four lessons that I've picked up. First off, and it might be -- it was the lesson that I had the hardest time getting across sometimes as a Program Coordinator. It's not enough to do good. You can't just say but our programs are doing a lot. You have to show it. You have to be accountable. You have to be responsible. There was a failure to do that very well that may have put us in this position today. People need to realize that it's not enough to do good. You have to show your success. You have to document what you're doing. You have to be able to stand up to the scrutiny of your fiercest critics.
On a more positive note, I think that AmeriCorps and national service has shown that public interest can be served at all levels here. Individual, community and state, and that AmeriCorps is a critical part of the infrastructure for supporting that service. With relatively meager resources. Also there's no replacement for AmeriCorps. As an institution with a long view AmeriCorps can afford to take chances to seed new and innovative service programs with models that can be replicated across the country. One of the programs I mentioned, the Macon Public Safety Program, was a community policing bicycle program that has been replicated across Georgia, and if you thought that you were going to get the Georgia Assembly to appropriate the funds to try that out in the first place, it was never going to happen, but because of AmeriCorps funds, because of the national service funds, you now have a good working model for community bicycle policing in cities across Georgia. And again as I mentioned before, AmeriCorps has one of the broadest levels of community, state, local government and business support that I've ever witnessed. Something has to be working to unite this many people behind the program.
When I was looking through my materials and one of the quotes in there were that "National service will be America at its best building community, offering opportunity and rewarding responsibility." That was Bill Clinton on March 1, 1993. Since those words tens and tens of thousands of people have stepped up and made those words work. They've made real the dream. And now I'm asking that Congress and President Bush step up and do their part to do the same. Thank you very much.
(Applause)
John Kalafatas, Moderator:
Thank you, Mark. Mark mentioned the 44 governors that have signed on and expressed support for full funding of AmeriCorps. Just a few other numbers like that:
79 of 100 senators voted for the $100 million supplemental. Although the House of Representatives didn't get to a vote, 228 members of the House of Representatives have expressed support for AmeriCorps. 148 mayors. 250 private-sector leaders, corporate leaders, and philanthropists. 190 college presidents. And 1,180 non-profit organizations have signed their support for AmeriCorps. Along with 96 editorials that have been written in recent weeks in support of funding AmeriCorps. Next, I'm pleased to introduce Sam Daley-Harris, Director of Micro-Credit Summit Campaign. Welcome, Sam.
(Applause)
Sam Daley-Harris, Director, Microcredit Summit Campaign:
As you just heard, my name is Sam Daley-Harris. I am founder of Results, an international citizen lobbying organization whose purpose is to generate the political will to end hunger and poverty around the world. For the past seven years, I've been the Director of the Micro-Credit Summit Campaign. It's a project of Results' sister organization, Results Educational Fund. And the goal of the Micro-Credit Summit Campaign is to reach 100 million of the world's poorest families, especially the women of those families, with credit for self-employment, and other financial and business services, by 2005.
Now I am unlike most everyone else who will stand up at this podium in that I have not had much direct interaction with AmeriCorps. Dorothy Stoneman, a friend, invited me to testify. I am, however, passionate about service. I am passionate about fostering idealism. I am passionate about making a difference and helping others find a way to make a difference. All that makes me passionate about AmeriCorps. Several years ago, I wrote an essay on activism for a book titled Imagine What America Could Be In the 21st Century. I started the essay with a quote from Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweikert, who said:
"We aren't passengers on spaceship Earth, we're the crew. We aren't residents on this planet, we're citizens. The difference in both cases is responsibility." I want to repeat that. Schweikert said:
"We aren't passengers on spaceship Earth, we're the crew. We aren't residents on this planet, we're citizens. The difference in both cases, is responsibility."
And that's what service in AmeriCorps is all about, to me, helping Americans move from passengers to crew, from residents to citizens. What more important movement could there be? A friend of mine -- I think a friend of mine had it right when he said that one of our principle jobs in life is leaving the campsite cleaner than we found it. Imagine what America would look like if each and every one of us was seriously engaged in his or her own act of cleaning the campsite. Some might take on healing the fragile environment. Others might take on ending hunger and homelessness. Still others might focus on transforming our schools, especially reaching those who are most left behind. I believe that if every American embraced this idea, there wouldn't be enough problems to go around.
That's why AmeriCorps is so important. It sets up a structure for people to serve, to really get engaged in leaving the campsite cleaner than we found it. I'd like to take these last few minutes that I have to focus on two different quotes that really move me, that really point to why we're here on Earth, what we're here to do. And why AmeriCorps is so in line with our purpose as human beings. Speaking in 1984, at the height of the nuclear freeze movement, now-retired Republican Senator Mark Hatfield said the following:
We stand by as children starve by the millions because we lack the will to eliminate hunger. Yet we have found the will to develop missiles capable of flying over the polar cap and landing within a few hundred feet of their target. This is not innovation. It is a profound distortion of humanity's purpose on Earth. I'd like to repeat that. Hatfield said:
We stand by as children starve by the millions because we lack the will to eliminate hunger. Yet we have found the will to develop missiles capable of flying over the polar cap and landing within a few hundred feet of their target. This is not innovation. It is a profound distortion of humanity's purpose on Earth. Think about it. We live in a country in which the will to develop missiles is much stronger than the will to save millions of children each year. Now that's something worth getting passionate about. And isn't that one of the major reasons we're here on Earth? To find and correct profound distortions of humanity's purpose? Let me conclude with one more statement that points to the importance of AmeriCorps. It's from George Bernard Shaw. Shaw said the following:
This is the true joy in life. Being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one. Being a force of nature rather than a feverous, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community. And as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment. And I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations. Again, Shaw said:
This is the true joy in life. Being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one. Being a force of nature, instead of a feverous, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. End of quote.
That's what AmeriCorps participants do. They use themselves for a purpose they see as a mighty one. Shaw continued, quote:
I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community. And as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. End of quote. Again, that's what AmeriCorps is all about, the privilege of serving the community in any way we can. And Shaw concludes, quote:
I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I've got hold of for the moment. And I want to make it burn as brightly as I can before handing it on to future generations. End of quote. We must do whatever we can to help people see life as a splendid torch and that they want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations. That's what AmeriCorps does. We must see to it that AmeriCorps not only survives but thrives. Thank you.
(Applause)
John Kalafatas, Moderator:
Thank you, Sam. George Bernard Shaw also said, democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve. And I think our work here this week is showing that the nation deserves the kind of shift of priorities that you were talking about in your first quote. And so I appreciate both. Thank you, very much. Next, I'd like to invite up Bob Coates, who is with the Student Conservation Association, who's volunteered to read written testimony that's been submitted by someone who couldn't be here this week. Bob...
(Applause)
Bob Coates, VP, The Student Conservation Association:
Thanks for the opportunity to read some testimony that was submitted on behalf of our SCA AmeriCorps alums. We are pleased and proud to be part of the coalition, putting on [this voices?] project and pleased to be part of the sixth through eighth hour on Tuesday, where members of our board and SCA AmeriCorps alums came and testified in the Dirksen Building on Tuesday. Not all could be with us. And not all could come to Washington, D.C., to join us. And so they sent, by e-mail and by fax and by letter, their contributions, because they're concerned.
The Student Conservation Association places over 3,000 young people in conservation service a year on America's public lands, in the nation's parks, state parks and forests, and natural settings, to make a contribution to the preservation of our natural resources. We had been a partner with SCA for ten years. And as a result of the reductions in funding, SCA is no longer a partner with AmeriCorps. On Tuesday, we also had the opportunity to hear from our founder. I think one of the most fascinating experiences, having been here now for three days, is that I've gotten a chance to get reacquainted with Alan Khazei and Michael Brown, who we heard so passionately from tonight, Wendy Kopp, Eric Schwarz, the founders of the organizations that are involved in the Voices project. On Tuesday, we had the opportunity to have our founder, Liz Titus-Putnam, now 70 years old, who started the Student Conservation Association back in 1957. She had a vision that came from reading an article by Bernard De Voto, who was a conservation writer and was making the observation that as a result of the [assurgent?] of a middle class and the opportunity for Americans to take part in visiting our national parks. As De Voto said, in fact, our national parks were being loved to death. Liz Titus-Putnam took that inspiration, incorporated it into a senior thesis at Vassar College. And from there, started SCA. To address the issues. To bring young people onto public lands and have them contribute to restoring and protecting our natural resources. So it's been fascinating some of the founders of the other organizations and then have Liz, obviously, get introduced to them, for the first time. It's been fascinating.
One other observation and then I'll get to the testimony. I've known, certainly, of City Year and have visited City Year headquarters in Boston a number of times. I know the power of that urban setting and the contribution of the community service. I also, obviously, know about SCA's particular niche in service, that being conservation service. And I've often thought, what if you were to combine the power of those two experiences together in a single person. And in fact, a living breathing example of that Matthew Little, who we heard from tonight. Who, in fact, had the opportunity to do both AmeriCorps and SCA.
The first testimony I'd like to read to you is from a Kenneth Slantz? And he's a superintendent in the school district in the Adirondacks of New York State. SCA has for five years operated a residential CCC-style, Civilian Conservation Corps-style, AmeriCorps program in the Adirondacks. The winter component of that program involves young people working in the rural schools there. Under-resourced schools. Certainly, schools that don't have the advantage of having resources in their schools who can bring conservation service and environmental education into their schools. He writes to Tom Moore, a staff member at SCA. He says:
I'm writing out of concern for the apparent, he puts in parentheses, loss of one of our critical programs at Long Lake -- Long Lake, New York -- the SCA AmeriCorps program. For the past six years, the AmeriCorps SCA students have played a pivotal role in our school as they've educated our students in the areas of environmental concerns that are tantamount to the health of the Adirondack Park. The students have worked in concert with our faculty and have raised a level of excitement in our children that carries on long after they have left us in the early spring. The field-day experience at the SCA AmeriCorps headquarters has been equally invigorating to our students, as they use these lab days to see exactly what it is they have been learning about. Cutting the funding of this program is simply one more blow to public education. The rhetoric involved in being a politician of education is easily doled out. Strong educational programs with proven impact are not. The SCA AmeriCorps program in the Adirondacks is one of those impactful programs. I would ask that you share my comments with whomever you can in Washington, in that I speak for many other districts and administrators and faculty members. Many thanks and best of luck to you and your remarkable program.
The second testimony was sent to us by a parent and a teacher, also in the Adirondack region, where we run this SCA AmeriCorps program. From Sarah Bentz [sp?]. She writes:
"I've been acquainted with the SCA AmeriCorps program for five years, both as a teacher, a parent, and a friend. This is an outstanding program, as everyone who is involved will tell you. My first encounter with SCA was when my then second-grade son became involved in an after-school naturalist club that the program put on. I knew my son was very bright. Not just another bragging parent. But he hated and struggled in school. The naturalist club provided an atmosphere for him that was free from any school stresses and allowed him to express his verbal intelligence. I was so impressed that somehow, some way, someone had been able to connect with him in a positive way through school, that I signed up to have a member, an SCA AmeriCorps member, the following year. Becoming involved in SCA AmeriCorps through the Tupper Lake program has profoundly changed my life. Every member for the last four years has been outstanding, instilled environmental ethics in my students as well as my own children, and has been an inspiration to myself, as well as many other teachers. The students sign up for naturalist club in droves. Every activity, every lesson or event, they participate in, and/or the plans, show 100% involvement. I am so impressed by what all the members have accomplished. I always considered myself to be a real conservationist, a native Adirondacker, and do anything to protect this beautiful place. The SCA members provide such a powerful message, without preaching. They have inspired me to truly be a steward of this beautiful land in which we live. When I attended their recognition ceremony, I felt as if the ground under my feet had been swept away, as they would no longer be working in our schools. I now have such a renewed faith in myself, however, the children will truly suffer. I only teach 18 students per year, but they touch hundreds of lives. Teachers cannot possibly accomplish what the SCA members can because we have so many constraints upon us. SCA members truly practice what they preach. And that is something I aspire to.
"As a direct result of having a member in my class, I've become very involved with the Adirondack Curriculum Project and will devote the rest of my teaching career to inspiring students, and hopefully other teachers, to become active participants in protecting the land in which they reside. My sister and I have volunteered to coach a youth cross-country ski program for the past four years. We've been privileged to have several SCA AmeriCorps members help us out and boast the largest membership in New York State. This year, without the help of SCA members, we will have to limit the size of the program, quite possibly cutting it half. We will have to limit the size of not only this program, but others. There will be no other after-school naturalist club at a time when parents are screaming for after-school events and activities. And teachers will not be in a position to be able to help. If nothing else, I've gained a great deal of knowledge, enthusiasm, and renewed love of working with children, as a result of working with the SCA AmeriCorps program.
"My oldest son, diagnosed with a severe learning disability, has looked forward to the day when he can become a part of the SCA AmeriCorps program, as it is the only thing that has ever really captured his attention in seven years of schooling. I feel a great sense of loss for all the future students at L.P. Quinn Elementary School who will miss out on the experience of having an SCA AmeriCorps member, the experience of getting outdoors and experiencing nature. Please think about the children. They are indeed our future. Regular education teachers are not providing them with the environmental background they need in order to make a difference. Respectfully submitted, Sarah Bentz."
From Kathleen McCarra. [?] She writes:
I am an AmeriCorps member, and I will get things done. When I first learned there would be a pledge involved with national service, I, along with many of my fellow corps members, got a bit weak in the knees. After all, we had signed up to serve, but wasn't a pledge a bit militaristic? Then we had fun with it. My friend said that if we were ever met in a dark alley, he would immediately recite, no, he would yell the pledge at his attackers. Faced with apathy, I will take action. Any thought of that, we were sure would send our assailants running. But when a funny thing happened. After serving a summer with SCA AmeriCorps, and then ten months with the NCCC program, I slowly began to understand what the pledge meant. What started out as a scary thought, and then a joke, became a pledge with which I could commit my life. These 13 months have taught me what America is. And AmeriCorps has taught a generation of young people, myself included, how to be caretakers of the land they have inherited. One of the reasons you are hearing from so many past corps members is because one of the things that this program instills in you is, if you want to see something changed, you've got to be the force behind that change. And faced with adversity, we will persevere. I'm sure you've heard what I'm saying many times over from many different people. I don't think anyone is arguing about the good effects of this program. Let's get down to the real issue. How do you intend to fill the void, once the program is cut? How do you intend to teach people like myself these life lessons? This is the one thing that is working for America. But if you have a better and more efficient way to make what has become such an enormous impact on today's youth, then go ahead and make those changes. But we can't just "x" out positive change. What is so important that you can't give today's youth an excellent chance to be good citizens? What as a society do we value? I know that 20 to 30 years down the road, the history books will give AmeriCorps a piece of history, just as we have all learned about our predecessors, the Civilian Conservation Corps. Do you want to be the administration that ends our history, the last blurb in the timeline? I will carry this commitment with me this year and beyond. And I hope that you will give many more Americans the chance to do the same. Regards, Katherine McCarra."
And finally, I'd like to conclude with a piece that SCA developed for submission as an op-ed piece, which we hope will appear in newspapers soon. It's entitled, "The Real Value of National Service." The timing of the rhetorical tug-of-war in Washington over funding for AmeriCorps, the national service program, could not be any more ironic. It was exactly two years ago, in the wake of the terrorist attacks, that President Bush issued his forceful call to service. The American people, including tens of thousands of our younger citizens, responded selflessly and enthusiastically. And their efforts were an integral part of our mending. Yet we find ourselves embroiled today in a debate over the value of national service. Many of our congressional representatives and national leaders are now reluctant to support service, with some contending that this is a feel-good luxury that must take a back seat to other, more important issues. What they fail to recognize is that these more important issues are the very factors that compel people to serve in the first place. And that voluntary service strengthens our country today while building a more secure and civil society for the future. The Student Conservation Association, the non-profit organization with which I'm associated, received a record number of inquiries following the President's 2001 call to action. And that trend continues today. Many other service organizations around the country have experienced the same type of energized response. I'm convinced it's because these volunteers know they are meeting real needs and making a real difference.
From revolutionary times to the era of the greatest generation and on to the present, young people have repeatedly demonstrated that they are eager to act when called to give beyond themselves, to contribute to their communities and country, and to be part of true solutions. Today, while the efforts of SCA AmeriCorps members and the thousands of others who volunteer through service programs may not solve all the problems, it is undeniable that our environment, our communities, and our nation would face markedly greater challenges if our volunteers had not been there. Service, the act of freely doing valuable work that benefits others, with no expectation of receiving anything in return, is what builds a responsible and responsive citizenry. Regardless of where individuals choose to serve, in our elementary schools, soup kitchens, or national parks, service connects people with their neighbors, communities, and the world at large. Experience shows that all these elements must be increasingly linked and interdependent if we are going to sustain our societies and our planet. And ultimately, that is what drives young people to do voluntary service. They intuitively realize that joining together with other citizens, young and old, to protect our world for future generations, gives greater meaning to life, ignites the human spirit, in both the volunteer and those who benefit through service.
This is not the moment to pull back from national-service funding. As our country, communities, and institutions face the challenges of a sluggish economy and stressed governmental budgets, we see critical social, educational, and environmental needs going unmet. Increasingly, it's the volunteers who are stepping into the gap to help insure children are being educated, meals are being delivered, the environment is being protected, and our communities are remaining safe. The U.S. Congress, whose members are also public servants, should seize this moment, not only to acknowledge the value of national service, but to honor it as a defining strength of the American culture. They should provide the relatively modest financial support to insure that the network of organizations who work in partnership with AmeriCorps are supported in their missions and that those who must rely on these organizations will continue to get assistance they desperately need. Thousands of young Americans are ready to act in service to their nation. But our elected leaders must act first and allow them the chance. SCA urges Congress to act now to restore funding to AmeriCorps. These are additional SCA AmeriCorps voices that we wanted to contribute this evening. Thanks, very much.
(Applause)
DAY 2, NIGHT SESSION, 9/03/03
12AM - 3AM
M:
…This week and for those of you who spend time in the outdoors you'll, you're probably familiar with the Leave-No-Trace program. It's a set of principles for living and traveling and camping responsibly in the wilderness, and the basic idea behind the principles are, is to wherever you go, leave it better than you find it. And that's really what AmeriCorps and National Service is about, leaving the world better than you find it.
HOUR 39
We are now in our, where are we, in our thirty-ninth hour of testimony this week
(Applause)
Thank you everyone who's here now as we enter the late night with National Service segment of the week. And assuming we're ready technically speaking, I'm pleased to introduce a man whose name is as hard as mine to pronounce, a member of, of the City Year Chicago staff and executive coordinator of (Inaudible) Chicago--
M:
Are you OK?
M:
Yes.
M:
Matthew Dobrovolskis (Laugh, applause).
Matthew Dobrovolskis, Executive Coordinator, Young Heroes Chicago:
Hello. Give me a half a second here. Let me get a sound check on this. I'm, I'm Matthew Dobrovolskis from Chicago. Once again to make sure this sound's working. I don't think it is (music). This is a preliminary video that I made last year. It's going to service a recruitment school for the Young Heroes program in Chicago. We found it, last year; it was kind of difficult explaining what exactly the Young Heroes was. I will go into detail for today. There will be a voiceover as well. My brother works for ES Pan Radio in Chicago, and he'll be adding the commentary. Let me say this, apologize. I'm so sorry.
M:
America:
M:
Sixty-one hours, huh?
M:
America:
Matthew Dobrovolskis:
I'll see if I can finish in that time there. All right. I'm ready to go now. Let me start from the top. My name is Matthew Dobrovolskis; I'm for Chicago, also known as Matt from Chicago. I will so inspired by Michael Brown's sale presentations so I decided to do a little power point here (laugh). Somebody who knew what I was talking about there. I'm from; I'm from City Year, Chicago; that's my AmeriCorps sight. In this presentation, I hope to get across briefly what is City Year. I did not know I would be going after Michael Brown, or I wouldn't have come. What are the three service models of City Year Chicago? I'm going to touch a little bit on cost effectiveness and finally building the future.
And before we get started, I'd like to let you know that City Year Chicago got zero dollars from AmeriCorps this year. City Year--City year as Michael Brown noted is an action tank. You might have heard the word "think tank" before going off that word think tank, action tank, action mean to do as opposed to just think. An action tank for a National Service, City Year seeks to demonstrate, improve and promote the concept of National Service as a means of building strong, of stronger democracy. City Year unites a diverse group of young people, age 17-24 for a full time rigorous community service, leadership development and civic engagement. As we stated before, the vision of City Year, is that one day the most commonly asked question of a young person is going to be, "Where are you going to do your service here"? Couple of points, City Year's corps activity; City Year runs a full-time youth service corps in 15 sites nationally and we have our first international site going, engaging citizens in service through large scale, high impact community events. Our next event in Chicago on last September 11, next week on September 11 and every September 11 to come, we will be remembering those who served and died on September by also serving our communities. Diversity and inclusively is one of the key aspects of City Year as was noted before trying to take people from various, not only racial backgrounds, but from different educational backgrounds, college degrees, graduate students, GED students, high school dropouts to try and bring all of these points of view to the table. So you know sometimes somebody who went to graduate school might not know exactly what that inner city student who has never been exposed to a college student before needs in his life 17 (Inaudible). City Year is in 15 sites nationally, including the first international site South Africa as, as that country makes its struggled for Apartheid to democracy. It just seemed like a perfect place to try and establish an international site for City Year. New York and Little Rock and the South Africa sites are, run, what is known as a fellow site; and there are starting up with five to ten corps members whose job it is next year to recruit a corps. And to get it going for next year, they were schedule, I believe New York was scheduled to start this year; but because of the AmeriCorps funding cuts, was not able to; and remind you again, AmeriCorps funding--
King's speech plays. "The Good Samaritan on life's roadside, that will be only an initial act. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar that comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring."
Matthew Dobrovolskis:
City Year Chicago has three main service models that we serve. The CSI or Center for Schooling Improvement Service model. I will touch further on all of these service models. We run after school programs; we do the Young Heroes program as well and numerous other outside agencies that our corps members volunteer on the weekends on Fridays and after hours in order to keep their hour requirements up and also to go out, engage the rest of the community. I'm not sure if anyone of you are aware, but there's been a competition going on, and we won. We now have the world's largest prison population based on percentage of our national population, and 52 percent of those inmates is estimated are either completely or partially illiterate. This brings us to City Year Chicago's first service model developed by the University of Chicago, the strategic testing and evaluation of progress assessment program developed by the Center for School Improvement at the University of Chicago, is a comprehensive evaluation as well as 30-minute, one-on-one tutoring sessions with kindergarten to third grade students who are struggling in their literacy scores. And it evaluates the students' skills in speaking, reading, spelling, the ability to understand the story and the ability to form words that they may not have heard before. It's one thing to be able to spell "cat" 50 times a day, but you know, but to be able to spell "Tennessee", if you've never heard that word before, and it helps to get a, get a grasp of where that student is coming from and where they need to go. At City Year Chicago, we see training from, as I mentioned, the University of Chicago developed the program and they assure that every one of our corps members receive 40 hours of training in the CSI program. We're trained by Chicago public schools and the Golden Apple Teacher Foundation of Division of Chicago Public Schools. We basically receive all of the training that a new teacher coming into the Chicago public school system will receive. In addition, we receive some training from our sponsors, (Inaudible) investment management, does the financial planning workshop for corps members; Deloitte and Touche International IT consultant firm does resume building, cover letter workshops and I'll touch a little bit more on the Young Heroes partnership with Deloitte; as well as countless training from City Year as an organization and from outside volunteers that the staff members are able to engage and come in to the school, I'm sorry, into City Year to teach us.
This little graph here is a graph of the students that I tutored last year in the second grade classroom. The grey area is about where you're supposed to be starting to finishing second grade. As you can see, none of these students were anywhere near that level when they started second grade. The first student I'd like to talk about is Tia Hawkins. Tia Hawkins came into second grade. It was her first time ever being in a school. I don't know the background on that. She just had never been to kindergarten, never been to first grade, not got much support in the home and so she, she was the first student I was introduced. When I went to the teacher, and was like, can you, can you identify some students that might have a need. Immediately, there was this girl sitting in the corner playing with play-doh while the rest of the class was reading books; and she's like, Tia can't read, why don't you take her. Upon assessing Tia, I found that she didn't even know her alphabet. She knew some words, she knew some letters, she didn't know which ones they were; and it was definitely challenging. I wasn't, I wasn't expecting a nonreader, I was, I chose second grade because, I mean, we were kind of given, do we want to go kindergarten, second, third. I chose second grade because I thought it would, it keeps, kids had some skills; and I was just not expecting a second grader that didn't know how to read. Throughout my year of service, I was able to bring by the end of her second grade year, Tia is now one of the best readers in her class, reading at, in the last school year, at a fourth grade level. I am going back to work at the same school this year, and I plan on following up on all of my students. Moja (sp?) Hee Jackson started off slightly better than Tia and he had been in school for the last two years. Moja Hee was born with a developmental disorder in that he has no right arm. About half way down the upper arm is, is where his fingers are. And obviously in second grade that can be a chal, it can be challenging for anybody, but in second grade, kids tend to be a little cruel. I found that Moja Hee's biggest problem was his confidence. He just, he had no confidence in himself. He had, he was convinced that he couldn't do it and, therefore, that, that was it. And really all Moja Hee needed to do, he's a very intelligent boy; all he needed was reassurance from somebody on a daily basis; that, yeah, you could read too, you're doing a good job. And that, not only just the tutoring, but being there and being able to talk with Moja and being able to talk to other students when I, when I've notice them picking on Maja Hee and, and it's, I don't know, being, being a younger person than the teacher and being on a first-named basis with the students, it, it just makes for more of a personal relationship; and, and they, they open up and they, they come crying to you; and they tell you their problems that they would never ever talk to a teacher about–
I also want to talk to, at the end of the year, I, I wanted to see, you know, I did all my assessments and I wanted to see, you know, I was like, hey, I did all this, had all this great project, progress; all my arrows are going up; so that must be good, but I wanted to see how my students rated against the other students in the same classroom that weren't being tutored by me. So I assessed about four or five of them. One of them was Amber Ewings; and during the assessment, Amber just burst into tears; and I just couldn't figure it out. I was like shocked and kind of, what do I do and, you know. So, I, I calmed her down, and got her to stop crying, you know, and I asked, you know, what's going on; and, and, there's nobody else around and there were only two people in the hallway; yet she leaned across the table and, and leaned up to my ear and whispered in my ear, and remember, there's no one around; she had no reason to whisper; "I can't read." And I just was puzzled, I was like, "It's not true, you sat here and read half a book to me" and we just got stuck on one word; and she's like, "No, I really can't read, I just pretend." And so I realized that at the end of the year that, especially after, after the assessment, not just from her words, was, you know, this was the end of second grade; she probably should have been on a Step 9 or 10 and she was only on Step 6. So there was a student that, you know slipped through the cracks, so to speak, because, you know, because we didn't have enough corps members going in at the beginning of the year to be able to hit the whole second grade.
And there were some other students that I assessed at the end that were just amazing and just way above all these other students; and one of them in particular Amron Crowder tested higher than anybody in his class. If you had a conversation with Amron, you might say he was slow. He tends to drag his words out a lot, stutter a lot and he's just real slow; and when he's called on in class, he seems like he might not know the answer when he's put on the spot. But I sat down and assessed Amron and he was amazing. Remember, this is second grade. I don't even remember what the word was, but I, I asked him if he knew what it meant. He's like, "Yuh, I know what that word means" and he scratched his head and he said, "You know something, Matt, I think I maybe experiencing short-term memory loss." This is second grader. And, I'm like really, short, what is, and then he goes on. Do you know what short-term memory loss is? Well, there's two types of memory in the brain--there's short-term memory and there's long term. It just starts breaking down, mental capacity to me; and, and this, he, as much as these other students really could use the extra one-on-one support to bring them up to speed, students like Amron, I believe, were, were actually being slowed down by being in this classroom. They weren't allowed to, to fully utilize their capacity, and, there's another need, not just for, for students that are lacking, but for advanced students that there just aren't the resources to meet their needs.
King:
"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."
Matthew Dobrovolskis:
I remind you once again that City Year Chicago got zero dollars from AmeriCorps this year. The Young Heroes program. The Young Heroes program is City Year's first nationally standardized service model and it targets middle schoolers--sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. It started in 1994 year after AmeriCorps first year. In response to our eighth grader's question, an eighth grader asked, "Why, why can't I be in City Year? What can't I serve my community?" And since then it's operated as, somewhat of a, a mini City Year engaging middle schoolers in community service. There's an extensive curriculum to Young Heroes. I'm not going to go over it all, but it basically starts off on Martin Luther King Day and, and it tries to build off that social justice movement of Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement and, and, and I would recommend taking some time to look into the curriculum. One of the main things we like to do or I feel that my goal within Young Heroes is to break down stereotypes that are just beginning to be engrained and stick within these middle schoolers' minds. Stereotypes about the elderly, about gender roles in the community, about race, about homelessness. It's just, it's, it's just amazing that, amazing that some of the stereotypes coming in; and they're not necessarily bad stereotypes; but if you're aging and you come in and, you know, and, and, are you Chinese, you know, or if you're Korean, you, you must know Tiger Woods, you must be related to him or something, like to take a second here to, to meet some of the young heroes.
Voice:
We are, we are packing, we're on our way to a homeless shelter and delivering lunches and going to help the little kids and stuff.
F:
Is that all we're doing?
Voice:
No. And we're, I forgot the rest, but I know the first part.
F:
That was very good.
F:
The reason why I asked that you guys brought sack lunches today is because it's very important that when my guys leave here in the morning, that they're only focused on their goals of getting (Inaudible) going to their appointments, getting themselves better, then focusing on where they're going to get their next meal at. So what you guys did is you helped them for one more day tomorrow, focus on what they're trying to do to get their lives back in order again. So we really appreciate that very much.
Voice:
(Inaudible)
Voice:
What if they have no way to go and they're standing outside?
Voice:
Some people be bringing their kids up here, they got kids at school.
Voice:
What kind of, what kind of classes do you teach at night?
Voice:
I goes to classes (Inaudible) volunteers.
Voice:
When the people come, when they get crowded, don't they have, don't they start a fights and everything?
Voice:
Are they allowed to get (Inaudible)?
Voice:
Yuh.
Voice:
Like say, like say they give you a (Inaudible), what, what's going to happen?
Voice:
What if they need (Inaudible)
Voice:
Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, (Inaudible)
Voice:
(Inaudible) March 3, the only one you'll ever have.
Voice:
So break it down.
Voice:
Almost ready.
Voices:
(Laughter)
Voice:
(Inaudible) of the day; darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. That was quote of the day.
Voices:
(Inaudible) One, two, three, (Inaudible)
M:
You can tune in tune out, but don't you ever drop out and in the end you'll learn what I rap about--reality, black and white peace and judgment by color has to cease; and preach and teach to the children, you can reach and don't give in to the blood-sucking leech. You are the future, the future. You got to get more mature, mature; you are the future, the future, the future; you got to get more mature.
F:
And what are you doing?
Voice:
Playing basketball.
F:
With who?
Voice:
(Inaudible)
(Music playing)
F:
And now (Inaudible)
Music:
(Inaudible) feeling, hang it up, (Inaudible) feeling; hang it up (Inaudible)
Voice:
Now it's time for the (Inaudible) Let's get ready to (Inaudible) On March, On Wednesday, March 19, 2003, we watched the United States (Inaudible--drums in background).
M:
Keith Kelley is his name.
M:
My change makes a city become a community, our community, our (Inaudible) our home; and home's where the (Inaudible) make your home, (Inaudible) right here. This is the hood.
Voice:
I need green, a dark green, a really, really dark green or a blue; I need blue.
Voice:
What about this one?
Voice:
Is there a blue?
Voice:
This one.
Voice:
Can't have a DNA sir with that blue.
(multiple conversations; inaudible)
Voices:
(Inaudible)Voice:
Did you get (Inaudible)
Voice:
You need to work like this, (Inaudible) corner right here (Inaudible) be real careful (Inaudible) white spots. If you (Inaudible) get one of these; you go up and down; make sure you have (Inaudible).
Voice:
What happens if you get paint on the wood, what do you do?
Voice:
On the wood?
Voice:
Um hmm.
Voice:
You have to get a sponge, towel, paper towel as fast as you can, so it won't (Inaudible) mark it up, you got to wipe it up (Inaudible).
Voice:
No, did City Year do it or did some other program?
Voice:
Young Heroes get on this. I'm surprise is all it does. I'm Kimberly Young from (Inaudible) best year in the world (Inaudible).
Matthew Dobrovolskis:
Now all that footage was on, actually shot by the middle schoolers. One of the stereotypes that we learned last year, Kendall Young, the, the last boy you saw in the video, and Kari, the first boy you saw in the video, they're brothers. We learned half way through the program that, Kendall and Kari, two are most outgoing young heroes, always involved, always raising their hand to be up front and speak, are actually homeless, or, I haven't followed up yet, but at the time of the program, they were homeless. And I think it helped. Once they were comfortable enough to, to come out about that, it helped for the rest of the young heroes to be able to realize that, you know, (a) they're not alcoholics and drug adducts and they’re homeless, too. We're working on, a partnership. It's, it's kind of in the works right now; it's going to happen, we're not sure in what form. Deloitte and Touche and the Young Heroes program in Chicago are partnering to train the Young Heroes in the Microsoft suite of programs windows operating system, internet explorer, power point and Microsoft word, will probably limit it at that; and Deloitte and Touche already has a successful program called Bridge in which they train seventh and eighth graders in HTML website programming. So and then, we're working with the Chicago public schools to try to secure a space that will have 40 or 50 computers in one location that will be able to do these trainings, in which Deloitte will then put about 10 to 15 of their IT consultants on site to work with our corps members in training the Young Heroes in, in all these soft wares.
A note about Young Heroes--Young Heroes returns more corps members through the City Year program than any other city or service model. Just to remind you once again, that funding to City Year Chicago was cut 100 percent. Another one of our service models in Chicago is facilitating after-school programs. Every, all six of our service sites in Chicago run in after-school programs from 2-3 hours a day, serving all grades from K-8. Each after-school program is unique to the corps members and to the school in which they're serving. We wouldn't want a math major teaching an art class, you know how that can be; and we wouldn't, also we wouldn't want to, you know, run a program that the school doesn't want; so we try to work with the faculty at the school to try and assess their needs. Had a couple of examples of some after-school programs. We did the Our World/One World program in which we explore Our World through culture immersion and then, basically month to month, we select a theme, such as Hispanic culture or, or more specifically, we might do the Mexican culture; and for the whole month we'll, we'll be speaking Spanish in the classroom; and, and you know, that guy has to go to the bathroom in Spanish; and, and saying hello and all that good stuff. I know we have Spanish food and Spanish dancing and games and customs from the country that we're talking about. And, it, it really does help eliminate some of these stereotypes and this, this goes all the way down to the kindergarten level; and you know, just, the school that I worked in was 99.9 percent African-American, I don't know where that .1 percent came from, but they were just, when they started, when we did the Spanish class, we actually had no Hispanic members on our City Year team; but we did know some Spanish and, at first, (Inaudible) I'm not speaking Spanish; you know, just kind of got a little attitude about it; and well, once they, once they realized that they could speak Spanish, and you know, they got, rolled their tongues and stuff, they were having a blast. And the, well, after we were done with the Spanish month, they were still asking to go to the bathroom in Spanish, which I don't remember how to do right now. Flat Stanley, Flat Stanley, I'm not sure where it started. There's bunch of different rumors about where it started, but a teacher at the Suitor School in Chicago, where was that (Inaudible) last year, won the Golden Apple Award for the Flat Stanley program; and there's a couple of different versions of Flat Stanley here. And basically, it's just a little paper cutout that the student designs; and then through adults that they know, Flat Stanley is then sent all over the world. And then, that's Flat Stanley being sent all over the world. And then pictures are taking of, of Flat Stanley in these various locations. There's pictures of Flat Stanley at the Pyramids; picture of Flat Stanley at the Great Wall. One of the staff members at Suitor happen to know somebody who worked on Condoleezza Rice's office; so there's a picture of Flat Stanley with Connie Rice and George Bush at a cabinet meeting. So, what this does is, is, it brings geography right in, outside of the classroom into the hallways all over at the Suitor School. There's just all these maps everywhere with these pictures of Flat Stanley pointing to where they were, where they are on the (Inaudible) and like a little story here, talking about that person's experience in that particular region; and you know, it's, it's just amazing to, you know, think of a third grader, you know. Ooh, look at Candlehart (sp?), you know. I don't even know where Candlehart is.
School Heroes--kind of modeled after the Young Heroes program. Some of our after-school programs, we allow the Young Heroes to earn extra service hours by serving in their communities, serving their younger peers and, in some cases, influencing our very, our tutoring service model developed by the University of Chicago. All right. I just want to touch briefly on the cost benefit. In 1994, year after AmeriCorps were founded, Apt Associates did an independent study, sure everybody's heard this one, that showed that for every dollar invested in AmeriCorps, there was a $1 to 2, $1.60 to $2.60 return on that dollar, which isn't great investment in itself; but that was before Young Heroes.
So, I just wanted to briefly touch on the cost benefit of, of my year of service; and you know, basically we got, we got a $200 stipend a week, you know, with the (Inaudible) award; my salary came to just over (Inaudible) puts their salary up on the board like that; but there's my salary from last year (laugh). And, and this is what I provided to City Year. You know, I was a full-time tutor and, and I'm being real conservative with these fees. Ten dollars an hour is about the starting entry-level rate for college graduate tutor than the Chicago quote school system. Ten dollars an hour for at, after-school program coordinator; $10 an hour for Young Heroes coordinator; for other service I dropped it down to $6 a hour working in a homeless shelters and stuff; I designed a website for the Young Heroes in Chicago. The video that you saw briefly when I did my sound check, which isn't done yet, this computer, me, my personal experience, my knowledge of computers and softwares, the HTML program that were influencing, all of these and valuable things that I bring to the program, and you know, just the tangible things, I estimated that over $30,000, in, in, you know, that I brought to the program last year. And that's, that's a $7 return on a dollar invested into me; so if you don't like AmeriCorps, you can send your dollars my way. (Laugh)Life experience, sorry, it wasn't (laugh)--especially this year, a lot of our corps this year is a greater percentage than normal college graduates because of recruiting. I don't want to go into all of that; but because of the cuts, we weren't able to recruit a lot of GED students and to, to get the balance that we wanted.
So a lot of things I'm hearing this year is just, you know, like, wow, Matt, that's amazing, you know. I went to graduate school and, you know, and it, it, the experience that I gained through running the Young Heroes program through working the CSI program through this co-facilitating after-school programs is just, you wouldn't have been able to get in ten years of college. It's social work, it's, it's everything that, even people with the graduate degree coming into City Year say, you know, they just learned more in their ten months than they learned in 20 years of school. The future--Michael Brown spoke about the social justice nerve. For a lot of people up until this year, joining City Year was, all it meant to them was $4,725 and interest-free loan forbearance for a year; and that doesn't mean anything to me; I didn't go to college. So, you know, $4,000 to me is, is not worth a year of service. But to some people, that is what brought them here is $4,000; and that loan deferment and it was that, that when the going got tough, when it was, there was three months left in the program, there was that, you know, OK, if all else fails, I got, there's at least that goal, that tangible, "Hey, I did it and I finished", and without that there, we're, we're not getting that interest from the community and the program; and, therefore, well, on the flip side, what that does is, is when those students come in for (Inaudible) loan forbearance, they're, they're getting their social justice nerve touched; they're going into these public schools with lead paint chipping off the wall and asbestos dust floating in the air; and you know, there's no books, there's no desks and you know, I've heard this over and over again; I had no idea. And that amazes me in itself. What do you mean you had no idea? But it's important that these people come out and that everybody see firsthand the needs of the community and not just take some politician's word for it or not for it for that matter.
And so what, what City Year does and what City Year has done for me, particularly, is two years ago, I was a high school dropout working at Starbucks; and nothing, no offense to Starbucks or anything, but, now I'm here in Washington, DC and being web cast. So that's, that's just a pretty cool step. And that's, you know, so many people go on after City Year to do social work, education, nonprofit management, I know of specifically of two stories in Chicago of corps members from the year before I was there, that right after finishing their year of service, went out and started their own nonprofit; and just, just with the experience and the credentials that they are earned from City Year, public interest law where you got some lawyers going to Washington, medicine, civil servants, Peace Corps, a lot of City Year members, a lot of AmeriCorps members, I'm sure, go on to the Peace Corps.
Dr. King's Speech:
"America, the riches and most powerful nation in the world can well lead the way in this revolution of values. That is nothing except a tragic death wish to prevent us from reordering our priorities so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war."
Thank you, I'm Matt from Chicago.
(Applause)
John Kalafatas, Moderator:
Thanks very much Matt for your multi-media presentation. I think one of the significant things I saw in that was your charts showing the progress of your students; and I think that just illustrates as one example that AmeriCorps delivers measurable results that matter. So thank you very much for that. And I want to thank folks that are here for your patience and flexibility with our schedule as we run through 100 hours of testimony. There are a lot of moving parts, and we appreciate your being here. And then without further ado, I'll introduce Tim Katz, who is program director of Children of the Future. Welcome.
(Applause)
Tim Katz, Program Director, Community Arts Education, Children of the Future:
Good morning. I want to thank Save AmeriCorps for the opportunity to speak here for voices of, Voices for AmeriCorps. My name is Tim Katz. I have never been an AmeriCorps member. I am a former Peace Corps volunteer, having served in West Africa and Ghana for three years back in the mid 80's. And in 1997, I felt very privileged to be offered the job to be an AmeriCorps program director in Columbus, Ohio. I work for the Greater Columbus Arts Council, which his a not-for-profit local arts agency that has been an AmeriCorps subgrantize (sp?) since 1994. Due to the dramatic reduction and AmeriCorps funds authorized by congress, Children of the Future, the AmeriCorps program I'm about to briefly describe, is slated to receive no funding whatsoever in the 2003-2004 program here and therefore, will come to an abrupt end on October 1, just four weeks from today.
A little bit about the program--as part of a neighborhood improvement grant from the United States Department of Housing in Urban Development, the Greater Columbus Arts Council began working with the Metropolitan Housing Authority back in 1992 to develop a pilot after-school arts program with one artist working with at-risk children, and one high-crime, high-poverty neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio three days a week. The Greater Columbus Arts Council presented this model after-school arts program as a viable public safety initiative to the then Nascent National Service Initiative AmeriCorps. And in 1994, subsequently, was able to hire artists to serve as AmeriCorps members in its community service program, which was then called the Children of the Future. The AmeriCorps funding enabled the arts council to expand to serve a total of 2,000 to 3,000 children each year, ages 5-15 at multiple sites around the city of Columbus and communities that experienced high rates of crime, vary high poverty and other social problems. Typically, Children of the Future artists served in teams of two or three people. For the first few years of the program, our main program partners were the City of Columbus Recreation and Parks Department, Public Safety Department and the Metropolitan Housing Authority. In the past five years, our AmeriCorps program has established a unique and successful collaboration among many additional program partners, including the Boy & Girls Clubs of Columbus, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Performing and Cultural Arts Complex, the Jay Ashborne Youth Center, The Homeless Families Foundation Education Center, the Somali Women's Association in South Side Settlement House, and the City of Columbus's Cap City Kids after-school program.
In the last nine years, Children of the Future has provided multiple neighborhood safe havens in high-crime, high-poverty communities for children ages 5-14. We do this five days a week year round during after-school hours and during the summer. Again, I'd like to reiterate something (Inaudible) by Michael Brown, and that is the importance, importance in making a distinction between volunteerism and this sort of full-time community service. The consistency of presence of these AmeriCorps members in the lives of the children served, children who really need them, makes all the difference in the world. Children of the Future emphasis that a development of constructive communication and conflict resolution skills as tools for coping with social pressure and temptation, and it serves the needs of children daily and provides assistance to their parents who are struggling to help their children achieve and to fight difficult odds. We do programming and dance, creative writing, music, theater and visual arts; and in the past nine years have worked with over 13,000 participating children offering funds, safe, educational alternatives to delinquency within a safe haven. We work in inner city areas of Columbus where 41 percent of adults do not have a high school diploma; nearly two-thirds of the households with children are headed by families with no, headed by females with no spouse present; over 40 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, and the school dropout rate is nearly 50 percent.
This AmeriCorps program has been shown to help children increase their motivation and learning competence in school, to increase their communication skills, their self-confidence and self-esteem. The programs provides benefits to neighborhood communities which host the program via frequent program festivals, exhibitions, public performances; it increases the knowledge in skills of participating children and various arts disciplines, increases their awareness regarding public safety and personal responsibility. We incorporate into the program a professional developed curriculum entitled "Quest Working It Out/Tools for Everyday Peacemakers". Working It Out is a conflict management program designed for children of the age that we serve, and it's the, the curriculum is a product of the collaboration of Quest International, which is a nonprofit educational organization, Lyons Clubs International, which is a humanitarian service organization, and the National Association of Elementary School Principles. Our program has provided an annual average of 183 field trips for children to familiarize them with the larger community and illustrate the availability of multiple learning and interaction opportunities throughout the city and the county. We've produced over 250 neighborhood festivals attracting an estimated cumulative total of over 6500 neighborhood children and their family members and program partners in other community participants.
In working with the artists in this AmeriCorps program, children have generated a total of 60 public arts exhibitions--all resulting from work, original work created by participating children and targeting for a city-wide audience venue for exhibition of children's art work and stage performances include the Columbus Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Library, the Ohio State University, Children's Hospital of Columbus, First Knight Columbus and lots of local office buildings, local arts galleries and other public venues. In addition to the Columbus Arts Festival, an annual event that attracts over 500,000 people each year. We have measure a consistent 80 to 85 percent of parents and guardians of participating children who recognize and support the program as a result of their children's feedback. Through evaluations, we find that we consistently increase the skills of at least 75 percent of regularly participating children in constructive conflict resolution and positive communication skills and self-expression skills. We increase their awareness and knowledge regarding general public safety issues, such as, substance abuse, domestic abuse, influence of gangs and gun safety. In the years of the program, so far, we've hired a total of 145 artists and all are disciplines; and these artists serve as AmeriCorps members; and nearly 50 percent of the artists in our program have returned for a second year of service. We provide all our AmeriCorps members with formal professional development training in the areas of child development, communications, conflict resolution, conflict resolution curriculum development and multi-disciplinary arts curriculum planning. Training sessions are mandatory for our members and per weekly throughout the entire year.
I'm going to read just a few brief excerpts from the weekly reports of members over the past few years. Our members are required among other pieces of paper they have to turn in to do a reflective piece once a week about the previous week's programming. And so these are the words of members who worked in the field with the children. We went on another field trip to the art museum on Thursday, and I had 1 minute, we timed it, of sitting quietly with Ebony and listening to her express how the lines of the sculptures made her feel and what it made her think about. Sometimes the simpleness of an arm around you and a listening ear is more important than anything else. I had that as I sat with Ebony. Tiyanna (sp?) is in different need of individual attention and positive reinforcement of her ability to succeed and be a wonderful person. She really took the initiative in the printing project and wanted to try it all by herself. She finished two plates, a number of prints and did one poem. It was a very successful day for her behavior, proactively and conversation. Another person writes, "Our Egyptian dig was amazing. We had a wonderful time. We all had plane tickets and bags to collect our artifacts in. The kids each had their own roped off plot to dig in. They had to find their artifacts in the books on Egypt and report their findings in our log. We had semi-authentic Egyptian food and an Egyptian visitor. The kids had the opportunity to learn and exercise their imaginations as they had fun." Another writes, "Marquise had an especially bad week. He and his brother Marquel often exhibited extreme anger that explodes without warning, often without any apparent reason. Friday as he left clay day, he said to us all, I love you; I had a bad day yesterday, I love you. We told him that we love him, too, and he went out the door. I realize that he is aware of his bad days, too." On Tuesday, I spent a lot of time working on a play with Tamika. After it was finished, I took her to the office so she could type it out on the computer; then I gave her a copy to take home. Boy, did she like seeing her work in print. My favorite line for her play was, "I realize I need to be around people who care about me." Transforming spaces--There's an elephant in the lobby. There are vines in the art room. We drank jungle juice, not power aide. Imaginations are sparked. A pole is a tree. Scraps of paper become leaves and grass. Now there are pumpkins growing in what was an empty lot. Things can change. Things can be different. This is a powerful message, I think."
Another one writes, "We haven't seen Cassandra and Markesha (sp?) around for a few days. The last we heard is that they got kicked out of where they were staying, and their mom had to move them into a hotel until she could find somewhere to stay. I hope they're all right. On Wednesday as we were preparing to lay out their Caribbean food feast, the first thing I put out was my homemade pineapple seltzer, which emits a very strong smell and has an unusual appearance. The Colbert sisters were gathering around me when I cracked it open, and they literally began to cry saying they didn't want to eat it. I explained to them that they didn't have to." On Thursday, five-year-old Denez (sp?) turns to me and asks so sweetly and sincerely if I can take out my bottom teeth. After we all danced and then sat down for an African food festival, Janisha (sp?) raises her hand and lets us all know that she knows what we all look like in the tub. Thanks Janisha. And the last one is, someone wrote, "More and more new faces are showing up. I guess word is spreading that this is a fun, safe place to be, I hope. So many of these kids seem so emotionally frozen. It's like you need a blowtorch to melt their exteriors. The live with so much fear and anguish. Will they ever get a break? I don't care how much money we have. We have not succeeded as a nation until our children are safe."
Regarding our AmeriCorps members, I want to point out that having invested in the training and professional development and the hands-on-field experience offered by the program, many former Children of the Future, AmeriCorps members have continued to provide quality programming and/or community service for children and the arts after completing their service in Children of the Future. Just going to give a couple of examples that I brought with me of what people are doing. James Arter served two years in the program, the first two years of our program's existence. He was the co-creator of the pilot program, which became Children of the Future. In 1999, Mr. Arter joined the staff of the Greater Columbus Arts Council in their community education program, and 80 percent of his time is now devoted to Children of the Future. Victor Johnson also spent two years in our program. He's currently the career pathways specialist for Columbus public schools, developing innovative career track programs and activities for high school students. Victor also serves on the community, Columbus foundations; community arts review panel and an international network of performing and visual arts for high schools. Amy Bennett served two years in the program. She's now self-employed in her very successful theater-based art therapy program called Playback Columbus. Amy's also a volunteer for Mark Carmel, Mt. Carmel Hospice, serving children who are grieving the loss of a loved one. Mike Phillips, a two-year AmeriCorps in our program is employed now by the Columbus Recreation of Parks Department, teaching arts, activities and coaching soccer and wrestling teams. Heather Schuyler served two years in our program. She left and worked as an artist and residence, an art teacher for the Theresa Dowd School for homeless children in Columbus. She is also facilitated art therapy exercise in the unit for sexually abused children at Children's Hospital. Bethany Jawswack (sp?), an AmeriCorps member at our program is now the art therapist for United Methodist Children's Home. Elliott Bensley is now a child mentor with Franklin County Children's Services. Sue Anne Goings spent two years in our program. She then went on to serve as the Arts Outreach coordinator and art team program director for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Columbus. She also teaches part time for the Inside Out program, which is an arts based program that serves youths and adults in two corrections facilities in Central Ohio.
The last example I'll give is Amy Tourn (sp?). Spent one year at our program, went on to become a site director for Columbus Mayor, Michael Coleman's Cap City Kids after-school program at one of the city's recreational centers. Children of the Future has received many recognitions over the years. In 1996, we received an American canvas model project recognition award from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1997, our program was featured in a national model video by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development concerning community building. We were ranked for three years among the top 10 percent of arts based programs for at-risk youth nation wide by the president's committee on the arts and the humanities in Washington, DC. Every year we submitted our materials. We've established ourselves as a model AmeriCorps program, receiving recognition from the Ohio Community Service Council--that's our state commission in the year, 2000, as one of three outstanding AmeriCorps programs in Ohio. In just this year in 2003 here in this city, we receive, Children of the Future received a government leadership in the Arts Award. Our program was the sole recipient nation wide in the category of excellence in arts programs for youth. This is an award given by the national organization, Americans for the Arts and the United States Conference of Mayors.
Yet, again, due to the dramatic reduction in AmeriCorps funds authorized by congress, Children of the Future and the AmeriCorps program just described is slated to receive no AmeriCorps funding in the 2003-2004 year; and therefore, is very likely to come to an abrupt end on October 1, just four weeks from today if congress doesn't act. Even with the increasing, the ever increasing structural and financial commitment of our local program partners, we will be unable to continue to offer the Children of the Future program without AmeriCorps support. The end of this innovative program, which serves some of the poorest and neediest children of Columbus, would be a devastating blow to our many local partners and to the children, who for nine years, have been able to access the program in their own neighborhoods. On behalf of the Greater Columbus Arts Council and our AmeriCorps program, Children of the Future, I want to thank you very much for allowing me this time. Thanks.
(Applause)
Dan Blocker, Freelance Interpreter/AmeriCorps Alumni, City Year:
Tim, thank you very much for joining us, especially so late in the evening, so early in the morning, I should say. Welcome everybody. My name is Dan Blocker and I am an alumnus of City of Boston, 96, 97 and I'm proud to serve on the Save AmeriCorps Coalition staff. Just like to remind us all before we move on to our next portion of the goals of Voices of AmeriCorps, 100 hours of national service testimony. We are all joined together today; No. 1 to educate the American public, elected officials and policy makers on the importance of AmeriCorps. No. 2 is to establish the urgent for 100 million dollars in emergency funding; and No. 3 prevent programs from closing and build support for growing AmeriCorps in the future; and I think we're doing a tremendous job of that and everyone's presence here today is speaking very loudly.
Before I introduce our next speaker, I'd like to offer a simple quote, and this is from an AmeriCorps alum. "As a corps member, I began to understand the problems facing our nation and how a group of diverse, young people are a big part of changing things. More importantly, by fostering a sense of hope." And with that is my great pleasure to introduce an alumna of both a, two AmeriCorps programs, City Pride and Red Cross, she is coming all the way from Thompson, Maine, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Jolene Chonko.
(Applause)
Thank you. (Inaudible) very short. My name is Jolene Chonko. I am from Thompson, Maine originally. I graduated from high school in 1992 and unfortunately, there was no such thing as AmeriCorps then. It was just a thought in President Clinton's, our newly elected president. I, I had an interest in studying architecture and so I had attended Vermont Technical College, which had a two-plus-two program, meaning that, in two years you could get your associates degree and then you could automatically enroll into their bachelors degree for another two years. However, half way through my third year, I ran out of money; and I had been following the AmeriCorps program hazard had been developed and; and so I decided, you know, I've done community service my whole life. This is something I can certainly do. So, I had sent away for a directory, and I remember getting this big old half-inch thick directory of all these programs across the country. And I spent like two days trying to wean through them to narrow them down to about ten that I wanted to apply for. And so, once I did that, I ended up working for a program called City Pride in Brockton, Massachusetts. It's on the South shore of Boston; and there I worked in a team of ten people renovating low-income housing for Brockton Housing Authority who is having trouble turning, turning over vacant apartments. And so we were able to renovate six-year apartment houses, and it was great because I could also use my architecture experience. After I completed that program, I wanted to do a second year and I decided to pursue something different, and I joined the mid, mid America chapter of the American Red Cross in Chicago, Illinois; and there I did health and safety education programs. My concentration was first aid and CPR classes for teenaged moms and also doing HIV education in some of the shelters around the city.
After that I used my AmeriCorps award to go back to school, but instead of finishing the architecture degree, I went to the University of Southern Maine in Portland for political science; and while I was there, my last semester, I had done an, I was doing an internship with my congressman from Southern Maine, Tom Allen; and after I graduated, he had an opening here in DC; and so I came down and I've been here ever since, over four years later. And I, I always thought it would be great (laugh) to work in DC, never thought it would happen, but I certainly accredit AmeriCorps for that because I would not have gone back to school and probably would not have gone back for political science, and I probably wouldn't internship and I wouldn't be an executive assistant to a congressman now. Now when I look at that directory that I had when I first applied for AmeriCorps, it's now probably about a fourth of the size of the original program, original amount of programs they had to offer then. And I feel that's kind of sad because many people now do not have as many opportunities as I did then, and--In Maine, where we've been hit like every other state, we typically had had 166 volunteers doing various projects, conservation projects, renovating housing or low-income housing for elderly people. Now we, with the cuts and everything, we're down to 65 volunteers, which is better than we thought it would be. We thought it was going to be ten, but anyway, it's drastically going to affect the, what we do in Maine. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to do AmeriCorps. It certainly changed my life. You hear it all the time for AmeriCorps alum, and I hope that somehow, you know, other people, more people will have an opportunity to do so; but I am glad to have had the chance and, you know, hope others will. Thank you guys for doing this; I'm glad that we have all, that you guys have allowed everyone to have a voice. It's been great listening to alum and current programs and such, so, thank you.
(Applause)
Dan Blocker:
Thank you very much, Jolene. We appreciate you coming out so late. We're going to introduce, kind of kick off our next few hours, with our friends from NASC and very excited about that. But before I do that, we're going to set up the video. I'd like to share a few thoughts with everyone. One kind of speaking off of what Jolene was talking about. I'd like to share a quote from an AmeriCorps alum by the name of Erin Dahlin. "To need the chance to serve, make a difference and learn something about yourself, is something that I believe almost everyone can benefit from. I feel lucky that I have had experiences with AmeriCorps to meet fantastic people, to work harder than I thought possible at times, to feel inspired by those I served and by those I have served with. To me, AmeriCorps embodies all that I feel is right with America, and that's why I think we're all here tonight is to speak." Someone said last night is part of their piece of testimony where I can't imagine an America without AmeriCorps, and that was incredibly inspiring to me. Before we, also the video, before we do that, I'd like to share some, another set of words from Senator Hillary Rodman Clinton. "One thing we know for sure is that change is certain. Progress is not. Progress depends on the choices we make today for tomorrow and on whether we meet our challenges and protect our values."
So right now I think we're working on facing and meeting our challenges and protecting our values. So, thank you very much.
HOUR 40
Without further ado, I'd like to introduce our next hour of testimony from all of our friends from the West Seneca AmeriCorps program from Buffalo, New York.
Voice:
(Inaudible) we're ready–
M:
Oh, we're very flexible.
F:
We have a video (Inaudible)
M:
OK.
F:
(Inaudible)
M:
OK.
F:
(Inaudible)
M:
Great, so we'll see that video from West Seneca Falls.
(Music is playing)
"God bless America, land that I love; stand beside her and guide her, through the night with the light from above; from the mountains to the prairies, to the oceans (Inaudible), God bless America, my home, sweet home; God bless America, my home, sweet home. Ooooh, God bless America, from the mountain to the prairies to the oceans (Inaudible); God bless America, my home, sweet home; God bless America, my home, sweet home, oooooh…. Oh say can you see.
Dan Blocker:
That was incredibly inspiring. Let's hear it from that great tone-setting piece
(Applause)
It is now my great pleasure to introduce an amazing woman who has done incredible things for the National Service Movement. She really doesn't need any introduction, but ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the president of the National Association of Service and Conservation Corps, Miss Sally Prouty. (Applause, whistling)
Sally Prouty:
I'm delighted that there's someone here. In addition to those who are going to serve on our panel, and I'll invite the (Inaudible) folks to come up to the table; and while they're coming forward to the table, I will share just briefly a few things we've tried to decide what would be appropriate at 1 o'clock in the morning. We're joining our voices for AmeriCorps with those that have already been voicing with those to come in the next, in the balance of the 100 hours. First question is why are we here and for goodness sakes, why are we here in the middle of the night? We're here because we care. We care a great deal. I think we would agree that we are our brothers' keepers, and we want the world to know that we care.
We're here to ask that the 100 million dollars supplemental be approved; that that conference be held; that President Bush, members of the Senate, members of the House of Representatives come together in support of 100 million dollars for the supplemental for AmeriCorps. We're also here to ask that in 2004, AmeriCorps grow. We're here to provide an additional voice as is evidenced by our (Inaudible) West Seneca's tape at the beginning and having a variety of corps presenting during this 3-hour period. NASC is a member association, SCA is a member represented here, City Year member, City Year, are members. We're delighted that we've joined together. We have 100, 100 plus corps in 32 states; 24,000 corps members in 2002; 18 million hours of service; in addition to that, our corps is stimulated an additional 110,000 volunteers, unpaid volunteers who added 1.8 million hours of service. So 19.8 million hours of service in this country; and we're here because all of our programming that is involved with AmeriCorps has sustained 60 percent cut; it's across the board.
Additionally, many of our corps have been cut because they're funded at the state and local level; state budgets are in difficulty around the country. We’re particularly concerned that our long-time civilian conservation corps, NASC members are in fact going out of business, and three have been abolished in state government this year, and they would be Wisconsin, Minnesota and Ohio. I spent seven years as director of the Ohio Civilian Conservation Corps. I'm here because my heart hurts when that that happens. Both Michigan and California, very long-term civilian conservation corps have been dramatically cut. So we're here for a lot of reasons, certainly want the world to know that we have concerns and that, there are, there are opportunities to, to reestablish those corps and to, to fill in that 60 percent that's missing from our budget from 2003. I'm going to read a list, and these are corps, NASC corps that have in fact either been totally abolished or are almost out of business, and these are apart from the civilian conservations corps that I mentioned. The AmeriCorps Learning Institute in Rochester, New York, 12 young people will not be able to serve; in the California Conservation Corps that I mentioned, they lost the Watershed Steward's program which annually restored 35 stream miles, instructed 38,000 K-12 students and recruited 8,500 volunteers; Cayuga County Conservation Corps in Auburn, New York, 20 young people will be unable to serve; East Bay Conservation Corps, Oakland, California, 112 young people will be unable to serve; Headwaters Youth Conservation Corps, Norwich, New York, 46 young people will be unable to serve; Larimer County Youth Conservation Corps, Ft. Collins, Colorado, 25 young people will be unable to serve; Los Angeles Conservation Corps in Los Angeles, 120 young people will be unable to serve; the Maine Conservation Corps, Augusta, Maine, 92 young people will be unable to serve; Minnesota Conservation Corps, 125 young people will be unable to serve; New York Restoration Project, Jeff Propella (sp?) was here today to speak, 70 people, 70 young people will be unable to serve; Northwest Youth Corps, Eugene, Oregon, 26 young people unable to serve; the Ohio Civilian Conservation Corps and one site, 98 young people unable to serve; it's in addition to the 600 other that were cut; San Francisco conservation corps, 40 young people unable to serve; (Inaudible) youth corps, 54 young people unable to serve; Spokane Service Team, 75 young people unable to serve; Student Conservationist Association, 1,678 young people will not be AmeriCorps members this year; Vermont Youth Conservation Corps, 48 young people unable to serve; West Seneca Service Action Corps, and they're here tonight, 367 young people unable to serve; Youth Force, Salt Lake County Service and Conservation Corps, Salt Lake City, Utah, 42 young people unable to serve; and the Youth Resource Development Corporation in Poughkeepsie, 90 young people unable to serve.
That's why I'm here in the middle of the night. I care a lot about every single person in every single program, and I know you do as well. Decided that for the record, we should have in, in the context of the publication that will come from this, this 100 hours of testimony, briefly the history of the Youth Corps Movement; and I'll share that. Today's 100 plus, 100 plus service and conservation corps are direct descendant of the Civilian Conservation Corps, one of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's most successful efforts to find alternative employment for the enormous number of young men and women, young men, not women, his chances in life had been derailed by the Great Depression. Over 3, over 3 million young men served in the CCC from 1933 to 1942 dramatically improving the nation's public lands but also receiving food, housing, education, and a precious $30-a-month stipend, $25 of that amount in almost every case, was sent home to their families. Today, like Charles Varro who is here today, the president of the alumni association, many still remember their service with pride and actively participate in the National Association of CCC Alumni. Charles Varro's age 83, and they have an ongoing record in their publications of members of the CCC Alumni who pass away. It's an interesting experience to watch that happen in our lifetime. While CCC was officially disbanded in 1942, the concept live, live on in the nation's heart and mind. It was revived in 1957 when the Student Conservation Association placed its first college students as volunteers, the national parks and forest. Just over a decade later, the late Senator Scoop Jackson, used the SCA model as the basis for legislation that created the Youth Conservation Corps.
At its height during the mid 1970's, the YCC was funded at the level of $60 million and enrolled some 32,000 young people each summer in programs operated by the Department of its Interior NAG. YCC participants worked in both cities and, and in the wilderness across the country performing a variety of conservation projects, including tree planting, river cleanup and erosion control. Late in the 1970's, an even larger federal program was launched Young Adult Conservation Corps, which provided young people with year round conservation-related employment and education opportunities with an annual appropriation of $260 million. The YACC operated both the federal and state levels. In the first wave of state conservation corps, both the YCC and YACC were virtually eliminated in 1981 due to dramatic federal budget reductions; we know something about that. By that time, the value of the YCC had been proven in many states that had already begun to support these programs. California became the first when former governor, Jerry Brown, launched the California Conservation Corps in 1976. By the end of the decade, conservation corps were operating in Iowa and in Ohio; and during the first half of the 1980's and several other states, including Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.
In 1983, the emerging youth corps movement took a new twist. With the breath of the first urban conservation corps programs, once again, California took, took the leave with the start up of urban conservation corps in Marin County and you've heard from Marilee Eckert today, or we heard from the director of the Marin County Conservation Corps today; San Francisco and Oakland, California Local Corps were strengthened by passage of the California Bottle Bill in 1985. Just a year later, New York City established the City Volunteer Corps and added a new dimension to the corps field by engaging young people in the delivery of human services as well as conservation work. During the mid 1980's despite the absence of federal support, new stated local corps continued, continued to spring up across the country. Many of the early local conservation corps began to add human service projects to their portfolios. Late in the 1980's with support from several large foundations an urban corps expansion project was underway. In 1992, the Youth Corps Movement saw the first targeted federal funding in more than a decade when the commission on national community service awarded 22.5 million in grants to 23 states. These funds became available under the American Conservation Youth Service Corps Act or subtitle C of the National Community Service Act of 1990. While only half of the established corps benefited directly from these funds, the number of corps programs almost doubled to just over 100 as a result of that federal see money.
You know the story from there--1993, 1994, the Corporation for National Community Service, and I don't have to remind you in listening to the history, but it brings me to where we are today; and we're looking at a dramatic reduction in federal funds. Thanks for bearing with me in getting that bit of history into the record. I'm really proud to have our friends from Alaska here, and we're determined that, they're prepared to tell you, probably way more than you want to know, that we are, right before Alaska, we are now in our fortieth hour.
(Applause)
Yeah, this is good. Congratulations, everybody. We're in our--
M:
Senator (Inaudible)
Sally Prouty:
That's right, exactly. Senator's got to show up just when Alaska's going to speak. That, that's the tRuth Schoenleben, that's the tRuth Schoenleben. We're going to ask the Alaska folks why they're here in the middle of the night. What's the deal? And I'm going to start with Dan.
Dan:
Well, I'm here to (Inaudible) that was, (Inaudible) lot of friends (Inaudible).
Sally:
That's a great thing. You know what, give your name and actually, when you're in the car.
M:
My name's (Inaudible) and I took off for about a year, went to school and came back (Inaudible) for a couple of years (Inaudible).
Sally:
Congratulations to you. And thank you for being here in the middle of the night. And Joe, why are you here in the middle of the night? Introduce yourself.
Joe Parrish, Executive Director, SAGA/Serve Alaska Youth Corps:
I'm Joe Parrish (sp?). I'm the director of Serve Alaska Youth Corps, which operates (Inaudible) and this (Inaudible) history lesson was a bit of (Inaudible) memory lane. I'm a trail junkie of the seventies, Young Adult Conservation Corps (Inaudible); and I was a federal employee with the US Corp Service in my 100-hour program (Inaudible) conservation program. My official job title was (Inaudible) specialist.
Sally Prouty:
Wow.
Joe Parrish:
It was kind of a job title for their minds. I traveled around in the West, the Northwest, and be a part of the team that (Inaudible) established new, YACC camps (Inaudible) work with whoever we needed to do this (Inaudible) site, hire the staff and trained (Inaudible). And I got transferred to Alaska in 1979 to (Inaudible) for a year, and I've been ever since. Shortly thereafter, the funding was cut from those programs; and being a federal employee, I couldn't get fired unless I really did something.
Sally:
Something bad.
Joe Parrish:
Bad-- (Inaudible); and they gave me my choice to either rift or apply for a job somewhere that was open that I qualified for or leave. And I couldn't find anything in the, in the federal government corps service that gave me my fix for, that I kept in the youth corps program. So in 1985, started my own youth corps.
Sally:
Good for you.
Joe:
In 19, (Inaudible) youth corps, and I'll stop right there for now and let other people (Inaudible).
Sally:
OK
(phone ringing)
Joe:
The impact that I've seen on, on the young people and myself throughout the years in the programs like this that give people a chance to serve, put them in a health environment surrounded by positive role models and get them involved in work they'd take pride in, it's an old combination that it works (Inaudible).
Sally:
Thanks Joe. Ruth Schoenleben, why are you here in the middle of the night?
Ruth Schoenleben:
Well, (Inaudible) sleep a lot anyways.
Sally:
OK.
Ruth Schoenleben:
This is a good place to be.
M:
(Inaudible)
Sally:
May as well be here.
(multiple conversations; inaudible)
Sally:
But perhaps--
(multiple conversations; inaudible)
Sally:
No wonder you were so easy. OK, OK.
Ruth Schoenleben:
Well, as I've been listening today, I've been realizing that (Inaudible) program, which is a (Inaudible) based program in (Inaudible) computer literacy program is a little more unique in its use of AmeriCorps members that I have realized; because our programs are not, our AmeriCorps members are totally integrated into regular programs; so that we could support the programs that are (Inaudible); and they aren't an isolated AmeriCorps people go into this (Inaudible) AmeriCorps people go do this. We have two AmeriCorps in our senior program; one in our youth programs and three in our (Inaudible) center and two in our EL programs and three in our ABE programs. So they're scattered from the state as well as in our own organization. We have several, there are five (Inaudible) officers right in Cambridge and (Inaudible) based communities; and so our folks are kind of scattered. So they aren't together in a unit the way that some of the other programs are, but, and on some level that makes it, you know, you don't go away, but the work load's no longer shared and supported; and so we have kind of a unique situation (Inaudible); so we're certainly here to support our own programs so that we can get our own programs supported; and then also we chose really to come as a support through the Alaska programs. We, you know, (Inaudible) one person from our state, but we all work together in a very unique way; we're also very separate from each other; and we wanted to say to congress, to congressional folks that we're a unit working together and if we want to do this as, as a unit; so that's another reason to be here, both the trip and the (Inaudible).
Sally:
Thank you, Ruth Schoenleben.
Ben [Lockwood? Duda?]:
Well, you know, it’s a, as I listened to Ruth Schoenleben’s testimony, testimony for the last 40 hours or so as I tried to put my head into a space where I can (Inaudible) I realize that I, I actually have a couple of different approaches to, to what I am doing now; and, and, and reasons why I'm here personally and professionally. Of course, professionally, I'm community service director for an agency that we have an AmeriCorps program; a couple of them and 35 AmeriCorps members are being cut as a result of these loss of funds; and what the impact on the communities that we serve is severe. When we take into account all the other challenges that (Inaudible) that the communities face (Inaudible) disaster. They face a reduction in resource abstraction whether it’s forestry or mining; and there are (Inaudible) issues and funding cuts at our state level when you combine that with these cuts, the communities that (Inaudible) have, that the agency I worked for served, it, it only adds insult to injury. Because I know from my own personal experience, and this is where I go into my personal story, that I, I, too, am a, sort of victim of community service. I mean once you get into it, there’s no way you can get out of it. And that’s, I guess, what I mean by being a victim of it; and, and I say that in a, in a proud--
Sally:
Yuh.
Ben:
--You know, proudful way. I, you know, my, my childhood I remember, my father talking about the CCC; and you know, my father wasn’t in it, but he was very aware of the historical context; and it meant to his generation and his parents’ generation growing up. And he was, you know, in the army; and you know constantly pushed community service in our family. I spent five summers in a work camp project in West Virginia, the West Virginia Work Camp Fund, run by, it was a church thing then. People in my town, we banded together and send a team of 20 or 30 people; and I spent my five summers in high school, nine, eighth to twelfth grade building houses and digging (Inaudible) and, and, an unbelievable experiences in West Virginia; and that was my YACC or YCC experience that I've only recently begun to realize is no different than the work camp project.
Sally:
Then what?
Ben:
(Inaudible) you know, service corps or an AmeriCorps project. I later became, I spent five years law enforcement with a very social service, you know, sort of bent to it; and, and, ended up going off to, few years in the Peace Corps and Africa and community (Inaudible) East Africa. But, here I am now supporting the AmeriCorps and supporting the opportunity for people in my state to give something back or get something as a result of their service. And I think it’s a, I think that’s why I'm here because I, I, it’s in my blood; and I can’t escape it; and I do it; and I also understand that like (Inaudible) or Clara, Journee who is here today and spoke this afternoon. You know, we here from, from this sort of staff level can afford to be here. We speak for the people who we serve who have no (Inaudible) here; so we are here in some sense to, to speak loudly because we are speaking for so many people.
Sally Prouty:
And we want their voices to be heard; we absolutely want their voices to be heard. One of the things that has been particularly amazing to me as, as I have the opportunity to be a part of the coalition that prepared for the hearing, was a tremendous growth and development of the relationships between organizations and among, among and between the group. I have come to know individuals leading national organizations that, whose, whose names I knew; but I didn’t know them as people until the last few weeks when we’ve been working together. When an exception opportunity and what I see as a result of this growth and development as an opportunity for us, cooperatively to take the lead in an effort, not just to see supplemental funding occur to see an increase in the year 2003, 2004 funding, but a sustained movement.
And as I've read back over the history and thought about the history, Joe, I thought our, our, our service movement has gotten into difficulty and tripped itself up because funding ran out; and it’s time after time after time, hopefully, this time we’ll learn from that history and we’ll see strength and, and not see the funding disappear. One of the things that impresses me so much about what you’re doing in Alaska is the cooperative nature, the cooperative spirit, and which is what I'm seeing in the coalition as well. Before the start of our conversation, we talked about what direction to head. I really thought, I'm suggesting now that we talk a bit about the entrepreneurial spirit of what you do, where does your money come from, what do you need from each other, what kind of projects do you do?
Ben:
Sally, I want to acknowledge what you’re saying. In my experience when they pulled the plug on federal programs like YACC, YCC, and other job training work experience service programs like that, the (Inaudible) was full of the federal level; and there wasn’t a (Inaudible) week (Inaudible).
Sally Prouty:
Yuh.
Ben:
And, and no matter how much we wanted to come together and say that, that was flipping, that was paying the bill for them. Now what we’ve got is AmeriCorps as we all know, it doesn’t pay the whole bill. We have to be creative in bringing and pooling resources and creating networks and sharing commitments and resources. And now, we have the ability to band together and say, "Look what we bring to the table." We match in Alaska every dollar that we have or better than a dollar from other sources. So they get better than a dollar per dollar match. I know Alaska (Inaudible) match and a lot of other programs around the country. And those, where those dollars come from are everywhere; in every sector of the community; private, government, nonprofit; those, and the ripple affect that Brian was talking about earlier today, we’re pulling the plug on this thing is incredible. And that’s what I also agree is a very powerful thing to see all the partners in AmeriCorps coming out of the woodwork and saying, "No, this isn’t going to happen." There’s too much at stake.
Sally Prouty:
It’s so strong.
Ben:
And before when the plug was pulled to the federal level, there was no whole lot we could do about it, because they were paying the whole bill. And I know in Alaska, we’ve got a state is one-fifth the size of continental United States. Now we serve people in locations that stand from Florida all the way to California.
Sally:
Wow.
Ben:
And the logistics involved with barely any road system in whatnot are to serve the rural communities are permittable, and very labor and intensive and expensive to expand those distances and serve those communities. And to do that, it takes a lot of resources; and that work being in partnerships. And we have been three organizations that have received AmeriCorps grants for ten years. And over those ten, we provide each uniquely different types of services through AmeriCorps; and over ten years with, with (Inaudible) our programs together help each other recruit Ruth Schoenleben’s program provides the GED testing and whatnot for my kids that need GED’s. Brian sends out information on his agency’s newsletter about the (Inaudible) Youth Corps and on and on and on. And when we talked about pulling the plug on this and stopping the continuous programming, it’s not like we can yank the plug, have it get a year’s gap of programming and then plug back in and having the infrastructure and the network and the partnerships still there waiting for us to go; then we’re going to lose that. And to revive it is daunting to say the least; we don’t know if it could be revived. And, and, and that’s, for me one of the scariest things. After ten years of working so hard to pull the resources and partners and network together to make AmeriCorps work, we’re staring down the barrel of a pretty scary situation of losing the infrastructure (Inaudible) and I, and I know we all feel strongly about that; so I'll turn it over to whoever wants to–
F:
Well, I want to kind of (Inaudible) the opposite for, for a moment that the (Inaudible) earlier today about, that it isn’t we are, rather than what we do; and I think we, we fit into our organizations because of who we are; and AmeriCorps fits into our organizations because who we are and who it is. You know, more than what it is we all do. But, one thing that I think came from our organization is losing our AmeriCorps members. Was it, we had (Inaudible) how we get business; and look at our partners again and talk about how we maintain those relationships with partner, you know, taking things for granted anymore; you know, you kind of, in what, in one respect, this probably a good thing. If, as long as we get our funding again--
Sally:
Yes.
F:
--This is, this is a good thing in the sense that it’s, it really has drawn us all together. We have a, a better national sense as well as a statewide sense. You know, he talks about, Joe talked about how large the span of service in Alaska; but we feel as a small community, I mean, it’s an odd sensation to know how far it all is when you put it on a map; because I grew up in Minneapolis and felt like my next-door neighbor was so far away almost; you know the next community that was tied to (Inaudible); but I don’t feel that way about, you know, flying out to Tokyo or flying out to Dillingham or Bethel or wherever it is. And so, it is, it is kind of this whole readjustment of thinking about how closely or how far away we are; how we met; how we get our partners to help us more and, we’re looking as much into expanding our business partnerships as we are our governmental and service they face community organizational structures as well. So when the money and AmeriCorps does come back because we’ve got to believe that that’s (phone ringing, inaudible) that, with that, our coming back, we will have an even stronger (Inaudible) to support AmeriCorps programs and for AmeriCorps programs to support us and all these other organizations that we’re here for. So on the one hand, I think it’s been a good wakeup call for all of us, and a good revitalization; but again, like I say, because I'm making the assumption that people will hear us, that this will come back, but it will be very difficult because (Inaudible).
Sally:
And we, too. We’re making the assumption with you--
F:
Yeah.
Sally:
--That people will hear us, and that, that our programs will be funded.
F:
But they’re have been some good things, I think, that have come out of difficult moments, because anybody who serves whenever you face (Inaudible) a little bit more. That’s been a good thing for all of us.
Sally:
And maybe we learned that there is power in, there is considerably more power in our approaching the issue together.
F:
Yes.
Sally:
Tremendous support base and we want to take it--
F:
You didn’t track into, before, I don’t think there is much as we will in the future.
Sally:
I think that’s true and we’re going to track that, I hope. You track it in Alaska, we’re going to track it nationally.
Ben:
I, I think all that can be good if we don’t lose programs.
Sally:
Yes.
Ben:
You know, if we lose programs--
F:
(Inaudible)
Ben:
--Then we have to figure out whether the experience was good; you know, we all went to (Inaudible) or whether it was really a bad thing; and so, you know I sort of, trying, not trying, try not to dwell on what would happen if, not going to name names but other federal agencies have management problems or have problems, do the shut it down--not likely. Do they eliminate all the funding--not likely, not likely. So, I think that it is important to look at the end beneficiary which is the American public and the people who depend on or rely on the service of AmeriCorps members and the AmeriCorps members, themselves, who rely on service as a way of, of helping (Inaudible) hours, because we are counting (Inaudible) this week. As far as how we sort of piece together resources to make our programs (Inaudible); I think like Ruth Schoenleben said, we have, we have our programs that we try to add value to through AmeriCorps. We also (Inaudible) almost ten years ago and sort of inherited (Inaudible) actually, it didn’t inherit its first program, but the second program was our conservation (Inaudible); inherited that from PTA, and we’ve become a very successful program and we have some wonderful accomplishments, and we serve a lot of communities and a lot of AmeriCorps members.
But when Joe said, I mean, it’s not like you have a buck for the American taxpayer money, and you try to figure out how far you can stretch it, we’ve, by necessity, you know the fact that it costs $800 to fly to Norvick and only $450 to fly to Washington, DC when it’s five times the distance for Washington, DC. It just, you know, we have to raise $3 to every dollar of the corporation (Inaudible). Just because of a logistical (Inaudible) and by necessity then, we have (Inaudible) our programs, we’ve had to and we’ve been very happy to, develop programs that buy services to communities that they wouldn’t normally get; whether it’s fire prevention, health and safety services, energy conservation, child development; because in a sense, you know, you hate to write the programs where the money is.
Sally:
Yuh.
Ben:
But you also need to look at--
Sally:
The real world.
Ben:
--where the needs are; so the need is there and the money is there; you build a program that serves in a, in an (Inaudible) way and a community that has to be (Inaudible); and that’s what we’ve had to; and we’ve been very please to do it because like, with the services we’re providing a very, a very important service.
Sally Prouty:
I'm thinking about what it takes to attract money. How does that all work and can we establish our own mission and attract money to it as opposed to, as you’re saying, there are pockets of money and we go after it? I'm very new in Washington. I've been here barely one year. Probably, the, the point that has been made most clear to me as I've spoken with private sector funding, funders and with federal agency funders, is that we do not have substantial research that supports a data base; to put on a data base and, and information that has been translated in a way that attracts money to it. So it’s interesting to think about that. And we do have one youth corps study that was subtitled C; it was published in 1997 and shows clear benefit. It was a random assignment study, and involved a significant number of youth corps across the country. I said that to get to the point that we are now in the process of working with the WT grant foundation and actually have, they’ve given us their verbal approval to participate $450,000 in a new second generation youth corps study, and we’re awaiting word from the corporation. Hopefully, the corporation will partner with us, and we want you all to be engaged with us in that study.
We want to take a serious look at AmeriCorps programming, corps programs that exist without AmeriCorps funds, educational awards, national directs, how do we compare; could be a very, very important study for the field in terms of long term. We do need to know, I believe, a great deal more about impact and society. When corps exist in society, our community’s better; and if so, what is it that we can document that speaks to the better, that defines it in such a way that we can come back to foundations and funders and say, "In this community, right now, we’re being asked to look at foster care children; we’re being asked to look at youth exiting the juvenile justice system; can we document those young people are entering corps and that they have, they’re in a better place when they leave a corps"? Certainly, we’ve heard from so many young people who are pre-college, college, college graduates and they talk about the dramatic changes in their lives; and it happens; when we were here, we get sucked into it and we keep on going and service. We want that to happen. I certainly see service as an amazing vehicle for life change and for changing the life chances of youth who come from disadvantaged situations. OK. Having said all that, I'm going to come back to Adam and say, when we think about the results, see, I see you as a positive result of, of a corps; and I see that very dramatically when I look at your face; and that’s what encourages me; that’s, I'm willing to work all night, what do I need to do? Can you put a finger on what, what allowed you to make the changes in your life that you need to make?
Adam:
Support.
Sally:
The support.
Adam:
Yeah, there was a lot of support and lot of folks going through the same (Inaudible) that I was going through (Inaudible) just, I was just (Inaudible).
Sally Prouty:
Was it, how difficult was it for you to accept that? Was that something that, that took a considerable amount of time when, when you came into a corps? Was it hard for you to be engaged in a crew and, and into that support base or was it a natural--
Adam:
It, it took a little while, like on a trail crew; it just takes a little while. At first you kind of, kind of feeling everyone out; you know, like, I'm from (Inaudible) when you see (Inaudible) things that bring people closer; and when there’s natural disaster, our first people come in and help (Inaudible) and we get a lot of people with the same problems (Inaudible) asking for help (Inaudible) it took a little while; (Inaudible) it took a little while and once, once we are bonded, it is pretty easy. I still keep in touch (Inaudible).
Sally:
I was going to ask you that, yuh.
Adam:
(Inaudible) and I know exactly where each and every person (Inaudible).
Sally:
And how many years ago was that?
Adam:
That was in ’98.
Sally Prouty:
Wow, wow, that’s huge; that’s huge. The, the piece of what I've observed in, in corps, I thought of as family. And, and we talk a lot in this country about the single most important thing is a, are caring adults. I, I think that’s just such a huge part of what we do; and we do need structure and consistence and deliverables and projects completed and all the things that are, are actually easier to measure; but along with that, the caring adult pieces just huge; and it’s the person who delivers the service benefits and the person who receives the service benefits and it’s a heck of a deal; it’s a great deal. OK. I’d like to start, go back to Ben and just come this way.
F:
What, Brian.
Sally:
Brian, have I been saying Ben the whole time? It’s, it’s late. Geez, I'm so sorry, Brian. OK. OK. Brian, thank you.
Brian:
No problem.
HOUR 41
Sally Prouty:
I’d like to ask you if we could, we are now in our forty-first hour
(Applause)
Woe, yeah
(Applause)
We’re talking about the possibility of each person talking for an hour. That could happen with this group, I'll tell you right now, and I can add my, I can add my bet; but that’s, that’s huge. Forty-one hours and counting. OK. Brian, when, when I'm engaged in a, in a meeting and activity with a group of people, I’d like to do a check out; I’d like to say come back to the group and have everybody say something about the experience, but also add to; what do we want the folks who, who are listening or watching this tape to know? So, Brian, it’s yours.
Brian:
Then, it’s two in the morning. I think what we want is people who are listening or watching to understand that AmeriCorps model, I think is, goes back a long way; and that, that it isn’t, it isn’t a perfect model, but it is certainly a model that has been tried and tested and affected in many ways or it’s been improved in many ways over the years; and that it works. It works for a lot of you. It does not work for everyone.
AmeriCorps is not a program or the program for everyone. We’ve seen that; I've seen it personally in my experience; but those who get it, those who figure out that, like you said, a family owned is an important component of a team element; they really get it. And they, they move forward. Someone who I see, an AmeriCorps who gets it, doesn’t move back; they don’t stand still; they move forward. We have, our 35 AmeriCorps members and the two programs were affected by these cuts are single-site placement (Inaudible). They’re recruiting from their own (Inaudible); they serve alone in their communities; and yet, they are part of a team. We issue them three (Inaudible), and they wear those things out, calling their team member’s weekend and week out. We have monthly teleconferences as a team 25, 35 people on line (Inaudible) actually break it up into morning and afternoon (Inaudible). But they’re a team and they visit each other when they can; and in winter, some of the members go from, down the river communities or visit each other and help on different projects. We’ve been fortunate to get some partners (Inaudible) conservation (Inaudible); one in particular, that had provided, specifically provided monies so that AmeriCorps members can go and work on projects together in, in community building (Inaudible) search and rescue (Inaudible) and it has built that and created that team and family (Inaudible); and I think that’s what, what I would hope, (Inaudible) the sense of, of pride in family, the civic pride as an American family is an important component to (Inaudible) and it, it (Inaudible) the success (Inaudible). It’s not an individualistic program; it’s a program you give what you get, and to, you give to your family and get back (Inaudible). Thank you, thank you. Great submission.
OK. We’re going to challenge the rest of the group to get better and end (Inaudible). It’s like, I don’t know what you’re say after that, but Ruth Schoenleben talk to us about–
Ruth Schoenleben:
Well, lots of things have been going through my mind in terms of these (Inaudible) thoughts about AmeriCorps and partnerships and (Inaudible). One of the things that our organization has wanted to do this coming year is, we have been modeling partnerships and giving portion of partnerships. We want to help businesses, other community (Inaudible) to really become intra dependent on each other; and we want to marvel that also, help them to become more engaged. We aren’t just a giver; instead, AmeriCorps members aren’t just a giver. They are models of how to give and how to engage; and that, that we are enriched by their lives, and they also become rich by the lives of the other people who partner with them as well as the people they serve. And I think that that’s, you know, just, excuse me, a tremendous by product besides the, how many people get a GED and how many people get jobs and, you know, all of those wonderful, wonderful things that we’re engaged in.
I, as this is my first trip to Washington, DC; and everywhere I go, I see the heavy buildings; and they just feel heavy; and I keep thinking that it kind of almost represents the heaviness of government, which is established to serve the people. And I think that it’s a huge responsibility; and I kind of been carrying around with me all (Inaudible) heavy feeling of, of, you know, the need is served and the need, the responsibility has hatched (Inaudible); and I want to share that responsibility so that others get the blessing of that responsibility and not just put that (Inaudible) my responsibility from that; and so if our AmeriCorps projects get reinstated, those are really some of the goals that we want to see happen; and so we reach out to their community even more than we have before; and we’ll integrate and model and enter and we’ll be that solid building that’s not (Inaudible). We talked earlier today about how some programs are going away as a result of that happening. Our programs aren’t going away; we’ve been around before AmeriCorps; we’re going to be around after AmeriCorps; but we, we aren’t going away, though. We want to continue to be a base of service and a base of partnership; so that we cannot only just book ourselves or Alaska, but wherever.
You know, a lot of organizational development, a lot of leadership training, you know. I’d like to, to train some people in other places and come do it for you and you come do it for us; and to get new perspective and things that you haven’t seen anywhere else; so I would say that, that my thoughts right now would just keep coming to serving partnership, giving and taking, saving as well as serving. And I think that in a work-free service based or (Inaudible) I believe the term being a servant has become a old-fashioned term; and I believe in it and I like it because when I am willing to serve you, it’s not a 50-50, I got to get my half; but if I serve you 100 percent and you serve me, my servant heart goes to you, you will be touched in many, many ways; and you know, many will be, want to touch me, you’ll touch other people around you; because a servant heart gets trans (Inaudible) without losing it myself. I get to share it with you (Inaudible) I kind of like that (Inaudible).
Sally:
Feels really good, right?
Ruth:
Yes.
Sally:
Thank you, thank you. I want to live in your community. I want to such that up, yuh, that’s right, feels really good. Joe?
Joe:
The Youth Corps program, we were around before AmeriCorps and our (Inaudible) thinking was providing services to the participants in the youth corps; and a lot of our energy and focus was service to participants. When AmeriCorps happened and all of a sudden the focus shift from serving the participants to, participants, how they could serve others; and it was kind of shift in thinking that made us scratch our heads, well how, you know, we know, we know we can do this, we know it’s a good; but how was we, blend these two concepts together; and, and, and how we did it and what has worked so well for us, is we took our AmeriCorps members and brought them on ahead of the program that served the Youth Corps kids who are a target population that disadvantage kids in rural communities, before they come on at certain points in the year, we brought our AmeriCorps members on to give them two months of training (Inaudible) for some role models; or our target population. Before that happened, we’ll send out a project leader or staff person with seven to eight kids and that was a very powerful experience for them throughout as a crew, work together on projects and help the environments and learn an incredible lessons. With that staff project, we had a tremendous load to carry. When we’re able to add two more role models and forest leaders onto the crew with that project here, and five or six or seven other target population young people, disadvantaged, economic leader or educational, that was a huge leap in the impact that we’re able to have on those young people; that education component became much stronger; work experience and job training component became much stronger; the ability to resolve conflicts, without the chainsaws was really helpful (laugh); and, kidding. So in terms of the value added, pieced to the AmeriCorps brought to our existing program, adding two more roles, positive people into young people’s lives is incredible. But I also got to turn it around and tell you, just before I came here last week, one of our AmeriCorps members was on a particularly difficult crew of young people, was struggling and making support choices in his personal life. When you live in small communities, you can’t run, you can’t hide. There’s no such thing as (Inaudible); and if they, and our AmeriCorps members know if they make poor choices outside of the program, I hear about; we all hear about it; it reflex negatively on our program in AmeriCorps; and, and that was happening and I, and I start (Inaudible) and I said, "What’s going on"? You know this, your young people that you’re working with are looking at you at the lead and, and, they’re following our lead and you’re making some poor choices right now; and that’s not what we want you modeling to the young people. And he thought about that for a, a day or so, and he came back to me and he said, "Joe, I've never had anybody look up to me" and that is very powerful role to begin; and he says, "I get it now; these were people are looking up to me and that to me is a first". And that realization of leadership for Nate was quite a dramatic change for him and how he thinks about himself and the world; and so it really works both ways. The leadership and role modeling that AmeriCorps members provide to the young people and the connection’s being made and reaching them, it’s such a long-term impact. I mean, the AmeriCorps members often go away at the end of their term of service, and they’re gone for years, months, years. They don’t even, they don’t get the phone calls and the letters and the e-mails from the people that they served that we get in the office every week saying, "You saved my life". AmeriCorps members are long gone.
Sally:
Yuh.
Joe:
And the impacts last a lifetime above the leaders and the kids that they serve. It’s, it’s huge and that’s what I've seen.
Sally:
Well, thank you, thank you. Adam.
Adam:
We, my heart is really into like a, a, the miracles that come out of the villages in Alaska, and a lot of them, I, I've come to know a lot of them pretty intimately (Inaudible) care a lot (Inaudible); and I hear a lot of their stories and (Inaudible) not a lot of opportunities (Inaudible) AmeriCorps programs; and that’s just something that’s (Inaudible) I learned some things to teach some kids some things and then take it back to the community; and maybe to make that community a little better. That community was just (Inaudible) use AmeriCorps (Inaudible).
Sally:
Wow.
Aden:
So many miracles out there (Inaudible) Alaska and there’s not a lot of them, like here and DC and New York, you always have the Boys & Girls Club; you know, there he got, let’s go fishing.
Sally:
That’s it.
Adam:
That’s it, you know. Even then that wasn’t, go too far, you know; so (Inaudible) AmeriCorps is (Inaudible).
Sally:
Wow. America is one thing, AmeriCorps is one thing that they can do; and that’s huge. Ruth Schoenleben?
Ruth Schoenleben:
I just want to make one last statement that I don’t want to forget to say. And I, I know I've heard it (Inaudible) that we need to say it over and over and over again-- (Inaudible) AmeriCorps members need to receive a very, very small investment compared to the ripple affects, the positive ripple affects that go throughout communities of individuals and the investment on our dollars and one AmeriCorps member saves many, many dollars and not just (Inaudible) in, you know, electricity and heat, but in the lives of the people and in the potential, (Inaudible) of a life that goes awry; you know, and somebody who’s, who, who’s life is turned around by AmeriCorps will affect all kinds of people from (Inaudible) it’s a very, very small investment and the building of our country is, as well as our smaller communities.
Sally Prouty:
I have to say that Alaska is a far better place because you are there, and is that right?
(Applause)
And as I recognize that, I want to say that you shouldn’t have to beg to get to do what you’re doing in Alaska. Just as our programs around the country should not have to beg to get to do what is, what is such an amazingly important thing. And it is about heart. And when I think about service, I think about, it’s selfish on my part. I feel really good when I engaged in service and when I'm supporting you, I feels really good to me; when I'm supporting corps around the country, it feels really good. So, isn’t that, isn’t that a good thing?
But we, we shouldn’t have to beg. And I heard the corps that, that are part of the work that we are engaged in are funded 75 percent from sources other than the federal government. Pretty amazing, wow. We’re entrepreneurial folks. We’re working hard. Of the, actually 26 percent that comes from federal grants in the corps that I'm familiar with, hundred plus corps, really, about 18 percent of that, as the best we can come down to (phone ringing) a number, comes from AmeriCorps. We shouldn’t have to beg for that. That piece is essential and it sounds like we could do, do without it. But we can’t do without it. A part of that is accessed to educational awards. That’s a huge deal. A part of national directs and state competitives and all the things that, all the elements and we have Vistas and we have just very exciting relationships with AmeriCorps. It’s an essential element that is leveraged to a great degree. We want to be AmeriCorps programs. We want to champion the cause of AmeriCorps. We want to see all the states in the United States benefiting, and we want to develop models that can be used in pro, in countries, in countries around the world. So we’re excited to be a part of AmeriCorps and appreciate the opportunity to be a part of the 100 hours of testimony. We are voices for AmeriCorps, right?
Voices:
That’s right.
Sally:
Go.
(Applause)
It’s West Seneca time.
M:
All right. West Seneca.
Sally:
Let’s have, let’s hear it for West Seneca and
(Applause)
since we’ve already seen Jim’s tape, what a gorgeous tape, what a great way to start, and we welcome you and the table is yours.
Jim Lawson, Program Coordinator/Executive Assistant, West Seneca Youth Bureau/AmeriCorps:
Thank you, Sally. Hi, my name is Jim Lawson from the West Seneca Youth Bureau. Sally, I truly appreciate this opportunity to speak because being in the field, working on the frontlines with all the AmeriCorps members, we usually don’t get the opportunity to toot our own horn. I actually think this a huge opportunity that we have to speak about the programs that were involved and the things that we do each and every day. As we just heard from Alaska, they’re out on the frontlines, in the forest, in the woods, each and every day. You know what they do is even hard for us to calculate, when we can put numbers to it, we can put some stories to it; but those are people out there, making things happen, cleaning trails, doing things each and every day; and that’s why I thank you, Sally, to give me the opportunity to talk about what we’re doing here through the West Seneca Youth Bureau AmeriCorps program. I'll give you a little background.
First, myself, Jim Lawson. I'm the assistant to the executive director of the West Seneca Youth Bureau. I came to community service in a round about way. I was their property manager for 15 years, and that’s where you accept phone calls from people complaining that’s something’s wrong each and every day. So to get involved in community service is a great thing. I had the opportunity, ran for the school board in my district, got involved on my school board, served a number of years there; and what I've gained from that, and that’s community service, what I've gained from that opportunity to speak to people, to work in schools, to see elementary to senior high kids, moving out in the community after they’ve graduated and say, "What am I going to do next", to have the opportunity to see involvement, teachers dealing with kids, mentoring, and doing work study and field projects, it was a great thing. I think at that point in my life is when I said, you know, I need to do more than just work as a property manager and listen to people complain every day. You know I can get involve in my community more than I was, because being a school board member, you’re a volunteer. You don’t get paid; it’s all extra time. So once I did that, I know Mark Lazzara the executive director of the West Seneca Youth Bureau AmeriCorps program, and at that same time, there was an article, I have it on my desk at work, it was Colin Powell on the front of Time magazine saying, you know, "I need you"; and at that point, you know, it reminded me of the Uncle Sam poster, you know, I need you for the army. And when I saw that at that point in my life, it, everything started to, you know, kind of ring true or say, "Hey, I should get out there and do something".
So at that point seeing that and Colin Powell dealt with America’s promise, that was his initiative at that in time, and we all know what he’s doing now, a great supporter of the president, the president supports him, he supports the president; and we’ll go into that more later what the president can do for us here. But at that point in time and Colin Powell saying that, "I went into market; I said, hey, maybe we should start America’s promise here in West Seneca" or you know, what do we have? "Mark, how can I get involved"? And Mark actually said, "Jim, things are happening here, we’re growing leaps and bounds and we have one our directors who runs a tutoring (Inaudible) program, tutoring program leaving for a number of months to go to boot camp, because he was joining the service again. (Inaudible) been serving more for his country. It opened up an opportunity where they needed a program manager to run that program. So over the next year, I ran that program, got involved, started to serve my community each and every day, got involved with the members.
So I didn’t come out as a typical AmeriCorps member then work through the ranks move up; I kind of came in a round about way. But what I found over the past three years of working with Mark and working with the members and all the other things that AmeriCorps does, it just truly impressed me. And then when I started to look, you know, why do I feel that I want to serve and do this, you know, I started to realize, well, my father, who was, when I was younger kid, played baseball, and he was the coach. So that was his community involvement. And then I went in to the part of he served, now what they call the recreation commission in the town; so even more community involvement. So my point is the mentoring and the peer part of seeing somebody doing something like that and the affect it has on people, that’s what AmeriCorps members do each and every day. They’re in the community serving and working. People are seeing them. The ripple affect is enormous and I'm so afraid that if we lose the opportunity to have 376 members, you know, cut out of AmeriCorps and West Seneca alone this year, what ripple affect do we lose? It’s not just those members. It’s not 376 people, it’s all the kids they tutor. It’s all the kids they, are the pantries they deliver food for; it’s all the parks and playgrounds they clean. Kids see those, those men and women, boys and girls cleaning those playgrounds, and they see the affect and what that has on them. Hey, you know, maybe I won’t throw that piece of paper on the ground; you know, maybe I won’t break that window; you know, maybe I won’t put graffiti on that swing set; you know, maybe I'll help that old lady across the street.
The ripple affect is so huge and I think that’s something we can even equate. I mean we can’t even look at the affect that they’ll have in our community if these cuts are made. I mean Thurman McKolski (sp?) talked about hopefully getting 60,000 members is what she was looking for, and we’re looking at cuts of tens of thousands. I mean if we lose those kind of members, the affect it will have on each and every community is huge.
But let me go back to the beginning and give you a little history about AmeriCorps and West Seneca. Mark Lazzara, executive director, started at approximately, I think it’s 12 years now, and started with a very small program. He saw a grant out there. He applied for it and we started with eight members. So that was 12 years ago. And then it grew leaps and bounds and literally, just last year, we’re up to 450 AmeriCorps members serving, not in West Seneca anymore; it’s not the West Seneca, you know, AmeriCorps program, it’s actually the Western New York AmeriCorps program. We’re not only affecting our community, we’re affecting, Western New York encompasses eight counties; so is the way New York is set up, that’s pretty large, and that’s a good segment of New York state that we serve. We serve in schools, we serve in other community organizations. We actually have over 300 different partners that we serve with. So what happens, those partners, we put AmeriCorps members and I, the one woman who spoke about Alaskan, the other programs that they’re involved with; it’s just not, they have a corps group that goes out and does work; they’re actually involved in other groups. We’re involved 320 other nonprofit organizations and schools in our area. If we start to pull those members of those programs, what happens to that program? So again, it’s not just affecting us, our 376 AmeriCorps members for the West Seneca Youth Bureau, it’s affecting every partnership that we have. We pulled two partner, we pulled two AmeriCorps members out of a small after-school program. That program shuts down.
You know, it’s not just us and those members, it’s that community affect that happens. We’re closing, you know, Mr. President, we’re closing other nonprofit organizations by pulling AmeriCorps members out of West Seneca and Western New York. Again, the ripple affect is so enormous, that we’ll never know the affect. And to gut it for a year and pull out the infra structure, it’s going to be hard to get those partnerships back. They’re just not going to be waiting for us to get involved. They’re going to say, "Hey, I have to go somewhere else; you know I have to close my program." And when they close their program, they lose funding; and when they lose funding, their program shuts down; they’ll never get back. So that’s the involvement, the larger aspect of what I think happens. Some of the other programs now talk more about AmeriCorps. Some of the other programs that were involved in, we have a youth build portion of our program. We have also service action corps, and I'll talk a lot about that. We have a tutoring program, and later I'll introduce Josh Randall who’s the director of our (Inaudible) tutoring program at this time to talk about all the stories and all the members that they affect and all the kids that they tutor. They tutor over 20,000 and we’ve tutored, I think it’s more like 30, over 30,000 in the past ten years. That’s a huge affect.
I go back to the ripple affect. Those kids that we’ve tutored, I mean, now have moved on; they’re in high school and in college. The affect that we’ve had on their lives, we’ll never know; but I think as we all know in community service, we’ve had an affect. I mean the statistics shows the impact that tutoring has, the one-on-one mentoring has on individuals. Again, we’re going to lose that. If we lose that over a period of time, we’re starting to affect future generations; and that’s what I'm afraid of. I mean, we’ll sustain ourselves and we’ll survive on a small program; but will those other partnerships that we have, where they put two kids in an after-school program, will they survive? No, they won’t. And that’s the concern. You know, it’s one thing to say, "Oh, we’ll just cut back on, on this program; you’ll survive with a cut." I mean we’re looking an 85 percent in our program. We’re going to go down from 450 members to, you know 50 members. We’ll survive, yes, at that little small portion, but will all those other programs survive. No. Will Western New York and, I know Senator Clinton spoke earlier about the affects on Buffalo. We’re under a control board now. We’re having big affects just in our own community based upon other fiscal mismanagement that has happened. So the affects on a town or, like or a city like Buffalo are huge. I mean again, the ripple affect, we’re helping, the school district’s going to lose with the cuts that they’re going (Inaudible); they’re going to lose, I think it’s approximately the, the Mayor just put a report the other day, 450 teachers this year alone. You know what? Our stu, our tutors were picking up a lot of that slack. So they got cut 450; we cut out another 200 out of the school district for our tutors. You know, we’re affecting generations to come. It’s not just, we’ll cut your program back at this point in time and what will happen, it’s devastating. Some of the other programs that we have, we have a Vista program. Vista’s doing OK and that program will survive; but again, we start to shrink our infra structure, we start to lose members and programs.
We have a great program. It’s called a, a YES program; and I think that’s, I know it’s statewide, but I think it’s nationally. It’s called Youth Engaged in Services. We have a Youth Engaged in Services director who’s an AmeriCorps member. She affects, I think it’s another 20, I think it, 20 to 25 kids, you know, after-school programs that she gets involved and does mentoring with and goes out and does programs. We cut her out, we cut those 20 kids out. So, it’s not just, "Oh, you’re going to lose one member and everything will be OK". It’s not. We’re going to lose people into the future. We cut back our YES program and close those doors, are those kids all of a sudden going to show up next year at out doorsteps saying, "OK, well everything’s OK, now, you know, you’ve got 2,000 for funding, you know, what’s going to happen"? We cant’ afford to lose what we have today, because of the affect it’ll have in the future.
Let me talk a little bit about the youth, youth build program that we have. We have a great director, Brian Lawrence runs that program for us. He worked with Habitat for Humanity where they go out into the community and build homes. We know what Habitat for Humanity does, but we have members now that we put working with professional carpenters and lay people who are volunteering. Again, we have members seeing people volunteer to get the job done. What does it do these kids? I mean it builds their self-esteem. "Hey, I'm working with a professional engineer; I'm working with a professional carpenter." It builds what they do, their capacity up. So what do they do? They go home and, I mean, we can go through the whole social economic impact, but they go home and they feel better; and the relationship they have with individuals, the relationship they have their own children is much better. You know, so to talk about well, we’ll just cut a couple of members and everything will be OK. It doesn’t work that way. The social impact that’s going to happen by cutting AmeriCorps members, won’t only happen today and tomorrow; it’ll happen into the future. It’ll happen to little kids; it’ll happen to babies and to five-year-olds that are being tutored and kids in high school and elementary school. The impact is just too great to say, "Well, we’ll, we’ll cut a little bit out and we’ll punish the corporation and, you know, but we’ll show them and everything will work out." Doesn’t work that way. We’re the people on the frontline, and when that happens, the frontline start to fall apart. And when you cut shreds in the frontline and the fence between good and bad, where you don’t have mentors and you have kids out there doing things that we don’t want to do, and we put the barriers that we have, I, I consider AmeriCorps members barriers because they’re standing up for what’s right. They stand up, they see mentoring, they see things being done correctly. They see a future.
One of my, my personal feelings is a lot of times when kids go awry, it’s because they don’t see themselves projected into the future. It’s momentary. It’s, "Hey, what’s going to happen to me tonight, what’s going to happen to me today, I'll go out and, you know, you know do drugs, or get involved in gang activity"; but when we present them with AmeriCorps and we help the, the dropout get his GED or we help the kids move forward or we help them show that, "Look it, you’re going to get, you’re going to get your GED now, so there’s a look into the future; then you’re going to get an ED Award, so there’s a look in the future; you’re going to go to college and then you’re going to move on that past that." If we can give kids that look into the future, and I think AmeriCorps does that, again, we’re not affecting today, we’re affecting tomorrow; we’re affecting their kids, we’re affecting their families, we’re affecting their parents and their relatives. You know some of these kids are the first kids getting GED or their high school degree in their household, going to college. We cut out ED, ED Awards to students. They’re not going to college because they can’t afford it. So where do they end up? Again, the social economic impact, they end up on the streets, they end up at lower-paying jobs. We send them to college to get higher-paying jobs. You know, it’s the economy. If we start cutting out AmeriCorps members, we start reducing our economy. These are all workers. You know, they’re people involved each and every day getting the job done on the frontlines, making our society thrive. If we start cutting AmeriCorps members, we start losing segments of our society which, in the long run, isn’t a good thing; I think everyone would agree.
Maybe right now I'll break to Josh Randle and talk to him. But let’s, I have a tape here and it talks about patriotism. And the patriotism will just give us a little of the impact of, of what actually happens on the frontline. This is a small segment but I think, as it said, you know, a picture’s worth a thousand words; and maybe we’ll cut a thousand of my words out there and show some pictures; and I'll come back and introduce you to Josh Randle.
(Music and introduction of the news)
Voice:
New York, now Jackie Walker, Sports with Dennis Williams and weather with meteorologist, Don Paul. Live from Channel 4 in Buffalo. This is News 4 at 5:30.
F:
Each generation finds it’s own voice colored by events around us. Until September 11, the voice of patriotism had been lifted primarily by those who have seen past wars, but as Lawyer Schultz finds in tonight’s special report, now younger Americans are embracing the red, white and blue with pride.
F:
American youth are often seen as rebellious, unfeeling, at times, uncaring. On the extreme (Inaudible) who can forget Columbine or the five Buffalo teams who stand accused in the torturous slaying of James Mack.
F:
Those kids are not human.
F:
But since September 11, dramatic changes in generation Y. The attack on America aroused a sleeping sense of patriotism among young people nationwide.
F:
We’re more connected.
M:
Yuh, I'm more in tune in what’s going on.
F:
In Western New York from kindergarten to college (someone in the background, inaudible), young people, who normally wouldn’t raise a flag, are now showing their love of freedom. People like Stephanie Agone (sp?) of Hamburg, touched by the sight of the dogs at Ground 0. She recently raised $400 for the K-9’s working for the State Police.
M:
So often in police work, we unfortunately deal with kids that, that aren’t done, on the good side; and we like to take the time to, to recognize people that do, do the right thing.
F:
This wave of patriotism isn’t expected to fizzle out anytime soon. As the Feds begin to open up opportunities for this new generation of patriots.
F:
Locally, AmeriCorps recruitment is up 40 percent and an anticipation of increase civic service, congress is now considering a bill that would quintuple funding for domestic programs that show up homeland security.
M:
Getting people involved and helping communities is one way to express patriotism.
F:
Young people everywhere are now committing themselves and taking seriously.
M:
We have people today that are Muslim; we have people today that are of all faiths; we have people today of all races here serving together.
(Whitney Houston singing the Star Spangled Banner)
Houston:
What’s so proudly we hail at the twilights last gleaming.
F:
US military veterans are especially pleased to see the younger generation rising to the task and ready to take the reins when the time comes.
M:
They’re stepping up with the older generation and carrying on the way they should be carrying on.
M:
I'm more patriotic now before I really didn’t, really mind it, but now I see, if something like that happens to bring a whole nation together.
M:
Or happy that everybody’s flying a flag. We as veterans have been flying our flag since we left Vietnam.
F:
The men and women who have served our country, I feel very good about them.
F:
And so now a group that some consider passionless reexamines itself discovering that long absence sense of patriotism and purpose. Laurie Schultz, News 4.
Houston:
(Singing)…through the night--
F:
And that spirit of patriotism took on global dimensions for students in Egertsville today. (News shuts off)
(Applause)
Jim Lawson:
Thanks. I think that shows what is happening. I mean, obviously that tape was a year old or so, but it talks about what the president wanted us to do. It talked about the president giving more money to AmeriCorps. How pathetic is that? It talked about, you know, patriotism and kids getting involved and wanting and, and wanting, the need to serve. You know, they saw what happened, what can I do, the girl, you know, helping the dogs. You know, what can I do? That’s all AmeriCorps members do when they get up in the morning. What can I do to help, and it’s being thwarted; I mean, we’re here, we’re signing up members; they want to serve, Mr. President, let them serve. That’s all we’re asking.
Let me introduce Josh Randle and talk more about the great job that the tutors that are involved in West Seneca programs do. Josh Randle.
Josh Randle, AmeriCorps Program Director, West Seneca Youth Bureau/AmeriCorps:
Thanks, Jim. I want to thank Sally for inviting us here today. What can we do, Jim, but, but serve, and that’s why we’re here. It is truly a privilege for me to be standing here before you, and I’d like to share with you, not only my voice and my convictions, but the voices and convictions of the lives that I touched. See I was a past AmeriCorps member and now a current program director for comprehensive literacy based tutoring program in Buffalo, New York. It services 6500 students a year and currently holds 249 corps members dwindling every day.
I’d like paint a dramatic picture for you, a picture placed in your head and in your heart of our world, our card cultures, our human personalities and our individualities and how AmeriCorps is the window in which all those lights shine through. As an AmeriCorps member and a tutor stationed at Grover Cleveland High School on the west side of Buffalo three years ago, I came across an experience I will never forget--an experience that I’d like to share with you here. As you probably are unaware, Grover Cleveland High School is known as the international school of Buffalo. It has students from more than 50 different countries with over 30 different languages represented. A community that truly has its own flavor and unique and of itself. But three years ago as I was tutoring in a math class with a man by the name of Rasheed Sultan, there was, as the students were rustling around the halls, there was as new student in school, never seen him before, I spent many long hours sometimes 12 and 14-hour days there; and he was walking down the hall; he’s dark as, as the midnight sky and pearly-white teeth, lit up the whole hall. And I looked at my teacher and I said, "Who is that young, young man? He doesn’t look like a teenager. Where’s he from." He wasn’t native to America. Teacher looked at me and goes, "Interesting story". This individual by the name of, we’ll call him Mike, is from Sierra Leone, and one day he came home from a hunting trip to his village and found his entire family murdered. I can’t, I can’t show you or explain to you how that might have felt or what that experience was like. I couldn’t see it in his eyes or his presence as his soul walked down the hall. You would’ve never have notice it.
The story goes is he realized being there in that small village in Sierra Leone was probably not safe for him any longer, he decided to go to the port and find the first ship and freighter to America--smart choice, but a dangerous one at that. He decided to sneak on the ship, and in the ship, there is, there is a hole in the hall of the ship where they stick anchors and stuff like that. He snuck down there with basically nothing but the clothes on his back, and there’re were already people down they’re doing the same thing. And one of them was a, a young man about his age, 22, 23 and two other people trying to find their way to America, a better way of life, a life that they’ve only dreamed of and only heard of in stories and media, if at all, any media. Half way across the ocean, through starvation and thirst, two of them decided to go to the top of the ship and ask for some, some water, somebody to help them. Mike didn’t obviously think that was a good idea and said, "No, no, no, no; stay, stay down here; stay, stay until we, until we get there." And they couldn’t bear it any longer. Well, they got to the top of that ship, and they were thrown off in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. I doubt they survived, but Mikey, he continued, you know, plotted out and; when they docked, he decided to go up and they finally made it to America, at least he hoped it was America, and he, and he got to the top and couldn’t throw him off now, all he had to do is swim to shore. And he found, he found his way to America and he found his way to Grover Cleveland High School; and when he walked down that hall, you would have never known in a million years that that sole, that person would be an individual that you would help learn, you know, teach him English, teach him how to read and write, he was so excited, it was like you were writing him a check for a million dollars and signing him up for a new family--a life that he only dreamed of.
And now you have the experience of a lifetime in front of you that is written for picture books and, and storybooks; and it was just a beautiful experience that I'll never ever forget when we tutored math together. Sometimes you didn’t get it; he’d look at me and those teeth would shine; and he would just shake his head. He’d say and be as simple as you could with him and as gentle as you could with him. He seemed gentle but, I mean, he was probably the toughest and most experienced individual I have with, have known through trauma and, and things like that, but he just had a gentle nature about him. And I learned more from him than I ever could have taught him in English or math or how to dress in American clothes, what are the good places to eat, and McDonald’s not one of them, Jim. I like that place, but they’re not one of them. And I'll never forget that, that experience. I'll take that with me for, for the rest of my life; but that wasn’t uncommon to that community.
That was just one of many and I had the experience as a tutor to help Vietnamese girls learn how to read and write; and ironically enough, there were refugees from Vietnam over in the country couple of years; and to pass, graduate high school, they had to pass the New York State Region’s Exam. They barely spoke English or understood it, and the New York State English Region Exam is difficult for our American born kids who can barely pass it. And they try very hard and exceptionally long hours and lots of tears at times, lots of sweat. They got to that point and they’ve moved on to a way of life that--in the refugee camps they’ve only dreamed of. Experiences like those are, are found in Grover often. It’s funny how I found myself there. As an AmeriCorps tutor, my father’s been a principal there for many years, and he’s been an educator and a mentor to me through thick and thin, and that’s where his heart always was. He was a man of the Marine Corps and history goes way back (phone ringing); his father was in the First Wave of Normandy; and he was in three years in Vietnam and his sons were destined for the military, but he got it elsewhere. To a life of service, I would have never known. Walking into the school, Grover Cleveland, and, an intimidating place at that, surrounded by diversity and cultures that you’ve never even heard of. It was a place that he wanted to open us up to because that’s where his heart was. That’s where he spent his life. He loved and loves every single one of those students as well as his kids. I’d like to transition here into a story as a, as a program director now with AmeriCorps in West Seneca, I have the privilege of working with some amazing people from Jim Lawson to Mark Lazzara, to Alan Khazei and Sally and some of the other people across this great country, but I get to go back and get, I get to go back to Buffalo and I get to go to those schools, and I get to look at those students and the tutors and that interaction and that experience; and there’s nothing like that.
Now, a lot of the, I've been with AmeriCorps through this thick-and-thin time. There’s a lot of knowledge that I have, and there’s a lot of opinions that I share when it comes to AmeriCorps has failed, AmeriCorps has faltered, AmeriCorps is facing draconian cuts, AmeriCorps, AmeriCorps, AmeriCorps. And as I realize, and the more I speak with these individuals in the positions of power, I realize that they don’t understand what’s going on. They don’t know the hard facts. There are those who will always be against AmeriCorps, because they don’t understand its mission of service, paid volunteerism. AmeriCorps members, you can call them volunteers, they’re members. AmeriCorps means service; it doesn’t mean volunteer. It increases volunteerism and it changes lives. You know, when, when they say, you know, AmeriCorps fails, no AmeriCorps didn’t, they didn’t fail. The leadership may, might have failed. The corporation might have made a few mistakes. How do people justify and rationalize slapping the hands of tens of thousands of children and saying, "You know what? You’re tutor’s not going to be here tomorrow and maybe not for the next year, but it’s OK. Just wait, you know, hold on, we’ll back next year, we’ll be bigger and better than ever." Where’s the sense in that.
As I listened to some of the senators today speak about generations, the new generation, the greatest generation and the current generation and how they support volunteerism and service, it only ignites the fire. When you see Senator Mikulski all 4’10 or 11 of her physically, not the largest stature, but the heart, the size of Mt. Everest; and what interesting about her and why I compare her Mt. Everest, Mt. Everest is a mountain that is dear to my heart. Since I was a little kid, I wrote four things on a wall of which was one of them to climb Mt. Everest. And why I compare her to that is because every year Mt. Everest grows seven centimeters. People like, grows, how does it grow? Well, Mt. Everest when it, when it was created, it was the collision of Asia and India and that’s the history of 29,029 feet; grows seven centimeters a year, every year. And that’s like Senator Mikulski, she kind of gets bigger and you see her; she walks past you like, she’s got a heart of gold, let’s see what she has to say; she says it and she just, she sets you back; and she has been a true champion for AmeriCorps, and she understands what AmeriCorps does. She, she takes the time to visit Frostburg in Maryland, and, and she understands that it’s more than just service, it’s more than just a one-on-one tutoring session or a cleanup of a vacant lot. She understands that AmeriCorps is a true essence and meaning of service. And conservative, conservative idealistic views on volunteerism and calling it paid volunteerism and debates and arguments saying, "How can you pay volunteers, how do you pay volunteers"?
I had an argument with a, a congressman at a benefit, how he said he was from a small town, a place I'll leave unknown and the name I'll leave unknown, and how he believes that people should volunteer and give themselves to service. When something’s wrong at my place or if I need help, my mom and dad will come around the corner; my friends will come down off the hill and I'll be OK. That might work in your small town, but that doesn’t work in our communities. They don’t even have families. Mom and dad aren’t around the corner. Mom, if a dad, but they’re strong to it. And like I said, there’ll always be those who are against it because they don’t understand. They said they’ve served and maybe give 2 hours of, a month at a soup kitchen or at the church; but 40 hours or 50 hours a week for two years, doubtful. What was really exciting about this event was, I was here for the opening ceremony; and to see all the faces that put this together finally that, that bond and that connection with greater organizations like City Year who just amazes every time I, I get to experience them, because Alan and City Year, they understand what service means to America. I asked Alan and this is something funny, I was, when they first came up with the Voices for AmeriCorps and a 100 hours of testimony, I was like, who is the brilliant mind behind this? You could have picketed. Who would have been there for that? How many people, probably ticked off. You could’ve upset some people and done some pretty irrationally things; but who came up a 100 hours of testimony at a strategic time like this? I was like, was it Alan, was it a coalition effort? Who, whose idea was this? What a brilliant idea. So, I, I kind of pigeon-holed him when I saw him on Tuesday and I said, bright and early, I was like, "Whose idea was this, I got to know". It was like, funny enough, it’s a funny story and my wife and I were driving, I, I know it, I said, yup, it’s my wife. She really had the, a good idea and she said, "We should do this".
A hundred hours of testimony. It’s not an attack on congress. That’s not what we’re here to do. It’s not a shot at the president; it’s a challenge. When Sister Johnice and I were at the opening ceremony, she, her flying in, she asked me, "Josh, do you think that I should, I've been really praying on this, do you think I should ask the, the president, should, should I challenge him, you see, Mr. President, you’re my hero, you’re our hero for AmeriCorps if you sign us in? You know you want this. Do you think it’s good? I've been praying; I just don’t know". And I said to her, "How could it be wrong? What do you have to lose? And you’ll be sitting next to the president tomorrow. Say it. Let your heart say it." She got up there, and she was a little nervous, usually as Jim knows and the rest of us, Sister Johnice is not short for words or heart. She’s spent many hours of her life in the grassroots and the trenches like some of us and she embodies everything that is service. Mark Lazzara, executive director of the Bureau Collister of Mother Theresa. It humbles her but she refuses to compare herself to that, but she hasn’t an aura about her that she likes to share; and people share that with her when they’re in her presence. And she only walks in, in other person’s footsteps, and as you know, it’s Jesus Christ, and that’s who she follows. I can’t get any better than that. So she decided to get up there and challenge and say, "Be our hero, Mr. President; make this happen." It’s really such an easy fix.
As I sat there after her speech, we’re sitting and David Gergen got up and, very articulate, eloquent, and said he’d like to read a story about a young man in AmeriCorps. And as I sat, I, and expected to hear a lot of these stories, I was excited. He started off by a man by the name of Sgt. Nestor Hernandez and my, my jaw dropped. I was amazed, I was like (Inaudible); and he starts reading this testimonial from a good friend of mine and a former, well, he’s still a colleague, who is service, who’s providing service and during freedom in Iraq, and he starts reading his story, his testimonial; and at first I, I was set back; that’s strange, I, I asked Nestor Hernandez for his testimonial less than a week ago. He spent a few hours in Iraq fighting to get it sent over to me. Monday evening, I finally get it and I bring to Mark and I said, "Mark, we got it, you got to read this, this is great. The next thing you know it, 12 hours later, I'm listening to it; and it was such a, it was so, it was so well done. And as I sat there and I listened to him, it was almost like Nestor was; but he’s been gone for almost a year; it’s almost like he was there; his presence was there; his spirit was there.
He’s given himself to AmeriCorps for the last seven years. He was 24 years old when he came to Buffalo, New York and he comes from a broken home and a tough life; and he’s amazing man. He’s done a lot of good for the communities of Buffalo and Western New York; and he has a vision. And when he received that phone call, Thanks, Thanksgiving, he called me right away ‘cause we were very close. I'm the brother he never had and probably never wanted, and he said, "I'm out of here, buddy, the program’s yours." I was set back ‘cause, like, you kind of knew this was coming, not this soon, not during the holidays. As we sat and we talked about what were the next steps and how long he’d be gone and other program, how he’d like to see it run. We sat and lulled over so many experiences we’ve had together, and he was so, he was so cool and so calm from one day sitting in his office, scheduling our appointments with partners and CBO’s and faith-based organizations for the school year to the very next door uprooting his life and serving his country, a friend of mine, Dan Fronterra at the West Seneca Youth Bureau, (Inaudible) director says it perfectly. He was like that shimmer that glass on a lake hat doesn’t ripple and has that reflection. He was just so smooth. It was, it was like you never even heard the words, "we’re being deployed". And he had a life here; he had plans. One of his plans was to get engaged before he left and he did it. Actually, he got deployed two days after he received his degree. At age 30, he finally finished his Bachelors Degree, Buffalo State College. Two days later, he was deployed down at Ft. Bragg. They sent him up for a day and a half holiday for Christmas, and he proposed to his fiancée, who he’s now been away from, from eight, nine months. And Nestor, we occasionally talk and send him his care packages, and one of the things that the West Seneca Youth Bureau does in AmeriCorps and the YES programs and AmeriCorps members is they write letters, not only to him, to his platoon. As he became a sergeant, we razzed him; he sent us a picture with a moustache; and all his lieutenants and high-ranking officials have moustaches (phone ringing); and he’s a Puerto Rican kid, and moustaches don’t always look great on Puerto Ricans as he says, he say, "We’ll try, we’ll give it a shot". And he sent me this picture. Before I even got it, his fiancée already had an e-mail piece above it that said, "Take it off". And I talked to him just before we came over the e-mail as he sent out the testimonial, and he really doesn’t know what’s, what’s going on. You know, it’s, it’s not his major concern. Right now, he’s with a foreign of second civilian affairs battalion, a sergeant at that, and he’s doing exactly what he did here over there. He’s handing out humanitarian aid; he’s building schools; he’s developing soccer teams; he’s creating communities; and he’s damn good at it. And I don’t think if you, if you ever Nestor, you would say, "What did you think you were going to be seven years ago"? Twenty-four, he would say, "No idea." I heard about this AmeriCorps thing and the benefits, pretty good. It’s a chance for me to pay off my education and continue it just the same. He would have never have said he’d be where he is now; he would have never thought that he’d be in the desert. He’d never thought he’d be receiving care packages from AmeriCorps and the people that he served with for so long. It means a lot to him, and for him not to, for him to come back and not be able to go back to his desk and go back to these children is a devas, is, is a tragedy in and of itself; just his story alone is compelling enough if I was the president. God forbid if that ever happens.
But if I was president, I, that would have been enough for me. I’d like to transition into a story, some of the great stories we have. We have a lot of great stories with AmeriCorps. One of the great stories we like to share is, some of the stories from our corps members that we, that we put into our reports and sent out to the newspapers and; this is a story about a Saturday reading club at the King Urban Life Center. But before I do that story, I’d like to get a little hoot and holler our No. 42
(Applause)
It’s been a long chooch, but we’re not half way there yet, so--This is a sto–
DAY 2, NIGHT SESSION, 9/03/03
3AM - 6AM
Jim Lawson:
… growing up too early or too late. Bleary eyed, hungry and grumpy because their parent forced them to use good cartoon time for reading. The first morning was understandably crazy. Since I cannot foresee problems like this, like late arrivals, (Inaudible), an impossibility of becoming three people at once, but the kids came back. They came in early, on time, even late. They came in smiling, frowning, laughing. Some accepted my hugs, others looked blankly into space. They were of all ages, three and up. I did what I could for them, providing great books, fun activities (Inaudible) volunteers, but I never felt quite like I got them passionate about reading, writing, literature. At the end of the year my supervisor told me something that hit me hard. She said a parent told her the only real threat that worked for her little girl is if she was disobedient to her mother, she would keep her home from reading club.
Then I finally realized that every single child was there on Saturdays because they wanted to be there. The passion was there, and I got to fan the flame. What a great opportunity it was for me and for them. Jim talked about patriotism and some of the pieces that go with it, and there's one piece that an AmeriCorps member wrote called "President's Day". She said "one day in February, shortly after President's Day, we had some guests observing our school. I was working with two children on a reading assignment when a middle-aged white man walked into the classroom. As I continued to work with the children I noticed that they kept glancing at this stranger. Finally one whispered 'Is he the President?' I explained no, he's here to observe our school. The other child leaned over and said, rather indignantly, 'He don't even look like George Washington'. The first child, equally indignant and eager to correct, responded 'Our President is George Bush, not George Washington.' I smiled as I re-directed their attention to the task at hand, thrilled to discover that they had gleaned information from our President's Day reading activities and had begun to apply their new knowledge to the world around them."
It's those simple things that AmeriCorps members do, the programs, the organizations, that make a difference. It's the simple things that make a difference in the world. You see, AmeriCorps not only means service, but it means love. You don't hear that much. I don't know if people are afraid to say the word love, but most of the people I work with, with the exception of Jim, I love. I'm joking, Jim. Our AmeriCorps members love those kids, they love their communities, they love their environment, and as we sit here speaking today and sharing our voices, our tutors slowly fall out of those schools one by one, one by one. From 249 it will soon be 100, 50. By January first, about 22 if we're lucky. We've lost good tutors, like Leanna Beneault (sp?), Amy Gingrich (sp?), Amy Sadler, Detwan (sp?) -- who won't be able to re-enroll for a second term -- and some of those other people that stare blankly into space and say "you know, I served with AmeriCorps and I know what my next step is, and I can't take that next step, even if it isn't for AmeriCorps." How do you right the wrong? I don't have the answer to that.
Is the fix for AmeriCorps a phone call or a press of the button? Unfortunately the answer to that is yes, it is. I mean, we can spew statistics and data for days about how we spent two billion dollars a week in Iraq or we spend money here and there and this is such an easy fix. It costs the federal government $20,000 for a full-time AmeriCorps member, but they don't know that it costs the federal government $53,000 to have somebody in a maximum security prison, or that your federal tax dollars sponsored the Michigan State Cherry Pie Eating Contest of 2002. But I'm not bitter. There are good causes and I think AmeriCorps is obviously one of them. I could go on forever and filibust away and my time is up. I'm going to bring back Sally and I want to thank her again for her time. She's an inspiration and she's here to serve. Thank you, Sally.
HOUR 42
Sally Prouty, President, National Association of Service and Conservation Corps:
I would say that Buffalo is a far better place because the West Seneca program exists and these people are investing their time and energy. We do want to celebrate the 42nd hour of testimony, so we'll do one more round of applause, yes, yes, yes, yes, 42 hours. The thing we want to do is encourage anyone who happens to be listening to sign the petition, www.saveAmeriCorps.org. Sign the petition. I don't have a number here today but I heard 45,000 earlier. We want it to be 50, and we want it to be 50 by the end of the day, so get on and sign. We have Kristine Burdick representing corps around the country and thanks, Kristine. Azmil is next up? OK, Azmil Tayeb come up to the table. Both representing corps around the country and they are both AmeriCorps alum and they are going to share their experiences and the experiences of others, so thanks, I'm proud of you guys.
Kristine Burdick, Program Associate/AmeriCorps Alumni, National Association of Service and Conservation Corps:
My name is Kristine Burdick and I feel as if I am a part in the AmeriCorps family. Not only do I work for The National Association of Service and Conservation Corps, I served as an AmeriCorps Vista, my sister was in the AmeriCorps and triple C. I have seen the positive and vital aspects of AmeriCorps first hand, through my experiences, the changes that my sister made in her life, and through the personal accomplishments of the 24,000 corps members that (Inaudible) programs enroll every year. After I graduated from Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin in the Spring of 1999, I could have easily found a high paying job in the corporate sector, but I wanted to give back, to serve.
I enrolled in AmeriCorps Vista and moved to a state I had never been to before to work in a rural school district in Goffstown, New Hampshire, training community volunteers to work on literacy projects. Only 30% of the school district's fourth graders wrote at a satisfactory or above level. Fifty percent read below grade level. The school district simply lacked what so many districts do: adults and mentors, organized to sit down with children to read, to practice literacy skills, to allow children the chance to practice reading and writing and enjoy the (Inaudible), when a classroom of their peers weren't listening, when they weren't being graded. I knew that I alone could not single-handedly raise the children's literacy levels, and my charge in AmeriCorps Vista was to recruit volunteers from the community, raise awareness of the opportunity to help. The amazing thing about service is that, as Martin Luther King, Jr. said "Everyone can serve. Often all you have to do is ask and people are eager to help and everyone can do something." I recruited college students, retired persons, and adults to be reading mentors of students at after-school enrichment programs. I organized a notebook exchange between high school students and third-graders, where they wrote letters back and forth for a school year and were able to meet their pen pals at a Spring party. I met with sixth-graders during the day to read enjoyable books and discuss them. We produced a literary journal of students' creative writing, and every afternoon I served as a teacher's aide in an overcrowded second-grade classroom, working with students one on one, students that struggled with reading and often didn't receive the personal attention that they needed.
Beyond learning how to read and write, all of the students developed personal relationships with their tutors, and their self-confidence from mastering reading skills was evident. Beyond the changes I saw at my AmeriCorps site, I grew from my experiences. I received excellent training that I couldn't have received from a job. I helped organize conferences, gave presentations, organized projects and programs and learned so much from the teamwork required to be in AmeriCorps and work in a community.
Service in the community immediately draws you in. It doesn't matter who you are or where you were born. When you participate in service, you are an integral part of that community. You show that you care, that you can make a difference. You can spark change. I was a part of the Goffstown community for my year of service, and while every day offered a new challenge, being in AmeriCorps was the best decision I have ever made. Once my term of service was complete, I accepted a position at NASCC. In the three years I've been at NASCC, I've visited over 20 corps across America and have met countless people who have been transformed by AmeriCorps. One of my favorite instances is when I visited Ohio Civilian Conservation Corps. I was at a service project in Columbus and chatted with a young woman. While we were the same age, we obviously came from very different backgrounds, and she was enrolled in the AmeriCorps education award program with the hopes of someday being able to enroll in college. She asked me shyly how I had gotten my job, and I told her that I had been in AmeriCorps. She smiled widely and I knew that this was the exact kind of encouragement that she needed. AmeriCorps transforms lives. It offers amazing opportunities to people that never imagined that they would be able to finish school, get a high-paying job, learn skills, or be a leader. AmeriCorps transforms communities, both physically with the completion of much needed projects, but also spiritually and emotionally, offering hope.
AmeriCorps is such a vital asset to America. AmeriCorps and the simple motto of getting things done is America. At such a time of uncertainty, a time of war and economic recession, Americans are demanding an opportunity to serve their country and communities. Grow AmeriCorps, expand the number of member, build its budget, allow Americans to serve. We need AmeriCorps now, more than ever. Thank you. I'm going to read testimony from my little sister Diana Burdick, who lives in Denver, Colorado and she's 23 years old.
"My name is Diana Burdick and I was in AmeriCorps and triple C, the National Communities Conservation Corps, class eight, based in Denver, Colorado. My ten month commitment lasted from January to November, 2002. In the months prior to my joining, I was having a relatively troublesome time in my life and I wanted to take some time off from college. My sister Christine was in AmeriCorps Vista, and telling about her experiences with AmeriCorps. N triple C spoke to me as a program that would be a dignified and wise choice that I could make while taking time off from my education, and it became the year that I learned the most.
"America needs AmeriCorps. Without the help from AmeriCorps volunteers, many non-profit organizations would have had to close, and many others would be gravely hurting. The AmeriCorps motto is getting things done, and that's just what we did. Each of the five N triple C campus have records of what each time and the entire corps alike has accomplished throughout the progression of the year. The numbers and statistics are astonishing. Ultimately and obviously, it is not the numbers that matter, it is the lives and land that were touched and improved. AmeriCorps is such a gateway to so many doors, whether it be the people that you meet and the connections that you make, or simply the experiences. It is the best gateway for the youth of the nation as far as volunteering and leadership. Everyone supported what we were doing. We were the second hands and without us, things would not have gotten done. At times, things may have seemed trivial, such as painting rooms, hallways, doors and benches, but if we did not do it, truly it would not have gotten done. Other times, we knew that our presence was vital.
For instance, I was at a YMCA camp in northern Michigan. We raised ten cabins from the 1920's with hydraulic jacks, made foundations, poured cement, and laid the cabins down again. If my team had not been there, the camp would have had to pay a contractor $10,000 per cabin. Certainly as a non-profit, they could never have afforded it. Another example is being in an urban middle-school comprised of mainly a third African-Americans, a third Caucasians, and a third Hispanics. Over 50% of the students received free or reduced rated lunches. Many students were not meeting up to their competent grade level. A large number of students spoke Spanish as their first language. My N triple C team benefited the school in many ways. We got to know the kids. The teachers adored us. We were staples in various classrooms. I helped children in English, math, science, band, and did individual tutoring. We helped those who did not feel that they had someone to help them. We were seen as young adults who wanted to help out our community, country and world. We were confidantes to the children, and mentors. The differences in the students and teachers alike had altered for the better during our time there. We were the first AmeriCorps team to ever come to the school, and afterwards the school was eager and felt fortunate to have more teams to come. The test scores rose dramatically, whether it be classroom or state-wide standardized tests. The Spanish speaking students were learning and speaking English at a much quicker pace than ever before. Most importantly, a sense of community was solidified and attitudes changed. As young, resilient students seemed to enjoy school and the classroom more, the teachers did as well.
I believe the presence of our AmeriCorps team was a vital spark and agent for these changes. The students related to the team as role models, adults in the classroom, and like an older friend. They enjoyed and respected us. There were many laughs shared. The students opened up to us in a very unique way. We were not their teachers, we were not student teachers or substitute teachers, we were AmeriCorps members. School officials and teachers gave similar responses as well. They confided in us, they trusted us, they appreciated our presence and help. By the end of the first round, and as I later learned, the situation would be the same for every round to follow, it was hard to say goodbye to everyone because of our special bonds formed. My experience in AmeriCorps and triple C was such a short ten months. I want to do it again. Once you're in the corps, what can't you do? I think a lot of young leaders are in the corps. There's a lot of promise in AmeriCorps members, good people who want to help their communities. It's such an awesome program. The more you give, the more you receive. Communities need AmeriCorps, young people need AmeriCorps, America needs AmeriCorps." That's from my sister, and also to complete the Burdick women trilogy, my mother wrote some testimony and I will now read that. "This written testimony comes to you from Kathleen Burdick, a community volunteers, the mother of an AmeriCorps Vista and AmeriCorps N triple C alumnae, and an educator who has prioritized community service as a vital component for at-risk youth and alternative education. Community service offers a way to profit not only recipients but the providers as well. It has been the 20th and 21st century means for our people to rebuild and maintain a strong America, one individual, one group, one project and one community at a time. The critical frontiers for America are no longer the geographical but rather the physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual ones within our people. Our nation's needs are the development of the young, the care of the sick, disabled and elderly, the rehabilitation of communities, the transformation of the workplace and workforce, and the re-development of the nation's infrastructure. Even more daunting American frontiers to be conquered include poverty, crime, drug abuse, personal isolation and disenfranchisement from the community. The results from giving of oneself with the express intent to benefit others have long term ramification for those served as well as the service provider.
One of the most overlooked human growth and development tasks for our youth is having the chance to experience becoming benevolent, of doing something directly intended to benefit others without looking for a calculated payback. The payback comes in unexpected ways the young volunteer hasn't counted on. Service to others directly impacts both self-esteem and how one views his or her place in relationships to others. Let's not forget the importance of youth being able to feel as if they belong to something bigger than themselves. Let's not deny them the opportunity to grow as whole persons, spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically. The beauty of AmeriCorps is that it addresses the critical needs of our youth while at the same time addressing the equally critical needs experienced by groups of people across America. Community service must be valued and supported by governmental resources in at least two ways: one being in spirit through rousing the troops style comments and speeches by our leaders, and the other through providing responsible levels of funding and in-kind contributions. Without such governmental help, the myriad needs and challenges America faces on a daily basis will go unmet. What the work of The Peace Corps has done for the world the work of AmeriCorps has been doing for our own nation. If we are truly committed to the development of our young, then provide the support necessary for them to develop and utilize those internal assets critical to them serving the current and future well-being of our nation, provide the necessary means for AmeriCorps to continue it's work. Thank you for this opportunity to address the importance of maintaining AmeriCorps for the good of our youth and for the good of our country."
I will now read some testimony from Cassidy Jones, who I have the privilege of being in the corps with in New Hampshire. "So I was sitting in one of my social work classes the second to last semester of college, and this guy was talking about some AmeriCorps volunteering money victim witness services thing, and -- well -- something caught my attention. So I asked what this AmeriCorps thing was all about. I loved what he had to tell me about the program, the whole idea of volunteering with a living allowance and the opportunity to see what my field of study had to offer. So within a few short weeks I began my first commitment with AmeriCorps, as a part of Youth In Action for Victim Witness Services of Coconino County in Flagstaff, Arizona. There was a group of us on the Northern Arizona University campus who were a part of Youth In Action. We all had different sites but often did group projects.
What an amazing experience I had, being a part of not only AmeriCorps but also the opportunity to fulfill my service with Victim Witness Services for Coconino County. Some of my experiences were very trying and difficult, such as a murder I sat in on, the suicide call, the late night ER calls for a rape victim, or a victim of domestic violence. Although those experiences were painful and hard to deal with, each provided me an opportunity for growth and knowledge. It was this experience that helped me decide I did not want to go into this line of work. While part of Youth In Action I participated in LeaderCorps. There are a few people from all of the AmeriCorps sites throughout Arizona involved in LeaderCorps. Our goal was to plan the annual Arizona AmeriCorps conferences. We did this over a six-month period, getting together four times for weekend retreats. The conference was held on the Northern Arizona University campus, with workshops, events and speakers. This was the first time that I'd been a part of something so big, and it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.
The skills that I learned from LeaderCorps I still use today in the corporate world that I work in. I enjoyed my time with Youth In Action so much that I decided to do a year of full-time service when I graduated from college. This opportunity took me to Manchester, New Hampshire to do my service with Learn and Serve AmeriCorps and New Hampshire Community Technical College. This experience took me all over New England and all the way to Warm Springs, Georgia, participating in activities that involved fellow AmeriCorps members and the communities we lived in. As the AmeriCorps member at New Hampshire Community Technical College in Manchester, I was in charge of the Community Service Club, which put together many different events and projects throughout the year. The major event was an alternative spring break to Roosevelt Rehabilitation Center in Warm Springs, Georgia. This, by far, was my most memorable and enjoyable event. Imagine a group of college students who want to volunteer their time over spring break, rather than be on a beach somewhere. A faculty member and myself were the chaperones, and we had about 12 students, of whom we required to apply and interview. Being that I was at a small community college in New Hampshire, there were a great deal of these students who may never been out of New England, and for most this was their first time flying. That in an of itself was amazing to know, that AmeriCorps had now influenced a group of students in this way.
Once in Warm Springs, we spent a week helping the ground crew of the Roosevelt Rehabilitation Center clean up 100 or so acres. Every night we had team buildings and (Inaudible) to go over how the day was, what needed to be done the next day, and to see how everyone was doing. Overall, the students and myself learned a great deal and also enjoyed ourselves. Over the year that I spent as an AmeriCorps member in Manchester, New Hampshire, and the six months in Flagstaff, Arizona, I learned a great deal about the world, what I was interested in and what I wasn't. The experience opened so many new worlds for me to take advantage of and explore, and without these opportunities I would not be where I am today. I do have to admit that one of my favorite tools to use in the workplace is the plus deltas (sp?). Overall, my experiences in AmeriCorps have shaped who I am, and I'm very grateful of the opportunities in AmeriCorps offered me."
I'm going to read a few more voices for AmeriCorps and then I'll turn it over to Azmil for a few moments.
The following voices for AmeriCorps are from AmeriCorps members at New York Restoration Project in New York City. Annette Drazel [Foy?] (sp?): " AmeriCorps has been such a blessing in many ways. The skills learned, such as teamwork, are so essential in one's day to day life. It is with confidence gained that I can leave here ready to take on any job or any of life's elements and without fear or reservations. For so many who are not given the stepping stones to learn skills and develop pride, AmeriCorps is able to give them that, so they can face the world with their head held high." Karen Kaban (sp?) says: "For me, AmeriCorps has been a blessing in disguise. I have been given the opportunity to serve my community in various ways. I have met many wonderful people through my AmeriCorps program, through a New York restoration project. I have also learned many positive things, both from people and the environment. I've learned about the different wildlife here in the city, about the high and low tides, about the diversity of my surroundings. I feel I have a new home with AmeriCorps. We have become a family. The best part of it all is the person I have become: more positive and powerful, all thanks to AmeriCorps. Thank you, AmeriCorps." Pat Jones: " AmeriCorps has provided me with an unparalleled opportunity to interact with people from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds in a dynamic urban environment while at the same time allowing me to explore options for continued life in New York City." Valerie Defense (sp?) says: " AmeriCorps has been a life-changing experience for me. I am currently serving a second 11-month term of service. During my AmeriCorps term, I have learned and met many things and people. I am a better person because of AmeriCorps. Many people across the country depend on AmeriCorps programs and their members to help them to operate through the day. I honestly don't know who or where I would be without AmeriCorps. Millions of people are asking the same questions". Azmil?
Azmil Tayeb, Program Assistant/AmeriCorp Alumni, National Association of Service and Conservation Corps:
Good morning everyone. My name is Azmil Tayeb and I am staff with NASCC, The National Association of Service and Conservation Corps. I used to be an AmeriCorps member for a year, back in 1999 with the Milwaukee Community Service Corps. I was a staff member with them for over a year before I moved to D.C. and joined NASCC. For now I would read a few testimonies and vignettes, actually, from some of our corps members and I would probably read my own testimony later if I have enough time. I'm sure we do.
Here's a testimony from Kwisi Kalamisi (sp?) from the New York State Corps Collaboration: "AmeriCorps has changed me. I was waking up at 2:00 every day before I joined AmeriCorps. I had nothing to do but run the streets and be the baddest person on the block, meanwhile getting others to do the same. Now I'm asleep by 10:00 at night and up every morning at 7:00. I'm not running the streets anymore and I try to motivate others to do the right thing, especially the younger kids. Mostly now I'm focused on my future as an architect, and staying out of trouble. I spend a lot of time in the house and now I'm into reading, something I thought was boring. I like how simple my life has become. No more worries, no more watching my back everywhere I go, just plain simple. Don't worry about the future, it's the present that matters." Now I'm going to read a few testimonies from the Coconino Rural Environment Corps in Arizona. Here's one from Darcy Nelson: "While working with Coconino Rural Environment Corps, I was in contact with various governmental agencies like The National Park Service, The Forest Service, The Bureau of Land Management. I learned a number of things about these organizations that will greatly impact my future employment decisions. The most important people skill I learned in the Corps was when to be a leader and when to just be a positive crew member. I found that sometimes I was the most experienced member in a group and that the crew would benefit from my leadership. Other times, I needed to hang back and be supportive. My favorite aspect of the corps was getting to know my crew and other corps members. I realize now that there are people that I have spent 500 hours with this summer. I feel that people working hard on projects that they care about can share many special things."
Here's one from Erin Bennett: "The interpersonal skills and hands-on problem solving experiences I encountered in the corps will benefit me the most. I have strengthened my social and team working skills. I also gained valuable problem solving experience. I enjoyed working outside in an environment where I felt responsible for a project." Here's one from Jacob Lees (sp?): "The teamwork and work ethic that came from this job was unbelievable. This was a great experience to not only work for Coconino Rural Environment Corps but to work with the people at the corps. I enjoyed working hard every day. I can only hope that my future job will include as many hard working and talented people that I met here. I feel that most of the skills I learned were tied hand to hand. As a crew, we would work together to solve problems such as mending fences or the basket to drop a tree. I feel that if a crew member did not come out of this job with improved people skills, then they did not try."
Are you guys still awake?
(Laughter)
Alright, it's good to know. OK, I still hear some pulse. "I enjoyed pretty much everything. The work sites, the crews and the supervisors. It felt good to know that I was doing something to help. When working on the summer projects, we actually had a chance to meet the property owners and hear how great their properties looked." Here's one from Carl Case (sp?): "Communication and coordination with a large number of people in the corps was the most important experience I had with the corps. This job taught me patience. No major undertaking could be safely accomplished in a rush, and the patience I learned will help me accomplish more things thoroughly and safely. I like the passion and hard work that I saw in every member of the corps. No one was there who didn't want to be there, and everyone had a passion for the outdoors and preserving the environment."
Here's another one from Eric Stoltz (sp?): "The leadership experience, as well as a positive work ethic gained, will be the most beneficial in my future employment. A great deal of training others also accrued this summer. The ability to teach is an asset that I can use in the future. I learned conflict resolution skills, communication skills, people management skills, people skills, problem solving skills, and planning skills. The opportunity to work outside in new places and meeting new interesting people are the most attractive aspects of the corps. I also enjoyed learning new skills and receiving training on a variety of subjects." Here's one from Josh Amos (sp?): "I have gained my skills from my Cocanino Rural Environment Corps employment, but my (Inaudible) skills should help me get a job as a wild lands firefighter. The experience of waking up and working full ten hour days also gave me a better feel for hard work. The Corps was more of a challenge than a job. I enjoyed the people I met and the corps projects that made a difference." Here's one from Shannon O'Hare: "Not only did I learn to work with many other people and agencies, but I gained a ton of experience in the environment and using a variety of tools. I learned how to use other peoples' ideas and suggestions, to compromise and especially to speak up when I have an idea or suggestions which could benefit the group and the overall project." The final one is from Nicole Rominger (sp?): "I believe that the extensive amount of teamwork I experienced in the corps will be wonderful in my future jobs, and also the amount of knowledge that I have gained in the area of chainsaws and other tools will definitely be a bonus in jobs to come. I have really enjoyed the hard work outside. When I get home at night I always feel like I did something very beneficial." I'm going to turn it over to Kristine right now. Thank you.
Kristine Burdick:
This story is from Marin Conservation Corps in San Rafael, California. It demonstrates the impact AmeriCorps has on its members. Throughout it's year as a youth service organization, staff of the Marin Conservation Corps have witnessed many success stories and changing lives resulting from the training and opportunities that are provided. One of these stories in particular had a very ending this past year for an AmeriCorps member, Manuel Gordoa (sp?).
Manuel was hired on to N triple C's Natural -- I'm sorry MCC's -- Natural Resources crews at (Inaudible) in September of 2000. From the beginning, this was a corps member who demonstrated outstanding work ethics, leadership qualities, and had great potential for success in the Conservation Corps program. By December of 2000, he was promoted to Specialist 1, and shortly after Assistant Crew Leader. At the start of his service with the corps, Manuel spoke very little English, his primary language being Spanish. Manuel enrolled in MCC's English as a second language course, as well as MCC's charter school, with hopes of obtaining a high school diploma. Eight months into his term, Manuel joined the AmeriCorps Education Award Program. He continued on the NRC until August of 2000, earning his Chipper Operator certificate, Class 1, 2 and 3 (Inaudible) certificates, and was voted Corps Member of the Month before being promoted to the Community Recycling Crew, the CRC. On the CRC, Manuel safely operated a large recycling truck, collecting materials all over Marin County. He was a self-starter, very independent in his work, trained new corps members and went to great lengths to do all the extras, not just the minimum. These qualities were evident within two months of his new assignment, and he was promoted to Specialist 3. As Manuel continued on the CRC, he also studied hard each and every Friday at his English and high school courses. He very rarely missed an unpaid education day, as his education was very important to his future. He gained certification in elective classes such as first aid and CPR, landscaping and construction, and many more. Manuel also volunteered for weekend service events, and often took the time to lead in them, for he was the type of corps member who always put forth the very best efforts for the cause. By the middle of 2001, Manuel was promoted to Crew Leader of the CRC. In this position, he trained new Corps members, translated for Spanish speakers, led daily recycling activities and routes, and assisted the Crew Supervisor in many other aspects of daily operations. In May of 2001, with a huge smile on his face, Manuel accepted his high school diploma at MCC's graduation ceremony.
In the last year of Manuel's service at the MCC, he took advantage of the Corps To Career program and completed an internship with the California State Parks at Angel Island in the Maintenance Department. By the Spring of 2002, Manuel had earned two AmeriCorps education awards, learned how to speak fluent English, graduated from high school, earned various certifications, completed an internship, and was ultimately hired with the California State Parks as a state employee at China Camp State Park. At the annual MCC picnic in 2002, which happened to be Manuel's last week at MCC, many staff members and corps members gave thanks and speeches in his behalf, claiming that they all learned something from Manuel. He is a shining example of what a corps member can do for a community, and what a Conservation Corps can do for a young adult.
Here are two voices for AmeriCorps, members Rashida Pittman (sp?) and Warren Norris at Youth Resource Development Corporation in Poughkeepsie, New York. Rashida Pittman says: "When I became pregnant in my sophomore year of high school, I had to drop out of school, but I still wanted to get my high school diploma. I believe in others doing their best and not making mistakes, so when I enrolled in YRDC's Youth Corps Serve Program, I immediately became a cheerleader to my fellow students, urging them to succeed in their program and their lives. I worked at YRDC as the receptionist's assistant and now work as a dietary aide in a nursing home. I was recently honored with a Youth Excellence Award in Peer Leadership from the Duchess County Youth Bureau, in recognition of my commitment to inspiring others. Using my AmeriCorps education award, I hope to further pursue an education in nutrition." Warren Norris says: "I've been in facilities and group homes for about 13 years. I can't say that I've had the easiest life. It's been tough growing up, so now I'm doing everything I can to accomplish my dreams. I originally came to YRDC's Youth Works program after my group home asked me to get my GED. As soon as I started the program, I became excited about opportunities such as the AmeriCorps education award, that I could make for myself with hard work and enthusiasm. I was interviewed on a radio show as a representative of YRDC, and worked to get IBM into our classroom so my classmates and I could learn web design. On internship with The United Way of Duchess County, I did database work and computer research. I loved it. Now the Building Bridges AmeriCorps program has hired me as a counselor for YRDC's Peace Camp and the Duchess County Youth Bureau has honored me with a Youth Excellence Award Scholarship. A year ago, I never would have believed what I have been able to accomplish, and I appreciate YRDC for helping me to succeed in this tough world." Azmil has some more voices for AmeriCorps to read.
Azmil Tayeb:
Hi. AmeriCorps members provide much needed human services to some of the most impoverished communities in America. The following stories are from the New Jersey Youth Corps of Newark, where AmeriCorps members educated almost 1,000 Newark, New Jersey residents about asthma in 2001. The New Jersey Youth Corps of Newark has a long standing commitment to helping Newark residents understand and improve their urban environment. One of the most pressing urban environmental problems in Newark, as in most other urban areas in the country, is childhood asthma. AmeriCorps members were instrumental in implementing an asthma education and awareness project in Newark that reached almost 1,000 people directly through presentations at six day care centers and two public schools. 175 adults signed pledges not to smoke around children, and 105 parents signed pledges to seek medical treatment for their children with asthma or asthma symptoms. 1,400 pamphlets on various aspects of asthma were distributed in the local area. The vast majority of the people who were present for these presentations rated them very good to excellent. In addition to providing an important service to the community, AmeriCorps members receive valuable training and experience in this major public health issue, and in presentation and public speaking skills. The coordinator for the New York public schools after school programs has approached us about expanding this project to other schools this year.
Here is a second testimonial from Montgomery County Conservation Corps. The following story is from April, 2002, when the Montgomery County Conservation Corps responded to a natural disaster and got to hear first hand the impacts that they had on the community that they assisted in a state of emergency. On April 28, 2002, a tornado hit the town of La Plata (sp?), Maryland, with winds up to 250 miles per hour, destroying 75% of downtown and surrounding areas. Over 95 people were injured, and 5 people died. Corps members and staff decided that the corps would dedicate some hours of work to help the people of La Plata clean up after this devastating event. The Montgomery County Conservation Corps is about an hour and a half drive away from La Plata. Corps members and their supervisors spent four days traveling back and forth to La Plata. Each day presented a different task. They reported to the command center to get their daily assignment. One crew was asked to unload trucks that arrived with donations of clothing and food. Another crew went to a farm to help out. The owner of the farm wrote the following letter to the director: "Our farm suffered an enormous amount of damage, destroyed barns and equipment buildings, downed trees, etc. These young men were very polite, courteous and extremely helpful. They pulled pieces of roof tin from trees, cut large trees and split firewood. Mr. Munraj (sp?), their supervisor, demonstrated how to use the chainsaw and ax, and instructed them on the safety of both. At one point, one of the young men was cutting a portion of a log and I reached for a small piece. Having worked around my husband and family for almost 40 years, I did not think about there being any danger in doing this. I had done it so many times before, I was surprised and impressed when the young man stopped and moved back with the chainsaw in order for me to safely move the wood. They all work hard, never once complaining about everything. They were curious about the old farmhouse and about learning to use the equipment.
"I do sincerely thank them for the help they gave my farm. My family was so overwhelmed with disaster and had not gotten any help until these young men arrived. They were truly a blessing. Many of the young people in MCCC often feel a disconnect from the community and don't believe they belong. The positive feelings all of the corps members got from being able to help other families in need was a powerful hands-on lesson on what community is all about, and they are vital, needed members of the community." I'd like to turn it over to Kristine, right now.
Kristine Burdick:
We have more stories for you. The AmeriCorps offers corps members a future. Through the education awards it provides AmeriCorps members who are members that thought they would never graduate from high school or go to college are offered a second chance. Here are voices for AmeriCorps from Long Beach, California. On November 2nd, The Conservation Corps of Long Beach had its graduation ceremony, where 11 corps members graduated from high school. In addition, 7 corps members were awarded AmeriCorps scholarships for the school year and 11 are in the process of earning a scholarship. The graduation is especially significant for these corps members, because for the majority this is the last opportunity for them to earn their high school diploma. These corps members have dropped out of school, been either kicked out or have had to choose work over school to support family.
Once such corps member is Ana Marvia (sp?). Ana was not one of the 11 graduates. She, however, is an AmeriCorps member through the ed award program. Ana has shown tremendous leadership qualities and a strong desire to improve her quality of life through hard work and education. She wrote the following essay explaining her desire for post-secondary education and her need for assistance in achieving that goal: "I have been trying very hard to get my education. Right now, my number one goal is to get a high school diploma. I'm a young Latina woman with two children to be a role model for, and I want my kids to know that education is very important in life. Without an education, you can go nowhere. I feel I earned a second chance to get my education to better my life. For two years now, I've been a single parent. At the beginning, I thought I was not going to make it on my own. I was giving up on life, but everything happens for a reason, because everything that has happened has made me a very strong person and a very responsible, caring mother."
The two following voices for AmeriCorps were corps members at Northwest Youth Corps in Oregon. Seventeen year old Marenda (sp?) Chamberlain joined the Northwest Youth Corps in Oregon to earn an education award and left the program with a greater sense of self. Marenda stated: "I will never forget what I learned about myself. I learned to be myself, no matter what the situation. Meeting the people in my crew really helped me realize that." A recent letter from a Northwest Youth Corps alumni states: "I am currently living and working in Colorado Springs. I made the move from Eugene, Oregon roughly a year after I enrolled in NYC. I was in red crew, and yes, I still have the hard hat, even my seeds booklet. The certificate not only stands as a concrete reminder of the intangible treasure that lay in our memories, surprisingly a good reference when one is looking for work or enrolling in volunteer programs. My significant other also wants to someday be in a position to be a part of NYC. I would say the rare epiphanies and bonds I gained from my term in NYC could only be done justice in two words: beyond price. You are not only bestowed a trip around the Northwest 's prestigious scenery, you are given a firm foundation of knowledge in the way t world and your ecosystem function. Yet, while one betters themselves in one facet, you are becoming a benevolent donor to the Earth and all who dwell in your small corner of it. You work towards saving endangered species, repair and build trails, making a concrete difference in your world. We live in a time of an information revolution, but we witness the evanescence of our forests and natural habitat. When one enrolls in this program, their eyes are opened to the reality of degradation committed against our planet. Perhaps an equally sorrowing travesty is how much one can do, unintentionally to further the problem, due to lack of knowledge.
"When you actively make a difference and you leave the program, you'll find yourself seeking for ways to actively make a difference, even if it is sharing knowledge. In my experience, I found that the one invaluable lesson you learn in AmeriCorps is communication, priceless in nature yet integrated into each of our daily lives. You come together as strangers and you leave as brothers. The depths of camaraderie that will inevitably ensnare all in your group will leave a mark upon you all your life. You will more than likely lose constant contact with each other, but you will reminisce instances that will make you smile warmly, or even laugh. You'll find yourself wondering about your distant friends. Though you don't talk, your bonds have not been absconded. You remember the heated disputes, the intimacy found in trust and teamwork. You'll always remember the day that you had to say goodbye to this whimsical situation, back, back into the world." I believe Azmil has some more voices for AmeriCorps to read.
HOUR 43
Sally Prouty:
Right before Azmil continues on with testimony, we have a nightly tradition here. We are about to go into our 44th hour at 4:00 a.m. Can we hear a lot of applause? 444, there you go. With that have a tradition -- 43, excuse me for all of you listening out on the Web, 43 hours of national service testimony -- and with that, we have a nightly tradition called the 4:00 roar for AmeriCorps. So after we, when I count to three, we're going to stand up and we're going to roar so everyone hears us, and then we're going to hear a song -- correct? -- yes. So on the count of three we're going to wake up all of Capitol Hill, all of Congress so they hear us. One, two, three roar. So let's enjoy this music interlude. We are asking that Congress give 100 million dollars in emergency funds for AmeriCorps. There cannot be an America without AmeriCorps as we've heard from the 43 hours of testimony. We'd like to thank everybody for coming out and being a part of this historic event. Never has this been done, a people's testimony in support of a program that has touched so many peoples' lives and will continue to do so, as we are continuing to speak out on behalf of AmeriCorps. So thank you for joining us in our 4:00 roar for AmeriCorps and we're going to finish the song and continue with our non-stop testimony. But as Ben Harper is singing, you can change the world with your own two hands, and that's what we're all testifying about, so thank you very much.
Azmil Tayeb:
OK, I'm going to read some more of the testimonies from our corps. Here is one from Green Corps Chicago. At Green Corps Chicago, welfare recipients are trained in job readiness and technical skills while earning AmeriCorps education awards for their hours of service to the community. Here is one such story. Many of the corps members in Green Corps Chicago are single parents and one has made a point of telling us how the program has affected her not only as an employee but also as a mother. Being a single parent is never easy, and when one has to rely on meager government support, it can not only be financially difficult but also emotionally draining. When she first enrolled in our program, Carla lacked the confidence that she could do this job. It is labor intensive, requires the use of power tools and carpentry skills, and trainees are asked to do other tasks which they have never done before. As the season wore on, her skills improved and with them her confidence. What a change this made in her upon arriving back at home each day. Now she has stories she can tell her children about a challenge she faced in the morning that she solved by the end of the day. In turn, her confidence she built up at home with the kids made her an even better employee on the job. She has made tremendous strides in her technical skills and abilities and her self-confidence has completely changed since she started with us. While she may not stay in the landscaping field forever, she has learned that she really does have what it takes to maintain a successful work history. Our whole staff and Carla are sure that she will enjoy more achievements from here on out.
Here's one from the Greater Miami Service Corps. This voice for AmeriCorps from Greater Miami Service Corps tells how the AmeriCorps offers second chances to members who want to finish their education and find satisfying jobs. Chrissy Joiner (sp?), a single parent and mother of one joined the Greater Miami Service Corps, GMSC, in June 2001. Prior to joining GMSC, she was enrolled in Florida Memorial College. During her short tenure in school, she became pregnant and had to drop out of her classes. As a result of this, she did not pay the remainder of her tuition. Consequently, she was unable to return to Florida Memorial College or another college without her transcripts. While enrolled in GMSC, she quickly demonstrated her leadership qualities and was promoted to team captain. She served in numerous leadership roles and had an opportunity to sit on a City of Miami commission meeting to learn how government works. She also attended leadership training where she learned the characteristics of a leader. She also had many trials while in the program. At one point, she was in an abusive relationship and homeless. Notwithstanding, she was relentless in her pursuit to continue with GMSC. By her graduation date, she had accumulated 1,468 hours in the AmeriCorps education awards program. She used her award to the pay the remainder of her tuition at Florida Memorial College. She is now enrolled at Miami Dade Community College for computer technology and works with the Miami Dade Community Action Agency as an account clerk. Here's one from Northern Arizona Conservation Corps. The century drought in northern Arizona was battled by The Northern Arizona Conservation Corps.
This is what a staff member has to say about the work that AmeriCorps members did to help the environment: "As Winter 2001-2002 came to an end, northern Arizona was dry as a bone. Another snowless winter was about to affect our Spring and Summer of 2002. They call it a century drought. It was the worst drought in 100 years. Every National Forest in the state closed for the Summer. The Coconino National Forest, who we usually do most of our work for, were forced to close their doors to us. This was about to create a lot of problems for our summer crews. We had projects lined up with The Coconino for the whole Summer. The question was where are we going to put our crews this summer? Our challenge was to find partners who could find us work fast. Our reputation as solid and hard working and very dedicated corps saved us. We have continued to have successful relationships with our many project partners, and due to this it seemed those amazing partnerships were ready to lend us a helping hand.
"The Williams District of the Kaibab National Forest extended Northern Arizona Conservation Corps an unprecedented exclusion permit allowing the corps to work unaffected at a time when some forest service crews weren't allowed to work. We re-worked the entire trail network on Kendrick (sp?) Mountain by way of erosion control, from a 2000 fire restoration and forest rehabilitation. Four crews worked on the mountain for two months. Petrified Forest in Eastern Arizona was a fairly new partnership to Northern Arizona Conservation Corps when the drought began. Within three months, we had a strong relationship. We learned the operations and recourses quickly and now they look to us almost exclusively for survey work, fence, plant and wildlife survey. Two eight-person crews worked at Petrified all Summer, one crew getting the chance of a lifetime by being asked to help on a dinosaur excavation project. It was a summer of firsts for Northern Arizona Conservation Corps and the dinosaur dig was at the top of the list. One of our longtime partners, the Flagstaff Area Monuments, bent over backwards to find work for us in their Walnut Canyon National Monument Area. They found the funding to run two of our eight-person crews throughout the whole Summer, working on the Island Trail Rehabilitation Project. They were so pleased with the work that we did for them, they threw us a barbecue at the end of the season and had made up some beautiful t-shirts for our crew members, stating the symbiotic relationship Northern Arizona Conservation Corps has had throughout the Southwest, whose purpose is to continue the conservation and protection of the country's natural resources. We were also surprised with a speaker that they brought in who was a corps member with the Civilian Conservation Corps back in the '30's. We had eight crews with eight corps members per crew, working non-stop throughout the summer. It was a wonderful accomplishment for everyone involved and helped us to complete our summer program." This is the final testimony from Betsey at the Conservation Corps. Actually, I'm going to turn it over to Kristine, giving her the last word.
Kristine Burdick:
We have three more stories and voices from AmeriCorps to share with you. This story about a Southeast Alaska Guidance Association AmeriCorps member, shows how joining AmeriCorps can improve the lives of its participants. In May 2002, Larry Marsden (sp?) joined the AmeriCorps program run through the Southeast Alaska Guidance Association. Previously, Larry had worked as a logger in the town of Craig, Alaska, but need to find a new vocation because of the decline of the logging business in our community. Larry also wanted to move out of Craig in order to earn his GED and better his life and the lives of his family. Larry moved to Juneau with his girlfriend and three-year-old daughter in order to start over. He had never worked with construction before, but has excelled while working with AmeriCorps. He has obtained his GED and now works full time at the construction site. Larry can be counted on to run the crew while the project leaders are attending staff meetings or attending to the needs of other corps members. He has a few different full time job opportunities in construction once his program is over, and is strongly considering a career in construction. Larry moved from Craig to turn his life around and has done just that. His story is definitely a success story.
The Seaborne Challenge Corps in Texas offers AmeriCorps education awards to participants, and has partnered with community businesses to offer AmeriCorps members even more opportunities. At graduation