Welcome to Team Tuesday!
Today I’m going to tip my hat to one of the most impressive panelists I saw at the Bridging the Divide conference: Michael D. Smith, CEO of AmeriCorps. The work they’re doing really is making a difference both in civic engagement AND bridging divides.
One of the many peculiarities of this conference was the approach to politics and governance. At the beginning of the show, they called out different categories of attendees and asked them to raise their hands: students, media, etc. The speaker was about to move on when someone yelled, What about government? Turned out there were a number of government employees there.
Then, what was REALLY weird was the people they almost forgot were a large percentage of the speakers. I learned more about various government agencies and programs in one shot than I ever have in my life. Things that make you go hmmm.
What is AmeriCorps?
I did not know what AmeriCorps was. Turns out, AmeriCorps is “the federal agency for national service and volunteerism. AmeriCorps provides opportunities for Americans of all backgrounds to serve their country, address the nation’s most pressing challenges, and improve lives and communities.” They partner with local nonprofits and send them volunteers and temporary staff paid for by AmeriCorps.
Each year, some 200,000 people serve with AmeriCorps programs across all 50 states, territories, and select tribal nations. Some get paid a stipend, and some are volunteers. Michael Smith mentioned they get additional power from their 1.3 million alumni. He said many of their people wind up staying in the nonprofit or policy sectors. (Maybe even politics!) For many of them, AmeriCorps is not a pitstop, but a pathway to a life of engagement. Now that’s impact.
Putting Volunteers First
What I was most impressed with was how seriously they take their intake process, and how hard they work to make it easy for people to volunteer or serve, no matter what their circumstances are. I’ve had some bad experiences trying to volunteer with groups that clearly had other priorities. This lack of welcoming is quite common in the left/progressive space. AmeriCorps seems like the opposite of that, and Smith seems like someone who is driving that success.
Smith mentioned one program, where they take a group of young people in a van to go and help some community recover from a disaster for a summer. What a great way to learn how other people live and get over your stereotypes!! AmeriCorps recognized that being in close quarters with all these strangers might be scary for some kids. They made it so the volunteer could bring a friend. Nice! They offer City Year (a year of service) and go all the way down to “Tiny Time” of a day or even an hour.
Smith mentioned a woman who had lost her only child to violence, and became increasingly sad that she would never be a grandmother. She joined the “Foster Grandparents” program for seniors, and now everywhere she goes, people call her “Grandma.” Not a dry eye in the house when he told that story.
Now, I’ve always preferred working on systemic change through politics myself. But I can see that doing service work is good for not only the people who receive help, but also for the people who give it. Making human connections, learning valuable skills, and gaining a sense of agency can certainly be great for volunteers. What AmeriCorps does can be an antidote to all the ugliness, violence and selfishness that’s become so normalized. When we care about each other, one can hope we’ll care about fighting for a better political and economic system in which we can all thrive.
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