http://www.brethren.org/news/2011/americorps-education-awards-cut-to-brethren-volunteer-service.html
Americorps funding was cut for faith-based programs. Completely ridiculous. This doesn't affect me personally, but it affects everything else. Faith-based programs' volunteers work at the same locations that non-residential, non-faith-based programs do. Long story short: you're looking at cutting over 10,000 volunteers' education awards. 10,000+ volunteers who work over 5 million hours every year, costing the country a whole lot less than SO many other things in the national budget. That's in the Catholic Volunteer Network volunteer program alone. It's really a huge shame, and it both devalues and dis-encourages volunteerism.
"Upon leaving office, George H.W. Bush left his successor with only one request: preserve federal support for Points of Light, the foundation he created to encourage volunteerism and civic engagement. Bill Clinton followed through on that appeal and went on to establish AmeriCorps in 1993, which further solidified government support for nationally organized community service. He, in turn, had one request for his successor. “When I was leaving, and George W. Bush was coming in, the only thing I asked him to do was to preserve AmeriCorps,” Clinton said at a recent event in Washington. “And he did.”
- A former Americorps member explains why gutting the program’s funding doesn’t make sense—even on conservatives’ terms.
I wish I had more to say. I wouldn't trade my year in Project SERVE for anything, but I wouldn't have been able to do it without funding. I can't imagine how schools, non-profits, libraries, or community centers across the country would or will hold up without full-time volunteers. It's just seriously a shame - and I mean that in the truest sense of the word.
