Fight to Save AmeriCorps Nears 100,000 Signatures

When Caleb Jonas started his petition on Change.org, he was just one lone voice, telling Congress to save a program he cared about - AmeriCorps, often called the "domestic peace corps."

But today, his voice has been multiplied by the more than 90,000 Change.org members that have joined him, all agreeing that our country needs the important work that AmeriCorps members do.

“AmeriCorps is a vital program that provides critical services to millions of Americans across thousands of communities,” Jonas said this week. “AmeriCorps members help millions of Americans to access food, education, shelter, health services, and other lifesaving resources.”

AmeriCorps is just one of the many programs that Republicans in the House of Representatives recently voted to cut, in addition to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and family planning services at Planned Parenthood. Although more than 600,000 volunteers have served with AmeriCorps since 1994, this bill would cut all federal funding to the program. It's up to the U.S. Senate to reject the House's bill and save AmeriCorps - all while a potential government shutdown looms as soon as March 4.

Jonas is currently a graduate student pursuing a joint degree at Harvard and Stanford.  He spent a year in the AmeriCorps*VISTA member at the Saint Paul Public Schools Foundation, working to build a coalition of tutoring programs to improve student outcomes. He eventually became the director of the program there, overseeing 20 AmeriCorps members who dedicated a year of their lives to improving educational opportunities for at-risk and low-income youth.

Many current and former AmeriCorps members have left comments about their own experiences with the program.

"AmeriCorps is a wonderful program that opened my eyes to the struggle of everyday people in America," wrote Kathleen Cavenaugh. "Eliminating the program would be a tragic and devastating thing."

"I served in VISTA about 40 years ago and learned so much about the United States and people of a community other than my own," wrote Mary Byrne. "Getting rid of AmeriCorps gets rid of job opportunities for young adults and takes away from community programs which need their services.

The petition has even attracted the signature of Shirley Sagawa, a woman many call the "founding mother of the national service movement." Sagawa was the deputy chief of staff for First Lady Hillary Clinton; later, as the first managing director of the Corporation for National and Community Service, she led the development of AmeriCorps.

Caleb Jonas started with the goal of one signature for every current and former AmeriCorps member - and he passed that earlier this week. Now he's shooting for 100,000 signatures before Friday, when AmeriCorps alums all over the country will visit their elected representatives to defend the program. Some of those alums will bring paper copies of the petition to their legislators, showing them the national impact of the program.

Join Jonas in standing up for American service: Sign his petition today, and share it with your friends and family through email, Facebook or Twitter (use the hashtag #SaveAmeriCorps).

Photo credit: Stand for AmeriCorps via Facebook