Steve Niles is director of AmeriCorps programs for Goodwill Northern New England.
Mainers are self-reliant: we believe that local people can solve local problems. Local communities know what their needs are, and they know how to fix their own problems. Neighbors help neighbors.
Sometimes, however, neighbors alone are not enough. That’s where AmeriCorps has stepped in, again and again providing the missing piece to making those locally designed fixes happen, providing that key nugget of help to realizing a community’s solution.
Right now, AmeriCorps funding is in peril, despite the fact that both Sen. Susan Collins and Sen. Angus King have both been longtime champions of AmeriCorps. Now that Congress is back from the August recess, it should prioritize robust funding for AmeriCorps in the appropriations process.
Our senators stand for AmeriCorps because they know well what it delivers to Maine.
For example, in rural Caribou, when socially isolated seniors weren’t able to get transportation to their doctors, their pharmacies and their grocery stores, although the town’s Center for the Advancement of Rural Living knew what the solution was, it couldn’t make it happen until AmeriCorps member Sharon Berz jumped in.
Sharon, who is herself retired after a career in aging services, pulled together and managed a team of volunteer drivers. Also as a part of her service she works with a small group of volunteers delivering 80-plus hot, well-balanced meals weekly.
AmeriCorps not only improves health outcomes for these aging rural men and women, it forges community connections and reduces isolation.
AmeriCorps members fight the opioid epidemic in Maine. In Winthrop, AmeriCorps member Jamie Bannister serves at An Angel’s Wing, a sober-living recovery program that supports residents and their community to address substance misuse and opiate addiction. Goodwill Public Health AmeriCorps member Missy Dewitt, also in Caribou, keeps recovery houses safe and supportive for residents on their journey of recovery.
AmeriCorps members combat poverty in the Goodwill VISTA Partnership, with members serving across Maine and New Hampshire in a broad range of initiatives — broad because local people tell us the problem and the solution. Maine communities know what they need. AmeriCorps is there to help.
Goodwill Northern New England has placed over 310 AmeriCorps members to catalyze and amplify the work being done in community organizations over the past three years. AmeriCorps members have recruited or managed over 1,900 volunteers, who in turn contributed over 29,000 hours of service in their communities.
They’ve mentored over 1,600 youth identified by guidance counselors or staff as needing help, and they’ve successfully raised over $375,000 for local service projects.
AmeriCorps plays a crucial role in supporting community service efforts across Maine, helping organizations better serve those who need it most.
We hope others on Capitol Hill can follow the lead of our senators. Sen. Collins believes that “National service should not be a Democratic issue or a Republican issue. It’s an American issue.” Sen. King reflected that “Their work has been essential to our communities, and we should be taking every possible opportunity to expand these national service programs.”
Goodwill Northern New England, and many others like us across America, rely on AmeriCorps members to serve our communities every day through people like Sharon, Jamie and Missy — who help to solve some of our nation’s biggest challenges by pairing local problems with local solutions.