AmeriCorps Connections

SAVE AmeriCorps April 2025
Maureen K. Eccleston: [00:00:00] And all AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps, all AmeriCorps NCCC members were demobilized them until they were pulled from their service sites and sent home. It's been just under a week since the vast majority of AmeriCorps agency staffs were placed on administrative leave. So the big picture view right now is this.
We are concerned that we are on a path to the elimination of America.

Chad Driscoll: Really, the concern lies with the changes in staff levels. Right now at the AmeriCorps Federal Agency, I. That it could create some delays in awarding new grants, which typically start rolling out this summer. And so, you know, with our work at ask, we are continuing to gather the questions, the concerns of the Commission network, and trying to share that as best as we

[00:01:00] can with AmeriCorps or the federal agency and the leadership that is still there.
So there's a. 30 day or a longer gap in a grant program, it's hard to restart that because you have people you're recruiting to serve in AmeriCorps or to like, or these host sites, these organizations and other and partners that are expecting to have placements with these members here to work on their goals and their needs, and they're not there.
How long can you wait?

Maureen K. Eccleston: Yeah, and I'll, I, I, I will share that again, and I'll also say, I think what you're getting at Nicki is the impact of service broadly. Yes. So, service years, AmeriCorps, these Nicki members who were serving up until last week. It benefits the communities that they're serving in. It benefits them on their career and their education, their personal paths, and it builds a stronger society for all of us, right?
And so these folks pulled out, and that means

[00:02:00] that the child who is being tutored one day is not getting tutored. The next, the folks who were having their homes mucked and gutted, which is really important work after disasters. Are now not having that happen and those trails that were being built so that those of us who wanna go out on the weekends and enjoy them and experience nature and introduce our children to nature, that's not happening yet.
But let's keep in mind what these members were up to. One of the cool features of the Americorp website was an interactive deployment, map of NCCC teams at the time of demobilization. So just two quick examples. There were quite a number of core members that were assisting with Hurricane Helene cleanup.
And rebuilding. There was another team that was preparing to deploy to Wisconsin to help build housing for veterans this summer with Habitat for Humanity.
Chad Driscoll: I will let folks know and remind your you all that through the end of this week, congressional members of Congress [00:03:00] are on recess. A lot of them are back home still.
They're in your communities. It's a great chance to meet 'em in person and share your individual story or to host, invite 'em to a, a, a coffee meetup and say, we have 20 alums. We have 15 alums we wanna share about this. If you're current program, invite 'em to see your, your current operations. You know, come to a, come to a service site this week.
So. That is an opportunity right now as well.
Nicki Fiocco | AmeriCorps Connections: What else can we do? We wanna empower people. If you're feeling down, if you're feeling lost, if you're feeling frustrated, pour your energy into what you can control.
Maureen K. Eccleston: You know, we think storytelling is essential right now. So at Service Airlines, we're working hard to lift up the stories of service years, how AmeriCorps makes a difference.
What the loss of them would mean to individuals and to communities. And as I said earlier to our country at large, it's not new that we're lifting up these stories, but we dramatically expanded the effort Last week when [00:04:00] we launched a story collection forum to hear from core members and alums directly.
We've had a great response, so to the couple hundred of you who have responded already, thank you so much. We hope it continues to grow. We're gonna be sharing these stories broadly in the coming days, and believe this will help members of the public and policy makers to see the value of AmeriCorps and another storytelling effort that we're undertaking.
We're hosting a training for alums tomorrow, Wednesday, April 23rd. On a specific typ of storytelling, writing letters to the editor, folks might not realize that a letter to the editor is a really powerful tool. It can reach thousands of readers, including policymakers.
Chad Driscoll: Uh, again, reach out, share your story, talk to your members of Congress, talk to your other leaders and ask people to join you in that.
This is, it's an, it's gonna continue. This is affecting us [00:05:00] now. We might get as, as you said at the beginning of this, Nicki, this is to the afternoon of. Tuesday, April 22nd. Yeah. Uh, by the end of this week, by next week, we may have some additional information that we need to continue this conversation and we will add talking points to that or add additional resources, or maybe we need to shift a little bit.
But I think in general, telling the story of what we're doing and telling people about AmeriCorps every day is the best we can do, so that when they hear it, oh yeah, I know somebody who did that, or, yeah. I understand what that means. That is, I think, one of the best things we can do anytime, but especially in this moment.
So definitely a lot of options. And then as you mentioned, Nicki, there's also, uh, another partner in the Space Voices for National Service, and they have an online campaign as well for you to easily. Send messages to your members of Congress. You can go online within a minute, you or two, you've sent messages to your representatives for you.
It's all an online form. [00:06:00] It's very simple.
Maureen K. Eccleston: The Amer family is real.
Nicki Fiocco | AmeriCorps Connections: All right folks, we are back with an alert. We are back with the AmeriCorps Connections podcast. As you know, I'm Nicki Fiocco. I'm here with Chad Driscoll. And Maureen Eccleston from Service Year Alliance. Maureen's from Service Year Alliance. Chad is from from America's Service Commission. And you know, generally when I do this podcast, it's kind of a light and fun conversation about an AmeriCorps alum and their experience and the through line of what they're doing now.
But it's really crunch time right now. And if you're listening to this and you know anything about AmeriCorps, we've been dozed. So last week our beloved and NCCC was dismantled for reasons that we can go into or, or not. Um, but I wanted to bring Chad and Maureen on because I wanted to make this more of an empowering moment.
Um, then something that felt a little bit [00:07:00] like, what can we do about this? I've said this over and over. Every time I start this podcast, there's 1.3 million of us out there, alumni and, and probably more in some other sectors. So let's pull our voices together and I'm really excited and happy to have Chad and Maureen on this call that are gonna tell us what we can do in this moment that actually will probably get some traction.
And as usual as always. Are AmeriCorps alums. Chad was on the podcast, gotta double check which episode it was, but it was one of the early ones. I know that, and Maureen and I have worked together for years, so I'm happy Maureen, to have you on the podcast so you can share your service story and then we'll go into what can we do as a AmeriCorps alums.
Friends of National Service or folks that just believe in this. So let's start where we always start, and let's start with you Maureen. Let's talk about your national service experience, and I think you started with NCCC, is that correct?
Maureen K. Eccleston: I did, yeah. Thanks Nicki. I, yeah, [00:08:00] I am an, uh, very proud NCCC alum as well, so VISTA alum.
So I started my service experience right after college. I was a senior in college when I heard about AmeriCorps. A recruitment postcard actually fell out of a magazine, and then I sent away for an application packet, which I filled out my hand and mailed in at. Folks can remember these days. Um, I had a phone interview and was accepted, and then I took my very first plane trip to arrive at my NCCC campus in Washington, d in October of 1999.
Over the course of 10 months, I served on a number of projects on my 13 member team. Things like rehabilitating public housing and a Boys and Girls Club, wildfire mitigation at a national Park disaster response through both the Red Cross and FEMA trail building. We worked on a children's museum, at a wildlife conservancy.
Loads of different experiences. And then a few years after that, I served again, [00:09:00] as I said, as a VISTA member. And in that role, I was really supporting kindergarten through higher ed service learning throughout the state of Florida. So I worked with educators and community-based leaders to further infuse service learning into their work with young people.
It was an incredible build on my work iNicki, which is where I was first introduced to service learning, and it cemented my interest in helping others to serve as my career. So. In some both were absolutely pivotal experiences for me. They expanded and shaped my worldview along with my view of myself.
Nicki Fiocco | AmeriCorps Connections: That's, thank you so much. And that was so beautifully summed up. I feel like you've been practicing this it, and I really like how you mentioned that it really helped you view yourself in a certain way. I felt like after my service year, I didn't know I could do these things. And I think what's important too, and maybe if you wanted to elaborate a little bit about your decision to do [00:10:00] NCCC, which is very different than VISTA, and if anybody's listened to this podcast or they know AmeriCorps.
We actually have a lot of members who have interviewed on this podcast that have either done VISTA and then NCC or NCC, and then VISTA. What was that desire to, um, what were you attracted to, to NCCC, and then why did you decide to do another service year with VISTA?
Maureen K. Eccleston: Sure. I mean, admittedly, I had never heard of AmeriCorps.
I didn't know there was an Nicki, a VISTA, a state and national I, I didn't know that terminology, so I thought I was applying to the AmeriCorps program. And then once I became an AmeriCorps and CCC member, then I learned about all of the branches of service. But I was, as I said, a senior in college. I didn't have a clear idea of my career path.
I wanted to do good, but I didn't know exactly what that meant. And when I learned about AmeriCorps and ccc, it sounded [00:11:00] like a way for me to learn a little bit more about what I like to do and what I didn't like to do. Because a C is an opportunity to have, as I explained, a series of service projects.
And so I didn't know what those service projects were going to be. I definitely found out that there were things I thought I'd love that I didn't and vice versa, and that sort of led me to VISTA a couple of years later when again, I was sort of trying to figure out what I wanted to do in the nonprofit sector.
I. I had learned through my NCC experience that I'm actually far more suited to capacity building than I am to direct service, and by then I knew about these different kinds of AmeriCorps programs. I also knew about the internet by this time, and so I was able to search for particular. Programs online. I was specifically looking for something that was in the VISTA world where I could focus on a capacity building side of nonprofit work and [00:12:00] continued to do good in the same way that I wanted to with Nicki, but in a way that really helped me to refine my skills, um, while, while doing that good with service learning.
Nicki Fiocco | AmeriCorps Connections: I love that you found the internet. Yay. AmeriCorps portal. It's real. And then for folks that are just tuning in and they're like, oh my gosh, I heard about this program. AmeriCorps, but they're saying these words and these acronyms. Yeah. Welcome to government. So VISTA, volunteers in Service to America, which precedes and CCC and precedes AmeriCorps.
It was like C, C, C, peace Corps, VISTA, AmeriCorps, and then N Triple C, which is N. Then three Cs, which is National Civilian Community Corps. It's only taken me three years on the podcast and 10 years in national service to get going. Right. That's amazing. Maureen, thank you so much and we're gonna go into the through line because I know you and I know that your experience really, there's a huge through [00:13:00] line of.
Not just national service, but also in philanthropy and in organizations that support service, service, learning, volunteerism. And I wanna go into that and then bring everybody to where we are now and what we're gonna do. But Chad, let's go into your service year and how did you find out about your service year?
And I know in your time with the Iowa Commission, which we'll get into, you did a lot of work with NCC and you did a lot of work with. Disaster response, which is a lot of the work that Nicki and FEMA core did as well. So, Chad, your experience and introduction to AmeriCorps, please?
Chad Driscoll: Yeah. Yeah. And it was episode 27.
I looked it up. Awesome. That, so yes, it was in that early first year of this journey for you, Nicki. So thanks for having me back, uh, here with Maureen to talk about this and to talk about the moment that we're in with, with everything around AmeriCorps. For me, my introduction to [00:14:00] AmeriCorps was when I was a student at St.
Arose University in Davenport, Iowa. I was involved there. I grew up though too with fa, my family, my parents, we volunteered at things. I was drug along to, to join them at community events or in a church or in the neighborhood or whatever. And so I learned like you just raise your hand to, to offer help. I continued to do that when I was a student in college.
There was this nonprofit youth mentoring organization that came to campus, big Brothers, big Sisters, that said they wanted to, to bring their model to the campus, involve the college students some more as volunteers and mentors, and they needed somebody to help coordinate that. So I raised my hand and I said, sure, let's learn about this and figure out how we can make it work.
Through that experience, they had an AmeriCorps grant and so they said, Hey, we have this opportunity. If you wanna do this, you know, here are the benefits that come with it. A little living allowance, an education award, you become an AmeriCorps member. I'm like, that sounds great. So I [00:15:00] did that for two terms as a part-time member as I finished my, my college degree and experience.
From there, that really was my introduction to AmeriCorps. Similar to Maureen. I wasn't sure what that was at the time, but I quickly realized how awesome of a program it is and experience it is, and since then I've been telling people as much as I can about this opportunity. Fast forward through kind of my experience in time with AmeriCorps.
I became a program director of a grant for a few years. Then worked, uh, at the Iowa Commission Volunteer Iowa for about 10 years. Um, and then now I've been at America Service Commissions or ASK for, uh, close to four years now. And here at Ask we are the association of the 52 State Service Commission Network.
They're the entities that fund and support AmeriCorps state programs in their states or territories, as well as leveraging volunteer service, leveraging and highlighting ways that individuals can be support during times of disaster. [00:16:00] Some are heavily involved in that. Some do other volunteer recognition.
There's a whole scope of things that state service commissions do in this network. Um, but really. At a core, all of them do grant awards out to AmeriCorps state programs. And so, yeah, this has been a, become a career for me over 15, 20 years almost in this space. And it's really been exciting to see the different innovations that have come out of this work with programs, nonprofits, government entities, and everyone in between, and excited to, to talk about how we can continue supporting this and how we can get others involved in, in this moment.
Nicki Fiocco | AmeriCorps Connections: That's, and I love how you brought in too about the Americas Service Commissions because when we talk in this podcast, we have over 85 episodes, 83 I think, and we talk about individual programming, but there's this giant 50, 80,000 foot view that I think is really important for AmeriCorps alums, current AmeriCorps members and friends of [00:17:00] AmeriCorps and National Service to understand the interjection of, of funding and also.
Human capital. Human, like you said, innovation and every interview that I've had on here that that is not even the tip, tip of the iceberg. Somebody has, they've an AmeriCorps alum, has gone through some type of transformational change. They have brought that experience into their leadership, whether they're a leader or a director or a manager, or a entrepreneur or a consultant, they have this through line of service.
I think with your positions, Maureen and service your alliance, and Chad, your view of the America Service Commissions, which is 52 service commissions across the country, because that includes dc, Guam, and Puerto Rico. This is huge, right? Like we have thousands and thousands of thousands of members that do service.
Let's go into, uh, Maureen, let's go back to your story after your VISTA year. You spent some time, I [00:18:00] think with the Annie e Casey Foundation and probably some other things that I missed. I'm sorry, but let's go your trajectory and then, then tell us a little bit about service year and um, we'll see if we can get to where we're at.
Right? We'll see if we can stomach where we are right now. So Maureen, uh, let's go with you.
Maureen K. Eccleston: Sounds good, Nicki. Thanks. Um. You know, as I, I started to say when I was in Nicki, I was engaged in all of these direct service projects and over time I realized that what I wanted is to help others serve. And, and that was actually quite a shock to me that I wanted to be in the capacity building effort.
I'll tell you things like I thought I was going to love trail building. I enjoy hiking. I enjoy camping. It makes sense. But no, I hated it. I had a couple of disaster response assignments, as I mentioned, and learned pretty quickly that mucking and gutting, not, not my thing, but I've [00:19:00] thrived building relationships with the faith community to recruit volunteers.
So it turns out that I had a pretty different vision of myself when I started my service here than, than what I learned through serving. So since my VISTA experience, I've been in the service year field almost exclusively. I was hired by my service site and then I came back to NCC and to the service learning coordinator at the same campus where I served six years prior.
Um, I went then from Nicki with 18 to 24 year olds. It was then, now it's 18 to 26 to experience Corps where I was supervis or supporting older adults in their AmeriCorps service. My journey from there took me to volunteer Maryland, of course, a statewide AmeriCorps program. That was one of the very first AmeriCorps programs, and of course, the one where I met you, Nicki, when I was the director and you started your AmeriCorps journey.
Um, from there I served as the executive director of both the Maryland and the Pennsylvania State Service [00:20:00] Commissions. Before having the great opportunity to join the team at Service Year Alliance. At Service Year Alliance, we are focused on making service years. That's AmeriCorps Youth Bill, the Peace Corps and more making service years a common expectation and a common opportunity for all young people.
Um, so we work to support the service here field. We work to raise up the voices of those who have served in programs like AmeriCorps. Um, and it's just been a tremendous journey for me from the moment of stepping on that very first plane to become an NCC member, um, to the moment we're in now, where we are seeing some real challenges in our field and from the Service Year Alliance perspective and with wonderful partners like America's Service Commissions and void this for national service.
Taking real steps to be able to preserve and maintain this fabulous AmeriCorps [00:21:00] ecosystem.
Nicki Fiocco | AmeriCorps Connections: Yeah. Thank you for that. And I appreciate how you said that you wanted to help others serve and, and also thank you for your transparency about NCCC and some of the not so fun sort of parts of it, but that it's a character builder.
Right. And when I do any type of coaching for people, I'm like, sometimes when, you know what you. Don't like, it's very clear what you do like, and a service year can absolutely help you find that. So that's huge. So why don't we go to real quick, Maureen, about where are we in this moment right now? We're recording on April 22nd, I believe It's Earth Day.
So Happy Earth Day. It's April 22nd. We're on the East coast. It's like later afternoon. Hopefully this is gonna go out later this evening or early tomorrow morning. So things could change even between then, right? Like originally I reached out to you all last week and I told you my hair was on fire and I was like, let's record now.
I was like, Saturday [00:22:00] morning, right? And love these two individuals. 'cause they're like, Nicki, calm down. We, we can get to Tuesday, but tell us where we are. And then Chad, I wanna go back to your story, your journey, and then I wanna talk about what is America's Service Commission and Voices for National Service also focused on?
So. Maureen, where are we now?
Maureen K. Eccleston: Sure. So it's now been one week since all AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps. All AmeriCorps and CCC members were demobilized. That means they were pulled from their service sites and sent home. It's been just under a week since the vast majority of AmeriCorps agency staffs were placed on administrative leave.
So the big picture view right now is this. We are concerned that we are on a path to the elimination of AmeriCorps. Let me share some details about the impact so far. Starting with NCCC. As I said, all NCC members were [00:23:00] recalled from their place of service and then asked to return home to their home of record, according to the agency memo that directed this action, which was reported in the news, AmeriCorps members.
That were sent home can expect to receive their living allowance and their health coverage through the end of April. And those that have completed 15% or more of their required service hours would be eligible for a prorated education award. But let's keep in mind what these members were up to. One of the cool features of the AmeriCorps website was an interactive deployment, MAC of NCCC teams at the time of demobilization.
So just two quick examples. There were quite a number of core members that were assisting with Hurricane Helene, cleanup and rebuilding. There was another team that was preparing to deploy to Wisconsin to help build housing for veterans this summer with Habitat for Humanity. And then a couple of like data points that I think are really interesting, [00:24:00] Jeff, last year, in 2024 alone, N Triple T members generated over $22 million in returns.
Tax returns for nearly 24,000 low income Americans. Now, that figure represents the equivalent of 62% of Nickis appropriations for the year. This is a significant loss for many communities relying on their service. We're also deeply concerned about what it means for the Nicki members themselves who are sent home with little warning and without the opportunity to finish their service years.
Now as far as what we know about agency staff impacts, it's our understanding that about 85% of the agency staff were put on administrative leave. Now, to be clear, at this point, AmeriCorps VISTA members, as well as AmeriCorps members through AmeriCorps State and National, which represents the largest number of [00:25:00] AmeriCorps members, um, along with AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers.
These folks are still in service. However, with the drastic reductions in agency staff, we are concerned that we might begin to see impacts to the grants that fund AmeriCorps program operations. Um, you alluded to this, Nicki, that there's been a lot of activity online since these actions took place, and so much of it is so good with core members and alums and supporters telling their stories.
Sharing the impacts of service and rallying each other, looking for ways to support, looking for ways to build community. In this moment, I'll caution us to make sure we're not following rumors that are also happening at the same time. Alongside all of this goodness, as you said at the top, Nicki, like we wanna focus on what we can do.
We wanna focus on lifting up stories of telling our own stories. Um, we do wanna encourage policy makers to support AmeriCorps. I. [00:26:00] And we wanna look out for each other across the National Service family, the America family is real. Um, and it is a moment to really lean into that and support each other to tell our stories and to reach out to your members of Congress.
And we can talk about digger ways to do that.
Nicki Fiocco | AmeriCorps Connections: Yeah. Thank you for sharing those statistics. Would you just say those one more time about the tax returns and when I was educating folks between last week and. 15 minutes ago when I was having a conversation with somebody listening to a podcast, yelling at it saying, we do have national service.
Scott Galloway, I am going to send you an email and a link to this podcast. One of the things I was mentioning about Nicki, all of these folks that we're serving in Nicki are serving at community organizations and they're literally gonna wake up and they're not gonna have anybody to serve the seniors to cr to it's tax season.
Like. To do the taxes, to build the homes, to deliver the meals, to tutor these students. It's, when we think about Nicki, we think [00:27:00] about young kids tromping around in the woods, like you said, blazing trails, and that's part of it. But there's a bigger picture, there's a bigger or there's more things that are being done.
So can you just tell us that figure again, like how much in tax returns and then how much was that in, in equivalent to the budget? Yeah, and
Maureen K. Eccleston: I'll, I, and I, I will share that again, and I'll also say, I think what you're getting at Nicki is the impact of service broadly. Yes. Okay. So service years, AmeriCorps, these Nicki members who were serving up until last week, it benefits the communities that they're serving in.
It benefits them on their career and their education, their personal path, and it builds a stronger society for all of us. Right? And so these folks. Pulled out. And that means that the child who was being tutored one day is not getting tutored. The next, the folks who were having their homes mucked and gutted, which is really important work after disasters, [00:28:00] are now not having that happen and those trails that were being built so that those of us who wanna go out on the weekends and enjoy them and experience nature and introduce our children to nature, that's not happening either.
The taxes. Such an interesting data point. So to reiterate at your request, Nicki, last year, $22 million in tax returns for nearly 24,000 low income Americans. That's through no cost tax filing, and that figure is about 62% of the appropriations for AmeriCorps and CCC in that year.
Nicki Fiocco | AmeriCorps Connections: Thank you, Maureen, for framing that.
It's important when we think about national service to frame. The impact of service. Chad, let's go to your, your trajectory. You alluded to it with the, uh, Iowa Service Commission and now you're with America Service Commission, and you get to work with, um, you know, the, the commissions across the country.
And tell us a little bit [00:29:00] about what your role is with America's Service Commission, and from your perspective, where are we and what are some of the things that America Service Commission in tandem with Voices for National Service, which will pitch. If you're AmeriCorps alum and you wanna find out more information from Voice for National Service, I believe you can get an individual membership for 25 bucks.
Is that
Chad Driscoll: Oh, through our, through the, the states for service states. For service, yep. We have an alum membership, individual membership as well, which, yeah, I think it's around $25.
Nicki Fiocco | AmeriCorps Connections: Yeah. Sorry. Thank you for correcting me. This is why I edit myself more than my guests. All right, Chad, take it away.
Chad Driscoll: So, at America Service Commissions or Ask, uh, as I shared a, a little bit ago, we support the, the National Service Network primarily through the State Service Commission Network, which are the entities that in each state or territory, um, supporting national service and volunteerism.
They do it through meeting their own state goals and priorities, working with their, [00:30:00] their governor or other elected officials to promote and build. Programs to support the needs in their communities. There's similar needs across the country, but how we address them with the resources we have available are different in each state and each community.
And so that's really what commissions are there too, to look at and to support. And we all do that through AmeriCorps state national funding. But as I mentioned earlier too, there are other maybe funding streams or initiatives that support those needs and support those programs in In that varies by state.
Right now we continue to work with the Commission Network to ensure that they are able to maintain those operations. As Maureen mentioned, all current grants, which are the AmeriCorps State National Grants, the VISTA Grants, AmeriCorps Seniors, VGF Volunteer Generation Fund Grants, and even the grants that support some of the work that commissions do are still there.
The funding is still there, but [00:31:00] really the concern lies with. The changes in staff levels right now at the AmeriCorps Federal Agency that it could create some delays in awarding new grants, which typically start rolling out this summer. And so, you know, with our work at ask, we are continuing to gather the questions, the concerns of the Commission network.
Trying to share that as best as we can with AmeriCorps or the federal agency and the leadership that is still there and trying to understand are there changes to what has been shared over the last few months of the timelines and how might those changes impact? Are there going to be gaps? Are there not going to be gaps?
And so really that's our, our real concern, right? And one of our concerns right now is to ensure there are no gaps in grant funding. Some might be able to sustain a delay. There's a lot that won't be able to sustain a delay, and it's hard to come back and have something operating when it has to go away for a period of [00:32:00] time.
Mm-hmm. So there's a 30 day or a longer gap in a grant program. It's hard to restart that because you have people you're recruiting to serve in AmeriCorps or to like, or these host sites, these organizations and other and partners that are expecting to have placements with these members here to work on their goals and their needs.
They're not there. How long can you wait? So again, currently there is no plan for that gap. However, it, there is a concern that that may, that may happen. So that's part of our strategy right now is really focusing on. Putting a message out there, so we're doing it through Ask, but we also have our policy side of our organization, which is states for service, and you can find out more information@statesforservice.org that states the number four service.org, and that's where you can also find information about membership to become a member if you want to.
By doing that, you get access to us as staff. You get joined on at least a monthly call, if not [00:33:00] more, especially during these times. We might host other calls and updates. Um, get other communication and have access to other resources. We also have a National Service Academy right now as well that you can go through if you're have access to sign up for that as a member.
But really what we're sharing through that work is Congressional outreach to share these concerns to share. We want you to continue supporting AmeriCorps now as well as in the next budget cycle, but also. These concerns of what has happened in the recent weeks of decreasing staff we're concerned it's going to, or it could lead to, like I said, delays in grant awards or funding.
And so again, that is a focus we've had in the last week and we continue to focus on that. I will let folks know and remind you, you all that through the end of this week, congressional members of Congress are on recess. A lot of them are back home still. They're in [00:34:00] your communities. It's a great chance to meet 'em in person and share your individual story or to host, invite 'em to a, a, a coffee meetup and say, we have 20 alums.
We have 15 alums. We wanna share about this. If your current program, invite 'em to see your, your current operations. You know, come to a, come to a service site this week. So. That is an opportunity right now as well. So definitely a lot of options. And then as you mentioned, Nicki, there's also, uh, another partner in the Space Voices for National Service, and they have an online campaign as well for you to easily send messages to your members of Congress.
You can go online within a minute, you or two, you have sent messages to your representatives for you. It's all an online form. It's very simple. I've done it a couple times and it's easy just to get that initial. There's been a tremendous response just in the last week since that has started. I think one of their highest, if not ever, highest responses to a, a [00:35:00] campaign that they've had that they've led, which is amazing that we're getting a great response.
So thank you. If you're listening and you've done that, if you haven't, please, I encourage you to do that. That is one easy step we all can do, and then send it to your. Your family, your, if you have siblings or your parents or friends or colleagues and ask them to do that, it's a simple, pretty quick thing to do.
And any any of that helps.
Nicki Fiocco | AmeriCorps Connections: Yeah. Thank you so much for that, Chad. And I think the key is that like everyone's voice from all over the place, and one of the things that we don't wanna do is we don't wanna invite folks to our programs. Say anything negative or you've made a bad choice or anything like that.
It's service has always been across the aisle. Service has always been something that everybody can do. Thank you. Martin Luther King. Um, everybody can be great 'cause everybody why do I try to quote amazing people? I just need to stop doing that. [00:36:00] But yes. So invite folks, invite, uh, these representatives to your programs and show them what you're doing and who you're serving and.
I have a father who is in a different district in California with a very different perspective on things, and so I'm sending him information about the program that I went through and that I'm still really close to, and it's really important to me. And because it's important to me, it's important to him.
He doesn't need to go any further than that. I'm not asking him to change his political views. I'm not asking him to change who he votes for or how he votes. I just want him to understand the impact in his community and what these AmeriCorps members are doing. So thank you so much for that. And we're gonna have all these links in the show notes.
And if this is helpful, just, I mean, you could even link to this podcast and put it in your, your messaging to your, uh, your representative or go through the podcasts and find one that is and find Chad's episode. I wrote it down 27 [00:37:00] and, and connect to link it to it and say, listen to it three times fast.
It's, it's impactful. Okay, so what I wanna do is start to land the plane. What are things, so you had mentioned Chad, we can go through Voices of National Service and I've done it as well. It really is super easy, folks. You put in your zip code and it finds your representatives and it sends out a, a letter and a text if you want to, supporting AmeriCorps.
What else can we do? We wanna empower people. If you're feeling down, if you're feeling lost, if you're feeling frustrated, pour your energy into what you can control. That is like the number one mindset. I like to say judo flip. When you feel like you don't know, you're in despair, you're in depression, you're in anxiety.
Look around and focus. What is it that I can control in this moment? And you can control. Messages and Service Year Alliance and America's Service Commission and Voices for National Service have made it extremely easy. So, Maureen, I'm gonna kick it over to you 'cause I know Service Year Alliance has some [00:38:00] stuff coming up here, uh, that people can jump on right away.
Maureen K. Eccleston: We do, yeah. Thanks Nicki. Um, you know, we think storytelling is essential right now. So at Service Airlines, we're working hard to lift up the stories of service years, how AmeriCorps makes a difference. What the loss of them would mean to individuals and to communities. And as I said earlier, to our country at large, it's not new that we're lifting up these stories, but we dramatically expanded the effort Last week when we launched a story collection forum to hear from core members and alums directly.
We've had a great response. So to the couple hundred of you who have responded already, thank you so much. We hope it continues to grow. We're gonna be sharing these stories broadly in the coming days, and believe this will help members of the public and policy makers to see the value of AmeriCorps and another storytelling effort that we're undertaking.
We're hosting a training for [00:39:00] alums tomorrow, Wednesday, April 23rd. On a specific type of storytelling, writing letters to the editor, folks might not realize that a letter to the editor is a really powerful tool. It can reach thousands of readers, including policy makers. It can shape public opinion around critical issues like the funding of AmeriCorps.
So while we're lifting up stories through our collection form, we're also supporting alums in crafting letters to the editor. That can tell how AmeriCorps shaped their lives, how it strengthened their communities, and why it must be protected. And, and I think Nicki will be able to share the registration link for this in the, in the notes for the podcast.
Yeah, and, and just wanna reiterate too, we want everyone who is supportive of AmeriCorps to follow Voices for National Service and use their tools to contact members of Congress. I'll reiterate what both of you said. It's so easy to do. It takes a few minutes, it makes a real [00:40:00] impact. And America Service Commissions is doing really important work through their states for service initiative.
I'm a proud dues paying member. I learn something every single month and they give us concrete actions to be able to do so. You have a number of ways that listeners here can get engaged in support of services that are so necessary in our communities.
Nicki Fiocco | AmeriCorps Connections: Yep. Perfectly said, and that is why I wanted you both on here.
So I appreciate you both. I know you guys are super busy right now, so I appreciate you jumping on real quick. So as we, as we start to wrap, I'm just gonna let both of you speak and talk about again, what we can do, what we shouldn't do other places. I will also shout out that America learns created a really cool amplifier.
So if you go to AmeriCorps Learns, and I think it's back slash amplifier, I can't remember, but it's cool if you don't know how to write, you can drop in your story of just like, I was an AmeriCorps member and this is what I did. And then the chat bot will help to narrate [00:41:00] that story and it'll just get you started.
So thank you so much Gary and team for putting that together. But let's just finish up with. Chad and Maureen, what should we know at this moment and what do you wanna share from your professional perspective? And then also from your personal, right. This is very personal. It's very personal.
Chad Driscoll: Yeah. I think for me, um, you know, this, this is, uh, a career.
This is, and it's not just a career either. It's a, a way of how we live and how we support each other, our communities or, and, and the, the larger kind of. Nonprofit service entity. And so it is a family. Um, you know, we are, uh, personally feeling hurt as well, even if we're still working. We have a lot of our friends and family who are affected by this directly right now, or we're all indirectly affected.
And so that's driving us to continue to do this work. [00:42:00] Again, I wanna reiterate that. Programs are still funded, grants are still happening with AmeriCorps State National, and VISTA and Seniors, et cetera. I know NCCC members the program, the, the program is still there. However, we know the members have been demobilized and they're working to support the the members as best as they can.
As they work to exit them and get them the resources they need. I know there's a lot in this Ameri family who are trying to support them as well. Ms will also share that. I know we're aware of a lot of like alums and former staff, things like that, that are putting these resource and documents together to say, if you need help, if you're an affected member, core member, if you need help, let us know by, by sharing the information here.
If you are somebody who wants to support or can support, put your information in in this form. And I know that is being coordinated with a lot of alums and supporters. So I also mention that I know we're at ask or looking at [00:43:00] what can we, if there's any additional work we can do outside of the commission network to provide support to affected and NCCC members as well in this moment.
So there may be more information on that. And then I think. Again, reach out, share your story, talk to your members of Congress, talk to your other leaders, and ask people to join you in that. This is, it's an, it's gonna continue. This is affecting us. Now, we might get as, as you said at the beginning of this, Nicki.
This is to the afternoon of Tuesday, April 22nd. Yeah. Uh, by the end of this week, by next week, we may have some additional information that we need to continue this. Conversation and we'll add talking points to that or add additional resources, or maybe we need to shift a little bit. But I think in general, telling the story of what we're doing and telling people about AmeriCorps every day is the best we can do.
So that when they hear it, oh yeah, I know somebody who did that. Yeah. Or I understand what that means. [00:44:00] That is I think, one of the best things we can do anytime, but especially in this moment.
Nicki Fiocco | AmeriCorps Connections: That's great. Thank you so much, Chad. Maureen, bring us home. I mean, not to put you
Maureen K. Eccleston: on card, right? Like it's so hard.
Um, you know, we're in a real moment. As a, as a country, as a society right now, beyond service, years, beyond AmeriCorps, we're in a moment where we only talk with people who we agreed with. We're in a time where we think that if you have a different viewpoint, then. You're not just wrong, but there's something wrong with you.
And through programs like AmeriCorps, we actually have the opportunity to not just do the good work of building homes and trails and tutoring kids and delivering meals and medicines, not just to do that tangible [00:45:00] work that is so very needed, but to bring people together who have different viewpoints.
Put them on a shared goal and allow them to see each other's shared humanity. What a unique environment in this moment, and something that we need so much more of, not less of. So now is the time for all of us collectively to say that service years that AmeriCorps is essential to our civics fabric. And so we all need to tell our story whether we have served.
Or seen service in some capacity, whether we've been an AmeriCorps member or the parent or the sister of an AmeriCorps member. Stories have real power to make a difference. So how do we talk to our neighbors, to our family, to our coworkers? Um, we need broad public support beyond those who serve in AmeriCorps directly.
I'll reiterate that [00:46:00] letters to the editor can have an outsize impact. So whether you attend our training. Or you write your own and, and get your voice in your local news outlet. We at service here Alliance are here to help. In this effort, we're so grateful to our partners across the, the field who are leading in all kinds of ways to ensure that we maintain an environment where people can serve, where they can work alongside folks who are different than they are.
And we can rebuild our, our civic fabric, our social structures now, and, and well, well into the future.
Nicki Fiocco | AmeriCorps Connections: I couldn't say it better. I think that both of you really summed up the moment and, and again, Maureen, thank you so much for bringing it even beyond service. One of the things that we are also need to realize is that there are algorithms in every single electronic device that you engage in.
[00:47:00] It's gonna continue to divide us into your point, Maureen, if I'm spending all day listening to people that's just an echo chamber of what my biases are, then I'm never gonna understand where people from a different perspective are coming from unless I make an intention to, to ask and learn and understand.
And it's interesting because you can be in a conversation with somebody to listen and be curious or you can be in a conversation to be right. And I think we're at a moment. To listen and be curious and ponder on your own values and your own perspectives, um, and, and your own decisions. So thank you both so much.
I appreciate you for helping me put my hair out from on fire, from trying to jump on the weekend. To get this done and we're gonna have all the links so people will feel empowered. We'll get the stories out there. That's the genesis of this podcast was just to get these stories out and easy to share.
This is so [00:48:00] easy to share along with the stories to your representatives. So I don't wanna cut anybody off. Does anything, anybody have one? Any last thing to say? Alright,
Chad Driscoll: thank you to our alums and thank you to those who are supporting us, and thank you, Nicki, for letting us share this with your network as well.
Nicki Fiocco | AmeriCorps Connections: Yes, thank you so much. And again, if you've made it this far, then stay true to yourself and find your purpose and follow your passion and continue to get things done. Take care.