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Many of you are probably aware of the budget cuts to the national Americorps program. My daughter, Laura McHugh, has had a wonderful experience this year at a model Americorps project, Youthbuild USA. They have just lost all of their funding and many other programs serving disadvantaged communites have as well. In a time when Congress has passed massive tax cuts for the wealthy it is incredible to me that we are cutting a program which enables skilled young adults to work for mere stipends serving communties that need their help. It is another way to remove needed resources from our communities, especially in urban areas. I encourage you to sign the petition if you would like this program to continue. Thank you , Maureen Tate |
--- Begin Message --- Hello everyone,
My program here at YouthBuild recently discovered, as did AmeriCorps programs across the country, that funding for next year is being significiantly cut. Some national programs, like mine, have been cut completely. As it stands right now, I am out of a job for next year and so are thousands of other young adults. Not to mention, the organizations we serve are losing valuable employees and resources. Students such as mine will no longer be able to recieve their partial Education Award, a sum of money that funds many of our students' trade school and community college education. I have included my director's synopsis if you are interested in more details. There is a petition being presented to congress in a matter of days that may have significant influence on whether Bush is able to pull money from other sources to sign AmeriCorps for another few years. It takes less than a minute to sign online and it will make a great deal of difference. I would appreciate if all of you could take a minute to support this campaign and if you have friends and family that would as well, please inform them. It is very simple: go to www.saveamericorps.org and click on the sign petition button located in the Take Action box. You can view your submission and others' after you sign on.
Thanks for all your support of the work we do!
Laura
The YouthBuild Philadelphia Charter School gives young adults who havedropped out of high school the opportunity to rebuild their lives as they rebuild Philadelphia's neighborhoods, one block at a time. During our ten- month school year, students spend alternate weeks at our construction work sites and in our classrooms. At the jobsite they learn important work and trade skills as they rebuild abandoned houses for low income families, and in our classrooms, they are engaged in a challenging academic curriculum, life skills counseling, and community service. Students who successfully complete the program earn a high school diploma.
For the past nine years YouthBuild Philadelphia has been funded as an AmeriCorps program, and served as a model AmeriCorps site. Our AmeriCorps program was visited twice by President Bill Clinton, once by First Lady Hillary Clinton, and when President Bush announced his commitment to AmeriCorps through his Freedom Corps initiative in 2001, he did it on public television while talking to one of YouthBuild Philadelphia's AmeriCorps members. Despite being one of the best programs in the country, we stand to lose all our AmeriCorps funding.
AmeriCorps funding not only provides the students who enroll in our program with opportunities for direct community service, but also with the promise of a $2400 tuition award that our graduates can use at a college or technical training insistute of their choice. This has been an important transition tool for our graduates, the majority of whom are the first in their families to earn diplomas and continue their education.
Students in our YouthBuild AmeriCorps program directly experience the challenge and satisfaction of helping other people. They build up their self-esteem and begin to see the positive effect their actions have on other people's lives. Over the past six nine years YouthBuild AmeriCorps members have become a highly visible and positive presence in Philadelphia by engaging in the following types of service activities: � Fully gutting and rehabilitating 55 units of abandoned housing for resale to low-income first-time homebuyers. � Recycling 1000 computers for use by community organizations, local public schools and low-income individuals. � starting and running an afterschool program for 25 low-income elementary school children. � organizing neighborhood cleanups and an award-winning ongoing Saturday recycling project. � converting over 100 vacant lots into community gardens. � mentoring, tutoring and providing classroom support for young children in local elementary schools. � Providing 100s of volunteer hours each year at homeless shelters and foodbanks � conducting home weatherization projects for 100s of Philadelphia's seniors � constructing wheelchair ramps for disabled Philadelphia residents. � volunteering at understaffed day-care centers. � renovating local community centers and civic organizations. � distributing food to thousands of elderly, disabled or disadvantaged community residents through collaborative efforts with the City, local neighborhood associations and The Philadelphia Food Bank. In past weeks severe cuts were announced to the national AmeriCorps budget and most programs stand to lose between 40 to 100% of their funding. The ad hoc Coalition to Save AmeriCorps was a spontaneous response to these cuts and a and highly effective expression of solidarity among the organizations sponsoring AmeriCorps programs that benefit our communities.
The President has already agreed to request supplemental funding of $100 million for AmeriCorps, and the senate has agreed by a large majority to support such funding. However, this bill for supplemental funding must be passed by Congress. We are urging all those who care about service programs and AmeriCorps in particular to show their support for AmeriCorps programs across the country. A simple way to do this is by taking the following easy steps: a) Visit www.saveamericorps.org and check in the Take Action Box on the home page where it says sign the petition. b) Click "Sign the Petition" and be sure to include your information c) Email 10 friends and ask them to sign the petition and ask 10 of their friends. With almost 7,000 signatures, the online petition is gaining momentum. When the petition reaches 25,000, we will present it to Congress as a powerful demonstration of the popular will. Thank you THe SaveAmeriCorps Coalition.
Laura McHugh Community Projects Coordinator YouthBuild Charter School 215-627-8671 ext. 36
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