Area institutions feel impact of curtailment of volunteers.
By: Jennifer Potash
Cuts to the federal AmeriCorps program will place additional burdens on already struggling nonprofit organizations in the area, officials and agencies say.
Created in 1993 by President Bill Clinton, AmeriCorps helps college students by providing financial assistance in exchange for a year’s service as a volunteer.
Recently, the Corporation for National and Community Service, which oversees AmeriCorps, announced a major reduction in volunteers as a result of a congressional budget cut from $240 million in fiscal 2002 to $175 million in fiscal 2003. For New Jersey, that means a drop of almost 300 volunteers, from 493 this year to 195 next year a 60-percent reduction.
For Crisis Ministry of Princeton and Trenton, which provides food and social services to low-income residents and the homeless, the cuts mean two AmeriCorps members the nonprofit has come to rely on are now gone, said the Rev. Sally Osmer, director of Crisis Ministry. The organization has a staff of six, the Rev. Osmer said.
"It’s like having super-volunteers who are able to be here all day," she said of the AmeriCorps members who volunteer either full time or part time and work with clients and perform other duties.
And the experience also benefits the volunteers, many of whom go on to human-services professions, she said.
The Corella and Bertram F. Bonner Foundation, based on Mercer Street, sponsors the Bonner Leaders Program in which AmeriCorps members work to increase literacy, academic and vocational skills of low-income, homeless and other at-risk children.
Recently, several of the AmeriCorps members, who are Princeton University students, met with the Princeton Human Services Commission about possible projects targeting after-school programs for Princeton youth. But those efforts may be in jeopardy with the further reduction of the AmeriCorps program, officials said.
U.S. Rep. Rush Holt (D-12) decried the cuts at a Trenton press conference Monday with AmeriCorps members and local nonprofits who rely on the students’ services in attendance.
"Cutting AmeriCorps at a time when Americans are facing a stagnant economy, the worst unemployment in more than a decade, and deep cuts in state and federal social programs is not just inconsiderate, it’s wrong," Rep. Holt said.
AmeriCorps has a proven track record in helping meet community needs throughout New Jersey, he said.
Rep. Holt, a Hopewell Township resident, and many of his colleagues in Congress have signed a letter calling on the president and the congressional leadership to support emergency funding for AmeriCorps. He pointed out President Bush called for the expansion of AmeriCorps to 75,000 volunteers from the 50,000 present before the cutback.