AmeriCorps is an exciting national program that provides youth volunteers with a small monthly stipend and educational benefits in exchange for a year of direct community service. The Partnership, recognizing both the need for youth leadership, as well as the serious staffing needs at many local organizations, has been an AmeriCorps site of the National AIDS Fund AmeriCorps program for the past twelve years.

Each year, the Partnership recruits and trains a group of 10-12 young people who are assigned to Partnership grantees, where they work four days a week at no cost to the agency where they are placed. On the fifth day each week, the AmeriCorps members work together on a joint project benefiting the community. Click here to meet the 2007-2008 members and learn about their placements.

Every Washington AIDS Partnership AmeriCorps Team member’s service placement is different, and the Partnership’s staff works hard to match up incoming members with the type of service experience that fits their interests and skills. Some AmeriCorps members provide HIV prevention, including outreach, educational presentations, and counseling. Other members work directly with people living with HIV, delivering meals and providing hospice care. Members build strong connections with their clients, the community, and with their own team members. The year of service takes them beyond their comfort zone, whether it’s going through the arduous process of applying for food stamps just like their clients or learning to meet their clients “where they are” and to not pre-judge. The dollar value for the services of the 12 volunteers for 2007-2008 is estimated at $360,000, representing a significant resource brought to the community.

 

2003-2004 National AIDS Fund/Washington AIDS Partnership AmeriCorps  Team.

One former member noted that “the first-hand experience and privilege of being invited into clients’ lives was a huge learning experience that cannot be matched by any textbook or theory. My clients have forever changed my personal convictions and the way I view and approach people and issues.” Another past member noted that “one person, in particular, touched my heart and helped me establish a perspective about life. She was a positive 23 year old mother with a four year old son, and I spent long hours talking with her. One year after the service year ended, I received a call from my supervisor saying that the woman had been hospitalized, but had asked that I attend her baptism. I arrived in DC to find her elated that I had come. Less than 24 hours later, she passed away, but I was one of the last people to speak with her before she was at peace.”

An important part of the AmeriCorps program is training and mentoring future leaders in the health field. Our members are now doctors, lawyers, social workers, therapists, public health officials, and service providers in the HIV/AIDS field. One past member noted that “my year of service comes up time and time again. Employers are impressed by the commitment and character demonstrated by giving a year of service and, personally, I have found that it solidified my political and personal convictions. Whether it is the skills I learned in teaching and communicating, the knowledge I gained, the responsibility I feel to my community, the courage I gained in taking risks, the character I built, or the humility I learned, AmeriCorps is still with me in everything I do.”