Wendy Spencer (l.) and Sitka mayor Mim McConnell. Alaska ranks 8th in the country in the number of national service volunteers located here – over 600. (KCAW photo/Robert Woolsey)
The nation’s chief service officer says volunteerism has broad public support, and programs like Americorps and Senior Corps will survive the transition to a new presidential administration.
Wendy Spencer was appointed by President Obama in 2012 as the CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service. She’s made her first tour of Alaska this week (May 29 – June 4), with stops in Yakutat, Anchorage, Hooper Bay, Bethel, and Sitka.
KCAW’s Robert Woolsey met with Spencer to talk about the success of Americorps in Sitka and other communities.
Spencer – We actually study this: Volunteering makes you happy, and you live longer as a result! Staying active.
McConnell – Well, Sitka has a lot of volunteers, over and above this program…
Wendy Spencer and a few support staff sit around a table in the Dock Shack with Sitka mayor Mim McConnell. It’s a quiet meeting during what otherwise has been a busy week for Spencer — originally from Georgia — who’s making her first swing through the state.
There are 600 Americorps and Senior Corps volunteers working at over 150 sites in Alaska — ranking the state eighth nationally for this kind of service.
Americorps volunteers are employees of nonprofits in all but name. The program pays a living allowance and offers college tuition credit in exchange for a year of service. In Sitka, Americorps volunteers have become critical to the operation of the community’s larger nonprofits, like the Hames Center, Braveheart, and the Sitka Sound Science Center. And there aren’t just a few of them: Sitka has 17 Americorps Volunteers doing direct service, and seven Vistas who specialize in capacity building.
This level of commitment, Spencer says, benefits organizations and volunteers alike.
Nonprofits that have been exposed to the support of Americorps will be the first to say, I don’t know how we would meet our mission, I do not know what I would do. And then those Americorps volunteers become passionate about that particular cause, they often become lifelong volunteers, they give money. Volunteers are twice as likely to give money than non-volunteers to charity. You can see why: You’re exposed to a need, you become passionate, you’re educated on the need, so you know where you’re money is needed and why. About 60-percent of our Americorps members pursue public service as a career. They go into teaching, they go into environmental work, they go into supporting housing needs, domestic violence, public safety. That year just forms their passion for what they may want to do for the rest of their lives.
Sitka Mayor Mim McConnell says Americorps service seems to be in Sitka’s DNA — or “in the dirt,” she says. Sitka is an attractive place to live, certainly, but there are huge challenges in sustaining social services, for example. McConnell believes that Sitka has developed a culture of volunteerism.
“I think part of it is where we are, and that we are on an island. We are on an isolated area that’s hard to get to and it just kind of creates that mindset of helping each other. I know it was that way for me living in Port Alexander. It was the same kind of thing. You only have each other.”
Spencer was appointed by President Obama in 2012 and unanimously confirmed by the US Senate. Every presidential appointee knows that they may be looking for work come January 2017. Spencer believes that the $1-billion dollar national service program will retain support through the transition to the next president. Recent polling suggests that many Americans agree with her.
And 83-percent of them said they would like to see funding for Americorps and Senior Corps maintained or increased. Now that’s pretty interesting. We’d never seen this kind of poll taken before. They also believed in high numbers — 78- to 85-percent — that Americorps helped young people gain experience for jobs. They believed that Americorps and Senior Corps programs foster civic engagement and patriotism, which I think is great. And they think our programs help reduce government handouts and help people become more independent. So with that in mind I would hope that whomever is president would embrace national service. Looking at that poll, looking at our impact, our studies, our evaluations, they would say, National service is great for our country. There are other countries that want what we have. They are studying what we have. In Europe, in Asia, and other places that visit us and say, We want to learn your model and we’re interested in replicating it.
Spencer was never an Americorps volunteer herself, but the former Girl Scout did not shy away from hands-on work during her Alaska visit. In Yakutat, her first stop in the state, she helped Americorps volunteers paint lockers at the local school and repaired the pavilion at Cannon Beach.
