For decades, our agency has engaged people of all ages and backgrounds in getting things done - improving lives, strengthening communities, and expanding opportunity. Today, service is needed more than ever. To meet current and future challenges, it is essential that more individuals know how they can serve their communities and country. But all too often, the public doesn’t know what national service is, the benefits, or how to get involved. That’s why we are taking steps to increase awareness and ensure more people know about opportunities to serve. 

Kurtis Edwards can’t recall how he found the AmeriCorps VISTA program, but after almost two years of service, he feels lucky that he did. As he completes his second year of service, he is even more resolute in his determination to “work tirelessly at a career in human service and community building.”

All around the country, AmeriCorps members are taking the lead in helping communities transition to online learning. These efforts come at an especially critical time for the country, while states and school districts are still making decisions about instruction in the fall. 

Tribal economies have taken hard hits too. Communities that rely on tourism, gambling revenue, or other businesses operating on their land have had their tax base effectively cut to zero, making it infinitely more difficult to run health clinics and provide other services crucial to the vitality of their communities.

Last week, I visited an AmeriCorps program at Chicago’s Northwestern Settlement. Visiting AmeriCorps members in Illinois is always special for me because of my own Prairie State roots – and a rare treat in this age of social distancing.

Despite the obstacles presented by COVID-19, AmeriCorps and Senior Corps programs across the country have acted quickly and creatively to continue their critical work in new ways, or to pivot to meet emerging needs.

Since the start of the national emergency, more than 8,500 AmeriCorps members and Senior Corps volunteers have served in direct response to COVID-19. Collectively, these national service members have:

 A few years later, this is the exact message he wants to get through to people: “It can happen to anybody so quickly. People don’t really understand how quickly you can fall into this place where you feel like you have no options, and then you’re trapped.”

It was this passion for sharing his story through public speaking and advocacy that led Mikah to AmeriCorps VISTA, an experience he would later call “magical.”

At the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), we are also asking the question, “What does volunteerism look like in the time of coronavirus?”

For all of us who want to help our local communities, operating during a pandemic is new territory. How can we continue to meet community needs when health and safety calls for us to be apart?