[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 105 (Thursday, July 30, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9480-S9481]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                       HARNESSING AMERICAN IDEALS

 Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I submit an article to be printed 
in the Record. I thought it would be beneficial for my colleagues to 
learn about the success that the AmeriCorps program has had among my 
constituents in Illinois. These are only a few stories about the 
positive impact that this program has had on people who live in often 
under served communities in the Chicago area.
  The article follows:

               [From the Chicago Sun-Times, July 3, 1998]

                       Harnessing American Ideals

                          [By Michael Gillis]

       In Uptown, they teach Asian immigrants English and help 
     them adjust to life in the United States.
       In Ford Heights, they help low-income parents become better 
     teachers of their own children.
       In neighborhoods throughout the Chicago area, they teach 
     adults how to read, tutor students after school, counsel 
     battered women, teach first aid and help communities right 
     themselves.
       Four years after President Clinton's Americorps project was 
     launched amid a flurry of publicity, its workers are toiling 
     away in relative obscurity. While some still criticize the 
     program for its cost, supporters say it is changing the city 
     in small, but important, ways.
       ``We never say we're going to change a community in a 
     year,'' said Craig Huffman, executive director of City Year 
     Chicago, which employed about 50 Americorps workers last year 
     and this week received funding to hire about 55 workers 
     starting in the fall.
       ``But far too many people use the excuse that problems are 
     insurmountable. . . . You have to think about solving a 
     problem, even when everyone else is saying it can't be 
     solved.''
       Americorps workers say they're more than worth the money 
     they're paid.
       ``I realized the impact that one person can have in a lot 
     of lives,'' said Lisa Novak, 23, of Flossmoor, who taught CPR 
     and first aid to thousands of Chicago public school students 
     in the last year as one of the 13 Americorps workers for the 
     American Red Cross of Greater Chicago.
       That's the kind of idealism Clinton sought to harness when 
     he proposed the Americorps program during his 1992 
     presidential campaign. Lawmakers passed Clinton's pet project 
     in 1993, and Clinton signed the bill using the pens Franklin 
     D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy used to create the Civilian 
     Conservation Corps and the Peace Corps.
       Under the program, which is run by a public-private 
     partnership called the Corporation for Public Service, 
     students earn $4,725 to apply toward college tuition or 
     student loans by completing a year of community

[[Page S9481]]

     service work. They also earn living allowances of about 
     $7,400 a year and health care and child day care benefits.
       About 90,000 people have served in the program since it 
     started in 1993. More than $1.7 billion has been spent on or 
     committed to the program so far, including $400 million set 
     aside for education awards.
       This year, Illinois has about 500 Americorps workers. About 
     450 are expected next year.
       According to the Corporation for National Service, 
     Americorps workers last year tutored more than 500,000 youth, 
     mentored 95,000 more, created 3,100 safety patrols, built or 
     rehabilitated 5,600 homes, placed 32,000 homeless people in 
     permanent housing and recruited more than 300,000 volunteers.
       Many Republicans, including House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-
     Ga.), oppose the national service program. Gingrich told 
     Newsweek magazine in 1995 that he was ``totally, 
     unequivocally opposed to national service. . . . It is 
     coerced volunteerism. It's a gimmick.''
       Critics also question whether the program is worth the 
     expense, but officials at the corporation say they try to 
     fund programs that get the most bang for the buck. The 
     program uses strict standards to ensure funded programs 
     produce results that can be measured--say, the number of 
     children tutored or the number of homes rehabilitated.
       And they argue that the program represents a way for 
     Washington to help communities help themselves--an argument 
     tailor-made for Republicans who advocate decentralizing 
     government.
       ``Right now there is a consensus in Washington that 
     Washington cannot solve every problem and that we have to 
     look at ways to strengthen local communities so they can take 
     on the needs that are specific to their communities,'' said 
     Tara Murphy, the director of public affairs for the 
     corporation. ``That's exactly what this program does.'' Two-
     thirds of the funds go straight to state commissions, made up 
     of members appointed by the governors, she said. Those 
     commissions decide which agencies get the money, and the 
     agencies recruit and deploy the workers, she said.
       Agencies that were awarded grants this week to hire 
     Americorps workers don't question whether the program is 
     worth the expense.
       ``It's definitely worth it,'' said Pat Clay, the director 
     of the program at the Aunt Martha's Youth Services Center of 
     Park Forest, where 10 Americorps workers teach low-income 
     parents how to instruct their preschool children.
       ``To see the smile on a child's face, to hear a parent say, 
     `My child tested very well in a preschool screening test'--
     that makes it worthwhile. You are investing in a child's 
     future for life.
       Aunt Martha's hires its Americorps workers from the 
     communities the program serves--in this case, Ford Heights 
     and Chicago Heights.
       The Uptown-based Asian Human Services agency, which will 
     hire about 14 workers to aid Asian refugees and immigrants 
     this year, does the same.
       Ralph Hardy, the director of programs at Asian Human 
     Services, said he believes the program is inspiring 
     Americorps workers to a career in public service.
       ``The outcome of the program will be best seen down the 
     road, say 10 or 15 years from now, after a whole generation 
     has gone through it,'' he said, ``We've seen it here--we have 
     workers who will go into some sort of community-based 
     career.''
       That's what Trina Poole, 25, plans to do. Poole, one of six 
     Americorps workers at Family Rescue, a community service 
     agency in South Shore for victims of domestic violence, 
     answers the agency's crisis line and helps arrange services 
     for callers.
       A victim of domestic violence herself, Poole said she hopes 
     to be hired for a permanent position to continue providing to 
     women and children the services she never received.
       ``It's a healing process for me to help as many women as 
     possible,'' she said. ``I'm not doing this for the money. I'm 
     doing it to help the community.''
       Becky Nieves, 21, of Hanover Park, an Americorps worker for 
     City Year who helped run an after-school program on gardening 
     and environment, said she learned how much she meant to her 
     students at the end of the year.
       ``When it's over and you say your goodbyes, and the kids 
     tell you what they learned, that's when you know you've made 
     a difference,'' she said.

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