Youthbuild Seeks More Funding for Americorps

by Becky Evans

WASHINGTON - Supporters and alumni of YouthBuild USA, a national program to help teens earn high school diplomas, spoke out Thursday night during the 59th hour of a four-day rally to win more federal funding for AmeriCorps, the cash-strapped national service program.

YouthBuild alumni joined 700 speakers from 47 states in the 100-hour Voices for AmeriCorps testimonial, which began Tuesday afternoon. AmeriCorps, a volunteer program created under President Clinton, provides money and workers for YouthBuild and other community organizations nationwide.

"AmeriCorps and YouthBuild are lifesavers," Bernard Scott told 30 supporters who gathered in a building near Capitol Hill. "Without them, I know personally, I'd be locked up or even dead."

Scott is a 1995 graduate of YouthBuild, a nonprofit organization that helps teens earn their GEDs while building low-income housing in their communities. He now works at a youth center in Philadelphia.

When the Congress slashed the AmeriCorps budget from $240 million to $175 million for the current fiscal year, YouthBuild lost 1,600 of the 2,000 volunteers that had been funded by AmeriCorps, said Dorothy Stoneman, President of YouthBuild USA.

"They will not get the $2,300 part-time education award they would have gotten without the cuts," she said. "For many of them, it feels like they have lost the hope, the promise and the resources for going on to higher education."

The funding cuts forced YouthBuild New Bedford to cancel its Grad Corps program, which provided college tuition assistance to high school graduates who volunteered at local schools, food pantries and service organizations. Members who performed 1,700 hours of community service received a grant of $4, 700.

Temistocles Blessed, 29, community service coordinator and GED instructor at YouthBuild New Bedford, said he is concerned that the loss of the Grad Corps program would have long-term implications for New Bedford, a city already suffering by a high crime rate and unemployment.

"It's sad," he said. "There is more of a sense of hopelessness. We always looked to YouthBuild as light for youth in this community and now it's gone."

In July, the Senate approved $100 million in emergency funding for AmeriCorps, but the House failed to vote on the measure before taking its summer recess. Voices for AmeriCorps organizers hope the four-day service testimony will convince Congress and President Bush to provide the money. But Stoneman doesn't expect that to happen.

"I am not in the least bit confident that our voices will be heard and that change will be made. There has been ample time for Congress to do this," she said. Still, she said, the rally was a valuable way to "strengthen our own movement. We know it is the right thing to do _ not to go quietly into the night."

Blessed said he was hopeful YouthBuild and other service programs would survive the budget cuts.

"We are going to continue doing what we are doing," he said. "We are committed to it regardless of what happens. There are always ups and downs."