Media Advisory: Expanding AmeriCorps Critical to Post-9/11 World

James Joseph, one of AmeriCorps' founders and a former U.S. ambassador to South Africa, on Friday (Sept. 5) called for a renewed commitment to public service through expansion of the national youth service organization.

"In the 21st century, national service should be a part of what it means to be an American citizen," said Joseph, now a Duke University professor who also directs the U.S.-Southern Africa Center for Leadership and Public Values at Duke's Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy. "Last year, the members of AmeriCorps numbered 50,000 and this year it has been reduced to 30,000. I urge Congress to pass President Bush's budget proposal to grow the corps to 75,000."

Joseph is one of more than 600 "Voices for AmeriCorps" speaking this week in Washington, D.C., in support of the national service program, which seeks congressional backing for President Bush's 2004 proposal to more than double membership. Full-time AmeriCorps members work in nonprofits, public agencies and faith-based organizations. In return, they are eligible for funds for college tuition or to pay back student loans.

In remarks prepared for Friday's speech, Joseph said, "We have an unprecedented opportunity to help make real the ideals on which our nation was founded. AmeriCorps is not a Republican idea nor is it a Democratic idea. It is an American idea whose time has come. It would be a tragedy of enormous proportion if we allowed the crisis now confronting AmeriCorps to diminish or damage this great opportunity for civic engagement. '

"It was my great privilege to serve as the United States Ambassador to South Africa during the time of Nelson Mandela's presidency. I was drawn to the concept of community he often referred to as ubuntu. It is best expressed by the Xhosa proverb 'People are people through other people,' which is to say that my humanity is bound up in yours. '

"The highest praise that can be given anyone in South Africa is to say that he or she has ubuntu, which means that they are generous, hospitable, friendly, caring and compassionate. And, of course, they are forgiving. It is this spirit of ubuntu that is promoted and developed in those who serve our communities through AmeriCorps.

"That is why I am convinced that community service is an idea whose time has come and must be continued. AmeriCorps provides not only help, but also hope, the kind of hope that Vaclav Havel had in mind when he wrote, 'I am not an optimist because I do not believe that everything ends well. I am not a pessimist because I do not believe that every thing ends badly, but I could not accomplish anything if I did not have hope within me. For the gift of hope is as big a gift as the gift of life itself.' When asked why they are engaged in community service, many young people understand that they are providing not simply help, but hope, and the gift of hope is as big a gift as the gift of life itself."