MAKE THE CALL: Tuesday, March 15th   

1. TODAY: Visit saveservice.org and pledge to Make the Call to Save Service.  This is a simple and powerful way for you to share the impact service is having in your community, and why you care deeply about this issue.  Please put Austin AmeriCorps Alums as your organizational affiliation.
   
2. TOMORROW: Review talking points and how our Texas Senators voted.*
   
3. TUESDAY: MAKE THE CALL. Help us Save Service by putting 10 minutes on your calendar to use the tools and 1-800 number on saveservice.org to be connected directly to your senator. 
   

*On March 9th both Senator Cornyn and Senator Hutchison voted in favor of H.R. 1 (which eliminates funding for CNCS) and voted in opposition of the Senate Alternative (which sustains funding for CNCS).  We will be calling our senators to urge to them to reconsider their March 9th vote and keep funding for the Corporation for National and Community Service. 

Help Spread the Word

• After you pledge, enter 10 email addresses to send the pledge to also.

• Attend Make the Call event on Facebook, and invite others to do so as well.

• Ask everyone you know, your mom, your neighbor, your second cousin's boyfriend, to help save service and direct them to www.austinamericorpsalums.org or www.saveservice.org!
  

Talking Points

• If you shut down or cut the Corporation for National and Community Service, you will decimate vital services in our communities when millions of Americans need food, shelter, healthcare, job training and educational support. 
• Communities are counting on national service participants and community volunteers to meet the increased demand for services. 
• Provide an example of your local impact and what will be lost if your program is eliminated.  See Fast Facts below for Texas.
  
• Cutting AmeriCorps will only push unemployment rates up.  Unemployment numbers -- particularly for young people, veterans and military spouses, older Americans and people of color -- remain alarmingly high.   
• For Americans who are struggling to find work, national service programs offer participants the opportunity to earn a subsistence-level stipend, develop skills, and create pathways to future employment.  Eliminating programs like AmeriCorps, Foster Grandparents and Senior Companions will result in jobs lost for the service participants and the staff who supervise them. 
• The federal investment made in faith based and community organizations through the Corporation for National and Community Service leverages $799 million in matching funds from companies, foundations and other sources.  
• If you defund the national service programs, whole organizations will shut down and most will not be able to reopen again even if funding is restored.  
  

2010-2011 Texas AmeriCorps Fast Facts

• 10,954 volunteers were recruited, coordinated, or supported by Texas AmeriCorps Programs
• 51,403 disadvantaged children were served by Texas AmeriCorps Programs
• 15,094 individuals were mentored
• 2,977 clients received independent living service
• $7,251,355 was leveraged this year in matching funds to support AmeriCorps Programs
• 1,559 AmeriCorps members currently serve in Texas