
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, February 27, 1995                   TAG: 9503010003
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KRISTI GRASS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

AMERICORPS IS AT WORK RIGHT HERE

AS THE middle of Bill Clinton's term as president of the United States comes and goes, people have been analyzing his policies and initiatives. While other programs have received more media coverage, it is AmeriCorps, his national service initiative, that has actually gotten past the talk and hype and is doing some good for our country.

Critics of AmeriCorps need to look at the bigger picture of national service. They need to quit number-crunching and realize the tremendous benefits to all those involved in the program, from the AmeriCorps members to the volunteers they recruit and the people they serve.

The main tenets of AmeriCorps - to serve others, to serve the community and to learn valuable job skills - are employed not just by the AmeriCorps members, but also by the volunteers they recruit. It is a requirement of AmeriCorps members, "coerced volunteers" as Newt Gingrich calls them, not only to work on a project but to recruit "true volunteers," volunteers who are not paid.

Inner-city kids recruited by an AmeriCorps program to help plant trees in their neighborhoods are as much a part of the plan as the AmeriCorps members themselves. But critics are not counting these volunteers in their budgetary concerns.

So while the AmeriCorps members will receive just under $7,000 for their 900 hours of service, they also will have enlisted another 25 volunteers to work for the cause. Twenty-six people working for a total of $7,000 seems like a pretty good deal to me.

But who cares what AmeriCorps is doing for people in big cities around the country? What is it accomplishing in the Roanoke Valley? Plenty.

The Blue Ridge Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society is home to two AmeriCorps members, one in Charlottesville and one in Roanoke. As part of the Bridge to Independence program of AmeriCorps, these two volunteers are working to improve the living conditions of people with MS through increased accessibility and more service programs to those with the disease who are homebound.

The services are designed to affect not only those with MS, but also those who live with, work with or serve them. Project Access: Visibility and Education, for example, is concerned with raising awareness of accessibility issues in the Roanoke Valley. Volunteers perform accessibility checks on area establishments and provide tips on how merchants can increase their accessibility.

The companion-services and chore-services programs are designed to provide care-givers a much-needed break from their demanding duties. And finally, a weekly telephone peer contact is set up to increase the access of people with MS to their peers in the area.

These services will enlist the help of the local Girl Scout chapter and the Blue Ridge Independent Living Center, as well as many college groups and area business people. The community-building and new skills learned by these volunteers are additional factors that are not addressed in arguments against AmeriCorps.

To see the benefits of AmeriCorps, opponents should zoom out and look at the whole picture instead of focusing on just the immediate costs. At the same time, residents of the Roanoke Valley should zoom in and see how this large picture of national service is affecting their own neighborhoods.

Kristi Grass is a part-time AmeriCorps member with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society in Roanoke. She graduated from Virginia Tech and is using her educational award to attend graduate school in corporate and professional communication at Radford University.

by CNB