ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 5, 1996 TAG: 9604050094
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
AMERICORPS, the national service program that has become a touchy topic on Capitol Hill, is at work here in Roanoke.
Michael Hurlocker was in limbo after graduating from Radford University last year.
He wanted to pursue a master's degree in social work. But he also wanted to get some experience in his chosen field - a kind of introduction to the real world, he said.
Hurlocker, 23, wound up in Volunteers in Service to America, a 31-year-old program that joined forces three years ago with AmeriCorps, President Clinton's much-praised and much-criticized national service program.
Since last August, Hurlocker has worked as agency relations technician for the Southwest Virginia Second Harvest FoodBank, a Roanoke agency that distributes food to 593 nonprofit agencies that feed the hungry. His tasks are varied - from acting as a customer relations contact to introducing agencies in the rural corners of Southwest Virginia to the food bank's services.
It's experience that would be hard for a student fresh out of college to match, he said. For his efforts, Hurlocker gets a $600 government-funded monthly living stipend - a little less than minimum wage, he said - and the promise of $4,725 at the end of his year of service to use for graduate courses this fall.
Monthly income is tailored to reflect that of the communities being served. Traditionally, they are low-income pockets of the country. Consequently, the wages are low.
No matter, Hurlocker said. He is more concerned with getting experience in the "helping field."
"I'm going to be working with social service for the rest of my life," he said. "This was a way to go get a year's worth of experience and some college money. When the VISTA thing came about, I seized the opportunity. I felt it was something I needed to do now."
More than three decades old, VISTA is a federal program whose funding was cut in half in the early 1980s under former President Ronald Reagan. Since then, with the resurgence of community service, funding has been restored, but slowly.
When the federal Corporation for National Service was established in 1993 to oversee all types of national service initiatives, VISTA was merged with the then newly created AmeriCorps. VISTA became "AmeriCorps VISTA."
Despite the shift in its association, VISTA has remained true to its original mission of strengthening and supplementing efforts to eliminate poverty. The primary difference under the AmeriCorps banner is that VISTA participants are eligible for the annual grant of $4,725 to use for tuition or to repay student loans - the centerpiece of the AmeriCorps program.
AmeriCorps has been lauded, criticized, debated and audited extensively since its premiere in 1993. It was touted as a domestic Peace Corps, an opportunity for people to serve their country and earn education awards in return. An estimated 25,000 people participate in AmeriCorps programs - more than the number of Peace Corps volunteers at its peak in the 1960s.
AmeriCorps has become a political football, with Republicans denouncing the program as a waste, and Democrats backing AmeriCorps' mission to "get things done." The program has become a symbol in the debate over federal funding priorities.
"It's partisan," said Lindsay Scott, Virginia state program director for the Corporation for National and Community Service. "Democrats are for it. Republicans, by and large, are against it."
AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps VISTA receive money from two different funding streams. AmeriCorps' funding comes out of appropriations for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Veterans Affairs and independent agencies.
AmeriCorps VISTA's funding comes out of appropriations for the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Labor and programs such as the federally funded Foster Grandparents.
Scott said AmeriCorps is operating under the continuing budget resolution with funding slightly below the $468 million allocation for 1994-95. AmeriCorps VISTA has 20-25 percent less than its $48 million 1994-95 budget. Bills that would restore most of the AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps VISTA funding are stalled in Congress, he said.
The budget haggling made jarring introductions to the real world for Hurlocker and Rebecca Hess, another AmeriCorps VISTA worker at the food bank.
Both lost about a month of their year of service when the federal government shut down last November and again right before Christmas.
"I started working on making gifts last Christmas," Hess said of time spent during the shutdown.
Funding cutbacks also have reduced AmeriCorps participants' length of service. Initially, participants could serve up to five years. That has been reduced to two.
Hess, a 23-year-old Radford University graduate, works as the food bank's volunteer coordinator. She arranges volunteer work at the food bank, conducts nutrition workshops and coordinates food drives. She also has worked with teen mothers, elementary school children and people struggling in detoxification centers.
Hess said she would tell critics of AmeriCorps to experience it firsthand before lashing out.
"It's a way to give," she said. "All the program does is benefit society."
AmeriCorps funding is allocated to states in three forms: money based on population; grants to national service organizations; and a pot of money that states compete for nationally.
Virginia received $2.6 million in AmeriCorps funding and had 233 participants in the 1994-95 fiscal year. North Carolina, by comparison, received $4.9 million and had 725 participants.
Some who work with AmeriCorps efforts in Virginia have said the program has not been embraced within the state for political reasons.
But Katie Campbell, director of the state's Office of Volunteerism, said AmeriCorps programs in Virginia are strong and her office has fought to give those programs technical assistance and support.
"But we've been balancing that with the recognition that we don't want to become overly dependent on federal dollars and trying to find the right mix of national service and community service," she said.
LENGTH: Long : 115 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: WAYNE DEEL/Staff. AmeriCorps volunteer Michael Hurlockerby CNBputs together an order for an agency at the Second Harvest FoodBank.
color. Graphic: Chart by staff: AmeriCorps funding and
participants.