My name is Simone Carvalho and I am one of 3 AmeriCorps at the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty. We are often the authors behind the blog posts and the coordinators behind the scenes of the volunteer events. But who are we and what does it mean to be an AmeriCorps?
AmeriCorps is a program of the Corporation for National and Community Service . We help build capacity for Met Council and engage thousands of volunteers to meet the critical needs of our local community.
We are essentially full time volunteers and our day-to-day tasks vary greatly. I primarily handle our food access and wellness programming in Bronx, Queens, and Manhattan. My counterpart Jessica Cheng, runs our career readiness workshops. Irijah Stennett does it all but deals primarily with Brooklyn programming. The 3 of us have managed to accomplish A LOT in the short 10 months we have been here and we are sad to see our year long commitment come to a close.
As an AmeriCorps, I have had the opportunity to befriend others with a passion for service just like me. Who understand the staggering statistics, the powerful and positive effect of all our hard work that makes the struggle, meager pay, and long hours all the worthwhile.
Because being an AmeriCorps means living like the clients you serve, and in our case, living off food stamps and a small stipend.
Being an AmeriCorps means knowing exactly how much everything costs, down to the penny and translating it to food. You plan your meals based on what is on sale. Like choosing $0.10 ramen over $0.15 ramen because you can get 4 more packs with that 1 dollar. And you can do a lot with ramen.
It means mending your clothes with staples and glue just to
get a little more out of it.
It means always the library and never the book store. And it even carries DVD rentals.
But it also means networking with the powerful players in your community who are working just as hard to take action against hunger and poverty.
You will fall in love with your work and immediately see the impact of every little thing you do. Yes, even those emails are meaningful because it means more clients will be served.
I can speak for my fellow AmeriCorps in saying we are an optimistic and determined bunch! We have created and sustained over 20 volunteer programs, trained over 10 new volunteer leaders, engaged hundreds of volunteers in thousands of service hours, and impacted the lives of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers.
Our work will be sustained and expanded upon by the new batch of AmeriCorps that will fill our seats next. The experience I have had this year is unlike any other and I am so thankful for it. Whatever our next steps may be, I am sure that my colleagues and I won't forget the positive impact AmeriCorps has had on our lives and career.
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