This is what happens when I live in a bubble for a year. Apparently Gonzales retired in shame, too.

[timepiececlock]

ShakaDada: blah blah blah all tv will disappear next year blah blah
Rashaka: Wait stop one minute, hey, WHAT?
ShakaDada: Your tv won't work on broadcast channels next year; it's all going digital. No more free tv. But we might get free internet soon.
Rashaka: Did everyone else know this?
ShakaDada: Pretty much everyone but you.

Comments

[kimera.livejournal.com]

Haha I had no idea either! Then again, according to Wiki, the digital switchover won't be happening in Canada till 2011. And I don't have TV in the first place (well, I do, but no service for it), I just download all my shows. Though it's possible that could change in three years...

[scathachdhu.livejournal.com]

Don't feel bad. I wasn't in a bubble, and I still had to hear from my grandmother.

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

the only reason I know is because a girl down the hall's dad is in charge of writing the help manuals for all the cable companies. Or something like that.

I missed Gonzales's stepping down too, don't worry.

out of curiosity, how much did you feel you actually accomplished with the whole AmeriCorps thing? Was it more the satisfaction of helping individuals, or did it give you a sense of maybe what to do to fix the overall problems involved? Is the program geared towards one or the other? *curious*

1

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

AmeriCorps programs cover a huge range of community service efforts over the whole country, so you can't really say it exists to "solve" anything in particular. One project might finish and reach a desired goal-- to build a volunteer center, for example, or perhaps to design and implement a reading program for school kids. Or if your project is to remove invasive plant species from X number of acres, you might finish that. Small projects can be completed, but they're all different so there's never an "overall" problem that can be fixed. Many projects are also long-term by nature; my first project in Mississippi was to staff a volunteer housing operation, and there was group before us and a group that continued after us, and teams were requested for as long as the volunteer center was open (they closed about 4 months after we left.)

As to the program being geared to one or another... AmeriCorps is geared to helping in these five areas:
Education
Environment
Unmet Human Needs
Public Safety
Disaster Response

Normally AmeriCorps projects happen all over the U.S. for varrying durations, though usually a person is a member for 10 months, where they will typically have 1 project or program, unless they do NCCC like I did and have multiple projects in different locations.


As for efficacy, my NCCC campus in Denver, which is one of 3 NCCC campuses (and that is only one part of AmeriCorps), had about 300 people finish the year. The minimum number of hours to graduate is 1700 service hours (including about a month training) and 80 individual service hours. Most people get around 1800 or 1900 by the end of the year; you really have to miss work days not to make your minimum amount. Multiply those together, and the Denver Campus put out over 500,000 service hours in a 10 month period.

Probably 3/4 of that went to work in the Gulf Coast dealing with post-hurricane human needs projects (housing, food, data gathering, disaster recovery), which before 2005 would not have been the case. My class and the class before us worked maybe one project on environment or education and the rest on unmet human needs, and instead of 4 projects in our intended regional states we spent 1 of 4, and some spent all 4 projects in the Gulf.

The federal goverment (which funds AmeriCorps) directed from the national office that a significant amount of NCCC work hours be done in the South since there was an extreme need. I assume, based on how many non-NCCC Americorps people I met in the Gulf, that other projects and branches were similarly directed to focus there. Are we able to fix the overall problems there? Not a chance. Even with hundreds (and I do mean over 500) AmeriCorps people of different programs in the Gulf states in 2006 and 2007, we can only make a small dent in the problems that can only be solved by the local governments and populations in the long term. Millions of hours of volunteer labor helped families and helped people (and immediately after the hurricane AmeriCorps people provided necessary support to Red Cross Disaster Response efforts, giving them trained hands to get people to shelters and food to people) but what needs to be fixed is much deeper and more political than non-profit programs can provide. The long-term damage to communities is unbelievable, and the local situations are so politicized with who gets help or funds from the state first agencies first.

2

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

For me, it was the satisfaction of helping individuals. The AmeriCorps program itself is designed to give Americans (young or old, anyone over 18) a long-term commitment framework with which to donate their time and energy to community service. The programs and training are also specifically designed to teach corps members the skills and the range of opportunities with which to volunteer in the future. The programs teach you about community service, teach you about non-profits, and induct you into that lifestyle of volunteering. It's a lot of leadership stuff and a lot of organizing stuff. They're coaching people to take what they learn from service and carry it into the future. It's mostly an investment in fixing communities on a project-to-project basis, but it's also partly an investment in changing americans to be more socially conscious.

A lot of times AmeriCorps members are labor for other nonprofits, big or small. This may be the Red Cross (during disaster situations), Habitat for Humanity, Salvation Army, City Year, etc. I worked for 5 nonprofit organizations while I was in Americorps. Or you might work for a school, or a county.


This is a fairly accurate comment from Wikipedia's AmeriCorps entry:

While ongoing discussion has occurred about the range and efficacy of evaluating the successes of AmeriCorps[6], there has been a variety of documentation supporting the program. AmeriCorps provided fiscal and personnel to support the start-up of innovative new national programs, including City Year, Public Allies and Teach for America. It also brought vital resources to established programs, including Boys and Girls Club, Big Brothers Big Sisters and the American Red Cross.[7]

AmeriCorps is reported to increase the effectiveness of community service. Successes for individual AmeriCorps members include increasing their commitment to community service, increasing community-based activism, connection to their communities, knowledge of community problems, engagement in the political process, and voting participation.[8][9]

[clodia-risa.livejournal.com]

The thing is that it's only going to affect people with bunny ears on their TVs - I know that it will affect people, but I'm curious how many that actually is.

[yogashiya.livejournal.com]

It flipping sucks! I feel bad for the people who can't afford new TVs and cable.