1. United States
2. Ohio
3. Letter

For the last three decades, AmeriCorps members have responded to our country’s most immediate and critical needs. They are the “people power” that local nonprofit, faith-based, and community organizations rely on to deliver services and make a difference in local communities. While helping others, AmeriCorps members gain in-demand job skills and complete their service with increased employability and pathways to higher education, preparing them to succeed in the workforce. Each year, roughly 75,000 AmeriCorps members and 140,000 AmeriCorps Seniors address locally-determined needs in rural and urban communities across all 50 states, such as responding to natural disasters, tutoring students, combatting hunger and homelessness, connecting veterans to services, fighting the opioid epidemic, and much more.  The majority of AmeriCorps State and National funding is administered by states, not the federal government, to ensure governors – and state priorities – are front and center. As a public-private partnership, AmeriCorps is a unique example of federal government efficiency and tax dollar stewardship. For every dollar invested, AmeriCorps generates $17 in U.S. wide economic value through private matching funds and the services its members provide to students and seniors, veterans and their families, and disaster victims. It is a critically necessary way to support communities across the country. As your constituent, an Americorps alum, and a member of a small-town Ohio community built in part by today’s Americorps, I urge you to support the federal investment in AmeriCorps.