The national AmeriCorps program is marking its 20th anniversary.
Hundreds of new AmeriCorps volunteers were sworn in today in Lansing and Detroit.
Carolyn Bloodworth is the chair of the Michigan Community Service Commission. The commission oversees the nearly 1,000 AmeriCorps members in the state. Bloodworth says during the past two decades, thousands of AmeriCorps members have provided an “additional arm and a leg” to many programs in Michigan.
“There’s a lot of work being done in education, health, even with public safety,” says Bloodworth.
Critics complain AmeriCorps volunteers are not really ‘volunteers’, since they receive a stipend from the federal government.
But Bloodworth says the stipend is not really enough to support the AmeriCorps volunteers.
