What it’s like to be in AmeriCorps in 2025

By Christine Dodson, AmeriCorps ADA Educator for Disability Empowerment Center

My first AmeriCorps term was as a VISTA in 2014. I served  SeaMar Community Health building a database of 7,000 resources to bridge the gap in accessing healthcare in Pierce County. At that time, new AmeriCorps members were treated to a three-day orientation weekend in Portland. We attended seminars and workshops, grew our team strength and left feeling like we could accomplish any task set before us. 

After my initial year, I took a few years off due to medical issues and surgeries. 

My next AmeriCorps position was in 2018 at a family shelter in Tacoma where I was the elementary childcare specialist.  But, when COVID came, everyone at the shelter was in lockdown, so I went in service to the shelter in their industrial kitchen preparing meals and distributing them. I also created a book and toy lending library so the kids in the shelter could borrow toys and books once per week during lockdown. Kids also benefited from a weekly newsletter that I wrote for them with pictures to color, puzzles to solve and COVID facts about staying healthy.

Then came the summer of 2021, and my role was to distribute free lunches to kids in West Seattle. I knew of a used book organization that came to us with books to distribute to the kids. We gave away 1,800 books that summer. We also had a popsicle pop-up event with the Seahawks and their mascot.

Later in 2021 I went in service as a VISTA to a housing authority that was giving out 2,000 laptop computers to their tenants.  I was called in to make sense of it all and write the “train the trainer” piece of the project.

From there I went onto another Summer HungerCorps position at Mercy Housing in Summer 2023. The population of kids there was much different than the previous neighborhood where I distributed lunches. Mercy Housing was 30% Latinx and 70% refugees from Iraq, Syria and Ethiopia.

During the 2023-24 school year I was in service to the Federal Way School District as an AVID tutor in a high school.  I tutored students using the Socratic method and helped them plan for their next steps after high school.

In October 2024, I started at Disability Empowerment Center.  I have been tasked with assembling volunteers to canvas all of Seattle and find out which commercial/public accommodations are following ADA protocols.  Businesses will then be listed on an online director/database called Blue Path.  The business also receives a prominent window sticker to proclaim their accessibility.

How AmeriCorps is valued at the federal level has changed over the course of my service.

In 2020, the federal government’s executive branch decided that AmeriCorps needed a new, updated and modern logo.  Alongside this order, they also wanted a new website.  These changes were implemented as part of the agency’s “Transformation and Sustainability Plan” to increase awareness of the AmeriCorps mission and also increase opportunities for service.

Fast forward five years and the current executive branch moved to completely defund AmeriCorps this spring stating how wasteful it is. The team at Disability Empowerment Center was forced to put me and my co-AmeriCorps member on administrative leave. We all crossed our fingers that the government would change course and return funding to the program.

It was especially frustrating because this same administration not only caused waste by insisting upon the previous rebranding, but also failed to see the cost savings that were made when orientation went virtual in recent years.

AmeriCorps serves the people. I have served seniors seeking medical care, Afghani children learning American norms and mores, moderate-income families receiving their first computer and teaching them how to effectively use it. I have eased the trauma of homeless children with play and compassion, helped children eat nutritious food and watched them choose to read books to their parents in the grass before playing on the playground and helped first generation college-bound high school students reach their highest potential.  My work was done at minimum wage in the counties where I served. Given that I have a Master’s of Public Administration and a Master’s of Teaching and Learning with Technology, my salary could have been upwards of $75,000 per year in the private sector. 

I urge the administration to consider what each and every AmeriCorps member brings to the table and the loss of services to people if the grant money is suddenly gone.

In the spirit of service, I waited through this spring’s administrative hold and was happy when funding was returned to the program. I am proud to say that I am back in service today thanks to the balance of power in our country.