"We Serve" Seeks To Empower National Service Alumni

Online, June 11, 2010 (Newswire.com) - WASHINGTON D.C., June 9, 2010 - ServiceNation and AmeriCorps Alums today launched WE SERVE, a national partnership to connect national service alumni with service opportunities in their communities and advance the deeply rooted service movement in America.

According to the Corporation for National and Community Service, there are more than 600,000 national service alumni, but less than ten percent are registered with AmeriCorps Alums, the official alumni organization.

"Most AmeriCorps members don't know that they have to register with us," says Amity Tripp, Executive Director of AmeriCorps Alums. "They think that, like after college, you are automatically on the alumni association's mailing list. But because AmeriCorps is a government-managed program, we can only reach the alums who opt-in to our system."

"AmeriCorps Alumni represent a huge, untapped group of potential volunteers who have the energy, idealism and networks to do great things in their communities," said Greg Propper, executive director of ServiceNation. "By connecting those who have already volunteered and are eager to volunteer again, WE SERVE will help ServiceNation reach our 2020 goal of engaging 100 million Americans in community volunteering and an additional one million in full- and part-time stipended national service per year."

To date, AmeriCorps members have given more than 775 million hours of service to hundreds of organizations in the United States and its territories. AmeriCorps members last year mobilized 2.4 million community volunteers for the organizations they serve.

AmeriCorps alums - anyone who has completed a term of national service, including NCCC, VISTA and pre-AmeriCorps VISTA - are encouraged to visit www.didyouservewith.us and register as part of WE SERVE. All AmeriCorps alums who register receive a coupon to the AmeriCorps Alums store and are entered in a drawing for one of ten gift cards to Target worth $100 a piece. A drawing based on referrals will award the Grand Prize - autographed memorabilia from ServiceNation Youth Chair Usher.

The WE SERVE outreach contest will end at 5pm EST, June 30th at the close of the National Conference on Volunteering and Service.

About AmeriCorps Alums
AmeriCorps Alums creates a force for change in America's communities by empowering national service alumni with the tools and resources they need for a lifetime of civic leadership. Providing everything from service engagements and organizing tools to networking opportunities and national recognition, AmeriCorps Alums serves civic leaders so they can serve America. AmeriCorps Alums has more than 100 chapters working to strengthen communities and create change at the local level. For more information visit www.americorpsalums.org. AmeriCorps Alums is an integral part of Points of Light Institute's Civic Incubator.

About ServiceNation
ServiceNation is a national campaign to increase service opportunities and elevate service as a core ideal and problem-solving strategy in American society. Reaching an estimated 100 million citizens through its 250 member groups, ServiceNation played a leading role in the drafting and April 2009 enactment of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, which authorizes the greatest expansion of national service in America since FDR created the Civilian Conservation Corps. Now that the Act has passed, the ServiceNation coalition is working to inspire a powerful culture of volunteerism in our country. We envision an America in which a commonly asked question is, "Where do you serve?" For more information, visit www.servicenation.org.

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