As a graduate of a branch of AmeriCorps called NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps)—which is a kind of modern CCC—I saw first hand the program’s importance in addressing a number of unmet needs, from tutoring and mentoring troubled kids in urban Sacramento to helping rebuild the Gulf Coast after the devastating hurricanes of 2005. Without my team (and the others we worked with), there would be swaths of coastal Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, and Florida with debris still littering their yards and thousands still living in FEMA trailers on empty lots. While there are large numbers of volunteers from around the world still dedicating spring breaks and summer vacation to the rebuilding effort, it’s often AmeriCorps members leading the volunteers or working the front offices of the non-profits who recruit them. It’s the one area of hurricane rebuilding that has been supported by the federal government, even while President Bush turned a blind eye to hundreds of thousands of Americans in a three-year-old emergency.

But so much of what AmeriCorps members do is on a smaller scale than rebuilding entire communities after disasters. We boost organizations with free employees in thousands of offices around the country. Daily, we tutor kids, build community gardens, clean up waterways, and run after-school programs. It’s a kind of domestic Peace Corps that is strengthening America in a behind-the-scenes way that deserves this recent expansion.

During my team’s time in the Sacramento school, student attendance rose and behavior improved, with fewer kids sent to the principal’s office. We were able to give kids who were falling behind individual attention in the classroom when even the most conscientious of teachers were too busy trying to prepare students for standardized tests by teaching a strict curriculum to stop and help a child who barely knew English or had trouble paying attention. Our work with those kids has hopefully kept at least a few from becoming so frustrated with school that they stop caring and start misbehaving, leading to a lifetime of delinquency. It all starts with holding a troubled first grader’s hand on a school playground.

Some may argue that it’s not the tax payer’s job to provide non-profits or schools with pro bono employees. But this seems a little myopic. I believe the AmeriCorps program is an investment by the government—and tax payers—in the long-term health of the country. For some young members of AmeriCorps, particularly with NCCC (whose ranks are limited to 18-24 year olds), the program provides job skills or a general direction in life. Others receive a way to pay for college, as many graduates earn an education award. I’ve already addressed the fact that members serve in communities with unmet needs; it’s cheaper for the government to pay “living stipends” than for non-profits to have these volunteers—which they essentially are—on the pay roll. And the people who choose these jobs likely are not in it for the money.

Long term, AmeriCorps members strengthen the country beyond the immediate effects of their good work. The program creates a network of citizens who are invested, weaved into the social fabric of their communities and of their country, ensuring they will continue to participate and volunteer long after they complete their terms of service. A participatory democracy is a strong one, one where its citizens are informed, passionate, and active in solving the problems affecting the nation. And research shows that AmeriCorps graduates have high rates of volunteerism later in life. It creates a civilian army of volunteers, whose work is indispensable—whether there’s a large-scale disaster or a problem plaguing a particular community. The returns on this investment are high.

Many people I worked with in New Orleans now sport fleur-de-lis tattoos and hold a special place for the city in their hearts—one that will likely move them beyond complacency when/if disaster strikes again, just as my investment in Sacramento causes me to be more intimately concerned with the prospect of a flood in that city, for example.

If one day asked, as a tax payer, to help foot the bill to rebuild Sacramento after a flood, I will be less likely to look at that disaster as “not my problem,” because it is my problem; I was once a part of that community and have invested my time there, just as I have in many other places because of my AmeriCorps experiences.

Living and working among a group of people, as AmeriCorps members do, is an immersion experience that develops a deeper kind of compassion—and understanding—for those communities and those problems. It’s probably easy for most of us to feel empathy towards a struggling child, but it’s a different thing entirely to know that child’s problems, to know what they go home to, and to help them succeed. This has translated into a deeper understanding of the problems facing children across the country, who are no longer anonymous. They are Eduardo, Lawrence and Kim, and I know firsthand what happens when red tape and shoddy legislation interfere with their education. It is a visceral understanding that inspires a more aware, more involved American citizen.

A country is strong only when its citizens are invested and involved, and where blighted communities are able to thrive anew. AmeriCorps gets the job done, and Congress and the President are right to give it a boost.

My team taking a break from gutting a building in rural Louisiana last spring