Heinrich to join UNM Service Corps for project

U.S. Rep. Martin Heinrich will receive the first-ever New Mexico Distinguished AmeriCorps Alumni Award for his leadership. Rep. Heinrich is the only member of Congress to have graduated from the national AmeriCorps service program since it took its current form, and he is one of more than 6,300 New Mexico residents to have completed a year-long stint since 1994. The award will be presented Monday, May 17 at a ceremony along with representatives from the Commission for Community Volunteerism, Center for Philanthropic Partnership and other special guests.

He will also roll up his sleeves and return to his roots by working in a landscaping project at Amigos Y Amigas, a non-profit, grassroots, neighborhood-based organization that provides services to families-at-risk. Joining the Representative in the service project will be members of the Commission, The NM Forum for Youth in Community AmeriCorps*VISTA Cadre Project, UNM Service Corps and the Public Allies AmeriCorps programs.

"We're proud to have such a visible champion showing where voluntary service can lead," said Gregory Webb, executive director of the Commission for Community Volunteerism, which oversees the AmeriCorps program in New Mexico. "We're seeing a new generation that understands innovation and the leveraging of resources to improve communities."

New Mexicans have given nearly 6 million hours of service through volunteer programs, which nationally helped more than 4,000 nonprofit, faith-based, or community organizations last year. A recent Corporation for National Community Service report said New Mexicans as a whole give the equivalent of nearly $1 billion a year in volunteer hours.

New Mexico was also the first state to have a Blueprint for Community Engagement—a coordinated plan to increase volunteerism—a model which has been influential nationally in the service sector. There are currently 550,000 alumni of AmeriCorps National Service continuing to act as agents of change in their communities.