The Americorps model focuses on putting people to work, and it succeeds in leveraging other community members to get involved in solving local problems, Gold said.

Prospects for Securing Other Funding

Opinions also differ on the possibilities for the survival of local programs if national funds are taken away.

Dickerson, of the Republican club, said that taking away national funding would not irreparably damage the programs or the communities they serve.

"[The funding is] not needed. It's not necessary," Dickerson said. "A lot of these community service programs can look other places for funding such as churches, the state, and big corporate donors."

Other Harvard students were less optimistic about the ability of community service programs to continue to offer the same level of programming.

Jeanifer L. Oser '97, an Americorps A.C.T. participant, said that the effect on Cambridge is potentially quite significant.

"The ACT program was developed in response to a perceived community need to help support middle school children in school, and this support will no longer exist," Oser said.

She added that many service programs that "have just tested out their legs and learned good lessons from their successes and failures...will no longer exist."

Han says she shares Oser's belief that the federal funding has improved local programming, and that the quality of services would decrease if federal funding were stopped.

"With the ability to pay people instead of relying on volunteer commitment, the non-profits can extend their commitments to the communities and provide better services," Han said.

What is important, she said, is that it allows existing programs to increase the quality of their services, and create incentives for students to get involved in community programs.

Summerbridge, for example, would not be able to employ a year-round afterschool program coordinator without the Americorps money, Han said.

"Our afterschool program has improved in leaps and bounds and is greatly strengthened by the people who staff it," Han said.

Some Harvard Americorps participants said that the greatest potential loss to the communities might be the students workers themselves.