bridging the divide Archives - The Mission Continues Blog

March 11, 2017

The military isn’t the only way one can be of service to country.

The drive to serve isn’t borne by servicemembers and veterans alone; it is the flag under which veterans and civilians unite.

An integral part of our philosophy is that while continued service can play an important role in veterans’ lives, change can only happen when we join hands with the next generation of Americans: our youth. Just as we enlist veterans to serve where their community needs it most, AmeriCorps enlists young adults to do the same.

In our experience, both AmeriCorps alumni and veterans come away from their experience with a drive to continue serving. While it’s no question that the military and AmeriCorps are vastly different, there are a few notable common threads. Like the military, AmeriCorps provides young adults in their formative years a unique opportunity to shape their careers, experience comradery, grow personally, find their niche, and even find a sense of purpose. In this way, government programs like AmeriCorps are an important part of the service ecosystem in which we live. Continue reading “AmeriCorps: Another Way to Serve Your Country”

September 30, 2015
by Jessica Peter

Jessica addresses volunteers at a service project, July 2015.

I’ve worked professionally with volunteers for a decade now. I meet a lot of people. Hundreds. Some I see every day, and others every now and then. Many others I just see once and never again.

It’s my job to give them missions, find tasks that suit their talents, work alongside them, even become their friends. They are all just people looking for a little fulfillment or a sense of purpose. They serve, they get warm fuzzies, and they carry on with their lives.

Now I work for The Mission Continues. The bulk of our volunteers are veterans, and some of them are figuring out what’s next. Which doesn’t sound too different than most people I know. You don’t have to return from a battlefield or leave the military to be uncertain about what the future will bring.

But when I tell people that I help put veterans in a position to improve their communities, I typically get two types of responses.

The first? Hero worship.

Continue reading “To Truly Serve Together, The Walls Must Come Down”