In the United States, we have this idea that hard work, persistence and determination will grant us the American Dream. But there is a bigger difference between those who have and those who have not than cannot be accounted for by work ethic.

Those who have are better educated and have higher paying jobs, lower rates of unemployment and generally better health. Those who have not are stuck with bad schools, inadequate health care, poor housing and a general sense of hopelessness.

Certainly there are wealthy people who have not worked for what they have and there are those in poverty who are not working toward moving out of it. But many struggling to make it are hardworking people stuck in the cycle of poverty.

In poorer regions, like the Mississippi Delta, schools are understaffed and have incredibly high dropout rates. There is a high rate of teenage pregnancy and few people are able to move away. Organizations like AmeriCorps work with these people to help them improve their own lives.

AmeriCorps is made up of full-time volunteers who are paid the basic amount they need to live. While this organization focuses on helping impoverished communities, it also gives volunteers some money to put toward college. It prepares and trains them—typically fresh graduates from both high school and college—to lead, organize and help.

AmeriCorps is a large, nation-wide organization created in 1994 to essentially act as an army of volunteers working on critical social issues like poverty, education, public safety and the environment. AmeriCorps contains within it thousands of other organizations such as Teach for America and Public Allies. It also supports and provide manpower for many groups including the American Red Cross and Big Brothers Big Sisters.

The services provided by AmeriCorps members are numerous and include teaching and tutoring at-risk children, assisting in emergency situations like Hurricane Katrina, working at homeless shelters, fundraising for organizations and working for extended periods of time in communities to address their specific needs.

Considering how varied the work is and how much AmeriCorps does for this country, it is shocking that last week Republicans in the House were able to pass a bill to stop funding for it. The justification is that we need to slim our budget down. However, is it more important to increase our already excessive defense budget at the expense of organizations like AmeriCorps? No. Cutting AmeriCorps means losing jobs. More than that, it means this group of people who willingly volunteer to work in low-income areas and take on social problems will no longer be working toward solutions. The people they should have helped will remain unassisted, and the communities they were supposed to bring back from the gutters will stay where they are.

It’s a matter of worth. Yes, Americorps requires spending federal money that we do not really have. But the wide range of people and issues that AmeriCorps addresses, while requiring relatively little funding, makes it worthwhile. Americans volunteer an impressive amount of time, but only 10 percent of these recorded hours are spent on those in need and less than 4 percent are spent on at-risk children.

It is unreasonable to think that, without AmeriCorps, the void left by it would be filled with other volunteers. From small projects, like raising money for a battered women’s shelter, to larger projects, like spending two years as a high school teacher in a depressed inner city, these volunteers are qualified people who do the jobs that others will not—all for little pay. They get paid to do valuable work, work that would otherwise cost much more to do or never get done at all. Federal funding keeps the organization alive so that it can adapt to new situations and continue to provide quality care.

The government is supposed to be working for the people, and Change.org’s successful petition to save AmeriCorps should be proof enough that the people support this program. Within a week, the petition gathered over 100,000 signatures, and that number continues to grow.

People want and need this organization. Social problems, when ignored, are costly to taxpayers, and AmeriCorps effectively works to tackle these problems. Without AmeriCorps, these issues would not be addressed and would end up costing us more. Furthermore, the organizaton creates strong leaders, gives low-income people the education and assistance they deserve, gives volunteers money to go to college and provides so many more services for our country. AmeriCorps is worth it.