Disadvantaged Youth, Teacher Corps Shape New Portfolio

Washington D.C.- Kicking off the first-ever AmeriCorps Week today, the Corporation for National and Community Service announced $172 million in new AmeriCorps grants and educational assistance. The 167 grantees won $90.9 million in funding to recruit and supervise 27,800 AmeriCorps members over the next year in serving communities across the country. These members, upon completing their service, could receive a total of up to $81.7 million in Segal AmeriCorps Education Awards to help pay for college or to pay back student loans.

Today’s grant announcement includes organizations that competed successfully to develop new AmeriCorps programs or to begin a new three year grant cycle. The Corporation has already announced more than $83 million in grants to organizations that in 2007 are completing their second or third year of their grant cycle. Later this summer, governor-appointed state commissions will announce AmeriCorps formula grants. Together with these continuation and formula grants, and with positions in AmeriCorps VISTA and AmeriCorps NCCC membership, today’s announcement puts AmeriCorps on track to hit 75,000 members in the 2007 grant cycle.

A complete list of grantees, amounts approved, and the numbers of AmeriCorps members to be supported is available by clicking here.

The grant announcement comes as the 13-year-old AmeriCorps program surges past 500,000 members this spring, one of the many accomplishments being recognized during AmeriCorps Week, May 13 to 20.

Upon entering the program, each AmeriCorps member takes a pledge to “get things done for America.” With these grants, organizations will put AmeriCorps members to work helping disadvantaged youth succeed in schools, providing emergency preparedness services, assisting rural communities, mentoring children of prisoners, providing higher education services, and mobilizing community volunteers.

“The programs are tackling some of the most pressing problems in communities across the United States,” said David Eisner, CEO of the Corporation, which administers AmeriCorps. “We are investing in organizations that have proved their ability to improve lives, and we are also supporting creative programs with strong models that will use AmeriCorps members to bring lasting change.”

The grants will fund recipients for three years, with second- and third-year funding contingent on performance and budget considerations. Some nonprofits approved for funding, such as Goodwill Industries, are new grantees while others have had previous grants and have been approved for another three years of funding. The Corporation approved grants directly to national organizations, programs operating through governor-appointed state commissions, territories and states without commissions and to American Indian tribes. Among the largest award recipients were: Habitat for Humanity, City Year, Teach for America, Jump Start, the Red Cross, Public Allies, and the National Association of Community Health Centers.

About 70 percent of the grants will support programs serving disadvantaged youth, such as YouthBuild USA, which recruits at-risk youth, ages 17-24, as AmeriCorps members to meet the housing and technology needs of their communities. Another is Sports4Kids, which seeks to improve the health and well-being of schoolchildren by placing AmeriCorps members as fulltime managers of playtime at schools struggling to balance physical activity with rigorous academic instruction.

In addition, the Corporation is strengthening its nationally funded Teacher Corps programs, which will bring more than 7,000 of the brightest college graduates into underserved schools. Three new Teacher Corps programs were funded in grants announced today. They join Teach for America and five existing Teacher Corps programs, most of which require members to pursue a master’s degree in education while teaching in the underserved schools. These programs present a model for bolstering education in public and parochial schools serving low-income families.

One program is the New York City Teaching Fellows, which was approved for a grant to continue its successful efforts to help public school students in low-income New York neighborhoods. Fellows account for half of the city’s new hires in mathematics and special education and two-thirds of new hires in bilingual education. The program’s 2,200 AmeriCorps members teach children during the school day while working toward their master’s of education degrees at City University of New York campuses. The results are promising, with 70 to 80 percent of AmeriCorps members in these programs choosing to remain in the classroom after three years.

Among other programs being funded:

• Goodwill Industries International’s Strengthening Goodwill Families Through AmeriCorps Teams was approved for a $441,000 grant to place 35 AmeriCorps members in distressed communities to help residents move out of poverty through skill development and other services that encourage career development. AmeriCorps members will recruit 800 additional volunteers to serve alongside them, with each volunteer serving at least 20 hours in Traverse City, MI; Honolulu, HI; St. Paul, MN; Wooster, OH; and numerous counties in Georgia.
      
• AmeriCorps Restoring Youth and Communities was approved for a $532,965 grant to enable 34 AmeriCorps members to work with young offenders in California who are either incarcerated or paroled, linking them with mentors and engaging them in meaningful service-learning projects. This program has great potential to revamp juvenile corrections programs.
      
• Lower Mississippi Delta Service Corps was approved for a $567,000 grant to place 45 AmeriCorps members in poverty-stricken areas in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi to serve disadvantaged youths (K-12) through school and summer enrichment programs. Members will provide education covering health, safety and disaster relief and recruit volunteers to build housing for low-income families.

“We have funded organizations that will best leverage the resources of AmeriCorps members to bring energy and hope to tackling some of the nation’s most difficult problems,” said AmeriCorps State and National Director Kristin McSwain. “We are pleased to support the innovative models that have emerged to complement existing programs that make progress in communities every day.”

The grants announced today represent only part of the grants to be made this year by AmeriCorps. In total, the fiscal year 2007 budget for AmeriCorps will support nearly 75,000 positions, the majority of which are awarded through Governor-appointed state service commissions. Most of the positions will be available starting in the fall. Interested individuals can learn about available opportunities and submit an online application by visiting www.americorps.gov.

AmeriCorps is administered by the Corporation for National and Community Service, which also oversees Senior Corps and Learn and Serve America. Together with the USA Freedom Corps, the Corporation is working to build a culture of service, citizenship, and responsibility in America. For more information, visit http://www.nationalservice.gov.

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