Washington D.C. - In an effort to help youth from disadvantaged backgrounds improve their chances for success in school and life, the Corporation for National and Community Service has awarded grants to three national organizations focused on engaging volunteers in promoting positive youth development.

The federal agency has long had a special focus on the needs of children and youth, particularly young people who are growing up in neighborhoods characterized by high poverty rates, high crime rates, and single-parent homes. The Corporation leverages national services resources to meet pressing academic, health-related, and social needs of these young people. The enormity of the challenges facing young people is evidenced by the startling statistic that every 26 seconds, another student in the U.S. drops out of school, a total of 1 million each year.

"We know that volunteers can have a profound impact on raising literacy rates, decreasing risky behaviors, and keeping kids in school and on track for success in life. Each of these grantees is poised to make a powerful difference in the lives of young people at risk," said David Eisner, CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service. "The single most effective intervention in the life of a child is for someone to stand up and say, 'I care.' "

Eisner made the announcement before hundreds of students and service leaders at a Georgetown University forum "From Dropouts to Downturns: Why Service is America's Solution." Eisner noted that the current economic downturn could have its hardest impact on America's youth – with 13 million children already living in poverty, 15 million who need a mentor, and one-third who drop out of school each year. He called for a large scale mobilization of volunteers to spend an hour a week serving as tutors and mentors for at-risk youth.

The selected organizations support youth development through planning, collaboration, and alliance building for youth serving organizations at the local and regional level, as well as direct programming to help children and youth succeed in school. The awards are for the first year of a three-year grant cycle. The three grants are:

• America's Promise Alliance (the Alliance) will receive $2,050,500 to implement National Action Strategies that employ the leadership and resources of dozens of leading national nonprofit organizations to mobilize volunteers and organizations. The Alliance will build upon its national Dropout Prevention Summits by targeting 12 "Featured Communities"—Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Jackson, Miss, Louisville, KY., Nashville, New Orleans, New York, Oakland, Calif., and Washington, D.C.—to receive special attention and resources from Alliance partners. The Alliance will increase its partnership base from the current 220 to 275 in 2009 and 350 by 2011.
      
• With its $1 million grant, Communities In Schools, will build its capacity to deliver high-quality services to children and youth within their network by providing training and technical assistant on strong business practices, CIS site operations, and site coordinator management of integrated student services; building the capacity of CIS state offices to support stringent new accreditation standards for affiliates; and building a consistent message and awareness campaign through strong network communication strategies.
      
• America Scores and Up2Us, a coalition of sports-based youth development programs, will use its $449,425 grant to expand its work uniting leaders of grassroots youth sports programs with researchers, practitioners, and intermediaries to identify and implement effective methods for youth sports to achieve positive youth development outcomes. This grant provides Up2Us with the additional capacity to lead the development of this field, which includes supporting identification of 250 new coalition partners and providing 850,000 additional youth with high-quality sports-based youth development programming that inspires their academic, physical, and social well being.

The Corporation for National and Community Service improves lives, strengthens communities, and fosters civic engagement through service and volunteering. Each year the Corporation engages more than four million Americans of all ages and backgrounds in service to meet local needs through its Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and Learn and Serve America programs. For more information, visit http://www.nationalservice.gov.

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