WASHINGTON D.C. - The Corporation for National and Community Service’s fiscal 2004 Performance and Accountability Report, submitted to Congress today, confirms that the agency has delivered on a wide range of management reforms and its programs are meeting critical local needs in education, public safety, health, disaster relief in thousands of communities across the United States.

“Thanks to Congressional funding at record levels and great support from the President, the Corporation was able to reach significant milestones,” said Corporation CEO David Eisner in the report’s introductory message. “Together the Corporation’s programs helped to provide over 200 million hours of service and achieved demonstrable results in meeting critical community needs.”

The 266-page report highlights progress made towards Corporation goals to meet human needs through diverse, high quality service programs; improve the lives of national service participants; promote civic responsibility by all Americans; and manage to accountability. Among the many program accomplishments highlighted in the report:

• Corporation grants supported 540,000 Senior Corps volunteers, 1.1 million Learn and Serve America students, and nearly 75,000 AmeriCorps positions, the largest class ever.
  

• In total, Senior Corps’ 536,000 volunteers served more than 119 million hours. RSVP volunteers served at more than 65,000 non-profits nationwide. Foster Grandparents served more than 263,000 children with special needs. Senior Companions served 57,700 frail, homebound, usually elderly clients.
  

• AmeriCorps State and National members served more than 30 million hours and recruited and trained more than 525,000 community volunteers.
  

• AmeriCorps*NCCC engaged 1,187 members on 575 projects in all 50 states, tutoring and mentoring 25,000 children and youth, constructing or repairing 500 low-income homes, and building or restoring 550 miles of trails in our national parks.
  

• AmeriCorps*VISTA supported approximately 7,000 members in about 1,400 anti-poverty projects.
  

• Education awards totaling $112 million were provided to former AmeriCorps members.
  

• Learn and Serve America students served more than 40 million hours.
  

• Corporation programs supported mentoring and other services to 12,281 children of prisoners.
  

• Approximately $70.5 million, or 13.9 percent of the Corporation’s total program funding, was awarded to faith-based organizations to support community service efforts.

The report also details many operational improvements the Corporation has achieved in the past fiscal year. Calling 2004 a “turnaround year,” Corporation CEO David Eisner credited agency staff for their strong performance in the face of increased workloads and diminishing operational resources.

“The agency has made great progress on the programmatic, strategic, and administrative / management fronts, and in addressing the three organizational goals I articulated when I took over as CEO in December of 2003 - rebuilding trust, managing to accountability, and focusing on our various customers,” Eisner said.

Among the many management reforms the Corporation put in place in fiscal 2004:

• Achieved a clean unqualified audit for the fifth consecutive year
  

• Strengthened grants management, oversight, and monitoring functions including reforming the grants-making process, improving the quality of peer reviewers, and implementing improvements to eGrants, the online grant application system.
  

• Consistent with the President’s management agenda, instituted a new budget development approach that uses a logic model tying budgeting to goals and performance.
  

• Implemented new procedures for the managing the National Service Trust, which the General Accounting Office and Inspector General have concluded have addressed past weaknesses and are fiscally sound.
  

• Developed grant guidelines that require grantees to better leverage federal dollars.
  

• Began to conduct annual customer surveys of its participants, grantees, sub-grantees, and end beneficiaries.
  

• Upgraded technological systems to ensure more accurate and timely reporting of data.
  

• Developed new administrative standards for state service commissions and implemented improved compliance monitoring controls.
  

• Developed a comprehensive strategic human capital plan, expanded employee training, ended the predominant use of term appointments, and implemented a performance based appraisal system.

While focusing primarily on performance during fiscal 2004, the report also highlighted several aggressive efforts currently underway to make the agency more effective and accountable in the future. These include a new five-year strategic planning effort by the Corporation’s Board of Directors; a business process review, an in-depth study by the National Academy of Public Administration on the agency’s organization and management structure, development of a dashboard of management metrics, new rules for the AmeriCorps and Learn and Serve America programs; and further upgrades to the Corporation’s technological systems.

“In FY 2005 and beyond, we look forward to fully implementing our management reforms, improving our financial management systems, and making our programs even more effective and accountable,” said Eisner. “In so doing, we will meet the challenges of the future and become the kind of well-managed effective agency that the nation deserves.”

The full fiscal 2004 Performance and Accountability Report is available online at http://www.nationalservice.org/pdf/about/reports/par2004.pdf.

The Corporation for National and Community Service provides opportunities for Americans of all ages and backgrounds to serve their communities and country, primarily through its Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and Learn and Serve America programs. Together with the USA Freedom Corps, the Corporation is working to build a culture of citizenship, service, and responsibility in America. For more information, visit www.nationalservice.org.

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