Each year, more than 5 million individuals of all ages and backgrounds help meet local needs through a wide array of service opportunities through the Corporation for National and Community Service's core programs: AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, and the Social Innovation Fund. These programs and others, such as the Volunteer Generation Fund, support projects in six priority areas: disaster services, economic opportunity, education, environmental stewardship, healthy futures, and veterans and military families.
AmeriCorps
AmeriCorps programs provide opportunities for Americans to make an intensive commitment to service. The AmeriCorps network of local, state, and national service programs engage more than 80,000 Americans in projects around the nation each year.
AmeriCorps State and National
AmeriCorps State and National is the broadest network of AmeriCorps programs. These groups recruit, train, and place AmeriCorps members to meet critical community needs in education, public safety, health, and the environment.
AmeriCorps VISTA
AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) provides full-time members to nonprofit, faith-based, and other community organizations, and public agencies to create and expand programs that bring low-income individuals and communities out of poverty.
AmeriCorps NCCC
AmeriCorps NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps) is a full-time, team-based, residential program for men and women ages 18–24. Members live on one of five campuses, located in Denver, CO; Sacramento, CA; Perry Point, MD; Vicksburg, MS; and Vinton, IA.
Senior Corps
Senior Corps offers a network of programs that tap the rich experience, skills, and talents of older citizens to meet community challenges.
Foster Grandparents
Foster Grandparents are role models, mentors, and friends. Serving at one of thousands of local organizations—including faith-based groups, Head Start Centers, schools, and other youth facilities—they help children learn to read, provide one-on-one tutoring, and guide children at a critical time in their lives.
Senior Companions
Senior Companions help frail, elderly citizens remain in their homes longer by providing much-needed support. Whether they help give families or professional caregivers much-needed time off, run errands, or simply provide friendship, they make a difference that strengthens and helps preserve an individual's independence.
RSVP
RSVP offers a full range of volunteer opportunities with thousands of local and national organizations to citizens 55 and older. RSVP volunteers choose how and where they want to serve, and the amount of time they want to give. And the program’s flexibility allows volunteers to choose whether they want to draw on current skills or develop new ones.
Social Innovation Fund
The Social Innovation Fund (SIF) is a powerful approach to transforming lives and communities that positions the federal government to be a catalyst for impact—mobilizing public and private resources to find and grow community-based nonprofits with evidence of strong results. An initiative enacted under the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, the SIF is a new way of doing business for the federal government that stands to yield greater impact on urgent national challenges. The Social Innovation Fund targets millions in public-private funds to expand effective solutions across three issue areas: economic opportunity, healthy futures, and youth development and school support.
Volunteer Generation Fund
The Volunteer Generation Fund is a program authorized by the Serve America Act to support voluntary organizations and state service commissions in boosting the impact of volunteers in addressing critical community needs. The fund will focus investments on volunteer management practices that increase both volunteer recruitment and retention.
