AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) is one of AmeriCorps’ core programs, which engages people between the ages 18-24 in a ten-month, full-time term of team-based, residential national service. AmeriCorps, formerly known as Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), contracted JBS International to support NCCC’s efforts in assessing its impact on member development and strengthening communities. JBS first constructed a prototype AmeriCorps NCCC Service Projects Database (SPD) containing sample project information and was subsequently awarded a second contract to populate the database with qualitative and quantitative project information on the NCCC service projects from FY 2012 to Spring 2019 across all campuses and analyze that data.
The database contains information on 5,004 NCCC service projects completed between 2012 and Spring of 2019 from the four regional campuses plus 120 service projects randomly selected from the Atlantic campus. It includes information on things like project issue area, characteristics, sponsor organization information, and goals and accomplishments. The two primary purposes of the database are to:
- Capture key data about NCCC service projects in one location where data can be analyzed both across and within projects
- Support the selection of case studies for a NCCC study
Study Goals
Research Questions
There are two sets of research questions based on the study goals:
Characteristics of service projects:
- What are the characteristics of NCCC service projects by issue/focus areas?
- What are NCCC’s service project accomplishments to communities by issue/focus areas?
- How has the type of sponsor changed over time?
- How have the characteristics of NCCC service projects changed over time?
- What are the characteristics of recurring service projects? What community needs have service projects addressed over time by issue/focus areas?
- How frequently does NCCC serve the same community with the same needs?
- How many individual service projects are nested within unique sponsors? What is the number of sites and the average number of sites for each sponsor type?
Understanding service project impact:
- What does the data show on how NCCC projects impact and strengthen communities?
- What does the data show on how NCCC projects impact members?
- Do these impacts vary and, if so, how?
- What are the main themes associated with strengthening communities and Member impact?
- What are NCCC’s service project contributions:
- to communities’ disaster preparation and mitigation?
- to support recovery and response in communities that experienced disaster?
- in building community and organization capacity?
Findings
Characteristics of NCCC Service Projects and Communities Served
Analysis of the database reveals the following top-level results regarding the characteristics of NCCC service projects and the communities they serve:
- The top three issue areas are:
- Natural and Other Disasters, which made up 50% of AmeriCorps NCCC service projects
- Urban and Rural Development service projects, with 26% of projects
- Environmental Stewardship and Conservation service projects, which accounted for 18%.
- Service projects typically had multiple project characteristics, which describe the general purpose of the project and are related to accomplishments Service project characteristics most often reported were community support (41%), at-risk ecosystems (34%), infrastructure improvement (34%), and capacity building and leverage (34%).
- Community support and at-risk ecosystems were recurring characteristics across the five primary issue areas. Infrastructure improvement is also a recurring characteristic across all the primary issue areas, but only 5% of service projects reported Infrastructure Improvement as their primary issue area. Lastly, Capacity building and leverage characteristics were noted in four of the five primary issue areas, but this characteristic is most frequently reported under service projects in the natural and other disasters primary issue area.
- The greatest number of accomplishments or outputs were reported in the Natural and Other Disasters primary issue area with 9,250 outputs, and these accomplishments were reported under the disaster recovery, disaster prevention preparedness and mitigation, and disaster response categories. Service projects in the Environmental Stewardship, and Urban and Rural Development primary issue areas had the second greatest number of reported accomplishments or outputs, with more than 6,000. In these two primary issue areas, the categories with high numbers of reported accomplishments include natural resources and community well-being.
- Between 2012 and 2019, 1,439 unique sponsors were associated with the 5,004 service projects. The Federal Government, national non-profits, and other non-profits sponsored most service projects between 2012 and 2018. The Federal Government most frequently sponsored service projects in the Natural and Other Disaster issue area.
Strengthening Communities and Impact on Members
Analysis of the database reveals the following top-level results of how service projects strengthen communities and the impacts on Corps Members:
- Service projects supported communities by providing direct impacts including tangible and intangible benefits to both individuals and organizations, enhancing disaster prevention, preparedness, and mitigation, and assisting communities with disaster recovery.
- The most common organization-level impacts noted were in infrastructure support, which included enhancing an organization’s data infrastructure or physical infrastructure. Infrastructure support also included Members organizing and conducting inventory of an organization’s supplies or donations.
- The most common community-level impacts of NCCC service projects were on the built and natural capital of communities through work on improving accessibility to public structures; building trails, gardens and farms; and supporting youth camps.
- The most common individual-level impacts are on helping people meet basic needs such as accessing food and shelter, receiving disaster assistance, and developing human capital and learning through teaching volunteers or tutoring youth.
- About half of all service projects during the eight-year period involved disaster services.
- Projects that focused on disaster prevention, preparedness, and mitigation most commonly reported enhancing disaster knowledge and preparedness by assembling and distributing informational materials and by providing information to individuals.’
- Disaster response projects most commonly reported impacts associated with organizational effectiveness, such as supporting disaster service facilities or volunteer facilities in disaster areas.
- Disaster recovery projects most commonly reported impacts associated with organizational infrastructure, for example developing resource guides or reports or completing damage or needs assessments
- Specific populations assisted by projects include military veterans, individuals in crisis (such as disaster survivors or the homeless), immigrants and refugees, disabled persons, the elderly, at-risk youth, and Members of Native American communities. Many projects supported more than one vulnerable population.
- Impacts of projects on Corps Members included enhancing personal and life skills, building professional skills, growing interpersonal skills, and fostering an understanding of civic engagement. The most commonly reported impacts on Members were enhancing construction and environmental management skills, increasing communication skills, building leadership skills, and fostering personal growth in areas like adaptability and confidence.