Subject to the availability of appropriations for fiscal year 2009, the Corporation for National and Community Service (the Corporation) announces the anticipated availability of approximately $4.2 million for qualified organizations to provide subgrants, training, and other assistance to local partnerships to implement community-based service-learning projects. These funds will be awarded to an estimated five to eight eligible applications with awards ranging from approximately $350,000 to $450,000 annually for a project period of up to three years.
Eligible applicants for Learn and Serve America Community-Based funds include: (1) Grantmaking Entities – public or private nonprofit organizations that have been in existence at least a year and propose to make subgrants in two or more States, and (2) State Commissions on National and Community Service. A key role for grantees is to support and manage subgrantee partnerships through frequent communication, training and technical assistance, and financial oversight.
The Corporation’s mission is to improve lives, strengthen communities, and foster civic engagement through service and volunteering. Learn and Serve America Community-Based grants are designed to involve school-age youth in community-based service-learning programs that provide direct and demonstrable educational, public safety, human, or environmental service, and to provide training and technical assistance to youth-serving organizations.
Key agency priorities for the 2009 Community-Based Healthy Communities initiative include:
- Expanding opportunities for out-of-school time service-learning activities that increase civic engagement, leadership capacity and community problem solving skills and promote retention in school and readiness for careers and post-secondary education.
- Engaging young people, particularly youth in disadvantaged circumstances, in the planning and implementation of service-learning activities that directly address community needs in order to build healthier communities.
- Developing community partnerships at the local level that include well-defined roles for public or profit nonprofit organization partners and adult volunteers engaged in service-learning programs.
For more information about Learn and Serve America grant competitions, please visit Learn and Serve America’s National Service Learning Clearinghouse.