AmeriCorps Awards Nearly $2 Million to Tribes and Native Organizations

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), the federal agency for volunteering and service, today awarded nearly $2 million in AmeriCorps funding to 12 American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes and entities.

The grants awarded today will support more than 150 AmeriCorps members in Alaska, Arizona, California, Minnesota, North Dakota, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Washington. A complete list of awards, including organizations and funding totals, can be found here.

AmeriCorps members supported by these grants will connect veterans and their families to community resources, provide legal assistance to low-income patients, deliver public health information related to obesity and diabetes, lead disaster preparedness trainings, teach financial literacy classes, deliver GED preparation and testing services, coordinate employment and training opportunities, and organize cultural and historic education services, and much more.

“Each year, thousands of communities benefit from the service of AmeriCorps, said Chester Spellman, director of AmeriCorps. “The Corporation for National and Community Service has a long-standing commitment to tribal nations, working together to find national service solutions to the unique challenges these communities face. The grants awarded today will help grow our presence in American Indian and Alaska Native communities.”

The funding was made available through the FY 2020 AmeriCorps Indian Tribes competition, which was open to federally recognized Indian tribes, as well as tribal organizations that are controlled, sanctioned, or chartered by one or more Indian tribes. Applicants were selected through a competitive process and submitted proposals explaining their plans to engage AmeriCorps members in evidence-based interventions in one of the agency’s six focus areas, with special priority was given to applicants that met one of the 2020 funding priorities.

For more than two 25 years, more than 1 million dedicated Americans have joined AmeriCorps and pledged to ‘get things done.’ This year, the 75,000 AmeriCorps members serving in schools, nonprofits, community and faith-based organizations, will do the same as they rebuild communities, support veterans, fight the opioid epidemic, prepare students for success, foster economic opportunity, assist communities in their response to COVID-19, and more. Those interested in serving can learn more at AmeriCorps.gov/join.