800 AmeriCorps Members Deploy to Communities Across Nation
National Civilian Community Corps responds to COVID-19; climate crisis
WASHINGTON, D.C. – AmeriCorps, the federal agency for volunteering and service, has deployed teams from its National Civilian Community Corps. In nearly 60 communities across the country, these teams will work in collaboration with local nonprofit, community, or faith-based organizations to tackle some of our nation’s most critical needs.
“Whether they come from big cities or small towns, all AmeriCorps members take the same pledge: to get things done for America,” said Gina Cross, acting national director of AmeriCorps NCCC. “In this moment, the need for those who will put their compassion into action has never been greater. I’m so proud that in communities from coast to coast, our AmeriCorps members will help create a stronger, healthier, more united nation.”
AmeriCorps NCCC is a full-time, team-based residential service program for young people 18-26 that strives to strengthen communities by engaging future leaders in a national service gap year. After a month of training, teams are deployed to wherever the need is greatest from one of the four AmeriCorps NCCC campuses located in California, Colorado, Iowa, and Mississippi.
Continuing the agency’s commitment to bolster national COVID-19 response efforts, many AmeriCorps members will participate in contact tracing and case investigation efforts, staffing testing sites, coordinating events to distribute resource kits, and other education efforts. They also provide extra manpower to overstretched food banks to ensure the safe and efficient response to the unprecedented need for emergency food assistance.
With roots in the conservation corps of the past, AmeriCorps NCCC projects often include support in addressing urgent climate crisis, giving AmeriCorps members an opportunity to work in environmental conservation, wildlife management, and ecological preservation. In partnership with national and state parks, they will expand conservation efforts through invasive species removal, trail maintenance, habitat creation, forest improvement programs, prescribed burns and other wildfire preparedness efforts. Teams also help create community gardens and develop new composting programs, while providing much needed support to long-term recovery efforts in communities impacted by natural disaster.
More than 1 million dedicated Americans have joined AmeriCorps and pledged to ‘get things done’ since its inception in 1994. Through AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps Seniors, Americans of all ages serve every day to 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.