AmeriCorps Puerto Rico Bundled Evaluation and Capacity Building Project

To learn more about Puerto Rico-based AmeriCorps programs, the AmeriCorps Office of Research and Evaluation contracted with a research firm to synthetize information about the opportunities and challenges of implementing AmeriCorps State and National and AmeriCorps VISTA projects on the island and explore the outcomes of these projects.

Energy Express is a West Virginia University Extension program that provides services to children living in rural West Virginia in either a five- or six-week format during the summer break. The focus of the program is to promote school success, and in order to do so, Energy Express sets both nutritional and scholastic goals for the program each year. The program attempts to meet nutritional goals by providing the children who participate with a nutritious breakfast and lunch each day.

The focus of this impact study is the College Advising Corps @ Boston University (CAC). CAC is a national program that recruits and trains recent college graduates from partner higher education institutions across the country. These recent college graduates serve as full-time advisers.  They provide support that high-need students need as they navigate the complex processes required to attend and matriculate in college and to secure financial aid.

The Washington Service Corps (WSC) developed an augmented training and technical assistance program to build the capacity of WSC AmeriCorps members. The intervention aimed to prepare members to transition from service to career, feel more connected to each other, advance their leadership, and inspire them to be civically engaged beyond their service year.

Research finds that students from low-income and under-resourced backgrounds are at a critical academic and social disadvantage due to inequitable in-school and out-of-school-time (OST) learning opportunities. The Breakthrough Miami (BTM) AmeriCorps program is guided by a vision of ensuring that low-income, under-resourced, and traditionally underrepresented students in Miami-Dade County can succeed in school and attain post-secondary success.

Having been in operation since the inception of the AmeriCorps National Service program in 1994, AmeriCorps St. Louis has continuously provided disaster response and environmental stewardship while exemplifying the highest value of national service for the last 27 years. The organization has learned from evaluations of National Civilian Community Corps as well as two internal evaluations about the benefits and effects of our work.

Reading Corps provides supplemental reading interventions to students in kindergarten through 3rd grade in several states (Markovitz et al., 2022). Historically, Reading Corps interventions to second and third grade students in a 1-on-1 format where an AmeriCorps member (i.e., tutor) conducts each intervention session with one student. Interventions are scheduled to occur 5 days per week for 20 min per session. Tutors work with approximately 15 students, across kindergarten through third grade, per day. As such, this is a relatively intensive level of support. 

Great Basin Institute (GBI) is an interdisciplinary field studies organization that promotes environmental research, education, and conservation throughout the West. A public 501 (c)(3) nonprofit, the institute advances ecological literacy and habitat restoration through educational outreach and direct service programs. The Nevada Conservation Corps (NCC), a program of GBI, is an environmental service program dedicated to promoting field research and direct conservation service. NCC has administered 23 continuous AmeriCorps program years.

Green Iowa AmeriCorps provided a direct service intervention engaged members to provide energy audits and retrofit services to low-income households 2-3 days per week over the course of an 11-month service term. The outcomes related to education and direct service intervention were the area of interest for the program's evaluation plan. Direct service activities related to energy audits and retrofits are connected to the program's selected national performance measures (EN1 and EN1.1) and is the largest direct service intervention carried out by the program.

The state of the evidence on the AmeriCorps impact in communities is strong. Evidence shows AmeriCorps programs can help communities effectively summit new heights and create value for those communities. This video highlights some of what the evidence says about the impact and return on investment of AmeriCorps funded projects.