Employers of National Service

Employers of National Service provides access to a pool of highly qualified, mission-oriented candidates who have acquired unique skills as a result of their AmeriCorps or Peace Corps service. This includes leadership, teamwork, flexibility, problem-solving, innovation, and grit, just to name a few -- key assets for employers of all types. In addition, a great range of experience and interests can be found among national service alumni, whose backgrounds range from those earning their GED to those with professional degrees.

Employers that sign up for the initiative will be listed on our website with a link to their jobs board so that alumni interested in employment opportunities can visit their site. We also connect Employers of National Service with job fairs across the country and highlight a selection of jobs in our regular newsletter that goes to hundreds of thousands of AmeriCorps alumni.

Employers of National Service is an opportunity for employers to highlight that they value the skills gained through national service. The implementation of job description language or a checkbox does not grant automatic preference to a given group. Some Employers of National Service are choosing to grant preference within their hiring process (and we encourage others to explore this option), but this is not a requirement. 

We strongly encourage employers to include the job description language on all postings because of the diverse skills, backgrounds, and ages of AmeriCorps and Peace Corps alumni. However, an organization could choose to indicate the specific types/categories of job postings that they will include the language on (for example, all job postings except for IT related ones or all job postings in a certain division).

We will ask Employers of National Service to participate in an annual survey about activities related to this initiative, such as the number of AmeriCorps and Peace Corps alumni applicants, interviews, and hired in the previous calendar year. We’ll also ask for an update about the total number of national service alumni on staff. We understand that it may take time for your organization to develop systems necessary to collect this data, and we’ll be sharing best practices and tools as they develop. We will also extend other informal opportunities for you to engage as it best fits your organization’s needs – such as sharing your stories of current staff or recent hires who have served in AmeriCorps or Peace Corps.

No, this initiative is open to companies and organizations of all sizes, and there is no fee to participate. 

At this time, we do not have any set recruitment goals for participating companies and organizations, but we’d love to hear any insights or suggestions you have at employers@cns.gov.

Even if you are not planning to add staff in the near future, your organization is still welcome to join Employers of National Service, especially if you already employ AmeriCorps or Peace Corps alums. 

More than 1 million individuals have participated in AmeriCorps and more than 241,000 have served in Peace Corps, making a lasting impact on these individuals and the communities in which they served. Each year, more than 70,000 AmeriCorps members serve across the United States in the areas of economic opportunity, education, environmental stewardship, disaster services, healthy futures, and veterans and military families. Peace Corps volunteers serve in over 60 countries around the world, working to address challenges in education, health, economic development, agriculture, environment, and youth development. 

The Employers of National Service program aims to connect national service alumni with paid staff positions (as opposed to service year opportunities). If you’re looking to bring AmeriCorps members to your organization, the best place to start is taking a look at our AmeriCorps website to determine which kinds of grants and programs best fit your organization’s capacity and goals.