WASHINGTON, D.C. – AmeriCorps, the federal agency for volunteering and service, today announced the launch of a new food security initiative to create a comprehensive and collaborative approach to hunger. The four awards, totaling $2 million, will support 100 new AmeriCorps VISTA members in New Hampshire, Maine, Ohio, and Texas, which are launching new projects or expanding projects to combat the growing hunger crisis.  

A message from our CEO

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For decades, our agency has engaged people of all ages and backgrounds in getting things done - improving lives, strengthening communities, and expanding opportunity. Today, service is needed more than ever. To meet current and future challenges, it is essential that more individuals know how they can serve their communities and country. But all too often, the public doesn’t know what national service is, the benefits, or how to get involved. That’s why we are taking steps to increase awareness and ensure more people know about opportunities to serve. 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Corporation for National and Community Service, the federal agency for service, awarded the annual Excellence in AmeriCorps awards to five alumni, grantees, and advocates for their outstanding service. From California to Puerto Rico, COVID-19 response to mental health awareness, this year’s award recipients go above and beyond every day to make our country safer, smarter, and healthier. 

Kurtis Edwards: An AmeriCorps VISTA Taking On Poverty and Racial Injustice with the Power of Literacy

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Kurtis Edwards can’t recall how he found the AmeriCorps VISTA program, but after almost two years of service, he feels lucky that he did. As he completes his second year of service, he is even more resolute in his determination to “work tirelessly at a career in human service and community building.”

AmeriCorps Members are Trailblazers in Transitioning Communities to Remote and Distance Learning

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All around the country, AmeriCorps members are taking the lead in helping communities transition to online learning. These efforts come at an especially critical time for the country, while states and school districts are still making decisions about instruction in the fall. 

Pandemic in Navajo Nation has AmeriCorps members adapting to serve community members in need

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Tribal economies have taken hard hits too. Communities that rely on tourism, gambling revenue, or other businesses operating on their land have had their tax base effectively cut to zero, making it infinitely more difficult to run health clinics and provide other services crucial to the vitality of their communities.

May 22 Update: AmeriCorps and Senior Corps COVID-19 Response

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Despite the obstacles presented by COVID-19, AmeriCorps and Senior Corps programs across the country have acted quickly and creatively to continue their critical work in new ways, or to pivot to meet emerging needs.

Since the start of the national emergency, more than 8,500 AmeriCorps members and Senior Corps volunteers have served in direct response to COVID-19. Collectively, these national service members have:

AmeriCorps VISTA Helped Save His Life. Now He’s Working to Do the Same.

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 A few years later, this is the exact message he wants to get through to people: “It can happen to anybody so quickly. People don’t really understand how quickly you can fall into this place where you feel like you have no options, and then you’re trapped.”

It was this passion for sharing his story through public speaking and advocacy that led Mikah to AmeriCorps VISTA, an experience he would later call “magical.”

Volunteering Brings out the Best in America

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At the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), we are also asking the question, “What does volunteerism look like in the time of coronavirus?”

For all of us who want to help our local communities, operating during a pandemic is new territory. How can we continue to meet community needs when health and safety calls for us to be apart?