What is AmeriCorps?
AmeriCorps is the national service movement that engages Americans of all ages and backgrounds in service to address the most critical problems in our nation’s communities in the areas of education, public safety, the environment, and other human needs. In exchange for a year of service, AmeriCorps members earn a living allowance and an educational award to pay back student loans or to finance college, graduate school, or vocational training.

Through AmeriCorps VISTA , AmeriCorps NCCC ( National Civilian Conservation Corps ), AmeriCorps State and National programs, and the AmeriCorps Promise Fellow Program , AmeriCorps involves more than 50,000 committed men and women in results-driven community service annually.

Hands On Network and AmeriCorps
Over the past 6 years, AmeriCorps has built a strong and rewarding partnership with the Corporation for National and Community Service, the federal agency that supports volunteerism and community service through programs like AmeriCorps. Established by an Act of Congress in 1993, the Corporation for National and Community Service is dedicated to enabling Americans to engage in “seasons of service” and supports a range of national and community service projects.

Launched in the fall of 2003, the Citizen Action AmeriCorps (CAAC) members work to build communities by creating stable supportive relationships between community members, service organizations, AmeriCorps members, and service recipients. These constructed social networks increase social capital and build a solid foundation of engaged community networks that affect change both on a short-term and long-term basis. CAAC members create solid community infrastructure for volunteer participation. CAAC members are strengthening communities by engaging neighborhood residents in community building efforts by recruiting volunteers, creating innovative volunteer activities, training community leaders, engaging volunteers in well managed service opportunities, improving volunteer management capacity of nonprofit organizations.

This mission is achieved through two unique capacity building program delivery models. In the first program model—Affiliate Based Capacity Building—AmeriCorps members are placed at a local Hands On Network affiliate to support volunteer recruitment, training, and leadership development for a strategic portfolio of partnering community and faith-based organizations.

In the second program model—Community Based Capacity Building—affiliates serve as intermediary organizations, placing AmeriCorps members individually or as teams within community-based organizations that have been determined to have limited internal capacity to manage volunteers or have determined that targeted infrastructure improvements will result in improved volunteer engagement thus building their capacity to fulfill their mission.

For the 2005-2006 program year, 63 AmeriCorps members have been placed at the following Hands On Network affiliates: Boston Cares; Hands On Atlanta, Hands On Bay Area, Hands On Birmingham, Hands On Miami, Hands On Nashville, Make A Difference, Metro Volunteers of Denver, New York Cares, Pittsburgh Cares and Seattle Works.

What is AmeriCorps Alums?
AmeriCorps Alums is a new initiative now under the leadership of Hands On Network. With an alumni base of 400,000 and growing, AmeriCorps Alums represents a diverse group of active citizens, spanning over ten years of service and hundreds of different programs. AmeriCorps alumni are bound together by a common commitment to service and a desire to participate as active members in their communities. With 55 local chapters and growing, AmeriCorps Alums provides an organizational structure that can serve as a catalyst for alumni to organize their efforts into productive community action.

To get involved in this important movement, please register on our website (link to www.lifetimeofservice.org) and please contact an AmeriCorps Alums staff member, Amity Tripp, Interim Director (link to atripp@lifetimeofservice.org) or Greg Heinrich, AmeriCorps Alums Coordinator (link to gheinrich@lifetimeofservice.org).

• Citizen Action AmeriCorps Quarterly (Summer 2005)
• AmeriCorps Alums
• Citizen Action AmeriCorps Request for Applications (RFA)

Get to know us better
Check out stories about what is happening in communities around the country in our most recent newsletter – Hands On Network AmeriCorps Quarterly or get a sneak preview of what the new program year will look like in the Hands On Network AmeriCorps Update.