You’re part of a national group of more than 1 million AmeriCorps members. You’re also part of an even larger movement. 

You are one of more than 75,000 Americans who have answered the call of national service this year. National service includes everyone from the first-grade student who supports a recycling program to the retired professional who visits patients in a hospital. And the seventh grader who helps younger students learn to read and the college graduate who helps organize an after-school program for kids in his neighborhood. And the retired professional who participates in a neighborhood watch program and the college student who responds to a natural disaster in a nearby community.

Here’s how national service is set up:

The Corporation for National & Community Service (CNCS) is a federal agency that was established by the National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993 to connect Americans of all ages and backgrounds with opportunities to give back to their communities and their nation. CNCS is a merger of the work and staffs of two predecessor agencies: ACTION and the Commission on National and Community Service. This merger enables CNCS to achieve its mission of improving lives, strengthening communities, and fostering civic engagement through service and volunteerism.

The bipartisan Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act of 2009 reauthorized and expanded national service programs administered by CNCS. This expansion has enabled CNCS to engage more than 5 million Americans in service each year through its Senior Corps, Social Innovation Fund, AmeriCorps, and other national service initiatives.

As the nation’s largest grant maker for service and volunteering, CNCS plays a critical role in strengthening America’s nonprofit sector and addressing our nation’s challenges through service. CNCS harnesses America’s most powerful resource – the energy and talents of its citizens – to solve problems. CNCS believes that everyone can make a difference and that everyone should try.

AmeriCorps

AmeriCorps engages more than 75,000 men and women in intensive service each year at more than 15,000 locations including nonprofits, schools, public agencies, and community and faith-based groups across the country. The Serve America Act focused AmeriCorps’ efforts on six key areas: disaster services, economic opportunity, education, environmental stewardship, healthy futures, and veterans/military families. AmeriCorps members help communities tackle pressing problems while mobilizing millions of volunteers for the organizations they serve. Members gain valuable professional, educational, and life benefits, and the experience has a lasting impact on both the members themselves and the communities they serve.

AmeriCorps consists of three main programs:

• AmeriCorps Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA): VISTA is an anti-poverty program created by President Johnson’s Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. President Johnson swore the first VISTA members into service on December 12, 1964 and fifty years later nearly 7,000 Americans serve annually. AmeriCorps VISTA members are passionate and committed to their mission to bring individuals and communities out of poverty. Members make a year-long, full-time commitment to serve on a specific project at a nonprofit organization or public agency. They focus their efforts to build the organizational, administrative, and financial capacity of organizations that fight illiteracy, improve health services, foster economic development, and otherwise assist low-income communities.
  
  

• AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC): NCCC is a full-time, team-based residential program for men and women age 18-24. Members are assigned to one of five campuses — Denver, CO; Sacramento, CA; Baltimore, MD; Vicksburg, MS; and Vinton, IA. Drawn from the successful models of the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s and the U.S. military, AmeriCorps NCCC is built on the belief that civic responsibility is an inherent duty of all citizens and that national service programs work effectively with local communities to address pressing needs.
  
  

• AmeriCorps State and National: The State and National programs enlist local organizations across sectors to recruit, train, and supervise AmeriCorps members meeting critical community needs in the areas of education, disaster services, health, environmental stewardship, economic opportunity, and service to veterans and military families.

• AmeriCorps National Programs apply directly to the CNCS for funding and includes: a national nonprofit organization that operates in two or more states; an Indian tribe; a consortia formed across two or more states, consisting of institutions of higher education or other nonprofits, including labor, faith-based, and other community organizations; and/or a state or territory without a State Service Commission

• AmeriCorps State Programs apply directly to their State Commission on Community and National Service for funding and includes: State and local nonprofit organization; Community and faith-based organization; State, local, and higher education institution; State and local government; and/or U.S. territory.

Volunteer West Virginia

Volunteer West Virginia, the state's Commission for National and Community Service, administers and coordinates national service and volunteer initiatives throughout the state.

• Mission: Volunteer West Virginia, the state's Commission for National and Community Service, challenges West Virginians to strengthen their communities through service and volunteerism. Through [their] programs and services, we identify and mobilize resources, promote an ethic of service, and empower communities to solve problems and improve the quality of life for individuals and families.

• Vision: We envision a West Virginia where everyone feels a responsibility and has an opportunity for community service and volunteer work; where state government, educational institutions, churches, nonprofits, and service organizations work together to create and sustain systems that enable people to strengthen themselves and their communities through meaningful focused and well-designed service programs.

• History: Established in 1994 by Executive Order of Governor Gaston Caperton, Volunteer West Virginia achieved legislative status in 1995. Our bipartisan nature was confirmed and strengthened through the support of Governor Cecil Underwood’s administration beginning in 1997. Our 25 Commissioners, appointed by the Governor, meet quarterly around the state.

Volunteer West Virginia strengthens West Virginia’s communities through a variety of programs and trainings which include, but are not limited to:

• Disaster Services (CERT)

• Strength Based Grant Writing Workshops

• Ready WV

• AmeriCorps State

  • Competitive Grants Process

  • Formula Grants Process

  • Planning Grants Process

• AmeriCorps VISTA

  • West Virginia Promise

• Governor’s Day to Serve

• Governor Service Awards

As an Education Alliance AmeriCorps member you represent both a team of national service volunteers and the sponsor organization of the Education Alliance.  

The Education Alliance is a statewide nonprofit organization that mobilizes business and community partnerships to equip West Virginia K-12 students for success. Funded by grants and donations, the Alliance was founded in 1983 and has a robust 40-year history of advancing its mission and vision through two flagship programs. Our AmeriCorps program partners caring, adult

community volunteers with struggling students to provide consistent in-school mentoring and support. Our WV Ready Careers program matches schools/classrooms with businesses who provide job-shadowing, work-based learning and paid internships.

Vision: Every West Virginia public school student graduates ready to begin a career or pursue additional education and training.

Mission: The Education Alliance is an independent voice, earnest advocate, and statewide participant that advances policies and practices to continually improve public school student achievement in West Virginia.

Values: We want to initiate important dialogues that value open, data-based evaluations of educational issues or problems. We believe in the worth of all West Virginia children; believe each and every child deserves a quality education; and support educators having tools and skills necessary to engage students in their own success.

• Honesty, truthfulness, and integrity;

• Credibility through objectivity (research and fact-based);

• Respect for all education stakeholders, regardless of background, opinions, or organization of origin;

• Commitment to excellence through quality, success, and achievement;

• Effective leadership and professionalism;

• Learning through education and experience;

• Results-Oriented based on sound data and metrics.

The Education Alliance sponsors an AmeriCoorps VISTA program and three national service programs – AmeriCorps Mentors, College Ambassadors, and AmeriCorps GYO.  

AmeriCorps has four main goals:

Getting Things Done. AmeriCorps members help communities solve problems in the areas of education, public safety, the environment, and other human needs (like health and housing) by serving directly and by getting other people to serve as volunteers.

Strengthening Communities. AmeriCorps members help unite individuals from different backgrounds—and organizations of all kinds—in a common effort to improve communities.

Encouraging Responsibility. AmeriCorps members explore and exercise their responsibilities to their communities, their families, and themselves during their service experience and throughout their lives.

Expanding Opportunity. AmeriCorps helps those who help America. AmeriCorps members receive awards to further their education or to pay back student loans. They also gain valuable job experience, specialized training, and other skills.