At CNCS, we are guided by a simple mission: to improve lives, strengthen communities, and foster civic engagement through service and volunteering. This year 300,000 AmeriCorps members and Senior Corps volunteers – ranging from teenagers to centenarians and every age in between – are giving their time and energy to address some of the nation’s greatest challenges.
What does that mean for the national service members who will help millions of Americans this year?
It’s been a few months
since the Office of Research & Evaluation (ORE) first
introduced the seven grantees who received 2017
AmeriCorps State and National Evidence-based Planning Grants from the
Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). Since then, the
organizations have continued the planning process and begun early
implementation of their programs that leverage AmeriCorps members to make a
local impact and address pressing societal needs.
In our second blog, we catch up with these grantees
to get the scoop on the progress made in program development, to understand
their current priorities, and to learn about opportunities and obstacles they
encountered along the way.
Antioch University
Antioch University is using its CNCS grant to explore an
alliance with the Job Corps program that enhances career preparation in the
health and science field, where participants practice their newly learned
skills as AmeriCorps members.
The university is currently in a “reconnaissance phase” of
program development, gathering information and identifying potential resources
for the AmeriCorps partnership. Antioch University is specifically looking into
the compatibility of apprenticeships, vocational schools, and community and
small colleges to better transition program graduates. These types of offerings
are important for the alignment of the curricula, as well as for building
connections between opportunity youth and pathways to success after AmeriCorps service.
For example, an ongoing review of the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention research documents and training materials has yielded valuable
information and training resources, which also helps identify potential
business and industry opportunities in the program areas.
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CNCS’s
Office of Research & Evaluation (ORE) recently completed a study of opportunity
youth who were engaged in service as AmeriCorps members. The study faced
challenges measuring the impact of these national service programs due to small
sample sizes and limited program capacity. To address these challenges and
support a more efficient use of evaluation resources, ORE worked with its
grantees to implement a “bundled approach,” which groups several smaller
AmeriCorps programs together into a single evaluation.
From Approach to Results
ORE engaged independent evaluator JBS International to conduct an
impact evaluation of the bundled programs with a goal of assessing whether participants
showed greater improvements in education, employment, and civic engagement
outcomes than comparison youth. Surveys were administered to participating
youth at three points: the start of their service, the conclusion, and then six
months after service.
Tags: highlight, AmeriCorps, service, National Service, Community Service, Volunteer, Grants, Grantees
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