OpportunityTitle: Operation AmeriCorps
CategoryExplanation: The mission of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) is to improve lives, strengthen communities, and foster civic participation through service and volunteering. CNCS&#151;through its AmeriCorps and Senior Corps programs &#151;has helped to engage millions of citizens in meeting community and national challenges through service and volunteer action.     The FY15 Operation AmeriCorps competition has two funding priorities. Applicants may choose to apply to either of the priorities. The first priority focuses on specific post-secondary outcomes for students. The second priority allows localities to identify their most pressing challenge. In each case, the most important element is choosing a project that will be a game-changer for the local community and ensuring that there are clear outcomes to measure success.    Priority one applications will propose a transformational project that uses a national service to ensure that every high school senior has a career or educational opportunity upon graduation. Using AmeriCorps as the catalyst to engage the whole community, the goal is for every graduating high school senior to participate in one of the following five options after graduation: further education; military service; national service in AmeriCorps or the Peace Corps; employment; or a paid internship, a registered apprenticeship, or job training program.    Under priority one, applicants must design an AmeriCorps intervention to ensure that each high school senior in their community has one of these options. Priority one applications will receive higher preference for funding than priority two applications.     Priority two applicants may propose transformational projects that address any of CNCS&#146;s six focus areas: disaster services, economic opportunity, education, environmental stewardship, healthy futures, or veterans and military families. Examples include projects that use national service resources to ensure every third grader is reading on grade level, greatly increase energy efficiency, or end veterans&#146; homelessness. Applicants will be responsible for determining the specific design and outcomes for any priority two projects they propose.
Description: Operation AmeriCorps is a new initiative created by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). For the first time, applicants may request AmeriCorps State and National, AmeriCorps VISTA, and AmeriCorps NCCC resources in a single application to use national service as the transformative catalyst to address a community&#146;s most pressing local problem. Through Operation AmeriCorps, tribal and local leaders will identify a high priority local challenge which AmeriCorps resources can holistically address in a relatively short period of time (no more than two years). The competition is open exclusively to tribal and local governments, including counties, cities, towns, and school districts; and state service commissions. The proposed solution may be a new program, or it may use national service to scale up an existing successful effort. In either case AmeriCorps must be the additive ingredient to achieve holistic change at the local level.
GrantorContactEmailDescription: Competition mailbox
GrantorContactText: Operation AmeriCorps