AmeriCorps 
Each year, more than 50,000 Americans over the age of 17 provide intensive service to their communities to meet critical needs in education, public safety, health and the environment through AmeriCorps. AmeriCorps is made up of three programs: AmeriCorps*State and National, AmeriCorps*VISTA, and AmeriCorps*National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC). In Washington, DC, 1,000 AmeriCorps members serve in various programs. Learn more* about the national service programs operating in the District of Columbia. For more information, see Frequently Asked Questions.
Serve DC awards grants to nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and schools in the District of Columbia to operate AmeriCorps programs. The AmeriCorps programs currently funded by Serve DC include:
- City Year Washington, DC: City Year unites a diverse group of 17 to 24 year-olds for a year of full-time, team-based national service and leadership development. In Washington, DC, 85 corps members provide critically needed services to some of DC’s most underserved children and youth, focusing on literacy tutoring, substance abuse and HIV/AIDS prevention education, and youth leadership development. Corps members also improve communities by leading children and adults in transformative service projects at schools, parks, and community centers throughout the District.
- Free Advice, Inc.(FAI): recruits, trains and manages volunteers for three DC Public Schools (Leckie, Payne, and Ludlow-Taylor Elementary Schools). FAI engages 15 full-time AmeriCorps members in Wards 5, 6 and 8. The program is designed to offer AmeriCorps members an introduction to civic engagement, leadership skills, and public outreach. FAI is committed to ensuring that the enabling tools of continuous recruitment, training, development, sustainability and transfer of ownership/responsibility to the parent and community resources are inherent in every aspect of our program structure.
- The Good Samaritan Foundation: The mission of The Good Samaritan Foundation is to “prepare youth for leadership in the community and the workplace.” We aim to achieve this with our initiative entitled “Developing the Pipeline for a Lifetime of Options and Opportunities” (DPLOO), which focuses upon youth ages thirteen to eighteen in Wards Seven and Ward Eight and will employ the services of 12 AmeriCorps members – 8 full-time, 4 half-time. DPLOO’s workplace literacy component seeks to expose youth to the world of work in order to help them develop into well-informed employees able to function properly in the workplace and society. Its civic awareness/engagement component seeks to develop youth into civic-minded individuals who improve their community and participate in the political process. The goal of DPLOO’s academic proficiency component is to strengthen youths’ ability to excel academically. And finally, the goal of its personal integrity component is to develop the existing qualities of youth so that they may become highly ethical members of society. Through all four components of this initiative we “serve youth” and “build leaders.”
- Heads Up: University Neighborhood Initiative: Corps members serve first- to sixth-graders in DC elementary schools and neighborhoods through a summer academic enhancement program and an after-school tutoring and homework assistance program.
- Jumpstart Washington, DC: Jumpstart will serve the 2008-2009 program year with 240 minimum-time members all from the University of the District of Columbia, Howard University, Georgetown University, Catholic University and George Washington University. Members from these Jumpstart sites will serve children ages 3 to 5 from low income communities, in one-to-one tutoring and mentoring relationships based on language and literacy development. Corps members serve throughout the District in Wards 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 and 8.
- Latin American Youth Center: Corps member goals include; increasing academic achievement for elementary and middle school students through the development of an individualized tutoring plan, developing and implement after-school programs for elementary and middle school students delivering homework assistance and recreational activities, providing abstinence and self-esteem workshops in elementary and middle schools, sponsoring community building events such as community service fair, college fair, family night, etc, coordinate a neighborhood advisory committee, conducting community service projects such as community cleanups, parks cleanups, etc.
- Sports4Kids: Sports4Kids is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the health and well-being of children by providing full-time play and physical activity for low-income schools across the country. Sports4Kids programming has a strong focus on recess, and encourages respectful, inclusive, healthy play for all students. Sports4Kids provides each partner school with a full-time coach who becomes part of the school community. Each Sports4Kids' coach works full-time to provide organized play and physical activity programming throughout the school day and after school, organizing games during recess and class game time, and providing after-school games, supervised playtime developmental sports leagues and leadership training. Thirteen full-time members will serve Wards 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 in the 2008-09 school year.
- US Vets-DC: Corps members serve veterans through a case management process in helping them overcome barriers, build skills, and find employment.
Serve DC also sponsors the DC InterCorps Council, which comprises member ambassadors from AmeriCorps programs in Washington, DC. The group supports AmeriCorps members by organizing member trainings, joint service projects and networking opportunities.
Do you know an individual or group who has shown exemplary service to the District? Submit your nomination now for the Mayor's Community Service Award!
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