AmeriCorps program links service, workforce skills

A new AmeriCorps program is designed to help a small number of teens better make the connection between workforce development and community service.
Providence had expected to apply but decided against it, according to a city spokesman. Pawtucket has continued to show interest in applying for the program through Serve Rhode Island, the state commission that helps administer federal funding for AmeriCorps programs run by the Washington, D.C.-based Corporation for National and Community Service. The deadline for applications is Jan. 13.
“This is a brand new program for us,” said Samantha Warfield, spokesperson for the federal agency. “It’s a new way of doing business for us based on things we know are working.”
Funding amounts are not yet available and, like the number of grants awarded nationally, will be contingent on funds appropriated by the U.S. Congress and dependent on the number of proposals submitted and the size of those projects, Warfield said.
The federal agency has an annual budget of about $1 billion, she said. It is eager to award funds it gets to tribal or local governments that can develop programming using both money and AmeriCorps members to do one of two things: either focus on specific post-secondary outcomes for students – the option Providence was exploring, or identify a locality’s “most pressing” challenge, Warfield said.
Clear, measurable outcomes within two years are required, she said. The federal deadline to apply is Jan 13.
The way AmeriCorps has always worked, said Warfield and Serve Rhode Island Director of Operations Marisa Petreccia, is that three-year projects using AmeriCorps workers aged 17 or older to better communities are renewed annually, with the potential to be continuous and ongoing. The nonprofit Habitat for Humanities uses the existing programming in this way, Warfield said. However, Operation AmeriCorps is different because of the potential, one-time impact projects are expected to have in a finite time frame, Warfield said.
“The difference here is, the goal is to solve the problem, to really tackle the stuff that’s happening on the ground and make an impact,” she said.
Lynne McCormack, Providence’s director of art, culture and tourism, last month told Providence Business News the city expected to apply through its human relations department and would include Providence Cranston Workforce Solutions, which is part of city government but also a nonprofit that manages workforce grants, she said.
“We’re trying to create a program, very small, with 12 to 14 kids, that would develop workforce-development skills as a follow-up to service learning, so there’s a direct connection between workforce development and service learning,” McCormack said.
But the city decided not to apply because Mayor Jorge O. Elorza’s transition team wasn’t ready to commit to needed matching funds, said Elorza spokesman Evan England.
“We do plan to evaluate the prospect of applying for the grant in the future,” he said..
Petreccia said the Pawtucket school district has been working with Serve Rhode Island on developing an application and would be focusing on post-secondary outcomes for students – whether that is getting a job, going to college, or some other outcome. Pawtucket Superintendent Patti DiCenso could not be immediately reached for comment last week.
A project funded through Operation AmeriCorps could provide students with job opportunities at local businesses, for example, Petreccia said.
“I like that this opportunity says there are multiple pathways for students to feel like they’re engaged in their communities, their education and [their] contributions to society in whatever ways makes sense for those students,” she said. •

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