AmeriCorps positions for youth-serving organizations

Posted by on June 06, 2011

EducationWorks
TEAM UP
Youth-Serving Programs and AmeriCorps

Introduction
EducationWorks (EW) received an increase in its 2010-2011 AmeriCorps award to establish Team Up, a program in which OST (out of school time) providers added AmeriCorps members to their personnel rosters by entering into an agreement with EW, thereby enhancing their services and connections with their schools and communities.

Beginning as early as this August, EW will expand Team Up in 2011-2012 to include other organizations serving urban, primary low-income, youth.  This expansion will not be limited to OST programs but will be inclusive of other models.

EW will help organizations recruit, orient, and train new AmeriCorps members and be responsible for reporting to the federal government.  The AmeriCorps members will be supervised by and be on the payroll of the partner organizations.  EW will reimburse the partners for a portion of the members’ pay.

We would like to invite you to learn more about this opportunity and how your agency might become involved. We will hold a meeting for all potential partners on Wednesday June 15 at our main office 3149 Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19133.

Please respond to Jason Weems, Team Up Director: JWeems@educationworks.org; 267.575.7149

Advantages
There are a number of advantages to deploying AmeriCorps members in youth-serving programs:
1.    Program enhancement:
a.    The main reason for doing this is to enhance program quality.
2.    Motivation:
a.    Many AmeriCorps members are motivated by an ethic of service, not merely nor mostly by a desire to earn an income.
b.    AmeriCorps is a form of service.  Members doing service often become advocates for service in many forms.  Youth-serving organizations may engage youth in service-learning, thus aligning student service to AmeriCorps members’ service.
c.    AmeriCorps is a high priority of the Obama administration, receives a fair amount of national publicity, and is increasingly focused on education.  Being part of AmeriCorps can be very motivating.
3.    Personnel recruitment:
a.    Applicants for AmeriCorps positions come from across the country.
b.    Some local applicants for full-time positions are able to apply only because AmeriCorps pays for their child care.
c.    Some applicants aspire to start or complete college degrees and are attracted to AmeriCorps because of its Education Award (a college scholarship).  Some recent college graduates with loans are also attracted since the Education Award can usually be applied to their loans.
d.    Applicants 55 years and older are attracted because they can gift their Education Awards to a child or grandchild.
e.    Applicants recruited nationally tend to be fairly recent college graduates.
f.    Programs can do their own recruitment and there is no pressure to accept applicants recruited nationally.
g.    The net effect is that typically there is a larger pool of AmeriCorps applicants than staff applicants, particularly of people who are more likely to be a good fit with youth-serving programs.
4.    Community participation:
a.    Many AmeriCorps members come from the neighborhoods in which the programs are located.  Some are family members of student participants.
b.    Both the experience of serving and the training provided enhances community support for children and schools for years to come.
5.    Financial:
a.    AmeriCorps members are paid at a relatively low rate.  In 2011-12, full time members will receive between $12,100 and $24,200 per year.  This is a little more than $7 to $14 per hour.  Part time members’ compensation typically falls within the same range.
b.    Benefit costs for members are lower for organizations.  Full time members can enroll in very low-cost health insurance.  No members in Pennsylvania (and most other states) can receive unemployment compensation, so there is no payment for unemployment insurance.  Members do not participate in pension plans.  Members are not covered by NLRB nor minimum wage laws.
c.    EW will provide $3 per hour per AmeriCorps members from its AmeriCorps award.  That will be $5,100 for a full time, full year member and a pro-rated amount for members serving lesser terms of service.

AmeriCorps Member Roles
AmeriCorps members can play a variety of roles, and there are restrictions.

In general, members can work directly with students, plan and organize, manage volunteers, do research, communicate with partners and families, and assist with paperwork and reports.  They cannot be primarily administrative and there are limits on the amount of time they can spend on fund raising.

AmeriCorps members cannot displace paid staff.