AmeriCorps NCCC – Round C Concept Forms – Due Jan 6

Posted by AmeriCorps on December 17, 2019

Looking for extra hands to accomplish projects? AmeriCorps NCCC can get things done in your community! We are currently accepting Concept Forms for service projects within Round C (May 4 – June 23, 2020).  Round C Concept Forms are due on or before Monday, January 6, 2020. The December timeframe can be a busy time of year for organizations; please be sure to get your Concept Form in if you are considering a Round C team.  Additional 2020 timeframes (Round D and Round E) are also still available and more information follows.

What is AmeriCorps NCCC?

AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) strengthens communities and develops leaders through a federal full-time, team-based, residential national service program.  NCCC partners with a variety of nonprofit organizations, federal, state, and local agencies, as well as tribal organizations to complete projects typically lasting 6-8 weeks which address a compelling community need that would not be fully addressed without additional assistance. Jeff Moeur, Assistant Program Director, is based out of the North Central Region NCCC Campus which covers a total of 15 states to which we deploy teams (IL, IN, IA, ME, MI, MN, NE, NH, NY, ND, OH, PA, SD, VT, WI).

Some types of tasks NCCC teams have completed in the past include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Energy Conservation: weatherizing existing homes or public infrastructure by insulating rim joists, caulking windows, conducting home energy audits and blower door tests, and conducting energy related educational programing.
• Environmental Stewardship and Conservation: trail construction, habitat restoration, helping to facilitate environmental education classes for camps, cleaning up river systems, prescribed fire, and limited amounts of brush and invasive species removal when combined with other tasks.
• Urban and Rural Development: blight removal projects in cities and other neighborhood revitalization efforts, assisting camp counselors at summer camps, building homes with organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, assisting with tax preparation, and building community gardens.
• Infrastructure Improvement: repairing or maintaining public infrastructure such as city-owned fair and rodeo grounds, building public campsites and picnic areas, enhancing public spaces, constructing playgrounds, and constructing wheelchair ramps and boardwalks.
• Disaster: packing/preparing/distributing disaster kits and educational materials; clean-up tasks after a disaster (e.g. cleaning up or repairing homes after flooding or repairing trail systems after a wildfire), and performing disaster preparedness or mitigation tasks.

To give you some more information, AmeriCorps NCCC teams typically consist of 8-12 young adults age 18-24, including a team leader. Members come from all over the country and typically range from high school to college graduates in terms of education.  Teams typically serve in a particular community for 6-8 weeks, although shorter periods are possible (e.g. 2-3 weeks). There is no charge for labor and teams provide their own transportation, however NCCC requests a place to sleep and shower be provided along with assistance with food or kitchen facilities to cook on.

Interested? These are the next steps:

You can find more information on our website (https://www.nationalservice.gov/ncccsponsor).  Here is the Concept Form * which is the first step in applying, as well as the Instructions.*  Concept Forms can be submitted to Jeff Moeur, jmoeur@cns.gov, or the Assistant Program Director for your state as indicated on the RFP.  A Concept Form is required for each team or timeframe you may be considering and please be sure to fully answer each question as per the Instructions in your response.  Upon review, potential sponsors will be invited to submit a full application or contacted for more information.

*Note, our Concept Form and Application documents are currently undergoing a routine update and will be changing slightly in the coming months. Please contact Jeff Moeur or the Assistant Program Director for your state to ensure you are using the most recent version.  For Concept Forms in Round C, the version and instructions indicated above are acceptable.

Link for RFP: https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3Ad609d9dd-4b54-4c4b-8ebb-5a148bff8970