Request for Concept Papers for New AmeriCorps VISTA Project

Posted by on October 24, 2011

DATE:  October 17th, 2011

FROM:  Pennsylvania State Office of the Corporation for National and Community Service

SUBJECT:  Request for Concept Papers (RFCP) for New AmeriCorps VISTA Project in Pennsylvania

Concept Papers Due: December 1, 2011

INTRODUCTION
The Pennsylvania State Office of the Corporation for National and Community Service announces an opportunity, subject to availability of resources, to develop new AmeriCorps VISTA projects in Pennsylvania. This Request for Concept Papers is open to organizations that are NOT current VISTA sponsors.  Please share this notice with your networks, and contact the CNCS Pennsylvania State Office at PAOutreach@cns.gov, with any questions.

AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) is a full-time, national service program for individuals interested in developing lasting solutions to the problems of poverty in the United States.  AmeriCorps VISTA members serve in community and faith-based non-profit organizations, Indian Tribes, and with local governments to develop and expand services and programs that help bring low-income individuals out of poverty.

Public organizations such as state and local government, Indian Tribes, and non-profit private organizations can apply to be VISTA sponsors. Please note that eligible non-profit private organizations are not limited to those with IRS 501(c) (3) status, but rather all organizations with IRS 501(c) status that focus on anti-poverty community development; organizations that focus solely on advocacy and lobbying are not eligible.

The Pennsylvania State Office is accepting Concept Papers that propose to address the following focus areas from the Corporation’s 2011-2015 Strategic Plan:

Economic Opportunity: Safe and affordable housing for vulnerable families and employment access and training

Education: Increasing graduation rates in low-income communities, improving grade level performance, and Turnaround School activities

Disaster Services: Post-disaster community development
Healthy Futures:  Reducing obesity rates, increasing health and wellness for all Americans, access to food and nutrition, access to health care

Environmental Stewardship: Decrease energy and water consumption, green jobs, and youth development through conservation activities

Veterans and Military Families:  Engaging veterans in service, service to veterans and military families

The Pennsylvania State Office will give priority to projects of at least three VISTA members. If your agency cannot program or administratively support this number of full-time members, collaborative partnerships that have similar programmatic focus will be considered.

Scope of Project

Subject to availability of resources, AmeriCorps*VISTA positions will be awarded on a full-time basis for one year of service to new VISTA sponsoring organizations. The Corporation will make an award covering a period not to exceed one year with the potential for continuation. VISTA members will likely begin service during the summer of 2012.

Programming should be primarily based on addressing local needs, and the Corporation Field Office will be guided by locally-driven programming that addresses the following “Key Principles.”

Key Principles
Each VISTA project must be developed in accordance with the parameters defined by law, federal regulations, and the key VISTA principles: Anti-Poverty Focus, Capacity Building, Sustainable Solutions, and Community Empowerment.

Anti-Poverty Focus
As previously noted, by law, the purpose of VISTA is to support efforts to fight poverty.  The goal of every project must be to help individuals and communities out of poverty, not to simply make poverty more tolerable.  The project should focus on long-term solutions rather than short-term services.

Community Empowerment
All VISTA project sponsors must ensure that their project engages residents of the low-income community in planning, developing, implementing and evaluating the project. The project must be responsive and relevant to the lives of the community residents, and should tap into inherent community assets, strengths and resources.

Capacity Building
One way to achieve sustainable solutions is to strengthen the ability of local organizations to fight poverty. Through activities such as fundraising, establishment of volunteer recruitment and management systems, community outreach, and partnership development, VISTAs help sponsors to achieve lasting solutions to poverty.  However, projects should focus their performance measures on achieving outcomes and impact on the community and/or beneficiary population, and not outcomes on capacity building for the sponsoring organization or its partners, affiliates, or intermediary organizations.

Sustainable Solutions
As originally designated in the Domestic Volunteer Service Act and reinforced in the Serve America Act, VISTA members represent a short-term resource and work to build the long-term sustainability of anti-poverty programs.  All VISTA projects should be developed with a goal of an eventual phase-out of the need for VISTA members and the ability of the project to continue without them.

Unless it is an Intermediary style program (see Guide to Sponsorship), VISTA projects typically last three-to-five years. From the beginning of the project planning process, the sponsor and community must think about how to use the VISTA project to phase-in other resources and systems to replace the VISTA resource.

Attached documents are as follows:
•    A Guide to Becoming an AmeriCorps VISTA Project Sponsor;
•    AmeriCorps VISTA Concept Paper Instructions; and
•    AmeriCorps VISTA FY 2011 Program Guidance.

CRITERIA FOR APPROVAL
Criteria for approval are based on whether the proposed project does the following:
•    Fits with one or more of the Corporation’s 2011-2015 strategic initiative focus areas, VISTA programming priorities, or priority areas listed in the introduction section of this document.  This must be clearly documented in the Concept Paper
•    Addresses the needs of low-income communities
•    Leads to building organizational capacity so that the project can continue once VISTA resources are withdrawn
•    Involves beneficiaries of the service and the low-income community in project development and implementation. This is required and must be noted in the Concept Paper.  If the organizations board of directors does not consist of at least 51% of the low-income beneficiary community, the sponsor must create an Advisory Council with a composition of at least 51% of its members from the low-income community. The board or advisory council must review and provide written comments concerning the project application prior to submission.  A copy of these comments will be a required attachment of any full application submitted
•    Is designed to generate public and/or private-sector resources
•    Promotes local volunteer service
•    Complies with the provisions of the Domestic Volunteer Service Act of 1973, as amended; 2009 Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, VISTA regulations; and VISTA policies.

Further criteria for determining approval are based on whether the applicant meets the following:
•    Is a local or state government agency, Tribe, or a private organization designated as a non-profit by the Internal Revenue Service.
•    Has resources available for VISTAs to perform their activities, such as space, supplies, and on-the-job transportation, and is able to provide emergency cash advances when needed.
•    Has the management capacity and commitment to recruit, train, supervise, and otherwise support VISTAs recruited locally and nationally.
•    Understands and is committed to promoting national and community service.
•    Has the capacity to build community partnerships and collaborative efforts to achieve project self-sufficiency.

VISTA projects have an average lifecycle of three-to-five years unless the applicant is serving as an intermediary agency. New project development occurs annually and is always subject to availability of resources. The Pennsylvania State Office strives to ensure that the portfolio of VISTA projects is diverse, both in terms of programmatic areas as well as geography. An additional factor we consider is the type of sponsor: from small grassroots organizations to large intermediary organizations.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Any interested organization or individual with additional questions not addressed by this RFCP may contact:  PAOutreach@cns.gov

TIMELINE
November 10, 2011: Interested applicants email letter of intent to apply to PAOutreach@cns.gov

November 17, 2011: Conference Call for interested applicants

December 1, 2011: Deadline for submitting concept papers