AmeriCorps

AmeriCorps, U.S. federal program that supports voluntary service in the areas of health, the environment, education, and public safety. It was created by the National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993, which also established the Corporation for National and Community Service, an independent federal agency designed to oversee and support domestic-service programs, including AmeriCorps.

AmeriCorps is made up of three primary programs: (1) AmeriCorps VISTA (founded as Volunteers in Service to America in 1965 and incorporated into AmeriCorps in 1993), which assigns full-time AmeriCorps volunteers to work with community organizations and public agencies in various programs to alleviate poverty, including public-health and job-training programs, (2) AmeriCorps NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps, modeled on the Great Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps), a full-time residential program in which volunteers living on several regional campuses work with various organizations and agencies on team-based service projects in their region, and (3) AmeriCorps State and National, which awards funding to service organizations and agencies to recruit, place, and supervise AmeriCorps participants.

In September 1994 approximately 20,000 volunteers representing the first class of AmeriCorps were sworn in by Pres. Bill Clinton and began serving in more than 1,000 communities. In 1997 the introduction of the AmeriCorps Education Award—a postservice grant for educational expenses such as tuition and repaying student loans—helped to increase individual participation in AmeriCorps and enabled more organizations to benefit from the program. By the end of the first decade of the 21st century, AmeriCorps had grown to approximately 75,000 annual volunteers serving both rural and urban communities in all 50 states.