I was recently informed that if you do one year of community service for AmeriCorps you receive an educational award. I desperately need money for college and would enjoy helping organizations in my community but I can’t find any programs in my county or those surrounding me. I called AmeriCorps to ask them how I would find charities in my area and they said to look on the website, which I did but again, there doesn’t seem to be programs in my county. Is there some other organization I could call to find out about the locations of these organizations? Any other information about AmeriCorps would be greatly appreciated. How many volunteer hours are put in each week? It’s going to be tough for me to attend school, work and volunteer but I need the money.
Most AmeriCorps programs are full time so you can’t work, go to school and do AmeriCorps…you can only do one at a time, unless maybe you have a night job.
You have to put in 1,700 volunteer hours in 1 year to get your $4,725 education award and you do get paid, but it’s not much. There are 3 programs:
AmeriCorps*NCCC, where you travel around the US and do a lot of hands on work…you don’t have to have a degree.
AmeriCorps*Vista…where you stay in one place, you already have to have a degree.
AmeriCorps state and national, those you mostly stay in one place, and don’t always have to have a degree, these are sometimes part time too. These are usually hands on, like fire-fighting and forestry, but sometimes habitat for humanity.
You have to search on their website to see if there are any near you…if there aren’t… you are out of luck.
March 7th, 2010 at 8:10 pm
I volunteered with Americorp and loved every bit of it. I worked with high school dropouts in getting their GED’s.The organization used to be on the same site as VISTA and the Peace Corp. good luck.
References :
March 7th, 2010 at 8:57 pm
Most AmeriCorps programs are full time so you can’t work, go to school and do AmeriCorps…you can only do one at a time, unless maybe you have a night job.
You have to put in 1,700 volunteer hours in 1 year to get your $4,725 education award and you do get paid, but it’s not much. There are 3 programs:
AmeriCorps*NCCC, where you travel around the US and do a lot of hands on work…you don’t have to have a degree.
AmeriCorps*Vista…where you stay in one place, you already have to have a degree.
AmeriCorps state and national, those you mostly stay in one place, and don’t always have to have a degree, these are sometimes part time too. These are usually hands on, like fire-fighting and forestry, but sometimes habitat for humanity.
You have to search on their website to see if there are any near you…if there aren’t… you are out of luck.
References :
I used to recruit for AmeriCorps..I’m the source.
March 7th, 2010 at 9:13 pm
A lot of people these days are doing a gap year and taking off a year of school to do community service. Some schools are actually looking upon this favorably and seeing it as a positive when accepting new students. You may want to look into taking a year off to devote yourself to service, which should make it much easier then to complete your service hours.
As for Americorps programs, there are other Americorps-affiliated programs that will offer the $4725 Education Award but are not tagged with the Americorps name (for instance, City Year). It might be necessary to move to a different area for a year to do your service if there are no opportunities nearby. City Year encourages corps members to room together to split the rent and make it easier to live off the Americorps stipend, and they often have connections with people who can aid in finding housing. Also, some Americorps programs don’t allow you to take on a second job while you serve to help cover costs, while some do. I know that City Year allows it, and Americorps*VISTA and *NCCC don’t.
You may want to do some more research to see if other service orgs offer the Education Award, let you take a second job, and have some sort of housing options or support. You may also want to seriously consider doing a gap year to ease the burden on yourself.
References :
http://www.americorps.org
http://www.cityyear.org