National Civilian Community Corps

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Example of an AmeriCorps NCCC Team age 18–24 (Source: Team Eagle 2, Perry Point, MD Campus: Service Year 9, 2003)

National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC), or AmeriCorps NCCC is an AmeriCorps program that engages 18–24 year olds in team-based national and community service in the United States. National Civilian Community Corps Corps Members are required to complete 1,700 hours of service in 10 months. Corps Members and Team Leaders are representative of all colors, creeds, states, and economic status. Approximately 1,200 Corps Member and Team leaders are chosen to serve at one of five regional campuses, located in Sacramento, California; Denver, Colorado; Vinton, Iowa; Vicksburg, Mississippi; and Perry Point, Maryland. Members are required to complete a minimum of 1,700 hours of service, including 80 independent service hours. However, members complete an average of 1,850 service hours per term. [1]

Benefits

While serving in AmeriCorps, Corps members receive:[2]

  • Room and board
  • Food
  • About $5250 educational stipend
  • Limited healthcare coverage
  • Uniforms
  • Travel

After successfully completing a term of service, AmeriCorps members who are enrolled in the National Service Trust are eligible to receive a Segal AmeriCorps Education Award. A Segal AmeriCorps Education Award can be used to pay education costs at qualified institutions of higher education, for educational training, or to repay qualified student loans. The award is $5,350 based on the maximum value of the Pell Grant, for a year of full-time service, and is prorated for part-time. The award can be accessed in full or in part, and those qualified have seven years after their term of service has ended to claim the award. The award is limited to a maximum of two terms: Full-time, half-time, reduced half-time, quarter time, and minimum time terms of service each count as one term of service. [3]

History

Inception (1992)

The NCCC program was loosely based on the depression era Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), although in practice, the differences between NCCC and CCC projects were quite marked in both practical intent and outcome. In some respects, NCCC teams resemble their CCC predecessors, who were also required to function under rugged conditions for prolonged periods and engage in strenuous conservation and wildfire-fighting projects, flood control, and disaster relief.[4][5]. In other areas, much unlike the original CCC, NCCC was founded to function in social welfare capacity. [6]

In 1992, "a bipartisan group of Senators worked hand-in-hand with the first Bush Administration to resurrect the CCC in a new form for a new era, creating what is now know as AmeriCorps NCCC...."[7]

Official founding (1993-2005)

With bipartisan sponsorship, the program was enacted into law in 1993[8][9] (referred to as the "Civilian Community Corps") and signed by President Bill Clinton as a demonstration program charged with determining:

  • Whether federally funded residential service programs can significantly increase the support for national and community service
  • Whether such programs can expand the opportunities for young men and women to perform meaningful, direct, and consequential acts of community service in a manner that will enhance their own skills while contributing to their understanding of civic responsibility in the United States
  • Whether retired members of the armed forces can provide guidance and training under such programs that contribute meaningfully to the encouragement of national service
  • Whether domestic national service programs can serve as a substitute for the traditional option of military service.[10]

While some of the primary motivations cited in the 1993 inception of AmeriCorps*NCCC changed and evolved over time, the basic focus of the program has remained the same: environment, education, public safety, and other unmet needs, disaster relief, and the addition of a "disaster services (preparedness and response)" heading in 2006/7.

2005 - Present

Much of the Fiscal Year 2006 and 2007 funding issued to NCCC was directly specified as being intended for hurricane relief in the Katrina impacted upper-gulf region. In 2007, in response to budget pressures, the Corporation for National and Community Service announced the closure of the Charleston, SC and Washington, DC campuses. Sixty percent of the remaining NCCC will be deployed to the Gulf Coast to aid with Hurricane Katrina relief until at least 2010.

In 2008 the NCCC opened a new campus in Vinton, IA. Also, along with Iowa, in July 2009 the National Civilian Community Corps opened a new Campus in Vicksburg, Mississippi.[11]

Programs and Projects

Overview

Projects fall in the areas of disaster relief, public safety, the environment, education, and other unmet needs. Teams frequently work with non-profit organizations such as Habitat For Humanity and the American Red Cross, tutor students in public schools, and build trails for various national and state parks.

Fire fighting

All National Civilian Community Corps members are trained in CPR, first aid, and disaster services, and about 15 percent are red-card certified fire fighters. [12]

NCCC teams have successfully served in fighting major wildland fires [13][14][15] and in completing fire mitigation work, according to National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service officials.[16]

Environment

NCCC performs environmental work in a number of areas.

Education

NCCC teams have worked in partnership with school systems across the country. A summary of national service work by AmeriCorps NCCC, released in early 2006, states that NCCC had by then tutored 319,000 students.[17]

In conjunction with the American Council on Education (ACE), NCCC Corps Members who complete course requirements during their year of service can earn undergraduate credits hours for "Introduction to Service Learning" and "Core Supervisory Skills." (See ACE's "National Guide Online")[18]

Upon successful completion of service, NCCC Corps Members earn a (taxable) education award of $4,725 for college tuition -- awards that are matched by many colleges and universities.[19]

Disaster Relief

The National Civilian Community Corps in 2008 responded to Flooding in the Midwest, Hurricanes Dolly, Ike, and Gustav, and Tropical Storm Hannah. The NCCC has responded to nearly every Natural Disaster and Large Wildfire since 1994.

Summer of Service

The NCCC Summer of Service is an intensive summer program designed to introduce youth ages 14 to 17 to national service and to foster such values as teamwork, responsibility, and the ethic of serving your community. Like the year-round AmeriCorps NCCC experience, NCCC Summer of Service combines the best practices of structured team-based activities with service-learning programming. In 2008, Summer of Service participants engaged in service projects in Los Angeles; Memphis; New Orleans; Sacramento, Denver; Camden, N.J.; Baltimore; Washington, D.C.; and Houston[20]

Impact and reactions

"Since 1994, more than 12,000 members have invested more than 20 million service hours on 6,500 service projects with thousands of nonprofit organizations and other public agencies to provide disaster services, tutor children, preserve the environment, build homes for low-income families and meet other challenges. In FY 2008, 60 percent of members served in the Gulf Coast Region on multiple team deployments assisting local communities to recover from the effects of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita,Gustav, Ike, Dolly, and Wilma.[12]

Hurricane Katrina Response

AmeriCorps NCCC, a team-based residential program for 18-24 year-olds, has made Hurricane Katrina response its primary focus these past three years, deploying more than 4,000 members to intensive assignments in the Gulf. National Cilivian Community Corps members have refurbished 9,500 homes, built 1,450 new homes, completed 52,000 damage assessments, and trained and supervised more than 227,000 volunteers. ".[21]

Criticisms

AmeriCorps (which includes the NCCC program) is a USA federally funded "network of more than 3,000 non-profit organizations, public agencies, and faith-based organizations." AmeriCorps has met with sharp criticisms from some fiscal conservatives who accused it of being a "boondoggle".[22]

Funding

As a part of AmeriCorps, within the Corporation for National and Community Service, the National Civilian Community Corps is Congressionally funded. Appropriations are proposed by the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies subcommittees in the House of Representative[23] and in the Senate[24].

Other than a one-time supplemental appropriation for Gulf-Coast hurricane relief, NCCC funding has remained at approximately $25 – $26 million since 2002.[25]

As of early October 2007, the Senate and House had yet to meet in conference to arrive at consensus legislation.

See also

References

  1. ^ http://www.americorps.gov/about/programs/nccc.asp
  2. ^ http://www.americorps.gov/about/programs/nccc.asp
  3. ^ http://www.americorps.gov/for_individuals/benefits/benefits_ed_award.asp
  4. ^ http://www.state.tn.us/environment/tn_consv/archive/ccc_onemansjourney.pdf
  5. ^ http://www.sunherald.com/editorials/story/141099.html
  6. ^ AmeriCorps.gov > Frequently Asked Questions
  7. ^ Mikulski Calls for Restoration of President's Massive Americorps Cut
  8. ^ Corporation for National and Community Service
  9. ^ PUBLIC LAW 103-82 [H
  10. ^ ExpectMore.gov: AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps
  11. ^ http://www.americorps.gov/about/programs/nccc.asp
  12. ^ a b http://www.nationalservice.gov/pdf/2008_budget_justification.pdf
  13. ^ J-F Services - Blackerby Fire
  14. ^ J-F Services - Wildland Firefighting (August 18 - September 2, 2006)
  15. ^ J-F Services - Idaho
  16. ^ Forest to Grassland Newsletter 2.pub
  17. ^ AmeriCorpsNCCC
  18. ^ ACE | College Credit Recommendation Service
  19. ^ AmeriCorps
  20. ^ http://www.americorps.gov/about/programs/nccc.asp
  21. ^ "http://www.americorps.org/about/newsroom/releases_detail.asp?tbl_pr_id=1123
  22. ^ Kelley Beaucar Vlahos (March 20, 2006). "AmeriCorps on Budget Chopping Block". Fox. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,188385,00.html. 
  23. ^ Appropriations Committee - Dave Obey, Chairman
  24. ^ United States Senate Committee on Appropriations - Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies
  25. ^ AmeriCorps Appropriations History - AmeriCorps Alums

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