AmeriCorps & ServeWyoming 

Since 2006, Wyoming Conservation Corps and AmeriCorps have partnered to connect students to natural resource and environmental experiences while promoting leadership. AmeriCorps is a national service program which allows organizations like WCC to meet critical environmental and community needs. WCC receives a federal AmeriCorps grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service through ServeWyoming, the state commission of AmeriCorps.

AmeriCorps

AmeriCorps provides opportunities for 75,000 Americans to give back in an intensive way to their communities and country each year. It consists of three main programs: AmeriCorps State and National, whose members serve more than 2,900 national and local nonprofit and community groups; AmeriCorps VISTA, through which members serve full time fighting poverty; and AmeriCorps NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps), a team-based residential program for young adults 18-24 who carry out projects in public safety, the environment, youth development, and disaster relief and preparedness.

What do AmeriCorps Members do?

AmeriCorps members do a wide range of things. They recruit, train, and supervise community volunteers, tutor and mentor youth, build affordable housing, teach computer skills, clean parks and streams, run after-school programs, help communities respond to disasters, and build the capacity of nonprofit groups to become self-sustaining, among many other activities.

What Benefits Do AmeriCorps Members Receive?

In exchange for a year of full-time service, members earn a Segal AmeriCorps Education Award that can be used to pay for college or graduate school, or to pay back qualified student loans. Awards are pro-rated for part-time service. Some members also receive a living allowance and health care.

AmeriCorps Fast Facts

• 574,000: Number of people who have served as AmeriCorps members since 1994.
• 718 Million: Total number of hours served by AmeriCorps members
• $.59 Billion: Total amount of Segal AmeriCorps Education Awards earned by AmeriCorps members since 1994.
• 2.2 Million: Number of community volunteers managed or mobilized by AmeriCorps members in 2008.
• 4,100: Number of non-profit, faith-based, and community organizations that AmeriCorps members served in 2008.
• $5.7 Billion:  Amount of AmeriCorps funds invested in nonprofit, community, educational, and faith-based community groups since 1994.

ServeWyoming

ServeWyoming promotes collaborative efforts among private, non-profit and governmental organizations that advance community service, volunteer programs and activities in each Wyoming community. We also collaborate with other Corporation for National & Community Service programs such as AmeriCorps VISTA, Learn & Serve America, and Senior Corps. ServeWyoming gives every citizen an opportunity to help solve our biggest challenges in education, the environment, public safety, human needs, and homeland security. In addition to funding organizations throughout the state, our Commission has the role of developing, communicating and promoting a statewide vision and ethic of service in Wyoming. To attain this, we are working on a variety of projects that include:

• AMERICORPS STATE 
providing funding to recruit AmeriCorps members and training to manage and operate AmeriCorps programs across Wyoming. Projects may vary to meet community needs and application process begins in the Fall of each year.
• AMERICORPS VISTA
 through funding granted by the VISTA State office, we provide VISTA members to non-profits in Wyoming, to fight poverty by building communities and mobilizing local resources, so that people in poverty have the tools they need to help themselves.
• DISABILITY INCLUSION & AWARENESS
 connecting those with disabilities and organizations who work with them to training and volunteer opportunities.
• EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS
 providing training to AmeriCorps programs, agencies, and the public, including special needs populations, on emergency preparedness strategies.
• LEARN & SERVE AMERICA 
provide training and funding to educational institutions that will guide students towards creating student-directed, curriculum-based service projects, and engage them not only in academics but develop a life-long commitment to service as well.
• VOLUNTEER WYOMING
 increase the number of and effectiveness of volunteers; provide strategies for recruiting training, placing or matching, and recognizing volunteers. Volunteer Wyoming is currently in eight pilot counties: Albany, Converse, Fremont, Goshen, Laramie, Natrona, & Sheridan. In addition, the Volunteer Wyoming website www.volunteerwyoming.org is available statewide.