Published: September 26, 2024
Application Due Date: November 12, 2024
Assistance Listing Number: 94.006 
Contact Information: Funding@CaliforniaVolunteers.CA.GOV

Grant Description

California Volunteers (CV), the State Service Commission for California, is now accepting applications for 2025-2026 AmeriCorps State funding. Successful applicants receive federal funds and an allotment of full-time or part-time AmeriCorps member positions to help address community problems through service and volunteer action.

AmeriCorps members dedicate a year of their life to intensive community service in exchange for a modest living stipend and Segal Education Award.  The experience often leads to a life enriched by meaningful service and in many cases, a career in the non-profit sector or public service.

AmeriCorps programs address critical community needs including education, climate action, disaster services, environmental stewardship, and food security. Sample member activities include tutoring and mentoring youth, job training/placement, home visitation, response to local disasters, restoring natural habitats, organizational capacity building, and supporting and connecting high-need populations to critical services and resources. AmeriCorps members also mobilize community volunteers and strengthen the capacity of the organizations where they serve.

Eligible Applicants

Nonprofit organizations and state and local government agencies are eligible to apply. All applicants must have active registration with the System for Award Management (SAM) at https://www.sam.gov/SAM/.

Funding Priorities

The following priorities will receive preference in the California Volunteers grant selection process:

• Intergenerational bridgebuilding: Support intergenerational bridgebuilding by recruiting and engaging older adults ages 55 and older in service, including tutoring and mentoring programs. To be eligible for this funding priority, the program design must include at least 30% of member slots designated to AmeriCorps members ages 55 and older. Member demographics will be verified at member enrollment and in progress reporting.
• Support homelessness: Programs to increase support and services for the homeless population.
• Serve Communities: Serve communities with concentrated poverty, rural communities, tribal communities, and historically underrepresented and underserved individuals. These may include people of color, immigrants, refugees, people with disabilities, LGBTQIA+ individuals, people with arrest or conviction records, religious minorities, etc.
• Environmental Stewardship: Promote environmental stewardship to help communities (especially underserved households and communities) to be more resilient by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, conserving land and water, increasing renewable energy use and improving at-risk ecosystems.
• Youth mental health and recovery services: Expand access to high-quality youth mental health and substance use recovery services and prepare AmeriCorps members to enter behavioral health careers. These may include individuals with lived experience with substance use and mental health challenges to support youth mental health efforts and continued AmeriCorps work on the opioid epidemic.
• Support Civic Bridgebuilding: Programs and projects to reduce polarization and community divisions; and providing training in civic bridgebuilding skills and techniques to AmeriCorps members; Benefit AmeriCorps Members:
• Workforce Development: Create workforce pathways for AmeriCorps members, including deliberate training, certifications, and hiring preferences or support.
• Enhance Member Benefits: Provide benefits to AmeriCorps members aimed at enhancing member experience and bolstering member recruitment and retention such as paying more than the minimum living allowance, transportation, housing, food, etc.
• Public Health AmeriCorps: Develop and train the next generation of diverse public health leaders through service while addressing pressing community health challenges. Review Public Health AmeriCorps Priority in the Mandatory Supplemental Information for eligibility information.
• American Climate Corps: Please note that applicants may propose projects to be affiliated with the American Climate Corps (ACC), which is a federal government national service and workforce development initiative focused on training young people for the clean energy and climate resilience workforce. Applicants who are interested must demonstrate that their project funds ACC eligible positions meeting the following criteria:
  • The position has verifiable climate or environmental impact.
  • The position is temporary (term-limited), and the term length is at least 300 hours.
  • The position includes skills-based training as part of the program and provides a pathway to employment.
  • The position must receive a living allowance and, in some cases, may receive additional member benefits.

Applicants submitting a workforce development project to qualify for affiliation with the ACC should note that in their application. Successful applicants will be notified if they are part of the ACC and may be subject to additional reporting requirements.

Notice of Intent to Apply

Prospective applicants are encouraged to submit a Notice of Intent to Apply by completing this short survey by October 15, 2024.

Application Deadline

All application components must be received by Tuesday, November 12, 2024. See Application Instructions for submission guidelines.

Application Documents

• Request for Applications
• Mandatory Supplemental Information
• Application Instructions
• Performance Measure Instructions
• Public Health AmeriCorps Performance Measure Instructions
• Applicant-Determined Performance Measure Supplement

Application Forms

• Proposed Service Site Locations List
• Labor Organization Certification Form
• Applicant Operational and Financial Management Survey
• New Applicant Certification Form
• AmeriCorps Organizational Self-Assessment
• Evaluation Plan Template
• AmeriCorps Budget Worksheet
• New Program Addendum
• Match Waiver Request
• Minimum Program Size Waiver Request
• Minimum Number of Members per Service Site Waiver Request

Technical Assistance

Funding Opportunity Overview and Q & A

This session will introduce the AmeriCorps State grant, including its purpose and requirements, provide an overview of the Request for Applications (RFA), and the application process and timeline. All re-competing applicants are highly encouraged to attend this session due to the new changes in the application.

• Wednesday, October 9, 1pm PT
  Click to Register

Application and Selection Criteria

This session will go over the application components and the scoring criteria in greater detail. The information from this session will help applicants in producing a complete and competitive application.

• Monday, October 14, 1pm PT
  Click to Register

AmeriCorps Budget Development

This session will provide guidance about how to create a compliant grant budget for an AmeriCorps program. Participants should review the Budget Instructions section of the Application Instructions as well as resources available on the AmeriCorps Knowledge Network Financial and Grants Management webpage, prior to attending this session.

• Wednesday, October 16, 1pm PT
  Click to Register

Demonstrating Evidence

In this session, participants will learn how to identify their program’s level of evidence and how to support it with relevant data, studies, and/or evaluation reports. Prior to attending this session, participants should review the Request for Applications and the Mandatory Supplemental Guidance section on Evidence Base and Evidence Tiers.

• Monday, October 21, 1pm PT
  Click to Register

Performance Measurement

This session will help applicants better understand performance measurement requirements, the California Performance Measurement Worksheets, and the Performance Measurement module in eGrants.

• Wednesday, October 23, 1pm PT
  Click to Register

Frequently Asked Questions

Questions received by email will be collected and answered on a weekly Frequently Asked Questions document posted below.

Resources

• Evaluation Resources

The following templates are provided to allow for offline development of application components that must be submitted in an online form.

• Logic Model Template
• California Performance Measurement Worksheet Templates