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What Is AmeriCorps?

Every day across the nation AmeriCorps members are making a powerful impact on the most critical issues facing our nation. AmeriCorps provides opportunities for more than 80,000 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 with 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.

What Do AmeriCorps Members Do?

AmeriCorps members 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 equal to the maximum amount of the Pell Grant that can be used to pay for educational expenses at qualified institutions of higher education, or to pay back qualified student loans. For positions approved in 2011, the amount will be $5,550. Awards are prorated for part-time service. Some members also receive a living allowance and health care.

Learn more about the Segal AmeriCorps Education Award

AmeriCorps Fast Facts

  • 706,000: Number of people who have served as AmeriCorps members since 1994. 
  • 860 Million: Total number of hours served by AmeriCorps members.  
  • 2.5 million: Number of disadvantaged youth tutored, mentored, or served by
    AmeriCorps members in fiscal 2010. 
  • 2.6 Million: Number of community volunteers managed or mobilized by AmeriCorps members in 2010.
  • $480 million: Value of cash and in-kind donations leveraged by AmeriCorps members in fiscal 2010. 
  • 14,000: Number of nonprofit, faith-based, and community organizations served by AmeriCorps members last year.
  • $2 Billion: Total amount of Segal AmeriCorps Education Awards earned by
    AmeriCorps members since 1994.
  • $7.2 Billion: Amount of AmeriCorps funds invested in nonprofit, community,
    educational, and faith-based community groups since 1994.

How Do I Join?

Go to AmeriCorps.gov to get started!