WASHINGTON, D.C. – AmeriCorps members from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories, including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, have deployed to areas affected by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria. Led by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), they make up the more than 2,000 AmeriCorps and Senior Corps members aiding in recovery and response efforts in Florida, Puerto Rico, Texas, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and other impacted areas. A list of all hometowns can be found here.
These AmeriCorps members come from CNCS’s elite, specialty-trained disaster response crews. Since August, teams from the Conservation Corps Minnesota Iowa, Florida Conservation Corps, Montana Conservation Corps, SBP, Southwest Conservation Corps, Texas Conservation Corps, Utah Conservation Corps, and Washington Conservation Corps, as well as AmeriCorps NCCC and FEMA Corps, also an AmeriCorps program, have been tapped to support national and local organizations in areas impacted. In the coming weeks, additional crews will deploy to aid in the ongoing recovery efforts.
AmeriCorps members are called upon to provide manpower for blue roof tarping, debris removal, chainsaw destruction of hazardous trees, and muck and gut operations. Their service also includes community outreach, damage assessments, operations and logistics, volunteer and donation management, and disaster survivor assistance. Locally-serving AmeriCorps and Senior Corps members in impacted areas are also supporting response and recovery efforts.
More than 40,000 AmeriCorps and Senior Corps members were deployed in response to Hurricane Katrina. In the decade since, AmeriCorps teams have provided critical support after countless disasters, including Hurricane Sandy; the 2013 floods in Colorado; and tornadoes in Joplin, Mo., Tuscaloosa, Ala., and Moore, Okla.
Following a disaster, national service acts as a force multiplier, providing key resources and significantly expanding the capacity of existing organizations on the ground. Through all its programs and initiatives, CNCS helps communities to prepare for, mitigate, respond, and recover from disasters.
Those interested in answering the call to serve, should consider applying for the AmeriCorps NCCC’s winter 2018 class. These men and women will work in teams, traveling the country to address critical issues, including disaster response and recovery. The deadline to apply is November 15 and applications can be started by going here. Additional opportunities to join AmeriCorps are available at AmeriCorps.gov/Join.
Just last fall, AmeriCorps celebrated a major milestone for the national service program when it surpassed 1 million AmeriCorps members. Since 1994, AmeriCorps members have provided more than 1.4 billion hours of service and earned more than $3.3 billion in education scholarships, more than $1 billion of which has been used to pay back student debt.
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The Corporation for National and Community Service is a federal agency that engages millions of Americans in service through its AmeriCorps and Senior Corps programs and leads the nation’s volunteering and service efforts. For more information, visit NationalService.gov.