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| AmeriCorps Update
09.08.2014
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| IMPORTANT DEADLINES + EVENTS
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| September 11, 2014 9/11 National Day of Service and Remembrance. See below for details on how you can post your projects and participate in 9/11 civic reflection discussions!
September 11, 2014 PER Processing Deadline.
September 12, 2014
September 18-19, 2014
September 25, 2014 PER Processing Deadline.
September 30, 2014 National PreparAthon Day. Click here or see below for details.
October 9, 2014 PER Processing Deadline.
October 16, 2014 Final FFRs/APRs due to OneStar for all 2013-2014 AmeriCorps Programs.
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| AmeriCorps 20th Anniversary – The Final Countdown! 5 days to go! We are so excited by all the AmeriCorps 20th Anniversary activities taking place across the LoneStar State this week! Here are some ways to get involved and make sure your members experience this once-in-two-decades opportunity firsthand: - Participate in a live Swearing In Ceremony on 9/12! Click here for information on events happening in Amarillo, Austin, Dallas, El Paso, Houston, Waco and more!
- Tune in Online to the Texas or National Live Stream! If you can’t make an event in-person, tune in online to our Austin event ceremony (link forthcoming) or the National DC event from the White House (hosted at http://www.whitehouse.gov/live) between 9:30-11:00am Central.
- Pledge to Serve and Get Your Certificate (Open to Members, Alums, and Friends and Fans of AmeriCorps alike). Every AmeriCorps member takes a pledge to “get things done for America.” In that same spirit, every citizen can make a difference for our nation. As AmeriCorps marks 20 years of service, show your support by committing to get things done. Whether you’re an AmeriCorps alum, current member, relative, fan, or friend -- you can show the world the power of service by completing the “Pledge to Serve” Form.
- Plug In on Social Media! Follow and search these hashtags to check what's being said about OneStar, national service, and AmeriCorps: #americorps20 #gettingthingsdone#TXCNCS.
- Join the AmeriCorps ThunderClap campaign! It's free, easy, and takes 2 minutes. Tens of thousands of AmeriCorps members, alumni, and AmeriFans will participate in this amazing moment and pledge to get things done for America. All you have to do is donate one Tweet or Facebook post. Help spread the word and get people across America talking about AmeriCorps. Thunderclap will automatically share a message on your behalf to get AmeriCorps trending on September 12, 2014.
Thanks for your participation and OneStar is super excited to celebrate this momentous occasion with you! Happy birthday, AmeriCorps!
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| Post your #911day Projects! September 11th, 2014 marks the 13th anniversary of the worst terrorist attacks ever to occur on U.S. soil.
It also marks the National Day of Service and Remembrance, a day to honor the lives of those who were lost and commemorate the spirit of compassion and generosity that followed. We, along with many partners around the country, are giving Americans the ability to mark this date by serving in their communities. This year, the September 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance coincides with the 20th anniversary of AmeriCorps and many states are planning projects to commemorate both events. I f you are planning to host a 9/11 Day event, don't forget to: About #911day: The September 11th National Day of Service and Remembrance is the culmination of an effort originally launched in 2002 by 9/11 family members and support groups and led by the organization MyGoodDeed. These individuals and organizations worked to establish the service day as a way to honor those who were lost and to rekindle the spirit of unity and compassion that followed the attacks. The September 11th National Day of Service and Remembrance was established into law by the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act in 2009, and furthers President Obama’s call to service, United We Serve.
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| 9/11 National Day of Service and Remembrance - Texas AmeriCorps Civic Reflection Discussions To honor the 9/11 Day of Remembrance across Texas, OneStar is partering with Amy Salinas of Cultivating Agents of Change (CAC) Consulting to host 5 different civic reflection discussions throughout the month of September for both members and staff to participate. This civic reflection discussion will provide an opportunity for AmeriCorps members and program staff to dialogue about important questions around diversity, peace, responsibility, good deeds, and much more. To get to these questions, we will use a specific reading that should be read prior to participation and that will be emailed prior to the day of dialogue. Here are the dates, times and registration information:
Civic Reflection Online Discussions
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| No matter what plans you have for 9/11, we hope you will invite your members to participate in one of the Civic Reflection discussions. Many of you are hosting your own during September or October, but we will hope you will invite them to participate so they can have another opportunity to talk about a different reading with different members from around the state. Civic Reflection 101 for 9/11 Discussion Facilitators We will also hold 4 different Civic Reflection 101 discussions that will help to support program staff in understanding the basics of civic reflection and to review the 4 sample readings that are provided as tools for you to use in your own civic reflection with your members in September or later in honor of the 9/11 National Day of Service and Remembrance. Each of these sessions will be the same, but will be at varied days and times so that you can find one that fits your schedule. This webinar will educate AmeriCorps program staff about civic reflection and build their capacity to facilitate a 9/11 Day of Service and Remembrance civic reflection discussion based on a specific reading. This webinar will be led by Amy Salinas. Here are the dates, times and registration information:
Civic Reflection 101 Informational Webinars (to support staff in learning about civic reflection and the sample readings)
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| If you have any questions at all or want to talk about these opportunities further, please do not hesitate to contact Amy Salinas at CACconsulting@hotmail.com or 512.294.3370.
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| Welcome to National Preparedness Month FEMA’s Ready Campaign has established four universal building blocks of emergency preparedness: Be informed, Make a Plan, Build a Kit, and Get Involved. America’s PrepareAthon! builds on this foundation by encouraging millions of Americans to focus on a simple, specific activity that will increase preparedness. During National Preparedness Month (NPM) we ask you, your family, community, school and workplace to take action by planning a National PrepareAthon! Day on or around September 30th. We recommend using digital media tools as a way to promote National Preparedness Month, September 1st-30th. How to get involved: - Download the NPM 2014 Digital Engagement Toolkit. In the toolkit you'll find tips on how to promote National Preparedness Month, as well as resources, images, tweet suggestions and tons of other great resources to help you spread awareness!
- Register for National PrepareAthon! Day. America’s PrepareAthon! is a new national community-based campaign for action that focuses on increasing emergency preparedness through hazard-specific drills, group discussions and exercises. National PrepareAthon! Day is on September 30th.
- Make a Communications Plan. Your family may not be together when a disaster strikes so it is important to plan in advance: how you will get to a safe place; how you will contact one another; how you will get back together; and what you will do in different situations. Read more about Family Communication during an emergency.
- Follow NPM Social Media Channels. Follow @Readygov and @PrepareAthon on Twitter. Use the hashtag #NatlPrep and encourage your followers to do the same. Like us on Facebook/Readygov.
The 2014 National Preparedness Month theme is: “Be Disaster Aware, Take Action to Prepare.”
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| New PER and Fiscal Updates OneStar has a few fiscal updates to share with the field. - Final PERs: Please note the following to clarify the 13-14 Final PER deadline. The email sent directly to grantees (titled “Year End Memo” or “Final PER Reminders”) should have the correct deadline which is 30 days after the end of your budget period (i.e. grants ending 8/31/14 have PERs due on 9/30/14). If additional time is required beyond the 30 day deadline, please contact your Grants Officers with a proposed new date for submitting your final PER. If you have not already done so, please do so immediately.
- New 14-15 PER Template – Please use the new 2014-2015 PER Template for all 2014-15 PERs including your pre-award PER. (This has also been added to our Grantee Resources Library).
- Pre-Award Cost Authorizations: Please note that if you have a Pre-Award Cost Authorization from OneStar, we request that the first PER of the year have a start and end date that is the same as the pre-award period even if you did not incur any costs during that period. For example, if a grantee has a pre-award allowance effective 7/1/14, and a budget period of 8/1/14 through 7/31/15, we request that the first PER have a beginning date of 7/1/14 and an ending date of 7/31/14, and that it only include costs incurred during that period, along with any grant-related in-kind matching contributions received during that period. If you requested a pre-award allowance, but did not incur any costs during that period, then please submit a PER for the pre-award period with all zeros on it. Then, the second PER would begin 8/1/14 and could end as late as 9/30/14.
- For Fixed Grantees: Please report all costs in the “Member Support Costs” line in section II of the attached PER template.
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| Coming Soon: Operation AmeriCorps! CNCS has just announced the forthcoming Operation AmeriCorps initiative for city and community leaders. Through Operation AmeriCorps, all three AmeriCorps programs will be made available in a single application. So, for the first time, local leaders will be able to design a comprehensive project that engages AmeriCorps State and National programs, harnesses AmeriCorps VISTA’s poverty-focused capacity building, and taps AmeriCorps NCCC’s surge capacity! As part of the public comment process on this initiative, CNCS is taking the next few weeks to listen to colleagues and partners and gather feedback and specific project ideas that will help structure the future funding competition. In addition to recent conference calls, CNCS is soliciting comments, questions, or ideas about how local city and community leaders would use Operation AmeriCorps in their cities. If you have input or questions, contact OperationAmeriCorps@cns.gov.
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| Texas Governor’s Committee on People with Disabilities -
Citizen Legislative Input Survey The Texas Governor’s Committee on People with Disabilities seeks your input on issues facing Texans with disabilities. Every two years, the Committee makes policy recommendations to the Governor and the Legislature on issues related to Texans with disabilities. Your input will help the Committee create policy recommendations that respond to the needs of the community.
The Committee wants to hear from Texans with disabilities, family members, caregivers, and professionals in the field of disability issues. If you would like to include outside data in your responses, please feel free to paste the data or link to the data in the open-ended response sections. This survey is anonymous. It will be open from August 27, 2014 to September 10, 2014. Survey responses will then be reviewed and considered as the Committee creates its policy recommendations for the 84th Texas State Legislative Session, which will begin in January 2015.
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| Changes to AmeriCorps Enrollment/Exit Forms Last week, CNCS announced that changes to the member enrollment and member exit forms are now live in the MyAmeriCorps/eGrants portal. These changes are designed to improve data quality and to provide additional demographic data about the AmeriCorps member population. Changes include: - All demographic questions are now required.
- The enrollment form now has additional options for veteran status.
- The exit form has new questions about disability status, type of disability and disability benefits.
- The exit form asks whether education level has changed since the beginning of service.
CNCS expects to share updated paper versions of the forms in the near future. NOTE: Programs that use paper forms should continue to use the old forms until new ones are provided.
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| New AmeriCorps Healthcare Survey & Impact Report The America’s Service Commissions (ASC) Healthcare Work Group, operating as part of the ASC Public Policy Committee, recently released a new AmeriCorps Healthcare Survey & Impact Report that is now available online. OneStar Foundation staff actively participated in the Work Group and in collecting and analyzing the data and findings outlined in this report; several AmeriCorps Texas grantees also participated in the original healthcare survey that is the basis for this report. The overall goal of the ASC Health Care Work Group in publishing this report is three-fold: - To improve our collective understanding of the current AmeriCorps program and member experience in obtaining and utilizing AmeriCorps health care coverage and benefits;
- To improve the current AmeriCorps program and member experience in obtaining and utilizing AmeriCorps health care coverage and benefits, by minimizing administrative burden wherever possible and allowing for the sharing of innovative or best practices in AmeriCorps healthcare implementation across programs and states; and
- To ensure that AmeriCorps programs and members have continued access to high quality healthcare and can make well-informed, compliant decisions about healthcare options throughout the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
We hope this report will be of constructive use to all of you and the national service field as we work together to support high quality healthcare coverage to AmeriCorps members. Background: About the ASC Healthcare Work Group: This group was formed to explore the impact of healthcare changes on AmeriCorps State & National programs and members as a result of the implementation and requirements of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The goal of the group is to identify challenges, concerns and potential opportunities related to the ACA and AmeriCorps healthcare coverage. The group is facilitated by America’s Service Commissions and chaired by Philip Kolling of SerVermont.
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| AmeriCorps Alums: Virtual Grad Fairs are Back! In conjunction with AmeriCorps Alums, we are proud to announce an upcoming professional development opportunity for AmeriCorps members and Alums to further their Life After AmeriCorps: Second Annual Virtual Grad School Fair Series: These exciting events will build on last year’s inaugural event by including even more schools committed to recruiting AmeriCorps alumni. One of the key goals of this event is to provide alumni with options that are available to them when considering how they will utilize their Segal AmeriCorps Education Award. Many alumni and current members can benefit from the growing number of schools that are actively recruiting AmeriCorps alumni. This event will help connect members and alumni to those schools, and will include schools that match the Segal AmeriCorps Education Award. For AmeriCorps programs, this event is a great Life After AmeriCorps opportunity that provides members with a wide variety of choices for using the Ed Award. Best of all, the event is FREE to current AmeriCorps members and alumni. There are two opportunities to attend this year’s series. They will occur on: - Friday, September 26, 2014 from 12:00PM to 3:00 PM Eastern (Register here)
- Tuesday, September 30, 2014 from 6:00PM to 8:30PM Eastern (Register here)
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| G-489 - Management of Spontaneous Volunteers in Disasters
OneStar is pleased to announce that the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) will be offering two upcoming G-489 certification courses on “Management of Spontaneous Volunteers in Times of Disaster”: This one-day course aims to introduce the keys to success in managing large numbers of spontaneous volunteers in disasters. Its underlying assumption is that much of the volunteer help is indeed needed, and that with basic Emergency Management coordination skills, the volunteer resources can often be put to effective use, making a positive difference in the affected community. The course will discuss the benefits spontaneous volunteers can bring to relief efforts and the challenges they may bring if not coordinated effectively. In addition, the course will examine planning considerations regarding spontaneous volunteers. Special emphasis is also placed on how to make full use of a Volunteer Reception Center—the backbone of any well-organized spontaneous volunteer management program.
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| Texas Nonprofit Summit: Collective Action for Impact!
Whether it’s the exceptional keynote speakers, unparalleled networking opportunities, or the unique sessions full of ideas and resources, the 2014 Texas Nonprofit Summit has so much to offer! When: September 18-19, 2014
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| Katherine’s Story: Hometown Hero Pays it Forward This week’s spotlight is on CitySquare’s Food On the Move Program and AmeriCorps member Katherine Mejia. Her story truly exemplifies how the program empowers members of the local community to serve and be a part of the solution. The following story was written by Abbie Kopf, director of Content and Storytelling for United Way of Metropolitan Dallas: I was scheduled to meet Katherine Mejia at a Bachman Lake apartment complex. When I finally cross through a dilapidated courtyard and stumble upon her, we aren’t alone for long. Kids excitedly rush up to her and call her by name, reaching for the toys she carries in her hands. To them, Katherine probably looks just like Santa … and they certainly treat her as warmly. It’s easy to see why people are drawn to her. She is a remarkable young woman with sharply intelligent eyes, who graduated valedictorian of Thomas Jefferson High School and won a very prestigious scholarship to Southern Methodist University. She’s a kind-hearted Dallas girl, through and through, and she’s shaping up to be a hometown hero. Every day this summer, Katherine will visit low-income housing areas, where she hands out nutritious meals and snacks and plays games with more than 100 kids. She does this as part of her AmeriCorps summer job with CitySquare’s Food on the Move program, a mobile feeding program in partnership with PepsiCo targeting low-income youth. United Way and the city of Dallas have set a goal of moving 250,000 people out of poverty by equipping hardworking people with resources to stay on their feet, like the Food to Move program. The initiative has served thousands of kids. In fact, Katherine was one of them. Katherine lived in one of the same apartment complexes assisted by the Food on the Move program. It was there that AmeriCorps volunteers told Katherine about educational opportunities that existed for her, and even got her to apply to become an AmeriCorps volunteer herself. Now, she pays it forward – helping kids to become active and to fill their minds with activity throughout the summer time. The day I meet Katherine, I follow her into an alley where a freak mid-summer rain had cooled the place off enough for a pleasant afternoon of play. It’s not much of a playground, but it does the trick. “Kids get lonely,” Katherine tells me. “A lot of them will spend the day watching T.V., and that’s it.” She says that the companionship of the AmeriCorps volunteers is as much of an incentive for the kids to join in the program as the food. The scene before me echoes her sentiments. I sit on a window stoop in the alley, where Katherine swings the jump-rope in what’s shaping up to be a fairly competitive game of double-dutch, while kids approach her with questions and seek out her attention. Katherine tells me that they remember the names of past volunteers, and ask how they’ve been doing. I ask Katherine, what made the difference in her path? Katherine is quick to credit her parents and teachers, who gave her the courage to pursue new subjects and interests, but she says it’s all about the attention she was given and the motivation she found within. As she got up in age, she was exposed to a few students from her high school who “got out” as she calls it. “I saw some people graduating and going to bigger and better places, and I knew it was possible.”
Katherine is aware that kids from her area can be cautious. “Sometimes when someone offers to help them, they might think that there’s strings attached, because it’s what they know.” Instead she tries to show them another way. “I try to let them know that they don’t have to go it alone, and that people always need someone to fall back on.” Katherine’s time is winding down at this apartment complex, and the kids can sense the close of the day. Their eyes start to turn downwards. I ask Katherine what kind of advice she might give to kids like her and she says “Keep doing what you’re doing. You have to search for things, but if you do, they will come to you.” Katherine is on a pre-med track, so that she can work in pediatrics and continue to help Dallas children. It’s been said that a child’s destiny can mean the zip code that they’re born in, that a low-income child born in Dallas has little hope of moving out of his or her financial position. But Katherine is living proof that the opposite can be true. Katherine benefitted from the attention and motivation of people who cared about her health and education and because of that, she is thriving and will ensure others will too. http://www.unitedwaydallas.org/blog/entry/katherines-story-hometown-hero-pays-it-forwardCongratulations to Katherine and all of her fellow Food on the Move AmeriCorps members who are getting things done for hungry children across Texas!
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| Civic Reflection Training Services Request Form OneStar is pleased to periodically offer Civic Reflection training services to grantees, national service programs, and eligible organizations throughout the state of Texas. The two types of services offered are Civic Reflection Discussions and Civic Reflection Facilitation Workshops. Civic reflection uses short, thought-provoking images, video or readings from literature, history, or philosophy to open up important questions in civic life and explore the underlying values and beliefs that drive our shared work in the world. AmeriCorps programs have utilized the practice of civic reflection as a tool in such areas as member development, staff development, and member retention.
Reasonable Accommodation Request Form OneStar may have funding available to support grantees with reasonable accommodation requests for members and/or potential members. If you need to request funds to provide a reasonable accommodation for a member or potential member, please complete the request form at http://www.tfaforms.com/167676.
Updating Program Contact Information If during the year, you have any changes, additions, or deletions to your program’s contacts, please update your program’s Authorized Representative Form (ARF) by visiting http://www.tfaforms.com/159770. This site allows you to add, remove, and/or update contacts at any time and you only need to enter the contact information for the person(s) you need to update. As a reminder, OneStar requires the following roles to be designated and corresponding contact information to be on file: - Legal Authorized Signatory
- Primary Program Contact
- Primary Fiscal Contact
- Secondary Contacts (Primary or Fiscal) – as applicable
Please note that it is a grantee requirement to update this form within 10 working days of a change in your program’s key personnel assigned to your AmeriCorps project.
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