IN THIS EDITIONAmeriCorps Update | July 7, 2020
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Important Deadlines & Events
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Virtual Onboarding and Member Experience Best Practices. 10-11 AM CT. OneStar Summer Webinar Series. Register
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Challenges Facing Education Focused AmeriCorps Programs. 1-2 PM CT. OneStar Summer Webinar Series. Register
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AmeriCorps Texas Programmatic Salesforce Training. 1-2:30 PM CT. Register
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AmeriCorps Texas Fiscal Salesforce Training. 1-2:30 PM CT. Register
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New AmeriCorps Staff Orientation. Will be hosted virtually online. Register
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Pre-Award Risk Assessment documents due for Recompete grantees with budget period starting in Septeber or later. Instructions
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| OneStar Summer Webinar Series
The Training Needs Assessment from June 2020 provided us with valuable feedback on training and technical assistance needs from the portfolio. There are many unique challenges leading up to this unprecedented 2020-2021 program year. We will be facilitating an optional Summer Webinar Series to address some of these challenges and allow programs to share with each other strategies and best practices. Webinars will be recorded if you cannot attend. More webinars may be added as we continue to track the needs and opportunities for this program year.
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Virtual Onboarding and Member Experience Best Practices | Thursday, July 16, 10 AM Join us for a conversation about best practices for virtual on-boarding and member experience. AmeriCorps Texas programs CitySquare, Equal Heart, and Communities in Schools Central Texas will share what strategies they implemented in these areas.
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Challenges Facing Education Focused AmeriCorps Programs | Monday, July 20, 1 PM In light of the challenges, questions, and concerns our education based programs are facing about programmatic operations due to COVID-19, OneStar will be facilitating an interactive conversation for programs to share ideas, best practices, challenges, and creative solutions in program design and operation.
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| 2020-2021 Terms and Conditions Now Available
2020-2021 Terms and Conditions have been updated and are now available on our website:
Please note that the 2020-2021 Specific Terms and Conditions contain two new Prohibited Activities, both of which must be included in Member Service Agreements:
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Census Activities. AmeriCorps members are volunteers associated with AmeriCorps grants may not engage in census activities during service hours. Being a census taker during service hours is categorically prohibited. Census-related activities (e.g., promotion of the Census, education about the importance of the Census) do not align with AmeriCorps State and National objectives. What members and volunteers do on their own time is up to them, consistent with program policies about outside employment and activities.
Election and Polling Activities. AmeriCorps members may not provide services for election or polling locations or in support of such activities.
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OneStar will review all Terms and Conditions on the August 20th Updates from the Field Call. The registration link for this call will be included in the next AmeriCorps Update.
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| Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Resource Corner
OneStar is furthering its commitment to being more intentional with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) work by sharing out a few resources in each AmeriCorps Update to help further our community’s learning and growth around how to create change in Texas.
- Ask Jan’s Compliance Series: COVID 19
This resource provides employers with information about COVID-19 in the workplace and reasonable accommodations as they relate to COVID-19. It also includes some short case studies/situations that programs might find helpful. - A Class Divided | Frontline
This Frontline video (53 minutes) tells the story of third grade teacher Jane Elliot and her classic blue eyes brown eyes demonstration. Jane Elliot used this demonstration to teach empathy to her 3rd grade students and to start to give them an understanding of how it feels to be discriminated against based on traits that you cannot change. Further, this demonstration shows how the negative effects of the discrimination affected the children emotionally, physically, and academically. You can use this video with members to start conversations about racial justice and the effects of oppression on vulnerable populations. - Beyond Diversity and Multiculturalism: Towards the Development of Anti-Racist Institutions and Leaders
This resource is a social work run organization’s case study in their journey to develop an anti-racist model for organizational change. It includes the role of managers, supervisors, and leadership in building a racially equitable organization.
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| CNCS Branding Project Update
In the Transformation & Sustainability Plan announced by CNCS last year, one of the key goals is to simplify and strengthen messaging across the agency's multiple brands and programs. CNCS is currently engaged in a branding project to create a clear and compelling story that builds understanding of national service, so that all Americans are aware of their opportunity to serve.
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"...After considering feedback from stakeholders and staff, and weighing the recommendations from the branding firm, we intend to use two brands – AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps Seniors – to talk about our programs collectively and to move forward with AmeriCorps as the name for our agency.
With this decision in mind, it is important to note that our programs, their names, and their funding streams aren’t changing. Rather, we are focusing and unifying our efforts to elevate awareness of the opportunities for all Americans. We will use these two brands to promote all of our programs, including Foster Grandparents, Senior Companions, RSVP, AmeriCorps State and National, AmeriCorps VISTA, and AmeriCorps NCCC.
- By moving in this direction, we will be able to focus resources on promoting fewer brands to support all of our programs and build on AmeriCorps’ brand equity. This decision was also informed by the following:
- As you saw in the research, AmeriCorps is by far the best known of our brands. It would take years and considerable investment to build comparable recognition for a new name.
When we promote our programs in different ways using different names, we end up spending more resources without creating a clear picture. This approach will concentrate our limited resources and focus on what national service programs have in common, so that more people will understand what service opportunities exist.
Over the coming months, CNCS will continue work to bring this direction to life, with a brand launch taking place later this summer. At the launch, we will:
- Start to employ the new brand names, logos, messaging, and other brand elements.
- Share new brand guidelines and requirements for co-branding.
While we are sharing this decision with you today, we are not asking you to make any changes now. Currently, we envision a three-year period to allow organizations to transition their co-branding to new AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps Seniors brand identities. Additional FAQs linked below provide more information about our implementation plans."
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| CORPS Act Introduced in the U.S. Senate
On June 16, 2020, Senators Chris Coons (D-DE) and Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) announced the introduction of their new bipartisan Senate bill, the Cultivating Opportunity & Response to the Pandemic through Service (CORPS) Act, which if passed would significantly expand national service (as well as add flexibilities and increased benefits to those serving) to assist with COVID-19 response and recovery efforts over the next three years.
We are pleased to share the Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) signed on as an original co-sponsor of this bill!
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| New AmeriCorps Staff Orientation Hosted Virtually | July 27-30
OneStar will be hosting a New AmeriCorps Staff Orientation (NASO) from Monday, July 27 – Thursday, July 30, 2020. Due to public health concerns resulting from COVID-19, the training will be held virtually. Platform information and login instructions will be provided to participants with registration confirmation following the close of registration on July 13, 2020.
The NASO schedule is as follows:
- Monday July 27, 2020 9:00 AM - 12:15 PM CT
- Tuesday July 28, 2020 9:00 AM - 12:30 PM CT
- Wednesday July 29, 2020 9:00 AM - 1:30 PM CT
- Thursday July 30, 2020 9:00 AM - 11:15 PM CT
NASO is a two-day training for staff at your organization who are new to their position or new to working with your AmeriCorps program. The purpose of this training is to equip participants with basic knowledge about AmeriCorps, member management, grant management, and fiscal compliance.
Visit the registration page to view the agenda and for more information on the specific training topics. There is no cost to register for NASO.
Registration will be confirmed on a first-come-first-served basis. The maximum number of attendees for this NASO is 30. Please remember that attendance at NASO is mandatory for any Primary Fiscal and Program Staff listed on the AmeriCorps Authorized Representative Form within the first year of being assigned as a Primary contact.
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With the beginning of a new program year, we want to remind you of OneStar’s Pre-Enrollment resources to assist programs with the procedure for enrolling members in a timely manner. With these resources we hope to minimize the impact of these requirements and prevent any undue delays. We created a flowchart to give programs a visual of the entire process and a step-by-step guide including screenshots. Both can now be found on the Grantee Resources page.
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| Excellence in AmeriCorps Awards Accepting Nominations
Corporation for National & Community Service is delighted to announce that AmeriCorps State & National is accepting nominations for the annual Excellence in AmeriCorps Awards, a special opportunity to spotlight extraordinary programs and inspiring AmeriCorps members serving communities across our country. The Excellence in AmeriCorps Awards will be presented in the following categories:
- Impactful Service Award
- Innovative Service Award
- Inclusive Service Award
- Influential Service Award
- Lifetime of Service Award
Nominees may be programs, members, or alumni of AmeriCorps State and National. The Lifetime of Service Award is open to all individuals regardless of AmeriCorps program affiliation. Please consider nominating a program, member, or alum who demonstrates the highest level of performance and impact in national service. Click here for more information regarding the Excellence in AmeriCorps Awards, including all eligibility criteria and the nomination form.
Nomination narratives are limited to 3,000 characters, and you may choose to include photos along with the narrative submission to highlight the nominee’s accomplishments.
Nominations are due on Monday, July 10, 2020, and awards will be presented as part of the 2020 AmeriCorps State and National Symposium.
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| RESOURCES & TRAINING
Grantee Resource Library + eNewsletter ArchiveLooking for helpful forms and templates? Miss a recent AmeriCorps Update eNewsletter? Make sure to check out OneStar’s online Grantee Resource Library on our website. You can now also find AmeriCorps Update eNewsletters from the past year archived here.
If someone at your organization needs to be added to the AmeriCorps Update distribution list and is not receiving them, you can now directly request to be added to OneStar's AmeriCorps Updates list by registering here.
2019-2020 Grantee Monthly Call Schedule
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Individual Bi-Monthly Program Calls
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Recordings of previous Updates From the Field calls can be found here.
Recordings of previous Fiscal Update calls can be found here.
Reasonable Accomodation Request FormThe Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) may have funds available to help cover the costs of providing reasonable accommodations to AmeriCorps members. CNCS promotes inclusive service environments, where disability is valued as a part of the range of diversity that exists in the human condition, and persons with disabilities are welcomed and given every opportunity for full inclusion and participation in national service.
For additional questions about reasonable accommodations and/or reasonable accommodation reimbursement requests, please contact Betty Jo Schafer at bettyjo@onestarfoundation.org.
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) online here. This form 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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