IN THIS EDITIONAmeriCorps Update | August 5, 2020
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Important Deadlines & Events
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Holding Space for DEI Discussions & Personal Growth Webinar. 3-4 PM CT. Register
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Updates from the Field. 1-2 PM CT. Register
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ASC Quarterly AmeriCorps Webinar Series: Service as a Solution? 1-2:30 PM CT. Register
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Final PER and End of Year AFR due for programs with a budget end date of July 31, 2020. Access the form
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Public Allies DEI Webinar Session 1: Understanding and using foundational principles of equity, inclusion and social justice. 2-3:30 PM CT. Register
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Final PER and End of Year AFR due for programs with a budget end date of August 31, 2020, including COVID-19 Planning Grants. Access the form
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| AmeriCorps Texas Grantee Portal Is LIVE!
OneStar is pleased to launch our new online grant management platform this week!
Access the AmeriCorps Texas Grantee Portal at:
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All grant Authorized Representatives with programs starting in July or August should have received an email on Tuesday, August 4, containing login instructions (Subject Line: Welcome to the AmeriCorps Texas Grantee Portal). If you did NOT receive this invitation, please first check your spam folder, then contact your Program Officer for technical assistance. For programs starting in September, you will receive an email with your user login by the end of this week.
OneStar led two webinar trainings on the Grantee Portal in July for programmatic and fiscal staff. The only difference between the two sessions is that the fiscal training included instruction on how to submit a PER and a Budget Amendment. Download the slide deck from the training here.
Assistance and instructions can be found online in our Grantee Portal Support Hub, which we will continuously update as new functionalities are added. Please contact your Program or Grants Officer if you have further questions or concerns.
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The following information or actions are currently available or will be available in the AmeriCorps Texas Grantee Portal by the end of this week.
- Overview of grant, and uploaded grant documents, including the Notice of Grant Award as they are executed
- Program Budget
- Authorized Representatives
- PER Submission. Only 2020-2021 PERs should be submitted in Salesforce. 2019-2020 PERs should be submitted in OnCorps.
The following information or available actions are coming soon. More training will be provided as these additional functions become live:
- Overview and status tracking of monitoring activities for the full program year
- Approved PARA documents Budget Amendment Submissions, including Budget Reallocation Requests and Deobligation
- Program Amendment Submissions
- AmeriCorps Progress Report Submission (first APR in the Grantee Portal will be the 2020-2021 Mid-Year APR)
- AmeriCorps Financial Report Submission (first AFR in the Grantee Portal will be the 2020-2021 Mid-Year AFR)
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| Launching the AmeriCorps Texas 2020-2021 Program Year
Texas communities are facing unique challenges this year that require locally-led solutions. AmeriCorps is uniquely positioned to address these issues by harnessing the power of service.
We are excited to launch a new program year with our 2020-2021 AmeriCorps Texas grantees! Download the full list of this year's programs and descriptions of how they will be leveraging national service to strengthen Texas communities in the months ahead.
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The CORPS Act, Senate Bill 3964, was introduced in the U.S. Senate on June 16th by Senators Chris Coons (D-DE) and Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS). To date, this bill has 16 original co-sponsors, eight Republicans and eight Democrats, including Senator John Cornyn (R-TX). If this legislation passes it would greatly expand AmeriCorps opportunities, as well as increase living allowances, the value of the education award, and grant awards.
The CORPS Act is up for consideration as part of this COVID Pandemic Relief Bill currently being negotiated in Congress. While the CORPS Act continues to receive significant bi-partisan support and is a noted priority for many key legislators, including Senator Cornyn, the Republican Senate stimulus proposal did not include any funding consistent with the objectives in the CORPS Act.
The stimulus bill is still in negotiations as Congress works to bridge the gap between the House $3 trillion proposal and the Senate $1 trillion proposal.
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| Member Recuitment Resources
As you continue to recruit members for the upcoming program year, we want to share recordings from our recruitment webinar series last year. These webinars discuss best practices in recruiting and onboarding AmeriCorps members, how to connect with university students, and effective strategies to implement along the recruitment cycle - from converting leads to hires, hires to members, and members to engaged alums.
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| ASC Training & Technical Assistance Directory
Our partners at America’s Service Commissions have compiled a Training and Technical Assistance Directory as a resource for ASC members to learn about trainers and consultants who are both peer recommended and have demonstrated support for the state service commission network. This resource is useful to find trainers and consultants who are committed to our work and have experience working with the national service field.
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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.
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Implicit Bias Test These tests were created by a collaborative research effort between researchers at Harvard University, the University of Virginia, and University of Washington to help individuals identify their implicit biases. Using this tool is an important step in understanding the roots of stereotypes and prejudice in our society and help us learn where our biases are showing up in our work and personal lives.
Barnga: A simulation game that encourages participants to critically consider normative assumptions and cross-cultural communication This was created by Sivasailam “Thiagi” Thiagarajan in 1980, while working for USAID in Gbarnga, Liberia. He and his colleagues were trying to play Euchre but all came away from the instructions with different interpretations. He had an ‘a-ha’ moment that conflict arises not (only) from major or obvious cultural differences, but often from subtle, minor cues. He created the game to tease out these subtleties. In this activity, students play a card game silently, each operating with a different set of rules, unbeknownst to them.
Ask Jan’s COVID 19 Page This landing page provides a wealth of resources related to COVID and the Americans with Disabilities Act. You can find information on accommodations, guidance, publications, and case studies.
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As part of our ongoing commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, OneStar is offering several DEI focused-webinars in the next several months.
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Holding Space for DEI Discussions and Personal Growth | August 19, 3-4 PM CT Stacie Sanchez Hare from City Year San Antonio will share how her program created space for staff and members to acknowledge and process the trauma in their communities. The AmeriCorps Texas DEI Committee will introduce strategies and resources for programs to begin or continue discussions and personal growth around diversity, equity, and inclusion. We will hold space and break out into small groups to discuss challenges and best practices for looking through our work with a DEI lens.
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Session 1: Understanding and using foundational principles of equity, inclusion and social justice. | September 23, 2 PM CT
Session 2: Analyzing patterns in our individual work practices and using critical consciousness to build an AmeriCorps that works in the interest of everyone. | October 28, 2 PM CT
Session 3: Using collaborative approaches to strengthen the impact of AmeriCorps in local communities. | November 23, 2 PM CT
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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. Links to the recordings and resources from our first two webinars below. 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 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.
Challenges Facing Education Focused AmeriCorps Programs 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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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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| 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.
2020-2021 Grantee Monthly Call Schedule
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Individual Bi-Monthly Program Calls
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Individual Bi-Monthly Program Calls
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Individual Bi-Monthly Program Calls
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Individual Bi-Monthly Program Calls
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Individual Bi-Monthly Program Calls
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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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