IN THIS EDITIONAmeriCorps Update | July 22, 2020
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Important Deadlines & Events
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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. Registration is now closed.
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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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Updates from the Field. 1-2 PM CT. Registration link coming soon.
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ASC Quarterly AmeriCorps Webinar Series: Service as a Solution? 1-2:30 PM CT. Register
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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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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. 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. This week, the US Senate is negotiating the next COVID Pandemic Relief Bill, which is expected to be finalized this week.
The CORPS Act is up for consideration as part of this upcoming COVID Pandemic Relief Bill. The CORPS Act continues to gain national attention as a cost-effective solution to address the growing needs from COVID, while also providing a pathway to employment for AmeriCorps members.
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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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Training: Diversity in Children’s Literature This training is offered by the Diversity and Resiliency Institute of El Paso. From their website: “This pre-recorded webinar will discuss the role and importance of diversity in children's literature. This educational experience is perfect for parents, educators, librarians, and anyone who works with children ranging from pre-school aged through elementary school aged children.”
Inclusive and accessible Zoom virtual meetings Many of our programs are utilizing different platforms for virtual meetings during the COVID pandemic. We wanted to highlight some of the accessibility features of one of these platforms - Zoom. This is also the platform that OneStar will be using for virtual meetings and webinars moving forward. Here are some resources to learn more about inclusive features of the platform.
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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.
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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