Vision

Assess and Establish Needs

Before you launch a City Service Corps program, you should assess what needs an AmeriCorps program can address in your community.

The concept for City Service Corps was formulated shortly after then-Chief Service Officer Paula Gavin was appointed by Mayor Bill de Blasio in April 2014. After holding several meetings with nonprofit and City agency leaders across New York City, Gavin found that a central theme was that these leaders had a desire to expand service and opportunities to address critical community needs. While NYC Service already had an AmeriCorps program called NYC Civic Corps to build capacity around volunteer programming at nonprofit organizations that would go on to engage many more nonprofit partners, there was not a counterpart for City agencies.

NYC Service also connected with the Aspen Institute’s Franklin Project, which envisioned that all young people committed a year to military or civilian service between the ages of 18 and 28. In the shorter term, they looked to expand national service opportunities to 1 million across the country by 2023.

The next step was to bring these parties together with New York City agencies to assess how new service opportunities could help government agencies meet their capacity needs and better serve the city’s communities.

NYC Service joined with the Franklin Project and United Way of New York City to host a Service Summit in New York City on July 9, 2014. An audience that included community-based organization leaders and potential funders heard panel discussions and participated in breakout sessions to brainstorm about volunteerism and service in New York City. Mayor de Blasio also strongly championed national service in remarks he delivered to the audience that day.

That summit would prove to be the spark that eventually would result in City Service Corps.

NYC Service worked closely with a number of organizations in a Planning Committee and by February 2015, the idea for City Service Corps had solidified. The program would place members in city government agencies to address critical community needs. NYC Service applied to become an AmeriCorps program in the spring of 2015 under a now defunct CNCS grant program, Partnerships Challenge. NYC Service was awarded AmeriCorps slots in August 2015.

During the next several months, City Service Corps would evolve from an idea, to a plan, and finally, a reality. On November 9, 2015 – less than a year-and-a-half after the Service Summit – City Service Corps launched, with a diverse corps of 53 members serving at 11 NYC agencies. Fifty-five percent of members were between 22 and 28 years old, and 57% were female.

Since its inception, City Service Corps has operated with an idea that there would be three overarching program outcomes:

  1. Develop a workforce of highly skilled young people.
  2. Improve the communities in which they serve.
  3. Create a new generation of leaders who prioritize civic engagement.

These benefits, also known as the trifecta of benefits, have been at the core of City Service Corps’ program design, professional development, and member assignment.

Practical Advice from Aaron Miner,
Managing Director, Service Year Programs

Contact Your State Offices
If you are considering building out an AmeriCorps program, you should be in touch early on with your State Service Commission, who are the state partners of Corporation for National and Community Service who administer AmeriCorps grants and funding at the state and local level. Program officers there can help you figure out whether an AmeriCorps program is right for you.

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Questions to Ask Before Launching a City Service Corps Program:

  1. What is the mission of this program?
  2. What community needs would be addressed or fulfilled by this program?
  3. Is this program bringing unique roles and added capacity to the agencies?
  4. How long will the program last (e.g., 10 months, 12 months)?
  5. How many hours will the members serve?
  6. What will the budget be for this program?
  7. Whom will you recruit for the program? How will you conduct outreach to potential host sites? To participants?
  8. How will you structure the program – who will administer, how will you fund and who will supervise members?
  9. Because AmeriCorps members are not allowed to engage in political activities (among other AmeriCorps prohibited activities), do you have structures in place to ensure that they have meaningful, non-political service?
  10. How does a program like this build into your overall human capital strategy or workforce development plan?
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Understand and embrace the trifecta of benefits of a municipal service year program – workforce development, community outreach, and civic leadership. Define the impact and theory of change for the roles/program areas at the front end so that outcomes drive the design of the service year roles.

– Paula Gavin, NYC Chief Service Officer, 2014-2018, and architect of City Service Corps

Vision

Build Buy-In

Because you may be working closely with agencies outside your own, you should build strong relationships with agency leaders. Leaning into both the capacity building aspects as well as the workforce development aspects will allow for broad appeal and interest in your program.

City government agencies were recruited for City Service Corps host site participation based on their interest and the types of projects that they would provide for their members. The fact that agencies weren’t required to participate was an important key to successful host site experiences, as can be seen later in the Blueprint. As the program chose to focus on the capacity building element of the members’ service as opposed to focusing on one specific issue/area, in recruitment of host sites and partners we were able to cast a wide net across all agencies to request member projects.

Over the course of the first few years of operating City Service Corps, it became clear that a similar resource was also highly needed by our City agency’s nonprofit partners. In the first three years, City agencies would sometimes support the placement of members at nonprofits working on issues that were critical to City programs, such as members at nonprofit compost collection sites that built into the Department of Sanitation’s organics program. In year four, only City agencies were delegated as City Service Corps host sites, which allowed for better operational and member training alignment. Many of the community-based organization partners have moved to one of NYC Service’s other AmeriCorps programs that is solely for nonprofits, NYC Civic Corps.

Agency
(number of members)		 Corps Name
Organization Partner*		 Community-Based
Administration for Children’s Services Community Service Ambassador Corps (5) No
Department of Sanitation Organics Corps (7)
New York City Housing Authority
Recycling Corps (3)		 Yes – Organics
Corps members
were placed at
community-based
organizations
Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs Immigrant Services (2) No
Young Men’s Initiative Mentor Corps (3)
Read More Corps (9)		 Yes- Mentor Corps members were placed
at Mentoring
Partnership of NY

Read More Corps
members were
placed at high
needs elementary
schools through
Reading Rescue
Human Resources Administration Neighborhood Corps (3) No
Department
of Consumer
Affairs/Office
of Financial
Empowerment		 Financial
Empowerment
Corps (1)		 No
Department
of Health and
Mental Hygiene		 Public Health
Corps (5)		 No
Department of Education School Technology Corps (4) No
Department for the Aging Senior Services Corps (1) No
Department of Probation Young Adult Success Corps (8) No

* Community-based partners were eliminated in year 4 of the City Service Corps program.

How To:

Develop a Host Site Application Process

Before a program year begins, NYC Service ensures that each City Service Corps project has the tools it needs for a successful term. This involves getting agencies with appropriate and exciting projects on board as host sites. Having host sites secured is also a critical piece to creating a successful initial application for AmeriCorps members.

1. An annual application.

City agencies must apply each year to host City Service Corps members. This ensures that the agency has specific projects and plans designed for incoming City Service Corps members. This also helps NYC Service remain up to date with agency personnel changes and project changes and to ensure that members are not the long-term answer to staffing projects. An annual application also allows new agencies to apply for the program.

NYC Service requires City Service Corps host sites to focus their project plans for members on at least one of three areas:

  1. Community engagement/outreach
  2. Project management
  3. Research and data evaluation Narrowing member roles to these three categories allows the host sites to focus on impact and helps NYC Service staff develop training modules that can support member development directly in applicable member service reas. NYC Service also requires agencies to align their AmeriCorps member projects with the agency mission and/or the City’s strategic plan, OneNYC. All the positions must also spend at least 10 percent of time doing direct service so that City Service Corps members can interact with the community and understand the full impact of their projects.

2. Specific requirements across for host sites to address.

In its application, NYC Service asks potential host sites about the following:

  • The community need that would be addressed by City Service Corps members
  • Written position descriptions for each member
  • A list of all supervisors, titles, and experience coaching and mentoring
  • The way in which host sites will support recruitment of their City Service Corps members
  • The application also has specific questions for new and returning host sites to help them think through how best to place their members, who serve for a 10-month period and need to hit the ground running

3. Rubric for standardizing the review process.

NYC Service has a rubric for reviewing applications. Two staff members review each application according to the rubric, average their two scores, and discuss the strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement for the potential host site. During this stage, staff members also check to ensure the projects do not violate any AmeriCorps rules. If the NYC Service team extends an offer to the host site, and the host site accepts the placement and funding commitment, they would then be included in the interview and recruitment process.

4. Timeline established well in advance of the application deadlines.

City Service Corps’ host site application timeline is as follows:

November: Information sessions/calls completed for interested new host sites.

December: NYC Service releases the host site application.

End of February: Initial host sites are selected in preparation for member recruitment in March.

End of April: If there are additional slots available after the February deadline, applications are accepted on a rolling deadline (meaning that acceptances are granted as NYC Service approves the agency/organization) until the end of April

Early August: Host site supervisors receive a mandatory in person orientation from NYC Service.

Early September: City Service Corps members start their service at the agency/organization.

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The initial outreach to City agency leadership was a ‘cold call’ email or phone call. The reaction was overwhelmingly positive because leadership saw the power and energy that service year members could bring to their agency mission.

– Paula Gavin, NYC Service Chief Service Officer, 2014-2018, and Architect of City Service Corps

Develop Champions for Your AmeriCorps Program

Having city officials who fully support your AmeriCorps program’s mission and vision is critical to the program’s success. City Service Corps has cultivated champions at the head of the agencies and in direct supervisory roles. We have done so by ensuring that commissioners and other leaders know about the AmeriCorps members placed at their agencies and the contributions they are making to the agency.

City Service Corps started with agencies that NYC Service felt would be a good fit for the program and asked them to opt in if they were interested. That allowed City Service Corps to constantly have new and fresh projects and supervisors in addition to ongoing projects on which members are very much needed over the course of the year. Develop champions in agencies early – even if they are not managing members. We had several deputy commissioners and other senior staff at agencies who were – and are – champions of our work and allowed us to more easily enter into new areas of that agency because of their support.

Practical Advice from Aaron Miner,
Managing Director, Service Year Programs

This timeline was created to align with New York City government’s fiscal year, which runs July-June. As it is important for agencies to think about their member needs along with the fiscal commitment, NYC Service is in close contact with the City’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to make sure the application aligns with fiscal deadlines expected from agencies.

Vision

Make the Case and Secure Supporters

Now that you have champions and agencies interested in participating in your program, you need to ensure that you have funding and support for the program.

Agencies that established the greatest need for national service members also had limited funds to sponsor those members. So, from its inception, City Service Corps developed a unique public-private partnership model that has allowed members to successfully serve at these city government agencies.

In the original plan to fund City Service Corps, NYC Service formalized a model that required a financial commitment from three sources: 1/3 from private funding, 1/3 from the government agency sponsoring the position, and 1/3 from the host site (either city agency or community -based organization). Often the members would be serving at the government agency. In those cases, the agency would fund 2/3 of the position.

Because the City Service Corps program model has evolved to only place members at city government agencies, the funding model has evolved as well.

In 2019-2020, agency host sites agreed to pay for the members’ $18,500 stipend and the related payroll taxes ($1,415.25). Private funding is used for professional development, monthly Metro Cards (which are free for members), health insurance, evaluation, and other costs. Once the stipend, education award, health insurance, training, and other costs are included, the total is about $30,000 per City Service Corps member.

While City Service Corps is part of the AmeriCorps family, this formula is unique. NYC Service makes no funding requests from the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) or the New York State Commission on National and Community Service (State Commission) for City Service Corps to enable program flexibility, but does request the Segal Education Award for members who successfully complete the program. For the 2019-2020 term, members who successfully complete 1,700 hours are eligible to receive a $6,195 Segal Education Award, which can be used to pay off student loans or to pay for current and future eligible educational expenses.

In 2015, the program received a federal three-year Partnerships Challenge Education Award Only Grant from CNCS. This support enabled City Service Corps members to be part of AmeriCorps without any grant dollars from CNCS. Because of the AmeriCorps designation, members would be able to defer payment of eligible student loans and they would be eligible to receive a Segal AmeriCorps Education Award upon successful completion of City Service Corps. While the Partnerships Challenge program was phased out at the federal level, NYC Service has received grant approvals or renewals from the New York State Commission and CNCS each year. The City Service Corps program is contingent on these annual approvals.

While the funding from agencies went hand-in-hand with their interest in hosting members, NYC Service still had to make a strong case for City Service Corps support to private foundations. And it has successfully done so, through its development of and commitment to the trifecta of benefits (community impact, professional and workforce development, and civic leadership). This impact has been at the heart of making the case for external support for the AmeriCorps program.

At the launch of the inaugural program year, City Service Corps had received a total of $550,000 from seven private sources: American Express, Citi Foundation, CSX, New York Community Trust, Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund, Lizzie and Jonathan M. Tisch Family Foundation, UJA- Federation of New York, and The Walt Disney Company. Trinity Wall Street also served as a funder in years two and three of the program. NYC Service worked with its nonprofit partner, The Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, to secure these funds and ensure that they would be accessible for the program year. Citi Foundation the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund have funded each year of the program and continue to fund City Service Corps into the 2020-2021 of the program.

NYC Agencies Hosting City Service Corps Members in 2019-2020:

  • Administration for Children’s Services (ACS)
  • Civic Engagement Commission (CEC)
  • Department of Education (DOE)
  • Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH)
  • Department of Probation (DOP)
  • Department of Sanitation (DSNY)
  • Department of Social Services (DSS): Human Resources Administration (HRA) and Department of Homeless Services (DHS)
  • Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics (MODA)
  • Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA)
  • New York City Department of Parks & Recreation (NYC Parks)
  • New York City Emergency Management (NYCEM)
  • New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA)

Practical Advice from Aaron Miner,
Managing Director, Service Year Programs

Establish Your Trifecta of Benefits
It’s quite important to have your core mission, vision, and values established from the beginning of the program. It makes your case for support stronger, and it drives the design and operation of your program. City Service Corps’ Trifecta of Benefits are guiding principles of the City Service Corps AmeriCorps program:

  1. Community Impact: Members get the opportunity to serve on projects that have meaning and impact across the entire city. Agencies also get a burst of new blood that bring new ideas and connections to the communities that the agency may not have had before.
  2. Professional and Workforce Development: Because of our strong emphasis on training, we are building up the next generation of public and nonprofit leaders, which benefits the entire City. We see this as a workforce development strategy for the City, as a consistent 30-40% of members have been hired by the City each year. Especially in light of the fact that Baby Boomers will be retiring in large numbers over the coming years, our city benefits from having people know and understand the work. We also encourage all our members to take the Civil Service tests so they are ready.
  3. Civic Leadership: While training them for work, we are also giving our members a platform to find their voice and passion to prepare for lifelong civic engagement. We give members the opportunity to practice their leadership skills through developing and managing committees that plan after-hours trainings, service days, member newsletters, and member events. And these experiences make a lasting impact: An evaluation of City Service Corps found that 56.1 percent of members responding to a CNCS exit survey said their experience made them more likely to vote, 67.5 percent were more likely to donate money or goods to a cause/issue they cared about, and 45.6 percent were more likely to volunteer.