We’re kicking off AmeriCorps Week today and will be celebrating here on the Campus Compact blog all week long. AmeriCorps Week is celebrated nationally and is a time to recognize AmeriCorps members and alumni nationwide for their service, thank AmeriCorps community partners, and share the impact AmeriCorps members have on their communities. Here at Campus Compact, we have two AmeriCorps programs: our K2H Civic Futures program and the Campus Compact VISTA program. This week we’ll be highlighting member stories and celebrating the impacts of national service at our campus and community-based host sites across the country.
Posts this week will center on the anti-poverty, civic engagement, and capacity-building work that is happening through our national service projects, but before we share those details, we’d like you to get to know us a bit better.
K2H Civic Futures is our AmeriCorps State National program that focuses on civic learning, engagement opportunities, and skill development for kindergarten through higher education (K-H) students. The K2H program strengthens partnership pipelines between K-12 systems and higher education systems that create continuity for civic learning and engagement initiatives as students transition from K-12 to higher education. K2H currently operates at 12 sites with 30 members serving in full and part-time roles.
The Campus Compact AmeriCorps VISTA Program places 56 full-time AmeriCorps members at 36 campus and community-based sites to complete campus-identified projects that build capacity for anti-poverty initiatives that serve low-income college students and low-income community members.
VISTAs are taking to build capacity at their in a variety of ways: mentorship programming between K-12 youth and psychology students; veterans on-campus engagement and supportive resources; creating a robust power closet with food, professional clothing, and menstrual products; developing opportunities for first-generation low-income college students to be successful after graduation, just to name a few.