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.

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.

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)