CRANSTON, RI – U.S. Senator Jack Reed today announced that Serve Rhode Island and eight local non-profit organizations will receive over $2.14 million in federal AmeriCorps grants.

The AmeriCorps grants are the result of the 2013 AmeriCorps State and National funding competition and advance the priorities of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act and the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS).  They will help support AmeriCorps members across Rhode Island as they provide services to youth and families in need and help disadvantaged students.  Additionally, AmeriCorps members who complete their 1,700 hours of service may earn a $5,550 Segal AmeriCorps Education Award that can be used for continuing education and vocational needs or to pay interest on student loans or the loans themselves.  CNCS projects that AmeriCorps members in Rhode Island will receive $748,476 in Segal AmeriCorps Education Award funds. 

“Serve Rhode Island and AmeriCorps members really make a positive difference in the communities they serve.  This is a smart federal investment that gives young people the opportunity to gain valuable work skills while enriching school and community programs for Rhode Islanders throughout the state.  It also helps build the capacity to generate and coordinate more volunteers,” said Senator Reed, a member of the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees AmeriCorps funding and a strong supporter of national service. 

Serve Rhode Island, which administers the state’s AmeriCorps program, will receive $600,000 in federal funding, which in turn will be used to award grants to non-profit organizations and/or government agencies responding to local needs across the state.

“We are very proud of the work of all our AmeriCorps teams that won nationally competitive funds,” said Bernie Beaudreau, Executive Director of Serve Rhode Island.  “We are particularly pleased that Teach for America will be receiving funding to support 65 AmeriCorps positions in schools in Providence and the Blackstone Valley, going above and beyond traditional expectations to help their students achieve at high levels.”

AmeriCorps programs annually engage almost 80,000 individuals in intensive, results-driven service each year at more than 15,000 locations across the country. AmeriCorps members last year mobilized more than four million community volunteers for the organizations they serve.

Rhode Island organizations that won competitive AmeriCorps grants this year include:

Connecting for Children & Families, Inc. will receive $106,400 to tutor students struggling in reading and math as well as coordinate after-school tutoring and academic enrichment programs in Woonsocket.

The Providence Plan will receive $465,500 to support literacy and school-readiness programs for underserved preschoolers, as well as conduct developmental health screenings in Providence, Pawtucket, and Central Falls.

Teach for America – Rhode Island will receive $52,000 to support teachers in Providence and the Blackstone Valley who are helping to break the local cycle of education inequity.

Save the Bay will receive $212,800 to provide 12 weeks of hands-on environmental education programming to third grade students in Central Falls, Newport, Pawtucket, Providence, West Warwick, and Woonsocket, plus provide after-school and summer camp environmental education programs and recruit and support volunteers through their work at four nonprofit organizations. 

The Providence Children’s Museum will receive $170,907 to provide STEM and math enrichment activities for elementary aged children and school readiness activities for children enrolled in Head Start to increase academic success and school readiness among low-income children in Providence, Pawtucket and Central Falls.

The Institute for the Study & Practice of Nonviolence will receive $212,800 for to address chronic crime and violence by supporting nonviolence intervention training and recovery methods for youth and families in Providence.

Inspiring Minds will receive $133,000 to provide tutoring for K-5th grade students in low performing elementary school in Providence.

Brown University will receive $187,727 to provide in-school college advising to increase the number of urban, low-income and first generation students seeking higher education throughout the state.