About the Iowa National Service Corps
The Iowa National Service Corps was established to certify programs that meet state and local needs, to provide more opportunities for Iowans to serve their state and country, and to foster a cultural expectation of service in Iowa through a unified service corps. The Iowa National Service Corps provides opportunities for state agencies, political subdivisions of the state, and private, nonprofit organizations to create national service programs outside of existing state and federal programs such as AmeriCorps.
For example, if a nonprofit organization has another funding source to create a small number of service positions in a rural Iowa community, it may make more sense for them to manage the program locally as an Iowa National Service Corps program rather than working through AmeriCorps.
By creating more opportunities for certification of service positions as part of the Iowa National Service network, we hope that even more organizations will be able to make national service work for them and more Iowans will become national service members.
What benefits come with recognition as an Iowa National Service Corps program?
This state legislation authorizes a state hiring preference for alums that have served a full-time (or equivalent) term of service, eases administrative requirements around state agencies entering into agreements for services with national service corps programs, allows state agencies or political subdivisions of the state to give priority to grants or projects that utilize Iowa national service corps programs, and permits state agencies to utilize third-party vendors to help them with establishing and administering national service corps programs.
How to apply for certification
Many existing service programs are automatically recognized as Iowa National Service Corps state programs and can start taking advantage of the benefits right away. These include:
- AmeriCorps State & National programs
- AmeriCorps VISTA programs
- AmeriCorps Seniors/Senior Corps programs
- The Iowa Summer Youth Corps Program
- Iowa Green Corps Program
- Iowa Reading Corps Program
- RefugeeRISE AmeriCorps State Program
- Iowa Conservation Corps
Other programs created and/or operated locally can apply for certification as part of the Iowa National Service Corps. Submit your application electronically to Volunteer Iowa via SurveyMonkey.
Review the application questions and prepare responses in advance. The system does not allow a partially completed application to be saved and re-opened later.
Potential applicants should reach out to Volunteer Iowa staff at americorps@volunteeriowa.org with questions and to notify staff of an application submission that is awaiting staff review.