Title 45—Public Welfare--Volume 1
PART 2500—AMERICORPS STATEMENT OF ORGANIZATION, AGENCY OPERATING NAME, AND LOGOS
§ 2500.1   Creation and authority.
The National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993 established the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) as a Federal agency, organized in the form of a Government corporation within the Executive Branch, to administer the national service programs authorized by the National and Community Service Act of 1990. CNCS also administers the national service programs authorized by the Domestic Volunteer Service Act of 1973, as amended, and previously administered by the former Federal ACTION Agency.
§ 2500.2   Agency operating name.
(a) The Corporation for National and Community Service has adopted AmeriCorps as its official agency operating name.
(b) Use of AmeriCorps as the agency operating name incorporates the Corporation for National and Community Service by reference.
§ 2500.3   Purpose and mission.
AmeriCorps' purpose is to administer the programs established under the national service laws. AmeriCorps' mission is to improve lives, strengthen communities, and foster civic engagement through service and volunteering.
§ 2500.10   General.
(a) The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is the head of AmeriCorps. The CEO has authority and control over AmeriCorps personnel, except those in the Agency's Office of Inspector General, and is responsible for exercising the powers and discharging the duties authorized by the National and Community Service Act of 1990, as amended, that are not otherwise reserved to the Board of Directors.
(b) The Board of Directors is responsible for discharging the duties authorized to it by the National and Community Service Act of 1990, as amended.
(c) AmeriCorps consists of headquarters and two sets of regions: Office of Regional Operations regions and AmeriCorps NCCC regions.
§ 2500.11   AmeriCorps leadership.
(a) AmeriCorps' leadership conducts overall planning, coordination of programs, and all supporting internal operations. AmeriCorps leadership includes, but is not limited to, the following AmeriCorps officials:
(1) CEO.
(2) Chief of Staff.
(3) General Counsel.
(4) Chief Operating Officer.
(5) Chief Financial Officer.
(6) Chief Program Officer.
(7) Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer.
(8) Directors of AmeriCorps programs and offices.
(b) AmeriCorps' public website contains current information on Agency leadership at www.americorps.gov/about/our-team/our-leadership.
§ 2500.12   Region offices.
AmeriCorps' Office of Regional Operations and AmeriCorps NCCC each have a regional structure.
(a) AmeriCorps' Region Offices, within the Office of Regional Operations, serve assigned States and Territories across eight regions. The AmeriCorps website contains contact information for each of these Region Offices at www.americorps.gov/contact/region-offices.
(b) AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) has a campus facility in each of its regions, which serve the States and Territories. The AmeriCorps website contains contact information for each of the NCCC regions at www.americorps.gov/contact/americorps-nccc-regions.
§ 2500.20   Program descriptions.
(a) AmeriCorps operates four main national service programs: AmeriCorps NCCC, AmeriCorps Seniors, AmeriCorps State and National, and AmeriCorps VISTA. Additional information on each of these programs and additional AmeriCorps programs is available at www.americorps.gov.
(1) AmeriCorps NCCC is a full-time residential service program for individuals aged 18 to 24 (unless otherwise authorized), as defined by statute. Individuals serving in the NCCC program complete team-based service projects that respond to priority national and community needs. AmeriCorps NCCC program staff recruit, train, and manage volunteers (called “members”) and partner with organizations that serve as project sponsors. FEMA Corps is a sub-program that AmeriCorps NCCC manages in partnership with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It places members in service positions to perform disaster public assistance, planning, preparedness, and recovery activities. The NCCC Forest Corps is a sub-program that AmeriCorps NCCC manages in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service. It places members in service positions to perform wildfire mitigation, reforestation, and climate resiliency activities. Finally, NCCC houses the agency's Disaster Services Unit (DSU), the entity which coordinates with FEMA to secure funding to mobilize AmeriCorps NCCC and AmeriCorps State and National members under a federally declared disaster.
(2) AmeriCorps Seniors focuses on providing service opportunities for individuals aged 55 years or older. It operates four national service programs: the Foster Grandparent Program, Senior Companion Program, RSVP, and the Senior Demonstration Program. Under each of these programs, AmeriCorps Seniors provides grants to sponsoring organizations to meet priority national and community needs. The sponsoring organizations then recruit and enlist local volunteers, and address performance measures as required by grant terms and conditions.
(3) AmeriCorps State and National provides grants to States, Territories, Indian Tribes, public and private nonprofit organizations, local governments, and institutions of higher education to carry out national service programs, offering a wide range of service opportunities. In addition to grant funds to support direct programming, AmeriCorps State and National also provides general operating funding for State service commissions.
(4) AmeriCorps VISTA is a program for individuals aged 18 and older to participate in full-time service to strengthen and supplement efforts to eliminate and alleviate poverty and poverty-related problems in the United States. AmeriCorps VISTA partners with local organizations to recruit, select, train, and assign volunteers (“members”) to work on projects at a sponsoring organization or one of its project sites.
(b) In addition to its four main national service programs, AmeriCorps also operates several additional programs and activities. These include the Martin Luther King, Jr., Day of Service; the September 11th Day of Service and Remembrance; the Volunteer Generation Fund; and other national service programs that AmeriCorps establishes through agreements with other Federal agencies.
§ 2500.21   Focus areas.
Through its programs, AmeriCorps provides funding and volunteer opportunities to address pressing unmet human, educational, environmental, and public safety needs of the United States, without displacing existing workers, and to meet the additional purposes set out in the national service laws. AmeriCorps' focus areas include, but are not limited to, disaster services, economic opportunity, education, environmental stewardship, healthy futures, and veterans and military families.
§ 2500.30   Description of logos.
(a) The AmeriCorps logo (Logo) is the key element in agency identification. It provides a visual representation of the Agency's role to unite America by bringing people together to serve communities. It is symbolic of the way AmeriCorps members and volunteers lift and improve communities through service and volunteering. This Logo links the graphic communications of all Agency programs.
(b) The Logo is an image of a solid circle containing an A where the right-hand pillar is a solid block line and the left-hand pillar is represented by a flagpole with the flag in motion, appearing to fly from the left to the right and forming the A as the flag intersects with the other pillar. AmeriCorps appears in bold to the right of the mark.
(c) The AmeriCorps Seniors logo (Seniors Logo) identifies the highlighted AmeriCorps Seniors programs and represents the Agency's commitment to programs and volunteer opportunities for older Americans.
(d) The Seniors Logo contains the word Seniors beneath AmeriCorps, to the right of the circle containing the A.
§ 2500.31   Retirement of logos.
The agency officially retired the day-to-day use of all pre-existing logos, emblems, and other insignia, except the Days of Service logos, but does not relinquish the legal rights to any retired logos.
§ 2500.32   Authority to affix logos.
Restrictions on the use of AmeriCorps logos are found in 45 CFR 2540.500 through 2540.560.