UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

AMERICORPS

PUBLIC BOARD MEETING

Washington, D.C.

Friday, May 13, 2022
PARTICIPANTS:

CATHY MCLAUGHLIN, Board Member

Executive Director

Biden Institute at the University of Delaware

FAGAN HARRIS, Board Member

Chief Executive Officer

Baltimore Corps

ALVIN WARREN, Board Member

Vice President, Career Pathways and Advocacy

LANL Foundation

MICHAEL SMITH

Chief Executive Officer

AmeriCorps

Other Speakers:

BARBARA FAULK

Senior Companion Volunteer

SHANNON SCOTT

Program Coordinator

Henry Street Settlement Senior Companion Program

RANDY SCHNEIDER

AmeriCorps Member

Wisconsin Reading Corps

SADIE O'CONNOR

Managing Director

Ampact
PARTICIPANTS, CONT’D

TERRI SHOEMAKER

Vice President, External Relations

Arizona Food Bank Network

ORLANDO REBOREDO

Senior Director, Service Programs

Community Health Care Association of New York State

* * * * *
P R O C E E D I N G S

(12:04 p.m.)

MS. MCLAUGHLIN: Good afternoon. This meeting of the AmeriCorps Board of 

Directors will now come to order. I want to welcome everyone and thank 

you for joining us today. My name is Cathy McLaughlin; I'm the Executive 

Director of the Biden Institute at the University of Delaware. I am 

joined by my fellow Board members Fagan Harris and Alvin Warren, and we 

are thrilled to be here today. Michael is also with us, Michael Smith, 

who is the CEO of AmeriCorps.

So, we're excited to be here today. I'm delighted to be participating in 

the first AmeriCorps Board meeting since 2019. I'm sure Fagan and Alvin 

will join me in expressing our deep gratitude to President Biden for 

nominating us, and to the U.S. Senate for confirming us.

I want to acknowledge [that] Washington, D.C. borders the confluence of 

the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers, a historic center of trade and cultural 

exchange between several tribal nations. We begin by acknowledging with 

humility that we gather this week on the ancestral lands of the 

Anacostan, Nacotchtank, Piscataway and Pamunkey people -- people who 

thrived in a fortified settlement based on agriculture, hunting, and 

trade. We acknowledge the ravages brought on by the settler-colonial 

introduction of diseases, encroachment, and forced removal.

Let us be aware that while these ancestors lived according to many of the 

principles that influenced and shaped the formation of the American 

government, we remain occupying unceded land. Their presence saturates 

this land, these rivers, islands, and coastal plains.

First, I'd like to start by thanking the AmeriCorps staff at Headquarters 

and around the country for your commitment, hard work, and 

professionalism in carrying out AmeriCorps’ vital mission. I would also 

like to thank -- with deep appreciation, joined by Fagan and Alvin -- the 

250,000 dedicated members, volunteers, and staff that are part of the 

extended AmeriCorps family: those serving or working in AmeriCorps 
programs including NCCC, VISTA, State and National, our AmeriCorps 

Seniors programs, Foster Grandparents, Senior Companions, and RSVP; our 

state service commission partners; and champions who support this 

extraordinary system of national service that is so important to the 

health and well-being of our nation. Every day you do the vital work to 

improve lives, expand opportunities, strengthen communities, and unite 

our nation. We are grateful for your service and proud to be your 

partners.

This is the first Board meeting of AmeriCorps since August of 2019 and we 

have a lot to cover in this meeting. Let me go over today's agenda.

First, the Board will elect a chair, then members will make opening 

comments. Second, we will consider a resolution approving AmeriCorps' 

five year strategic plan. After that, CEO Michael Smith will provide his 

report to the Board. We will then have a panel presentation on the 

agency's progress in implementing the $1 billion dollar investment from 

the American Rescue Plan Act. We will conclude our meeting by opening the 

meeting for public comments. If you would like to make a comment -- and 

we'll go over this again at the end -- please indicate your interest by 

using the Zoom "raise your hand" feature. If you're joining by conference 

call, you will not be able to ask to make a public statement, but you do 

still have time to get on Zoom if you'd prefer.

Our first order of business today will be electing a chair. According to 

Section 3.02 of the bylaws, officers shall be elected by the Board. Would 

any Board member like to nominate a chair?

(Ms. McLaughlin is nominated as chair by Alvin Warren.)

MS. MCLAUGHLIN: Thank you. Is there a second?

(Motion is seconded by Fagan Harris.)

MS. MCLAUGHLIN: All in favor say "yes."
(All members say "yes.")

MS. MCLAUGHLIN: All opposed? The resolution is approved. Thank you for 

your support and I'm honored to have the opportunity to serve as chair.

Let me do some introductory remarks and then we'll move on from there.

AmeriCorps is one of just a few federal agencies that has a bipartisan 

Board of Directors appointed by the President and confirmed by the 

Senate. I am thrilled to have my fellow colleagues serving on the Board 

who bring such vast experience and expertise. I'd like Alvin and Fagan to 

introduce themselves and share why they are excited to be joining the 

Board. Fagan, we'll start with you.

MR. HARRIS: Thank you, Cathy, and hello, everyone. As someone who has 

devoted my career to expanding economic opportunities for underestimated 

individuals and communities, I am thrilled to serve on the AmeriCorps 

Board. I've been blessed and privileged to spend the last decade in my 

hometown of Baltimore uplifting communities that have always done the 

work in our community of strengthening them and advancing them, and 

creating service pathways for individuals in those communities to make an 

even bigger difference.

There are so many examples of resilience and commitment and passion that 

we've seen over the last ten years, especially during this pandemic. I 

think about all the folks who raised their hand to step up in the public 

health response, whether that's contact tracing or care coordination or 

addressing food insecurity.

AmeriCorps exemplifies that commitment, not just in Baltimore but across 

the nation and I've seen it up close. I'm so excited to move into this 

chapter to help the agency address a lot of longstanding issues and also 

seize a lot of compelling opportunities.

We had a chance this morning to spend some time with some members in 

AmeriCorps and I just thought that was such a powerful, uplifting 

experience. I think all of us walked away sensing that they were 
transforming their passion for community service and national service, 

but also a lot of their pain from their lived experience and the progress 

for our communities at a time when we desperately need to invest and dig 

deep and help people recover from what has been a really difficult and 

traumatic several years. So I am just blown away by our Corps and I'm 

blown away by this community, and I'm so impressed with this agency and 

its leadership.

So, thank you, Michael and thank you to the entire AmeriCorps team. You 

all have pulled together just an outstanding Board retreat for us that's 

just been top notch. So, thank you for having me; I'm excited to be here, 

I'm excited to dig in and do the work. Thank you, Cathy.

MS. MCLAUGHLIN: Alvin?

MR. WARREN: Thank you, Madam Chair, Board member Harris, Michael. My name 

is Alvin Warren. I come from the Pueblo of Santa Clara, also known as 

Kha'p'oe Owingeh, "The Village of the Wild Roses," and the Tewa people of 

Northern New Mexico. I serve as the Vice President of Career Pathways and 

Advocacy for the LANL [Los Alamos National Laboratory] Foundation. I'm 

proud to be from my tribal nation and to be the second Native person 

appointed to this Board.

Service is a core value of my tribe. We’ve lived in the Southwest for 

thousands of years, since time immemorial, and we've survived because of 

a set of core values. Those core values include what they say in our 

language: [phrase in the Indigenous Tewa language], which means respect 

and love each other, have compassion for each other, but above all, help 

each other.

Throughout the centuries, our people have helped each other in any time 

of need, and we wouldn’t be here today if it weren't for that spirit of 

working collaboratively, of seeing ourselves in each other, of having 

that empathy and of stepping forward, and being of service. I don’t know 

if any of you who have joined this meeting are from New Mexico, but right 

now, our beautiful state of New Mexico is battling horrific wildfires.
More than 5,000 homes and tens of thousands of my fellow New Mexicans are 

under mandatory or voluntary evacuation orders, but I have to say I am 

very proud to see people from across our state stepping forward during 

this time; opening up their homes, donating food, money, supplies; 

providing shelter; volunteering; lending comfort and support; stepping 

forward as neighbors to help each other in a devastating time of need. I 

believe these values are more essential now than ever, not just for my 

tribe and state, but also for our entire country. And toward this end, I 

am grateful that AmeriCorps programs are supporting service and 

volunteerism across our entire country, and helping our American people 

recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, as Fagan talked about, and begin to 

thrive again as communities, as families, as a country.

I'm grateful to our staff -- and Michael, thank you again for organizing 

such a fantastic meeting. I'm grateful to our whole team, to our 

grantees, to our members, to our volunteers who are every day working to 

tackle our nation's most significant challenges. As somebody who's worked 

for over 26 years in public office as well as in philanthropy to support 

workforce development and employment equity, I'm also excited about our 

agency's opportunity and work to strengthen pathways to education and 

careers as part of our country's recovery from this ongoing pandemic.

So, during my time on the Board, I look forward to working 

collaboratively with Cathy and with Fagan, with Michael, with our entire 

staff to increase equity, to reduce barriers so that AmeriCorps can 

continue to play the powerful role that we know it is already playing and 

can play in bringing Americans of all ages and backgrounds together 

through service. Thank you.

MS. MCLAUGHLIN: Thank you. Thank you very much. I've heard that 

AmeriCorps is often referred to as "small but mighty" and that is 

certainly the case with this Board. We are currently just the three of 

us, but President Biden has nominated four outstanding additional 

individuals to serve, and we are hopeful the Senate will move quickly to 

approve these pending nominations. I agree with both Alvin and Fagan that 
this is a moment of tremendous need and opportunity, and it's an exciting 

time to be part of the Board.

Most of my career has been devoted to engaging young people in politics 

and public service. I spent 22 years at Harvard University's Institute of 

Politics and the last five at the Biden Institute at the University of 

Delaware. My experience with working with these young people has

convinced me that young people want to use their time well and their 

talents to build a more just and equitable future. They are eager to

serve, but many of them don't have the opportunity to serve due to lack 

of funding. Either they're not aware of places like AmeriCorps or they 

can't afford the opportunity like AmeriCorps.

We know national service works. It's a proven way to meet community 

needs, expand economic opportunity, and help bridge the divides between 

us. I'm excited about how we can bring this idea to scale, to make 

national service more accessible and available to meet the growing 

challenges we currently face. Now I'm going to move on to a brief recap 

of what the Board did yesterday and this morning.

We devoted most our time yesterday in the meeting with the Senior staff 

on the agency's five year strategic plan, which the Board will be talking 

about next. We had a strong focus on discussing the agency's top 

priorities and increasing AmeriCorps’ living allowance and stipends to 

advance equity and ensure national service is a viable option for all 

people at all socioeconomic backgrounds. We also had a discussion about 

the challenges the programs are facing in terms of recruitment due to the 

current economic conditions.

We also met yesterday with the AmeriCorps Inspector General, Deb Jeffrey.

The Inspector General provides important oversight of the agency's 

programs and operations. As a Board of Directors, ensuring federal 

resources are properly and effectively spent is a key priority of ours 

and we recognize the important role the Inspector General plays in 

working with the agency to strengthen fiscal management and

accountability. The Board appreciates how Michael and the senior 
leadership of the agency have made improving financial management and 

addressing audit findings a top priority, and we commend the agency for 

the progress it has made to develop and implement corrective action plans

to address audit findings and make other key operational improvements.

The Board fully supports these plans and action steps and encourages the 

agency to continue to work with the Inspector General, and to prioritize 

resources and attention on addressing the findings and making other 

improvements in operations and core business practices to better serve 

our grantees and partners in meeting needs across the nation.

Given the importance of the financial management, this Board will be 

reconstituting the Oversight, Governance, and Audit Committee. The 

committee is charged with monitoring the agency's management and 

financial stewardship, and informing and advising the full Board on 

matters within the committee's purview. I want to thank Fagan for 

agreeing to chair this committee.

Our next matter of business is to discuss AmeriCorps’ 2022-2026 Strategic 

Plan and Strategic Learning and Evidence Plan. One of the Board's primary 

responsibilities under the bylaws is setting overall policy for the 

agency, including reviewing and approving the strategic plan prepared by 

the CEO and the annual updates to the plan. The agency actually started 

working on the plan more than a year ago by engaging in extended dialogue 

with staff, grantees, partners, members, and volunteers. The plan, which 

was introduced on March 28th, provides clarity, direction, and focus on 

the outcomes that AmeriCorps will prioritize over the next five years. It 

lays out the following goals.

Partner with communities to alleviate poverty and advance racial equity.

Enhance the experience of AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps Senior 

volunteers. We will work to unite Americans by bringing them together in 

service. Effectively steward federal resources, and make AmeriCorps one 

of the best and most equitable places to work in the federal government.

We're leaving that to you, Michael. These goals will guide how the agency 

makes investments, focuses resources, and measures success in meeting the 
multiple challenges facing our communities and nation. In tandem with the 

Strategic Plan, the agency also released its Strategic Learning and 

Evidence Plan, which allows AmeriCorps to continue to respond to the 

nation's toughest challenges with evidence-based national service 

interventions.

The Board has engaged with the agency as the Strategic Plan was developed 

and refined, and will continue to closely be involved as it moves to the 

implementation stage. As a Board member, I think it is a very thoughtful, 

comprehensive, and bold plan.

One, it reflects a strong commitment to removing barriers to service,

expanding opportunities, and focusing service on our most critical 

challenge. I like the plan's focus on alleviating poverty and addressing 

longstanding inequities, its commitment to increasing the living 

allowance and stipends to ensure service is a viable option for all, and 

the strong focus on effective stewardship of federal resources.

As someone who has spent their career encouraging young people to enter 

careers in politics and public service, I also appreciate the focus of 

the third goal: uniting Americans by bringing them together through 

service. At this time of enormous division and isolation, service does 

something very powerful. It helps to heal and unite our communities. The 

agency's work to strengthen the nation's volunteer sector, elevate 

awareness of service, and grow volunteering will not just help meet local 

needs; it will help build bridges and strengthen our democracy at a time 

when it's most needed.

With that, I'd like to turn this over to Alvin or Fagan to share any 

thoughts on the strategic plan that you might have. Alvin?

MR. WARREN: Thank you, Madam Chair. I also think the agency has developed 

a thoughtful plan that will drive greater impact by focusing resources 

and measuring progress in a coordinated way.
First and foremost, I appreciate the plan's strong focus on alleviating 

poverty, advancing racial equity, and reducing systemic barriers to full 

and equal participation in AmeriCorps programs. The plan boldly expresses

this commitment and lays out a number of strategies to advance this goal.

One of those is increasing the living allowance and stipends for

AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers, which I know the 

Board as a whole supports wholeheartedly. We heard from members this 

morning about the [low] living allowance and stipends, and how they serve 

not just to reduce the quality of the experience of our current members 

and volunteers, but as a barrier to recruitment and to participation. We 

are losing out on very good individuals who would be perfect members and 

volunteers, and the Board and our staff and leadership are working to 

address that.

Also, to meet today's complex social and economic challenges, we need 

full participation from people of diverse backgrounds that actually 

represent the full spectrum of our country, especially those from 

underserved populations. So, increasing the living allowance will help 

[us] recruit and retain more diverse members and volunteers that reflect 

the communities we serve and support a meaningful, positive, and 

equitable service experience.

I also appreciate the focus on prioritizing investments in the most 

underserved individuals and communities. National service has a presence 

in Indigenous and rural communities, but the opportunities and needs are 

both great. I look forward to working with my colleagues here on the 

Board and on staff, and Michael, to ensure that more resources and 

service opportunities flow to these and other underserved communities 

where they can have a powerful impact -- particularly to tribal nations 

to which our federal government has a trust responsibility.

The Board also recognizes that national service is built on partnerships 

and appreciates how the agency has actively sought input from state 

commission agencies, grantees, and project sponsors around the country in 

developing the plan. After all, you all are the ones who will be turning 
this plan into action and your voices are very important. So, we 

encourage this dialogue to continue as we all work to implement the plan.

MS. MCLAUGHLIN: Thank you. Fagan?

MR. HARRIS: I agree with the great points that Alvin and Cathy have made 

and would like to add one more. I strongly support the focus of the 

second goal on enhancing the experience of AmeriCorps members and 

volunteers by providing the resources they need to complete their 

service, including raising the living allowance and stipends, and by 

strengthening pathways to education and employment. Service should be an 

on-ramp for a career, it should be an on-ramp for education, it should be 

an on-ramp for training, it should be an on-ramp to advancement.

When speaking about national service, we most often talk about the 

positive impact on the beneficiaries and communities, and this is 

important -- the improvement in student reading levels, the disaster 

survivors served, the seniors who are now able to live independently --

but to me, what's equally important about national service is its impact 

on the members themselves. And we need to continue to point this out. And 

we need to walk the walk. And that's why increasing the living allowance 

and the stipend is so important, that's why strengthening the tie to 

education and employment is so important. These young people have so much 

idealism, passion, and grit for their community, and we can't let them 

down. This is our moment to step up and to serve them as they continue to 

serve our communities and serve our country.

I do a lot of work to re-imagine recruiting, hiring, and career 

advancement for underestimated communities. It's what we do at Baltimore 

Corps. I have seen how the skills and hands-on experience that AmeriCorps 

members gain during their service can prepare them for jobs and careers.

Those skills are both specific to their service and the general skills of 

leadership, grit, and problem solving that are what all employers are 

looking for.
You don't need to look far to understand that there are a record ten 

million unfilled jobs in this country, the highest in our history. The 

barrier to filling these jobs is often a mismatch between what's 

available and the prospective employee's job skills. National service can 

and should help us close that skills gap, including in especially high 

job growth sectors such as education, health services, construction, 

logistics. This strategy is especially critical for young people from low 

income backgrounds who face the toughest prospects for employment. This

country has such opportunity, and service really should be the bridge to 

help more individuals and communities connect to that opportunity. That's

vitally important.

MS. MCLAUGHLIN: Thank you. Thank you both, that was great, and I would 

like to entertain a motion to approve the strategic plan. Do I have a 

motion?

MR. HARRIS: So moved.

MR. WARREN: Second.

MS. MCLAUGHLIN: Okay. All in favor say "yes."

(All members say "yes.")

MS. MCLAUGHLIN: All opposed? The resolution is approved. Now it's my 

great pleasure to introduce our CEO, Michael Smith. Michael has done an 

extraordinary job since taking the helm of the agency in January, 

bringing his decades of experience in the public and nonprofit sectors to 

help AmeriCorps increase its impact and effectiveness. Since arriving, 

Michael has made it a top priority to drive greater impact on community 

problems, make service more equitable and inclusive, and use service to 

help bridge the divides and bring people together. Michael, the floor is 

yours.

MR. SMITH: Cathy, thank you so much and greetings to all who have joined 

us today. Let me start off by sharing how excited and grateful we are to 
have such outstanding leaders serving on the AmeriCorps Board of 

Directors. Cathy, Alvin, and Fagan bring an extraordinary breadth of 

knowledge and experience in workforce development, indigenous 

communities, K-12 and higher education, rural economic development, 

philanthropy, social innovation, and more. We are very fortunate to have 

all of you serving on our Board and we have already benefitted from your 

insights and wisdom, and I think everyone who's watching today got a

glimpse of that already.

Since becoming CEO four months ago -- I can't believe it's been four 

months -- I have had the opportunity to meet hundreds of AmeriCorps 

members and AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers, as well as our state 

commissioners, grantees, project sponsors, partners, and others who carry 

out our vital mission on the ground. I've seen the great work our 

programs do, especially in critical areas of need, like addressing the 

COVID-19 crisis, tutoring and mentoring youth, preserving public land, 

supporting food banks, strengthening workforce preparedness, and much 

more.

With every project I visit and every member or volunteer I meet, I am 

more convinced of the power and the potential of national service. It is 

a privilege to lead this agency and I share the Board's gratitude for the 

extraordinary passion, commitment, and dedication of our staff, our 

grantees, our members, our volunteers, and everyone that is a part of 

what we like to call our AmeriFamily.

Over the past two years, our country has faced a series of unprecedented 

challenges -- a once-in-a-century global pandemic, the worst economic 

crisis since the Great Depression, a national reckoning on racial 

inequity that has been centuries in the making, and the growing and 

existential threat of climate change. In the face of these challenges, 

the work our members and volunteers do has become even more important.

This is a moment of tremendous need and opportunity for national service.

We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to not just return to the way 

things were before, but to build a stronger and more united nation.
I came into office with three core themes in my vision for this agency.

That was based on conversations that I've had with people all over this 

country -- AmeriCorps volunteers, AmeriCorps members, staff, and many of 

you that are with us today. These priorities continue to shape the work 

as I look ahead to my next one hundred days and beyond.

The first thing we have to do is ensure that Americans see the critical 

importance and impact of national service to our democracy. My priority 

is making sure that when people think of AmeriCorps, they think about its 

impact. Not about a thousand flowers blooming. And I am proud to say that 

last year, nearly 70 percent of our AmeriCorps grantees had strong or 

moderate levels of impact. We will not be satisfied as an agency by 

simply celebrating how many AmeriCorps members or senior volunteers are 

serving. We will be celebrating the measurable, tangible impact that they 

have on the toughest challenges that we're facing.

Second, AmeriCorps must reflect the rich diversity of our country and the 

communities that we serve. I am proud of the fact that AmeriCorps members 

are more racially diverse than the nation as a whole. We will build on 

the strong diversity we see in our programs today with a focus on

recruiting from communities we serve. I think in just the couple days 

that we've been together, we've been able to meet so many AmeriCorps 

members right here in D.C. who are from D.C., serving in D.C. -- and I've 

seen that all over the country, and it makes me so happy. But to sustain 

the positive outcomes we've seen from recent years, we must act to ensure 

national service is accessible by reducing barriers to serve and funding 

organizations of all shapes and sizes, with diverse, homegrown 

leadership, that are meeting urgent community needs.

And my third priority is to unite Americans in service, which has been a 

topic of our time together. For decades, AmeriCorps has played a 

meaningful role in bringing people together across differences, from all 

walks of life. There is something that is powerful about service, about 

rolling up our sleeves together to respond to disaster, to help children 

stay in school and on track, to improve the health outcomes of 

underserved communities. There's something about service that allows us 
to see each other's humanity, that building bridges together creates 

bonds that strengthen communities and leads to lasting change. This is 

what AmeriCorps is and we can play an even more central role to overcome 

polarization and division.

So, as we look ahead -- in addition to these priorities -- after four 

months on the job and hearing from many partners, three areas have come 

into more focus, which we've discussed extensively with the Board.

First, we are facing an unprecedented challenge coming out of the 

pandemic in recruiting and retaining a strong, diverse Corps that we know 

we can have, and we have to do something about that. We must continue to 

raise living allowances and stipends to make service more accessible for 

those who want to serve. And what's so important to me on that is, this 

is not just about ensuring that we meet our recruitment goals, it's not 

just about making sure that we have a diverse Corps that represents the 

diversity of our nation, but it also is about saying that if we are 

asking you to serve your country and your community, that you can have a 

full stomach and that you can have a roof over your head and not have to 

worry while you are serving your community and country.

And finally, we must continue to make the operational improvements 

necessary to support the vital work of our grantees, members, and 

volunteers in the field, which is why I was so grateful to hear about the 

reestablishment of the Oversight Committee, because that is work that is 

a clear priority for me and I look forward to working with all of you on 

it.

I want to talk a little bit about the dedication of our members and the 

support of our partners that are allowing us to make some pretty 

excellent progress against these priorities. If I could, I'd just like to 

share a few.

One, we continue to implement the historic $1 billion investment through 

the American Rescue Plan to expand service opportunities, increase 

grantee sustainability, increase living allowances, and reach underserved
communities and individuals. The agency is implementing these funds 

quickly and responsibly, and you will be hearing from some of our

AmeriCorps members that represent this extraordinary work in just a few 

minutes -- our AmeriCorps members and our Senior volunteers.

Last month we launched Public Health AmeriCorps. I get a smile when I

talk about it because I am so excited about what this $400 million 

partnership with the Centers for Disease Control means for this agency 

and about the future of the work that we're going to do. It's going to 

help us meet state and local public health needs while developing 

workforce pathways for public health careers. Public Health AmeriCorps is 

a first-of-its-kind response to the disproportionate impact of the COVID19 pandemic and social determinants of health. These new AmeriCorps 

members will add capacity to the strained public health system and build 

a career pathway for future public health leaders from underserved 

communities. We've talked a lot while we've been together that we don't 

have to have this argument anymore about whether or not AmeriCorps is 

about strengthening communities or strengthening members. It has to be 

both, and Public Health AmeriCorps is a great example of that happening.

We've released our new five year strategic plan, our comprehensive 

blueprint which Cathy so beautifully outlined, and it was wonderful to 

hear how it resonates with all of you. We released our Equity Action 

Plan, which reinforces our commitment to advance equity and support for 

underserved communities by creating structural and lasting change in our 

grant-making, member recruitment and retention, and workplace. Someone 

said yesterday that old business adage "If it is not measured, it is not 

managed." And so we will not just talk about equity at AmeriCorps, we 

will measure it, we will have a plan against it, and we will make sure 

that we continue to make sure that we take action against that Equity 

Action Plan. For everyone that is with us today, I want to make sure they

are part of this commitment –- you know last week we released our Request 

for Information, inviting the public to comment on a range of questions 

related to grantee matching requirements and we hope to hear from a wide 

range of stakeholders by the June 10th deadline. So, please follow-up 

with that.
We submitted our FY 2023 budget to Congress, a robust request, which 

increases funding for our agency by more than 16 percent over last year.

We continue to be deeply engaged with our colleagues at the White House 

and other federal agencies on expanding our program to address climate 

change and prepare young people for future green jobs. We are building a 

strong, diverse team of world-class professionals that have a track 

record of success, including welcoming our first-ever Chief Diversity and 

Inclusion Officer, who will start with us very soon; our Director of 

Public Health AmeriCorps, who just started; a Chief Modernization 

Officer; a Chief Data Officer; a centralized recruitment team; and many 

other positions that are filling the ranks so that we can serve you 

better.

We are making steady progress on our number one priority of improving 

financial management and addressing findings from the Financial 

Statements Audit. This includes working with our Office of Inspector 

General, adding staff capacity, and developing corrective action plans 

for each finding that identify the root causes, action steps, milestones, 

timelines, and responsible parties for correcting them. We continue to 

execute the core work, which is our grant making, announcing our third 

round of AmeriCorps Senior grants, totaling more than $10.5 million last 

week, and soon we will be awarding hundreds of millions of dollars for

AmeriCorps State and National grantees and our Tribal grants.

So, this is just a partial list that does not include the ongoing work of 

our programs that are meeting a wide range of critical needs in 

communities across the country. We must continue to do this work -- and 

there's exciting work that's happening for Afghan refugees and expanding 

access to the Child Tax Credit, strengthening food security, and 

combating the opioid crisis, and so, so much more.

So, for nearly three decades -- next year we turn 30 as an agency --

national service has produced extraordinary results, helping countless 

Americans succeed in school, find productive work, escape poverty, and 

achieve their potential in life. Millions of Americans have experienced 
the transforming impact of national service, changing their lives in 

powerful ways and helping them accomplish things that they had never 

thought possible before.

So, as we work to defeat this pandemic, strengthen our economy, address 

racial inequity, address the climate crisis, and meet other needs,

national service and volunteering is needed now more than ever, and we 

have been there during this time with our communities. So, with the 

guidance of our Board and working together with our state and local 

partners and the American people, we can help build a healthier, safer,

and more inclusive and equitable future for all Americans.

Thank you for providing me an opportunity to give this report today.

MS. MCLAUGHLIN: Thank you, Michael. You can only imagine if Michael had 

five months instead of four months, this report would have gone on and 

on. So thank you very much; that was amazing. Do you either of you have 

any comments that you want to add to that?

MR. HARRIS: I do not.

MS. MCLAUGHLIN: Okay. You all set?

MR. SMITH: All set, thank you.

MS. MCLAUGHLIN: Okay, thank you. Well, thank you, Michael. Next, we're 

going to hear a presentation about one of AmeriCorps’ success stories --

the implementation of the historic $1 billion investment from the 

American Rescue Plan and the impact that that investment is having on 

communities around the country. I'm going to turn this over now to Fagan 

to lead this presentation. Fagan, I'll leave it to you.

MR. HARRIS: Thank you, Cathy. In March of 2021, President Biden signed 

the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, landmark legislation that included 

unprecedented funding to stop the spread of COVID-19 and respond to the 

public health, education, and economic crises caused by the pandemic. The 
bill included a $1 billion investment in AmeriCorps to make significant,

targeted investments to provide relief related to the pandemic, with a

specific focus on support for underserved and disproportionately impacted 

communities.

For the past 14 months, agency staff worked diligently to implement this 

legislation and ensure that the resources are used in an efficient and 

accountable way to achieve positive impacts for individuals and 

communities. A cross-agency team worked for months to develop a 

comprehensive multiyear plan. Once the plan was approved, a staggering 

amount of work was done to get the funds into communities, all on top of 

the agency's regular responsibilities.

As of last month, the agency has already distributed more than $300 

million to create new national service opportunities, to stabilize 

national service grantees, support increases in the living allowances for 

AmeriCorps State and National and VISTA members, and expand service 

opportunities. The funding has supported nearly 9,000 new AmeriCorps 

members and AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers, and more ARP resources will be 

awarded very soon.

In addition to the $1 billion in funding directly provided to the agency 

by the American Rescue Plan, AmeriCorps has also joined forces with the 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to launch Public Health 

AmeriCorps to help meet the public health needs of local communities 

while also creating pathways to public health-related careers. Public 

Health AmeriCorps is supported by a five year, $400 million investment 

from the American Rescue Plan Act. Last month, AmeriCorps made its first 

round of Public Health AmeriCorps grants to 82 organizations, totaling 

more than $60 million to support nearly 3,000 AmeriCorps members who will 

serve communities, providing health education, supporting health-related 

research, assisting with testing and vaccination efforts, addressing the 

opioid crisis, and so much more.

To help [everyone] understand the impact of these investments on the 

ground, the team has put together a virtual ARP impact tour so we can 
hear directly from our AmeriCorps members, AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers,

and program directors across the country. Thirty minutes doesn't do 

justice to this work or this effort, but we hope it will at least give 

you a snapshot. We will start the tour in New York City with Henry Street 

Settlement, a nonprofit agency that provides social services, arts 

programs, and healthcare services to New Yorkers. Henry Street Settlement 

administers a Senior Companion Program that received additional funding 

through the American Rescue Plan. We will hear first from Barbara Faulk, 

a Senior Companion volunteer, and then we will hear from her Project 

Director, Shannon Scott. Barbara and Shannon, are you there?

MS. FAULK and MS. SCOTT: Good afternoon.

MR. HARRIS: Hello, thank you for being here. Barbara has been a Senior 

Companion volunteer since August 2018. She provides companionship 

service, telephone reassurance, escort assistance, and socialization on a 

weekly basis to her older adult clients. Through these services, she 

reduces their isolation and increases their ability to socialize. Barbara 

also participates in the Senior Companion Program volunteer support 

group, which has been supported by ARP funding.

Barbara, first can you tell us what your typical day of service is like?

MS. FAULK: Well, since I became a Senior Companion in 2018, my client 

liked outside activities. So, our typical day we would meet for him to 

have his cup of coffee and he liked being outside. He was one who

tinkered. And I think he liked the idea of having a lady hanging around 

him.

(Laughter)

MR. HARRIS: And what would you be . . .

MS. FAULK: So . . .

MR. HARRIS: Go ahead, please go ahead.
MS. FAULK: So from then we had just different activities that he liked 

and I enjoy.

MR. HARRIS: That's awesome. And what would you be doing if you were not 

an AmeriCorps Seniors volunteer?

MS. FAULK: I often thought of that. But I learned I was supposed to be a 

Senior Companion. One day I was going for training at the Board of

Elections to be a poll worker. A lady walked up to me and she said, "Are 

you a Senior Companion?" And I guess from the look on my face she knew I 

had no clue. She proceeded to tell me -- I remember she said -- "Henry 

Street Settlement." She talked about training in August and how she had 

clients. I gave her my number; she didn't call. So I Googled Henry Street 

Settlement and I saw Senior Companion. I hit that button, left a 

telephone message, and after submitting all my documentation and 

training, I became a Senior Companion in October of 2018, and it's been 

great.

Mr. Williams and I . . . he liked . . . during the pandemic. Senior 

Companion Program through Henry Street provided us . . . we were still 

able to have our day-to-day meetings, because we always met in person,

but when the pandemic came, we had to switch gears. We even learned how 

to video chat and we constantly kept in contact that way, especially 

watching westerns. Mr. Williams loved his westerns. I'm now a fan of 

Rawhide, Big Valley, and Bonanza.

Unfortunately, I lost Mr. Williams in October due to health, and Senior 

Companion Program under Henry Street was there for me too. I now have 

another client and we do telephone assurance. We're both new to each 

other, so right now we're learning each other; it's mostly support. But I 

enjoy this program. Sometimes I'm scared of what I would be doing, if not 

for Senior Companions.

MR. HARRIS: Wow. Barbara, thank you for sharing that and thank you for 

your service during this time, especially during the pandemic. And you 
all had to pivot and adjust to keep doing the service, which I think is 

so important to highlight. We talked a lot about the impacts of isolation 

of this pandemic on people and you've been on the frontline helping 

people make it through this really terrible time, improving their

mental health and just generally contributing to the resilience of our 

communities. So, thank you so much.

MS. FAULK: Thank you.

MR. HARRIS: And now we'll move to Shannon Scott, who joined the Senior 

Companion Program in October of 2018 after graduating with her B.S. in 

Social Work from the College of New Rochelle. She has worked with 

vulnerable populations, including homeless clients, IDD [Intellectual and 

Developmental Disabilities] clients, younger adults, and seniors. Due to 

her deep connections with elders in her community and positive 

experiences working in social services, she applied for the Senior 

Companion Program Coordinator position and was recently promoted to 

manager because of her amazing commitment to the program's mission and 

ability to connect with volunteers and clients. Shannon, congratulations 

on your promotion.

MS. SCOTT: Thank you.

MR. HARRIS: You're welcome. Can you tell us why Henry Street Settlement 

applied for ARP funding?

MS. SCOTT: Well, Henry Street realized that -- after returning to service 

after COVID quarantines in New York City, we knew that many of our older 

adult clients had been disproportionately impacted and were in desperate 

need of supportive services, particularly to reduce the isolation and 

mental health impacts of COVID. Henry Street Settlement saw the 

opportunity to expand our services in New York City to grow our volunteer 

base and provide companionship to more homebound clients, particularly 

related to the trauma and negative mental health impacts of COVID.
MR. HARRIS: Got it. And what have these additional resources allowed your

organization to achieve? What are you looking forward to as a result of 

this increase in funding?

MS. SCOTT: One of the things that it helped us to achieve was we were 

able to hire a COVID Case Manager. She was able to create more adult 

services, trainings, and programming for volunteers working with older 

adult clients. We've been able to recruit about 15 new volunteers since 

December, which we've been grateful for since we had lost a lot of people 

throughout the COVID pandemic. We have created programming related to 

mental health awareness, risk factors, and available resources for both 

clients and volunteers. We conducted evidence-based mental health 

screenings on all of our Senior Companion volunteers as well as their

clients, identifying those that needed additional resources or support.

Based on the needs of our Senior volunteers, we also developed a weekly

support group that Barbara Faulk is also very much a part of, which was 

very needed, as many volunteers lost clients throughout the COVID

pandemic.

We're looking forward to continuing to expand our geographic reach within 

the five boroughs of New York City, developing additional programming 

based on the needs of our volunteers and clients, and providing more 

thorough resources, with the goal to lessen the trauma and PTSD 

experience that many of our senior population experienced in New York 

City. So, we're hoping that we can accomplish this throughout our time

with this ARP that we are so very grateful for, which will help us to 

address the needs that we are trying to meet throughout this COVID 

crisis.

MR. HARRIS: Wow. Thank you so much, Shannon, and thank you for your 

leadership. You know, Michael, one of the bigger kind of eye-opening 

things for me over this retreat is the impact of AmeriCorps Seniors and 

the dynamic team, and the fact that it's one our oldest programs and also 

one our most stable. The follow-through of commitment of that part of our 

Corps is just outstanding. So, Barbara, Shannon, ya'll are the best.
Barbara, you're a hero; thank you so much for being on today. My 

goodness. We really appreciate ya'll. Thank you so much.

MS. SCOTT: Thank you, Barbara.

MR. HARRIS: Keep on keeping on.

MS. SCOTT: Thank you for having us, thank you.

MR. HARRIS: Thank you for joining us. Now we will head to Milwaukee, 

Wisconsin to hear from Randy Schneider, a Wisconsin Reading Corps

AmeriCorps member and Sadie O'Connor, Program Director of Ampact, about 

how ARP funding has helped the Wisconsin Reading Corps expand its reach 

and impact. Randy and Sadie, are ya'll there? I see Randy. Hey Randy.

MR. SCHNEIDER: Hello.

MR. HARRIS: Oh, there's Sadie. Hey Sadie.

MS. O'CONNOR: Hi.

MR. HARRIS: Thank ya'll for joining us; we really appreciate it. Welcome.

Randy is currently a 4th year AmeriCorps member serving with Wisconsin 

Reading Corps in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Randy chose to serve because he 

wanted to gain experience in a school setting working directly with 

students. As a Reading Corps Tutor, Randy supports 17 students,

kindergarten to third grade. Randy, can you tell us more about the

tutoring work that you do?

MR. SCHNEIDER: Yeah, absolutely. As you said, I work with the K through 3 

kids. It's pretty wall-to-wall on a given day from the time school starts 

to the end of the school day, one kid at a time for 20 minute sessions.

We have evidence-based interventions we do with each of the students 

based on that child's individual needs. Beyond that, I also make it a 

point to try to foster a love of learning with the kids, to build their 

confidence and teach them that mistakes are just an opportunity for them 
to learn, and to just teach them to respect themselves and others, and to 

make good choices. 

MR. HARRIS: Got it. And Randy, you've been at this for a while. I don't 

come across too many 4th year members, so tell us a little bit about the 

impact that you're making on these young people and how does the service 

impact you? How do you experience it? 

MR. SCHNEIDER: Well, as far as the impact I'm making on the kids, I see 

it every day. I've got kids that'll come to me when they first start, 

claim that they can't read or that they don't like to read, and within a 

couple of weeks, they're eagerly coming to our sessions and then 

eventually we're seeing them singing, dancing, and hopping around, 

reading at grade level. I've got kids that are now in 5th or 6th grade 

that will come and seek me out to say thank you because the skills they 

learned working with me are helping them out in higher grades, and I've 

even got one student that went from barely talking at all to now using 

our reading materials to help some members of her family learn to speak 

English. 

MR. HARRIS: Wow. Randy, thanks for sharing that. 

MR. SCHNEIDER: Absolutely. 

MR. HARRIS: My mom was an elementary school teacher and it's a special 

person who takes joy in the learning and growth of other people. So, 

thank you for doing what you're doing. The Wisconsin Reading Program that 

Randy serves in is supported through Ampact, a national nonprofit that 

incubates and scales evidence-based AmeriCorps programs for maximum 

impact. Sadie O'Connor is Ampact's Managing Director. A graduate of the 

University of Wisconsin and an AmeriCorps alum, Sadie has dedicated her 

18 year career to growing national service in Minnesota and across the 

country. Under her leadership, Ampact has grown to become one of the 

largest administrators of AmeriCorps programs in the nation, with more 

than 2,000 members serving in seven states across the areas of education,

healthy futures, and the environment. 
Sadie, why did you apply for the American Rescue Plan resources to expand 

the Reading Corps program?

MS. O'CONNOR: Well, thank you for having us here today. I just want to 

express gratitude on behalf of our organization for the infusion of these 

resources and the speed at which the AmeriCorps agency distributed these 

resources to us as grantees so that we could put them into action in 

communities.

You know, we applied for ARP funding because our largest programs that we 

implement are Reading Corps and our Math Corps programs. Like you heard 

Randy talk about, we provide one-on-one and small group tutoring to 

children to build their foundational reading and math skills, and

focusing on children who are not yet at grade level.

The ARP resources really became available at a point in time where we 

were seeing some of the greatest and deepest needs in our schools because 

of COVID-19, and we were also pretty challenged by being able to recruit 

and retain AmeriCorps members. So, we really saw ARP resources as this 

amazing opportunity to really do two things -- to one, increase the 

living stipend for our AmeriCorps members as part of our strategy to 

improve recruitment and retention and access to AmeriCorps service

opportunities; and the second thing, really to expand the reach of our 

program to be able to serve more students and in more communities.

We're really grateful that that's what we've been able to do and 

specifically what we've been able to do in Wisconsin.

MR. HARRIS: Sadie, thank you for all the ways that ya'll have been 

stepping up to meet the need, particularly with the learning loss we're 

seeing in our schools and the mental health and the trauma. You and Randy 

are just doing the work. So, we appreciate ya'll.
The Reading Corps expansion wasn't the only ARP support that Ampact 

received. How did ARP funding help your other programs and what are you 

looking forward to as the result of those resources?

MS. O'CONNOR: Sure, yeah. Like Michael, I smile when we think about 

public health. We were fortunate to receive two grants through Public 

Health Corps. So, that will allow us to launch a new program here in 

Minnesota where we'll have 150 AmeriCorps members supporting public 

health agencies, and then we'll have another program that will be in 

Virginia, Illinois, and California that will be replicating our Recovery 

Corps program and focusing specifically on the opioid epidemic, so we're 

really thrilled about that.

We're thrilled about the expansion that we will have across many of our 

programs, but particularly in Wisconsin where the ARP funding has allowed 

us to expand in the current school year. We added about 30 tutors, so 

about 600 additional students we've been able to reach this current year.

But going into next year we'll be growing the Corps from 130 tutors to 

300 tutors in about 40 new communities.

We've been able to also simultaneously leverage state funding, so we've 

increased our state appropriation from $1.4 million to $3 million with 

really strong bipartisan support to help us expand statewide into more 

communities, particularly rural communities throughout Wisconsin.

So, like I said, we're just really grateful for this resources infusion

right now.

MR. HARRIS: Well, we're grateful for all that you all are doing and I 

know that we're going to be studying both the model that you all are 

building out and deploying. And then Randy, your example just shines 

through, man. Thank you for being here both of you; we really appreciate 

it.

MS. O'CONNOR: Yeah, thank you.
MR. SCHNEIDER: Yeah.

MR. HARRIS: Thank you. The next stop on our ARP virtual tour is Phoenix, 

Arizona. Terri Shoemaker is the Vice President of External Relations at 

the Arizona Food Bank Network, an AmeriCorps VISTA project sponsor that 

is part of the VISTA Food Security Initiative. Prior to the Arizona Food 

Bank, Terri worked at PetSmart Charities and Best Friends Animal Society.

She worked at Feeding America from 1997 to 2004 and began her nonprofit 

career running programs for children at Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana. We 

got Terri? Hey, Terri.

MS. SHOEMAKER: Absolutely, hello.

MR. HARRIS: Welcome. Thanks for being here, we really appreciate it.

MS. SHOEMAKER: Happy to be here.

MR. HARRIS: So, Terri, tell me what you’re looking forward to as a result 

of ARP resources?

MS. SHOEMAKER: Well, it's been super transformational for us. We started 

our VISTA AmeriCorps program in 2017 and we had three members serving at 

two different sites. And those sites were our regional food bank members, 

which are kind of like big regional warehouses. And that’s where we 

thought our program was going to stay. But as our food bank members used 

AmeriCorps VISTA members in service to really take some of their programs 

forward, they noticed that the agencies that they served -- so those are 

the soup kitchens, food pantries, homeless shelters across the state, and 

that's a network of about a thousand organizations -- some of those 

organizations were saying "Hey, how can we do that too?"

So it expanded very quickly for the first couple of years. But we were 

naturally capped because we only were able to do a certain amount of 

work, and we ended up having to start a waiting list of agencies that 

wanted to explore this program so they could help do more to address food 

insecurity in Arizona. And the infusion of this food security initiative 
funding has enabled us to clear the waiting list and we are going from 13 

members in service to 30 members in service and three VISTA leaders to 

support that service, as well as expanding to at least 20 different sites 

statewide. So it's just been exponential and truly very diverse in terms 

of the projects that are going on and how they're going to impact the 

lives of people who are struggling to find where their next meal is 

coming from.

MR. HARRIS: Wow. That's a lot of growth at a critical time. How's your 

blood pressure, Terri?

MS. SHOEMAKER: It's better now because I'm not saying no to people who 

are really interested in having some help, and it's helping those VISTA 

members as well, because they're building skills, from doing organic 

gardening to GPS farming. And the projects are just so diverse and so 

critical to these really small organizations who are doing that frontline 

work at getting food and resources right into the hands of the one in 

seven Arizonans that struggle with hunger.

MR. HARRIS: Yeah, it's such an important last mile problem. It's 

incredible.

MS. SHOEMAKER: Absolutely.

MR. HARRIS: It's incredible to hear how you've tripled your VISTA members 

in one year to meet the soaring demand due to increased food

[in]security, so thank you so much for your service and leadership, 

Terri. We really appreciate it.

MS. SHOEMAKER: Thanks to everybody. Thank you for this infusion of funds 

which is making all of this work possible and also building our network 

of really qualified employees to work at food banks and other food-based

and related charities so we can help all of the folks who are helping

people who are struggling with hunger here in Arizona. So thank you so 

much for this; it's really been transformational for our entire network.
MR. HARRIS: Thank you. Thank you for being a partner that leverages our 

Corps as that employment pipeline as well. Thank you so much, Terri and 

take care.

MS. SHOEMAKER: Of course.

MR. HARRIS: Alright. We're coming to the end here. So, we'll end our ARP 

impact tour where we started, which is back in New York. We'll hear from 

one of the 82 organizations that received a Public Health AmeriCorps 

grant last month.

So we're going to bring up Orlando Reboredo, who is the Senior Director 

of Service Programs for the Community Health Care Association of New York 

State. He joined that organization in 2009 and the AmeriCorps staff 

shortly thereafter in 2010, and under his leadership the program has

expanded in size and scope, more than tripling the annual number of 

members, host sites, and individuals impacted by the program since 2010.

Orlando also leads their Health Insurance Navigator program, which works 

to provide enrollment assistance to individuals and families applying for 

health insurance through the New York State Health Marketplace. Welcome, 

Orlando.

MR. REBOREDO: Thank you and I'm honored to be here representing CHCANYS, 

our federally qualified community health centers, as well as the

AmeriCorps team here at CHCANYS.

MR. HARRIS: Given that you've tripled your Corps, I'm going to ask you 

how your blood pressure is doing as well. Man, ya'll are just awesome.

Orlando, why did you apply for American Rescue Plan resources?

MR. REBOREDO: So, as you mentioned, we have a longstanding AmeriCorps 

program where we place members at federally qualified community health 

centers in some of the neediest communities across the United States.

When COVID hit, everything went on immediate pause. I actually want to 

give credit to AmeriCorps for quickly acting on some really key changes 

to the rules and program requirements that facilitated a lot of what 
happened that year, particularly in ensuring that the members were able 

to finish their term of service even if it was interrupted.

We saw that our members were going to be -- their service would be paused 

-- but what we quickly found out was there were members who were very 

much needed at the frontlines of the community health center's response 

to COVID-19. Our members actually returned to in-person service doing 

COVID testing, doing food distribution at the food pantries that we 

support that saw the need explode in the immediate aftermath of COVID-19,

and those who could not serve in person were actually doing remote work, 

checking in with patients and things of that nature remotely. So, that 

experience really just highlighted how important this program is and we 

ended up recruiting members during the height of the pandemic to support 

health centers in their response.

Fast forward to 2021 and this opportunity for Public Health AmeriCorps 

comes out. We could not be more excited about the possibilities this gave 

to our program. With the Public Health AmeriCorps, we are going to be

increasing our members’ living allowance from $16,000 to $26,000 . . .

(Applause)

MR. HARRIS: Excellent.

MR. REBOREDO: . . . which finally meets minimum wage criteria, hopefully 

helping with recruitment as well as retention, but more importantly, 

being able to open up this opportunity to folks in a socioeconomic status

that maybe was not a realistic possibility for them because of their 

financial considerations.

Another thing that we're extremely excited about is the additional 

resources from the CDC, our great partners in New York with the State

Commission and the Department of Health, as well as the other 

organizations that are going to be participating with Public Health 

AmeriCorps, and the possibilities that this opens for training and

professional development for our members.
Obviously, AmeriCorps has always focused on the impact that our members 

have on the people that they serve and the communities that they serve, 

but with the Public Health AmeriCorps, there is also an additional focus 

on how this program impacts the members and their careers, professional

and personal development We are so excited to have those additional 

resources, because we know that our members’ experience that they receive 

in this program changes their lives, changes how they view the world, and 

change how they develop in their careers and their futures. So, we're 

very excited about that additional focus and the added resources.

MR. HARRIS: Amazing. Orlando, let me ask you this. So you're increasing 

stipends, you've grown the Corps, you're tightening the linkage between 

their service and their next step, whether that's work or education --

like, you've got it all in motion and you're deploying all the best

practices. What are you most excited about as you leverage these 

resources?

MR. REBOREDO: All of it. A little cheesy, but all of it equally. I think 

that with the additional resources, it means additional attention to 

AmeriCorps. And I think that service is so important, and again, service 

changes you. We're hopeful that with having an institution like the CDC,

for example, here in New York, the Department of Health, institutions 

like Cornell University -- all of a sudden, we're seeing institutions 

that that were not familiar with AmeriCorps interested in AmeriCorps and 

wanting to support AmeriCorps. So we are so excited about that because I 

think once anyone has that personal experience with AmeriCorps -- whether 

it's as a member or as a patient or an individual, or whether it's as a 

site supervisor, for example -- I think people instantly fall in love 

with the program and what it represents and the possibilities. So I think 

that that part is the most exciting part -- just being able to promote

the program even more and bring more people into the AmeriCorps umbrella.

MR. HARRIS: Well, thank you for your leadership, Orlando. Thank you for 

leading so boldly, so strongly in this moment, and shout out to your 
entire team and the entire Corps. I know it's a team sport doing this, so 

shout out to everybody there in New York.

On behalf of the Board, we want to thank Orlando, Terri, Sadie, Randy, 

Shannon, and Barbara for joining us today, and for helping us better 

understand the extraordinary impact that the American Rescue Plan is 

having in your communities. To say that we appreciate your important work 

and wish you continued success is probably the understatement of the day.

We are just blown away by all of you. Ya'll are heroes and we love your 

energy, your passion, your commitment. So thank you, thank you.

(Applause)

Cathy or Alvin, while they’re still online, you have any questions?

MR. WARREN: I do, but first I just want to echo what Fagan just said.

Absolutely impressed, thrilled, grateful for everything that you all are 

doing in your communities, in your states, across the country. You are 

exactly what we hope for in terms of the impact, in terms of the change, 

and in terms of the kind of people and leaders that we're hoping 

AmeriCorps can support. So just thank you so much for doing the hard work 

that you have.

I just want to sort of also express my appreciation for a couple things 

that Sadie and Orlando, you mentioned in particular, that are really on 

the minds of our Board and our leadership.

Number one, just sort of the pace at which resources were deployed. I was 

really happy to hear that and I want to commend Michael and I want to 

commend all of our staff here at AmeriCorps because we all know that --

especially in the middle of the pandemic, and we're still in the middle 

of the pandemic -- time is of the essence. And moving government 

processes is not always the quickest thing. It really means a lot to hear 

from you, your recognition that we were able to take quick action to 

deploy resources quickly. That really means quite a bit.
The second thing is the work that you've done to use these resources to 

increase stipends. That is very much on the minds of this Board and our 

leadership. And looking to you as that example of a way to do that, you 

need to know that we are going to do everything we can to get additional 

resources for the agency, but your creativity and your vision to kind of 

take the resources that are available and already move forward to 

increase the stipends for members means a lot to us. It's a great 

inspiration and example to us.

So I do actually have a question and it's for you, Sadie; I think you're 

still there. So, I was just fascinated and excited to hear about your 

success leveraging state resources and it sounded like you had almost 

doubled -- if I remember the number, it was around 3 million I believe 

that you said you were getting -- and that that was done in a bipartisan 

way, which is crucial. So I'm wondering if you could just tell us a 

little bit more about how you've gone about securing state resources, but 

also how you've approached braiding those resources with -- and I heard 

you say this as well -- not just one AmeriCorps source of funding, but 

multiple AmeriCorps streams of funding. So can you tell us a little bit 

more about that?

MS. O'CONNOR: Yeah. Well, I think the way that we have approached it is 

kind of taking the playbook from the Minnesota Reading Corps that has 

been successful in securing a fairly large state appropriation to support 

the work and marrying that with the federal AmeriCorps dollars, and 

philanthropic dollars also. So really just sort of copying that 

blueprint. And I will say that the thing that we always come back to is 

the results that we have for the program and our ability to show that the 

model truly works. Thanks to the investment, again, of AmeriCorps the 

agency, we had a randomized control trial of our program, so we actually 

have really strong evidence that the model works. So we have that.

Plus, we have principals and teachers within our current school systems 

that can talk about the impact that they actually see with their own data 

about how students are growing and progressing. So it's really that 
impact data that's really compelling legislators and other philanthropic 

stakeholders in wanting to make an investment in what works.

MR. WARREN: Thank you, Sadie.

MS. O’CONNOR: Pretty simple.

MR. WARREN: You make it sound simple, but we all know it's not that

simple. Thank you.

MS. MCLAUGHLIN: I just want to join my colleagues in saying how impressed 

I was. I wanted to be part of this Board, but now I know why I really

wanted to be part of this Board. And Barbara, in a few years when I 

decide to retire and I'm home, I want you to come and be my Senior 

Companion. We'll find different movies to watch. But I really appreciate 

it. And just the commitment that you all have really does . . . it makes 

our jobs better and easier when we know there's people like you out there 

doing this great work. It really makes all the difference in the world 

and I'm glad to hear it has an impact on you as well as all of the people 

you serve.

So, I just want to join my colleagues in thanking all of you for spending 

some time with us. Zoom has some negative impacts, but also has this 

great impact that we are able to hear from people across the country. So 

thank you.

At this point, I guess we will move on. We have some time left for some 

public comments. So the way we do this, we are going to ask you to --

it's actually on your screen now -- but raise your hand using the "raise 

your hand" feature on your Zoom. I'd like to remind you to keep your 

comments to two minutes so that we can allow as many people as possible.

And we won't necessarily have time to respond to comments of all of our 

stakeholders, but let me promise you, we will follow up with the 

appropriate staff members and Corps members who can be helpful to you to 

answer any questions, and what we can answer, we will. So, let me start . 

. . I don't know . . . I'm going to turn this over to Kim.
KIM: Alright, we have a couple of hands raised. The first one is Austin.

Austin, you'll see a prompt; select it and you'll be allowed to talk.

AUSTIN: Hi everybody, thank you for allowing me this time to speak. I'm 

currently a Site Supervisor -- excuse me, Project Supervisor -- in 

Georgia, and I've recently finished serving as a VISTA And I just want to 

bring it to the Board's attention -- I know it's on your radar -- you'd 

mentioned before about looking into raising the stipend. As a lot of 

sites are, we're having trouble recruiting and bringing people in, and I 

just wanted to just share my experience as a VISTA.

I thought it was great to have that experience and to learn on the job 

like that and am very thankful for it. Unfortunately, due to the stipend 

and the way my student loans worked out, with some of them being private 

loans, I'm actually in a worse financial hole than when I began the year.

And even with the Segal [Education] Award, I'm still worse off, just 

because of the way the interest rate is going up -- my loans have 

variable rates. And not being able to pay those loans during that year at 

all, and not getting any forbearance from that private lender, I'll now 

be paying off more than I would have if I didn't serve as a VISTA.

So, I just want to raise that concern to the Board here and anybody else 

who might be on the call that this is a pretty serious issue that could 

really make it so that VISTAs only come from those people who can afford 

to be a VISTA, and I think that'd be a tremendous loss for the program.

So, thank you very much for hearing me out; I do appreciate that.

MS. MCLAUGHLIN: Thank you, Austin.

KIM: Alright, next is Angela.

ANGELA: Good afternoon, everyone. I am the Program Director for the SCP 

program with Neighbor-to-Neighbor in South Carolina and I am a newbie, 

but I have to tell you I appreciate this type of forum so much. Every 

time I attend, I learn something new or become enthused and excited about 
the program all over again. So, thank you so much for doing these. You 

guys do remarkable work and I am so proud to be a part of it.

MS. MCLAUGHLIN: Thank you so much.

MR. HARRIS: Thank you very much. And just to circle back quickly to 

Austin.

MS. MCLAUGHLIN: Okay.

MR. HARRIS: Austin, we hear you; we appreciate you raising that and we're 

working on it, and want to underscore that we hear you.

MS. ADAMS: A.B., you're next.

MX. STEWART: Hi everyone. My name is A.B. Stewart. My pronouns are 

they/them and I want to just begin by thanking you, Fagan, Alvin, 

Catherine, Michael, and all the others who shared from your programs. I'm 

coming to you from Little Rock, Arkansas, which several years ago was 

named the number one small AmeriCity by AmeriCorps. I'm a two year NCCC 

alum and over the last several years I have started and directed an 

AmeriCorps state program here in Arkansas. Currently I am serving on the 

NCCC Alumni Advisory Council, which has just begun; we just had our first 

meeting this week. Many of you pointed out the multiple outcomes of 

AmeriCorps service and sort of underlining that and underscoring that 

today -- namely, [the] impact in our communities and also member 

development and even strengthened capacity for organizations leveraging 

AmeriCorps -- and I'm curious, now that the strategic plan has been 

approved, so celebrate that. Are there any thoughts about an agency 

theory of change for AmeriCorps as a whole that illustrate these multiple 

outcomes and help align our programs with a national vision?

MS. MCLAUGHLIN: Do we want to . . .

MR. HARRIS: Michael, you want to speak to that?
MS. MCLAUGHLIN: We have a minute or two.

MR. SMITH: It is a great question. I think if you go to our website and 

you look at our research about AmeriCorps, I think -- we think -- we have 

a bit of a theory of change about how we get the work done. One of the 

interesting things about AmeriCorps, which I think is a part of our 

“secret sauce,” is we are not one thing. We provide people power. We 

invest in 40,000 locations across the country -- and that's working on 

everything from education, to health, in hospitals, working on workforce 

pathways. So, the actual unit of change looks a little different all 

across the country, but we do think that there is something about 

combining people power, combining training, providing this Corps 

experience that can both transform challenges in communities while also 

transforming AmeriCorps members, and I hope we've done a decent job of

articulating it. But it is a really great question for us to take back to 

the team and make sure that we put an even finer point on it.

MS. MCLAUGHLIN: Thank you. Kim?

KIM: Michelle, you're next.

MS. LUCKETT: Hi, good afternoon. My name is Michelle Luckett and I am the 

CEO for the Be Ready Alliance Coordinating for Emergencies -- or BRACE --

out of Pensacola, and I just wanted to take a moment and thank the Board 

and thank AmeriCorps for its ongoing support of our organization and of 

the State of Florida as a community and a state that is frequently 

impacted by disasters. The AmeriCorps VISTA program has allowed us the 

opportunity to help long-term recovery groups around the state that have 

been impacted by Hurricanes Irma, Michael, and Sally to increase our 

capacity with VISTAs who understand the cultural dynamics of their 

community. And as everyone knows, all disasters are local and the 

response at the end of the day falls to the local nonprofits to handle.

The AmeriCorps VISTA program has been vital around the State of Florida 

and through our organization in helping our communities continue to stand 

up so that disasters are no longer community killers, but just a 

community nuance and nag.
So thank you for funding us, thank you for paying attention to the fact 

that our most vulnerable populations impacted by disasters are low-income 

neighborhoods and those affected by poverty, and we look forward to 

coming up with even more creative programming in the future. Thank you.

MS. MCLAUGHLIN: Michelle, thank you very much.

MS. ADAMS: Kelly, you're next.

MS. DALY: Hello. Sorry; I'm on a poor internet connection. My name's 

Kelly Daly and I'm the AmeriCorps Employees Union President, and I would 

just like to welcome the Board. We look forward to working with you. I 

represent the bargaining unit employees at the agency and we've provided 

a lot of input and are pleased that Michael and his team pay close 

attention and are willing to work with us, and that I just look forward 

to meeting all of you in the future.

MS. MCLAUGHLIN: Kelly, thank you for joining us.

MS. ADAMS: Well, there are no more hands raised, but I do see a question 

in the chat. "Can the tax structure of the Ed [Education] Award be 

changed [so] they have a less adverse impact on many members who are 

already low-income partners?”

MR. HARRIS: Thank you for that question. It is an issue that has been 

raised and we are currently talking with all of our stakeholders in the 

White House and on Capitol Hill about what can be done to address that 

challenge.

MS. MCLAUGHLIN: Thank you. Kim, if that's all we have, let us know.

MS. ADAMS: Just a moment, somebody just put in text that I have another 

one, but her hand is not showing raised, so let me just thumb down and 

see if I can find her. Elizabeth, can you lower your hand and raise it 

again, because it is not showing for me? There we go, thank you. Just a 
moment and I'll send you the prompt -- or at least I'm seeing one hand 

raised -- let me get back up to the top. Nope, let me try a different way 

here.

MS. MCLAUGHLIN: I don't think that's the question she's on though.

MR. HARRIS: While we are waiting to get the next question, I saw someone 

in the chat mention the Senior Companion stipend. When we talk about 

living allowance, we also mean the stipend as well. We have had a 

conversation where all of us are not pleased with where the Senior 

Companion stipend is and recognize that we need to work with our 

stakeholders to do what we can to make sure that that is changed.

MS. MCLAUGHLIN: Right, and I assure you that the Board is definitely 

aware of that and that was a big part of our conversation yesterday, so 

thank you for raising that.

MS. CHUNG: Good afternoon, this is Elizabeth Chung. Can you hear me?

MS. MCLAUGHLIN: Yes.

MR. HARRIS: Yes.

MS. CHUNG: Very good. Thank you so much to all the Board members. I'm 

Elizabeth Chung. I'm the Executive Director and Project Director for 

Asian American Center Frederick. My background is Public Health for 50 

years -- that's a long time. I’m very excited that we do have SCP and 

RSVP programs. What I want to bring to the Board's attention is that --

as you can probably hear my accent -- when I first came to this country,

I could not speak English. So after 50 years -- a long-long journey -- so 

I want to really encourage and recommend to really look at our immigrant 

population, the non-English speaking population. I know the strategic 

plan focus also on our (inaudible) racial inequity issues. It is a long 

journey to rise from the basement of the system to the top of the system.

So I would like to see that some kind of infrastructure development --

technical system, maybe -- to really help bring back development of this 
journey, particularly in Public Health. As I mentioned, Public Health, I 

have community health workers training program, I have developed the 

Public Health volunteers and so on and so forth. So, it is really 

important that we can bring those together into the RSVP or to Senior 

AmeriCorps program, and also to SCP program But easy to say; how to make 

that happen through this grant application process? I did apply; I was 

not granted because perhaps it's an evidence-based program and so forth.

So there are many organizations that provide a committed, health-driven 

community-based programming -- you all know that -- but please look at 

infrastructure development, developing the new immigrants to be our 

future volunteers. They have a bilingual, bicultural skill set that we 

cannot ignore. That's far more valuable than what we can give them. So 

right now we are helping Afghan families, helping Ukrainians; we have 

doctors, we have doctors, we have PhDs coming from those countries that

certainly once they're eligible we certainly want to bring them into our 

volunteer program. This is the best way to serve our country, to be part 

of Americans.

The other thing I want the Board to look at is collective impact. Earlier 

we talk about funding stream. I am also active in our community health 

resources in Maryland and I know that there are perhaps many different 

ways that I think our volunteer services can look at Department of Aging, 

Department of Children Services, to bring those resources together with 

our federal resources. Thank you. I know; long-winded.

MS. MCLAUGHLIN: Thank you. Alvin wanted to respond to that for a minute.

MR. WARREN: Very quickly, Elizabeth -- thank you very much for your 

comments. I just want to quickly address a couple of them. Number one, 

this morning the Board met with several of our members from the area and 

I noticed that several of them were immigrants and first generation. So,

I come from a state with a significant immigrant population, as well as

individuals who are not exclusively, or at least not first language 

speakers, in English. I really appreciate your comments, we'll definitely 

take them to heart. In the strategic plan we do talk about reaching out 
to and including more underserved populations, so I appreciate you 

flagging that.

The second point you made about collective impact -- again, it goes back 

to the presentations that we heard. Where are there opportunities to 

leverage additional resources from states, from tribes, from other 

organizations, and from philanthropy? So the Board is very much thinking 

about this. Thank you very much.

MS. MCLAUGHLIN: Thank you. I think . . . Are we going to take that as all 

the time we have? Okay. I wasn't sure if we were done, but I want to take 

a minute to thank everybody who joined us today, and especially the 

people who asked questions and made comments. I want you to know that we 

heard everything that you said and we really appreciate you taking the 

time to join us today. This has been an important discussion to

strengthen and advance the work of AmeriCorps and to help the agency meet 

its mission. You see all of our social media channels there. I want to 

thank all of you for joining and for really caring about AmeriCorps, 

because without you Michael couldn't do his job; we wouldn't be able to 

be here. So, we really appreciate all of you, the members and the staff, 

for everything that you do. So, thank you and we're going to bring this 

meeting to a close. If somebody would like to motion?

MR. WARREN: So moved.

MS. MCLAUGHLIN: Alright, we are officially adjourned. Thank you very much 

for joining us.

(Whereupon, at 1:31 p.m., the PROCEEDINGS were adjourned.)

* * * * *
CERTIFICATE OF NOTARY PUBLIC

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

I, Gary Euell, notary public in and for the District of Columbia, do 

hereby certify that the forgoing PROCEEDING was duly recorded and 

thereafter reduced to print under my direction; that the witnesses were 

sworn to tell the truth under penalty of perjury; that said transcript is 

a true record of the testimony given by witnesses; that I am neither 

counsel for, related to, nor employed by any of the parties to the action 

in which this proceeding was called; and, furthermore, that I am not a 

relative or employee of any attorney or counsel employed by the parties 

hereto, nor financially or otherwise interested in the outcome of this 

action.

(Signature and Seal on File)

-----------------------------------

Notary Public for the District of Columbia