250 E Street SW 

Washington, D.C. 20525 

202-606-5000/ 800-942-2677 

COVID-19 Containment Response 

Corps Implementation Report 

AmeriCorps 

October 5, 2021 
1 

COVID Containment Response Corps Partners 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CCRC Grantees 

 

 

 

 

 

 
2 

Acknowledgments 

We would like to acknowledge the efforts of these individuals and groups in making 

the COVID-19 Containment Response Corps program a reality: 

• Mike Johnston, Eric Parrie, and Nina Safane at Gary Community Investments 

• Russ McKelvey, Sarah Hamma, Heather Baily, Chris Grano, Christine Record,

and the public health professionals of the COVID-19 Containment Response 

Corps 

• Deputy Chief of Program Operations Erin Dahlin, Chief Operating Officer Gina 

Cross, and the Office of General Counsel, including Aaron Olszewski and 

Andrea Grill, at AmeriCorps 

• The AmeriCorps Seniors, AmeriCorps VISTA, and AmeriCorps NCCC teams at 

AmeriCorps 

• Lieutenant Governor Primavera and the team at Serve Colorado 

• The team at the Community Resource Center 

• The team at Cultivate 

• The team at Volunteers of America – Colorado Chapter 

• The Colorado Mountain Region Office 

The development of this retrospective report was led by AmeriCorps NCCC’s 

Southwest Region, in coordination with many of the partners listed above. We would 

like to thank AmeriCorps’ Office of Research and Evaluation for their technical 

assistance. 
3 

Contents 

Acknowledgments........................................................................................................ 2

Program Launch: Core Partners’ Letters of Support.................................................. 5

Lieutenant Governor Dianne Primavera ................................................................. 5

Jill Hunsaker Ryan, Executive Director, CDPHE ....................................................... 6

Mike Johnston, President and CEO, Gary Community Investments .................... 7

Mal Coles, Acting Chief Executive Officer, AmeriCorps ...................................... 8 

Nina Jackson, CCRC Alumna and AmeriCorps Member ..................................... 9

Executive Summary .................................................................................................... 10

Overview ...................................................................................................................... 11

A. COVID-19 Background ....................................................................................... 11

B. What is the COVID-19 Containment Response Corps? ................................... 12

C. Final Project Data ............................................................................................... 14

D. AmeriCorps 101 ................................................................................................... 15

Phase 1: Launching the Initiative .............................................................................. 18

A. COVID-19 as a National Priority ......................................................................... 18

B. Initial Strengths and Weaknesses ....................................................................... 18

C. Partner Reflections ............................................................................................. 21

Phase 2: Implementation of CCRC ........................................................................... 22

A. Scaling the Program ........................................................................................... 22

B. Staffing for Success ............................................................................................. 27

C. National Civilian Community Corps Successes and Challenges .................. 28

D. VISTA Summer Associates’ Successes and Challenges .................................. 31

Phase 3: The Height of Surge Support ....................................................................... 34

A. CCRC Programming during COVID-19 spike ................................................... 34

B. RSVP Successes and Challenges ....................................................................... 38

C. AmeriCorps State and National Successes and Challenges................................ 41

CCRC End and Future Projects ................................................................................. 45

A. Scaling the program to respond to the need ................................................. 45

B. Examples of Early Replication ............................................................................ 49

C. Impact of the program on members ............................................................... 52

How-To Guide/Collaborative Model ........................................................................ 56

A. Centralized Coordination .................................................................................. 56

B. Resources.............................................................................................................. 62
4 

C. Scaling ................................................................................................................. 65

Index of Abbreviations and Key Links ....................................................................... 67
5 

Program Launch: Core Partners’ Letters of Support 

Lieutenant Governor Dianne Primavera 
6 

Jill Hunsaker Ryan, Executive Director, CDPHE 
7 

Mike Johnston, President and CEO, Gary Community Investments 
8

Mal Coles, Acting Chief Executive Officer, AmeriCorps

June 25, 2021
9 

Nina Jackson, CCRC Alumna and AmeriCorps Member 

The COVID Containment Response Corps consists of dedicated individuals from all 

over the country who are doing their part to stop the spread of COVID-19... I am a 

Case Investigator and Contact Tracer. I talk to people in counties all over the state. I 

have been given a unique opportunity to talk to people I may never have interacted 

with outside of this. Although I am only on the phone for a limited amount of time, I 

often befriend them and very frequently I enjoy their company. 

Prior to this work, my experience in the pandemic was very individual. I had to face 

my own troubles and challenges. I was not able to truly grasp the experiences of 

others. Now I have this chance to see firsthand just how much this situation is 

affecting people. I am there to offer my assistance, provide information and ease 

some of their concerns. There is often a mutual understanding between me and the 

person I call. We recognize that of course this situation is not great, but at least we 

both acknowledge that there is someone on... the other line who can empathize and 

relate to these struggles. 

This job has been meaningful to me because it has broadened my community in a 

time of isolation and social distancing. Those phone calls whether they are good, 

bad, funny, sad, painful or encouraging have shown me a humanity that is unique and 

honest. They have helped me see what a community is willing to do to help their 

neighbor. It has shown me whatever adversity people face, there is always someone 

there to lend a helping hand. There truly is a universality to the human condition and 

this job has given me optimism in the most unlikely of circumstances. 

I hope that once this pandemic has passed and we return to the way things once 

were, that I keep in mind the goodness that exists not only in Colorado, but all over 

the country. This time working for the CCRC has shown me that you do not have to 

look far for kind people. I hope I can surround myself with the people who have 

shown up, done their part, and helped put an end to this pandemic once and for all. 

 

Sincerely, 

Nina Jackson

AmeriCorps State and National member, Conservation Legacy 

Case Investigator and Contact Tracer serving in CCRC 

Letter originally published for CL network newsletter
10

Executive Summary 

CCRC is a group of AmeriCorps1 members and AmeriCorps Senior volunteers who 

served as case investigators or contact tracers for the State of Colorado during the 

COVID-19 pandemic. A memorandum of understanding between AmeriCorps, the 

Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), Serve Colorado -

the Governor’s Commission on Community Service, and COVID Check Colorado, LLC 

(CCC) was signed on July 1, 2020. This group of partners is referred to as the 

Colorado COVID Recovery Program. 

At the time of this report, data on all AmeriCorps members’ and AmeriCorps Senior 

volunteers’ accomplishments through CCRC is available for July 2020 through May 

2021. We can summarize these efforts best through case investigation/contact tracing 

quantifiable data provided by CDPHE. The best quantifiable data for case 

investigation/contact tracing include cases investigated/interviewed, contacts 

notified/traced, COVID test results delivered by phone, and estimated total 

individuals served. 

Through their contributions to CCRC, AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps Seniors 

volunteers completed 17,629 case investigations, 7,635 through contact tracing, and 

an approximate 32,803 test results delivered (out of approximately 67,500 calls 

attempted). These efforts provided thousands of Coloradans with the information and 

resources they needed to understand their potential to spread COVID-19 and remain 

quarantined/isolated. 

 

The impact of CCRC, like the impact of national service, is deeply profound and 

personal to each individual who serves. Members served during a time when their 

country needed them most. Although their service may have been mentally, 

emotionally, or physically challenging, the impact of their service was lifesaving. 

The program also exceeded expectations as a pathway to employment for the 

members and volunteers who served, from early summer 2020 to the project’s winddown phase. Roughly 934 members and volunteers served with CCRC in some 

capacity since the program’s inception. Of those 934, 84 former CCRC members and 

volunteers were hired to continue case investigation/contact tracing. This amounts to 

11% who gained direct employment due to their service experience in CCRC.

1

 AmeriCorps is the operating name of the Corporation for National and Community Service 
11

Overview 

A. COVID-19 Background 

COVID-19 is caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2, a virus in 

humans causing respiratory illness which can be spread from person-to-person.2

COVID-19 is primarily transmitted from person to person through respiratory 

droplets. These droplets are released when someone with COVID-19 sneezes, 

coughs, or talks. Infectious droplets can land in the mouths or noses of people nearby 

or possibly be inhaled into the lungs. A wide range of symptoms for COVID-19 have 

been reported. These include fever or chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty 

breathing, fatigue, headache, nasal congestion or runny nose, muscle or body aches, 

sore throat, new loss of smell or taste, nausea or vomiting, or diarrhea.3

COVID-19 was first identified in Wuhan, China on December 31, 2019.4 By January 

11, 2020, China had reported its first COVID-19 related death.5 On January 21, the 

first case in the United States was reported in Seattle, Washington.6 By January 30, 

the World Health Organization declared a global health emergency.7 On February 

29, 2020, the first reported death due to coronavirus in the United States occurred 

near Seattle, Washington.8

Colorado first reported eight COVID-19 cases on March 6, 2020.9 On March 10, 2020, 

Governor Jared Polis declared a State of Emergency in response to COVID-19, 

stating, “We will continue to be proactive and working around the clock to protect 

public health and safety with an eye towards preventing the need for more drastic 

measures that result in social disruption.”10

Governor Polis would issue more than 100 executive orders related to the COVID-19 

pandemic between March and June 2020. These orders addressed everything from 

evictions and housing assistance to relaxed healthcare worker standards, requiring 

masks for certain workers, canceling in-person school instruction, and suspending 

marriage license requirements. 

2 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 

3

Ibid. 

4 A Timeline of the Coronavirus Pandemic, New York Times

5

Ibid. 

6

Ibid. 

7

Ibid. 

8

Ibid. 

9 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Data Tracker 

10 Gov. Polis Provides Update on State’s Response to COVID-19 
12

By October 2021, Colorado had over 684,000 confirmed cases, the United States had 

reported 43.9 million confirmed cases, and over 4.55 million deaths had been 

confirmed globally due to the COVID-19 pandemic.11 

B. What is the COVID-19 Containment Response Corps? 

Testing and case investigation/contact tracing were used early during the pandemic 

to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Case investigation requires public health staff to 

partner with a patient to recall all recent close contacts during the patient’s infectious 

period, as well as instruct the patient in effective isolation strategies. Staff then start 

the contact tracing process by reaching out to those individuals who have been 

potentially exposed to notify them of their possible exposure, instruct them in 

effective quarantine strategies, and provide resources including education, 

information, and support. This knowledge helps individuals understand their risk, 

how to monitor themselves for illness and how to isolate and quarantine themselves 

from others until the infection period has passed. 

According to the CDC, “Case investigation and contact tracing is a specialized skill. 

To be done effectively, it requires people with the training, supervision, and access to 

social and medical support for patients and contacts. Requisite knowledge and skills 

for case investigators and contact tracers include, but are not limited to: 

● An understanding of patient confidentiality, including the ability to conduct 

interviews without violating confidentiality (e.g., to those who might overhear 

their conversations) 

● Understanding of the medical terms and principles of exposure, infection, 

infectious period, potentially infectious interactions, symptoms of disease, presymptomatic and asymptomatic infection 

● Excellent and sensitive interpersonal, cultural sensitivity, and interviewing skills 

such that they can build and maintain trust with patients and contacts 

● Basic skills of crisis counseling, and the ability to confidently refer patients and 

contacts for further care if needed 

● Resourcefulness in locating patients and contacts who may be difficult to reach 

or reluctant to engage in conversation 

● Understanding of when to refer individuals or situations to medical, social, or 

supervisory resources 

● Cultural competency appropriate to the local community”12

11 World Health Organization COVID-19 Dashboard

12 CDC Case Investigation and Contact Tracing: Part of a Prolonged Approach to Fight the COVID-19 

Pandemic
13

CCRC is a group of AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps Senior volunteers who 

served as investigators for the State of Colorado during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

AmeriCorps supported this effort by redeploying AmeriCorps members in the NCCC 

program and providing nearly $2 million in federal funding for new AmeriCorps 

Volunteers in Service To America positions, AmeriCorps VISTA summer associate 

positions, and AmeriCorps Seniors volunteer roles. The project initially included an 

estimated 300 AmeriCorps members from NCCC’s Southwest Region Campus, 350 

AmeriCorps summer associates in the VISTA program hosted by the Community 

Resource Center and Conservation Legacy, and 200 AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers 

managed by Cultivate and Volunteers of America Colorado. 

A memorandum of understanding between AmeriCorps; CDPHE; Serve Colorado 

(the Governor’s Commission on Community Service), and COVID Check Colorado, 

LLC;13 was signed on July 1, 2020: 

1. Providing national service members and volunteers for project placement 

under CDPHE’s supervision to provide contact tracing services during the 

COVID-19 pandemic. 

2. Providing any compensation or stipends for volunteers through AmeriCorps’

agreements with volunteers and members. 

3. Confirming that AmeriCorps members and volunteers had an adequate 

remote workspace from which they can perform contact tracing services, that 

will protect confidential information from disclosure. 

4. Coordinating for the provision of technical resources for AmeriCorps members 

and volunteers, such as computers. 

5. Taking appropriate administrative action for volunteers who either did not 

meet CDPHE’s background check requirements, or if an AmeriCorps member 

in the NCCC or VISTA summer programs had been reported by CDPHE to 

have performance concerns. 

B. CDPHE was responsible for the following: 

1. Conducting the background checks required by CDPHE for all AmeriCorps 

members and volunteers participating in response activities. 

2. Onboarding and providing supervision and coordinating training for the 

AmeriCorps members and volunteers. Onboarding required completion of the 

CDPHE onboarding process, including any necessary forms and agreements. 

Training included CDPHE compliance training, contact tracer training, 

confidentiality and privacy training, cyber security training, and any other 

CDPHE-required training for AmeriCorps members and volunteers. 

13 COVID Check Colorado, LLC (or CCC) and its staff is also referred to throughout this report by the 

name of its parent organization, “GCI” or Gary Community Investments.
14

3. Providing connectivity to any necessary CDPHE IT systems or web-based 

solutions to allow the AmeriCorps members and volunteers to access and 

store contact tracing information acquired in the course of their volunteer 

duties. This included ensuring eVPN access to CDPHE systems for any 

AmeriCorps members or volunteer whose role required such access as 

determined by CDPHE. CDPHE also coordinated any necessary training on the 

technology for the AmeriCorps members and volunteers. 

4. Limiting the work of AmeriCorps members and volunteers to exclusively 

remote work, with no authorization to travel to perform contact tracing services 

or to meet in person with cases or contacts under investigation. 

5. Reporting to AmeriCorps any concerns about volunteer performance that 

could result in AmeriCorps taking administrative action. 

6. Providing aggregate program data to AmeriCorps as agreed upon by the 

Parties as required for AmeriCorps reporting purposes. 

7. Ensuring in partnership with the Governor’s Office of Information Technology 

that technological resources meet the Colorado Information Security Policies 

or other applicable laws or policies. 

C. Serve Colorado was responsible for the following: 

1. Creating and maintaining an online landing page for national service 

opportunities within Colorado and facilitating recruitment for these 

opportunities. 

D. CCC was responsible for the following: 

1. Providing technology resources for activities under this agreement. 

2. Facilitating public awareness of the effort to drive recruitment and general 

public awareness. 

E. Representatives of AmeriCorps, CDPHE, Serve Colorado and CCC met with 

agreed-to frequency to ensure proper coordination and develop new plans for the 

involvement of AmeriCorps members and volunteers as appropriate. 

F. Where possible, AmeriCorps, CDPHE, Serve Colorado and CCC shared data 

regarding the activities for the purpose of improving operational effectiveness. 

C. Final Project Data 

At the time of this report, data on all AmeriCorps members’ and AmeriCorps Seniors 

volunteers’ accomplishments through CCRC is available for July 2020 through May 

2021. We can summarize these efforts best through quantifiable case 

investigation/contact tracing data provided by CDPHE.14 The best quantifiable data 

for case investigation/contact tracing include: cases investigated/interviewed, 

14CCRC Accomplishments 
15

contacts notified/traced, COVID test results delivered by phone, and estimated total 

individuals served. There are some caveats to the quantity of test results delivered 

and individuals served, as these numbers require in-depth analysis to attribute to 

various AmeriCorps parties’ accomplishments.

CCRC is part of the larger CDPHE COVID-19 Response Program, which includes paid 

investigators (with CDPHE and Optimize Manpower Solutions) and Colorado School 

of Public Health students in addition to AmeriCorps members and volunteers. 

Although these other groups of professionals do case investigation/contact tracing 

work for the State of Colorado, their contributions will be excluded to focus on 

AmeriCorps’ contributions. The COVID test results were delivered by teams at the 

State Lab composed of a mixture of AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers and CDPHE 

employees. After AmeriCorps Seniors were onboarded and finished training, a 

handful of volunteers found case investigation/contact tracing consistently 

challenging. CDPHE supervisors asked those struggling if they would stay on if they 

only had to deliver test results (a much more straightforward task). Many agreed and 

CDPHE formed two teams of AmeriCorps Seniors who were permanently assigned to 

the state lab teams. From September 2020 onward, these two teams of AmeriCorps 

Seniors volunteers completed the majority of test result calls. In talking with former 

CCRC Program Manager Heather Baily, AmeriCorps ascertained that the following 

formula could be used to determine the total number of instances of health 

intervention by members and volunteers: cases + contacts + 75% of the total test 

results delivered. 

Through their contributions to CCRC, AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps Seniors 

volunteers provided an estimated 58,067 instances of health intervention. 17,629 

were served through case investigations, 7,635 through contact tracing, and an 

approximate 32,803 through test results delivered (out of approximately 67,500 calls 

attempted). 

D. AmeriCorps 101 

AmeriCorps State and National15 

AmeriCorps State and National programs seek to address critical community needs in 

areas such as education, public safety, health, and the environment. Serve Colorado 

administers Colorado’s AmeriCorps state grants, funding organizations to administer 

evidence-based direct service programs addressing local priorities with AmeriCorps 

grant funding.16 AmeriCorps directly funds AmeriCorps national direct programs 

where high-capacity organizations place AmeriCorps members at host sites 

nationwide to address community challenges. Funding for AmeriCorps state

15 AmeriCorps State and National Fit Finder

16 Serve Colorado
16

programming in Colorado comes from two sources: direct funding provided to the 

state to run its “formula” grants process, and federal funding available in the 

“competitive” national grant competition.

Formula funds are distributed to states through a population-based formula 

allocation. Serve Colorado determines the funding priorities for the state in awarding 

these grant funds. In addition to granting formula funds allocated to Colorado, Serve 

Colorado also sends strong state grant applicants for competitive federal funding. 

Successful competitive applications then increase the resources and overall 

AmeriCorps presence in the state. 

 

AmeriCorps VISTA17 

AmeriCorps VISTA seeks to eradicate poverty by building the capacity of our nation’s 

nonprofits and public agencies. AmeriCorps members provide indirect service by 

creating or expanding programs designed to bring individuals and communities out 

of poverty. Each member makes a yearlong, full-time commitment to serve on a 

specific project at a nonprofit organization or public agency. About 8,000 

AmeriCorps VISTA members are placed each year in more than 1,100 projects in lowincome communities around the country. The AmeriCorps Mountain Region office 

places approximately 130 AmeriCorps VISTA members in projects across Colorado 

annually. 

AmeriCorps members commit to serve on a specific project at a nonprofit 

organization or public agency to alleviate poverty and build capacity of host 

organizations, while improving literacy, health services, economic development; and 

serving low-income communities. The AmeriCorps VISTA summer associate program 

offers individuals the opportunity to become engaged in a community through an 

existing AmeriCorps VISTA project for eight, nine, or ten weeks during the summer 

starting in May and ending early September. 

AmeriCorps NCCC18

AmeriCorps NCCC is a full-time, team-based, residential program for young adults 

aged 18-24 that strengthens communities and develops leaders through national 

service. Teams of eight to ten members complete multiple projects during their tenmonth service term. As a residential program, NCCC provides members with 

housing, transportation, uniforms, and meals. 

The AmeriCorps NCCC Southwest Regional Campus, based in Aurora, Colo., 

annually deploys more than 300 members throughout a nine-state region. 

17 AmeriCorps VISTA Fit Finder 

18 AmeriCorps NCCC Fit Finder
17

AmeriCorps Seniors 19

AmeriCorps Seniors connects Americans aged 55 and over to service opportunities 

where their skills, knowledge, and experience can make a lasting impact in their 

community. The Foster Grandparent, RSVP, and Senior Companion programs 

empower over 200,000 seniors annually to serve their communities. The AmeriCorps 

Mountain Region Office administers over 4,500 AmeriCorps Senior volunteers to 

serve Colorado in many capacities including as mentors, companions to independent 

living, and in areas such as retrofitting housing to enable accessibility for older adults 

and others.

19 AmeriCorps Seniors
18

Phase 1: Launching the Initiative 

A. COVID-19 as a National Priority 

Since the start of the pandemic, AmeriCorps has stood at the ready to support 

COVID-19 response and recovery efforts, particularly in underserved communities 

and communities hit hardest by the pandemic. Working with numerous streams of 

service and grantees, the COVID-19 Containment Response Corps is an example of 

how AmeriCorps has played and continues to play a pivotal role in responding to the 

immediate crises and other challenges resulting from the pandemic. AmeriCorps 

members and volunteers supported contact tracing; food distribution to 

communities, schools, and vulnerable seniors; students’ academic success and 

personal well-being in both remote and in-person school environments; and wellness 

checks for homebound individuals. When vaccines became available, AmeriCorps 

members and volunteers assisted with vaccination efforts, including aiding with 

transportation and the efficiency of vaccination site operations. 

AmeriCorps also provided flexibility to grantees and sponsors while ensuring 

AmeriCorps members and volunteers continued to receive stipends, living 

allowances, and education awards, as determined by program structure. AmeriCorps 

remains committed to helping communities combat COVID-19 and respond to other 

public health needs. 

B. Initial Strengths and Weaknesses 

Strengths 

Shared Focus and Approach 

From the first discussion between Gary Community Investments and AmeriCorps on 

potentially constructing a national service response to COVID-19 in Colorado on May 

6, 2020, to the day the collaboration was formalized into an MOU on July 1, 2020, the 

culture and DNA of the program were formed. Through daily coordination and 

planning calls between MOU signatories, those responsible for building the 

Colorado COVID Recovery Program embraced a shared focus; tackling COVID-19. 

Similarly, partners shared understanding the work would have to be pursued in an 

iterative manner. While national service has a long rich history in disaster response 

and recovery work, never before had national service been called on to respond to a 

global pandemic. As COVID-19 evolved across the world and in Colorado, so did the 

needs of CDPHE and CCRC, how members and volunteers were trained, and how 

MOU leaders worked with one another to ensure Colorado was receiving the best 

possible assistance from national service. 

Technology 
19

While AmeriCorps provided people-power, Gary Community Investments20 provided 

the technology that enabled members to work remotely. This included providing 

service members Chromebooks, headsets, and, in some cases, personal hotspots to 

ensure members were able to connect to systems from remote locations. Without this 

necessary resource, many AmeriCorps members and volunteers would not have 

been able to participate in the program. 

Training 

While the training for investigators was still in its development and refinement phase, 

many pre-existing trainings were repurposed for this program including Mental 

Health First Aid, Cultural Competency, De-escalation training, and Risk 

Communication. Johns Hopkins also released a free COVID-19 training through 

Coursera that all AmeriCorps members and volunteers completed to familiarize 

themselves with the more technical aspects of COVID-19 and how case 

investigation/contact tracing could help address the pandemic. 

 

Trust Amongst the Partners 

Many of the key partners in the Colorado COVID Recovery Program had a preexisting relationship. John Kelly, the current executive director of Serve Colorado, 

had served as deputy chief of staff at AmeriCorps. Antonio Mendez, deputy regional 

director for programming at the AmeriCorps NCCC southwest region, previously 

served as executive director of Serve Colorado. Paul Brown, who served as acting 

executive director capacity before John Kelly’s tenure, had worked with Antonio for 

years. Ken Goodson, AmeriCorps NCCC director, previously served as the region 

director of AmeriCorps NCCC southwest region before assuming his role. Mike 

Johnston, president and CEO of Gary Community Investments, served as a Teach for 

America corps member and had spoken at several AmeriCorps NCCC events when 

he served as State Senator in the Colorado Legislature. Dan Dunlap, deputy regional 

administrator of the AmeriCorps NCCC south central region, was also engaged 

during the launch phase and had previously worked with Antonio and Ken on several 

projects. 

Each of these partners had attended and spoken at each other’s events (AmeriCorps 

NCCC Graduations, Serve Colorado swearing-in ceremonies, etc.), collaborated on 

previous programs (“1A” affordable housing initiative, Tax Help Colorado, etc.), and 

had built a solid foundation for national service in Colorado. This foundation was 

critical during the project's difficult moments, allowing the partners to draw on their 

previous experiences together to find innovative, new solutions. 

20 GCI (named in the MOU as CCC or COVID Check Colorado, LLC), is the philanthropic organization 

that donated and delivered necessary project technology to members and volunteers (mobile 

hotspots, Chromebooks, headsets). 
20

Political Support 

CCRC benefitted from consistent and engaged support of political leaders at the 

state and federal level. Examples include: 

• Governor Polis and Lt. Governor Primavera conducted press conferences to 

announce the partnership and used their positions to raise awareness of the 

partnership statewide. 

• Lt. Governor Primavera participated in the virtual MOU signing on July 1, 2020, 

along with AmeriCorps then CEO Barbara Stewart. 

• U.S. Senator Michael Bennet recorded a public service announcement to 

bolster recruitment efforts for members and volunteers. 

• U.S. Congresswoman Diana DeGette recorded a thank you video for 

AmeriCorps members volunteers for the program’s six-month anniversary 

celebration, as well as a video to the AmeriCorps staff in Colorado who helped 

create the program. 

• U.S. Congressman Ed Perlmutter conducted an interview with an AmeriCorps 

VISTA summer associate member from his congressional district as part of his 

“Local Heroes” series.

Staff from U.S. Congressman Perlmutter and U.S. Congresswoman DeGette 

participated in both AmeriCorps VISTA summer associate graduations and the virtual 

MOU signing. 

 

Challenges

The phrase, “building the plane as we fly it” was a common refrain during the first few 

months of CCRC project. This novel use of AmeriCorps members in case 

investigation/contact tracing work posed many challenges. Although CDPHE had 

created - case investigation/contact tracing program materials and had equipped CU 

School of Public Health students to do the work, they had not been scaffolded to 

apply in an AmeriCorps context. There were also challenges delineating who in 

CCRC should respond to identified cases as paid staff needed to make calls to earn 

their pay. AmeriCorps members, in turn, waited for all paid staff to be assigned a case 

before stepping in. 

Training members posed a challenge early due to limited training availability and the 

shorter nature of AmeriCorps NCCC’s service terms (eight to 12 weeks). AmeriCorps 

members had to complete online modules as part of their training that they could 

complete at their own pace. A “bottleneck” of training occurred as members also had 

to complete a live, instructor-led skills-based practice session that included 

“observed interactions” but there were only so many members who could be trained 

on a weekly basis. 

A number of administrative hurdles also were addressed early in the project. 

AmeriCorps members had to register with CDPHE to receive a state email to register 

in case investigation/contact tracing software and to conduct CCRC business. 
21

AmeriCorps staff had to navigate liability complexities around the technology that 

GCI was providing CCRC. Finally, CCRC ramped up during the end of NCCC’s 

Southwest Region’s Class 26A timeline. The idea of extending team leaders for a few 

more months so that they could continue beta testing CCRC processes and software 

was explored by regional and headquarters staff of AmeriCorps NCCC. Ultimately, 

not enough team leaders expressed interest in the extension and the idea was 

abandoned. 

C. Partner Reflections 

Interest in studying CCRC began early, with a document produced by the Office of 

Field Liaison at AmeriCorps headquarters21 to study how the initiative got off the 

ground. Qualitative information was solicited from all the major partners involved in 

setting up and funding the collaboration, as well as those who administered and 

stood up the first streams of service on the project. Leadership from the following 

organizations provided their thoughts: CDPHE, AmeriCorps Office of Regional 

Outreach Mountain Region, GCI, AmeriCorps HQ staff, Serve Colorado, VISTA

grantees (Community Resource Center and Conservation Legacy), and AmeriCorps 

Seniors grantees (Volunteers of America Colorado and Cultivate). The three 

questions below were presented to the collaboration’s partners:

1. What conditions facilitated this initiative? Are they unique or could they be 

replicated? 

2. What is the national service sweet spot for contact tracing? Anything 

suggesting this is not something national service should be doing? 

3. What about this pilot would you be sure to do again? What would you be sure 

to avoid? What would you add?22

“The importance of having ‘willing’ partners” emerged as a recurring response to the 

first question. The partners in this initiative were not only willing, but also adept and 

familiar with national service resources.”

23 It was noted that AmeriCorps VISTA and 

AmeriCorps Seniors RSVP parties had a long history of involvement with national 

service. Having multiple AmeriCorps alumni on staff served to increase organizational 

awareness and interest in utilizing national service at the onset of the pandemic. 

21 This qualitative report’s principal author was Laura Heufner of OFL. She analyzed partner insights 

and available data (as of early September 2020) to identify common trends and themes. The lens was 

not only CCRC-specific, but aimed to provide “lessons learned and suggestions for potential 

replication of other multi-partner and multi-national service program responses to priority community 

needs” (as quoted by Ken Goodson in an email to Sam Twynam on 6/17/21).

22 Qualitative Feedback on the Colorado COVID-19 Recovery Pilot Program prepared for the CNCS 

Office of Research and Evaluation, 9/11/20, Page 1. This document was produced for ORE in 

September 2020 (utilizing the qualitative feedback of major partners to understand the CO COVID 

Recovery Program).

23 Id. Pages 9-10. 
22

Respondents also noted the critical importance of Gary Community Investments as a 

private philanthropic partner (without which the tech for the project would have been 

out of reach). Partners’ flexibility, creativity, can-do attitude, and knowledge of 

national service were all heavily emphasized as factors that allowed the program to 

pose a rapid response. In analyzing the less-replicable aspects of the project, some 

factors were noted as “ma[king] this initiative unique, and potentially difficult to 

replicate, such as the availability of VISTA resources, the strong partner in GCI, and 

the nature of this world-wide pandemic.”24

The analysis of responses to the second question found that case 

investigation/contact tracing was exactly the kind of work that can and should be 

done by national service in Colorado during COVID-19. Respondents emphasized 

the extremely high need of the project and the immediacy and determination the 

pandemic created among collaborating partners. The Qualitative Feedback report 

noted that “national service attracts people who are caring and want to serve, and this 

pandemic response has benefitted from that ethic more than from public health 

knowledge.”25 In the environment of the early pandemic, stakeholders agreed that 

the work was a “good fit for national service members.” Community Resource 

Center’s member feedback also showed that members had positive experiences as 

investigators. 

For a synopsis of the Qualitative Feedback report’s findings in response to the third 

question, please see the How-To Guide/Collaborative Model section later in this 

report.26 This last question speaks more to what could be improved in replication of 

the program, rather than how the program began. 

Phase 2: Implementation of CCRC 

A. Scaling the Program 

CCRC began with four partners (CDPHE, AmeriCorps, Serve Colorado, and Gary 

Community Investments), one stream of service (AmeriCorps NCCC), and a small 

CDPHE staff for supervision and beta-testing of the program. It relied on staff and

AmeriCorps members already present and directly administered by the partner 

24 Id. Page 10. The importance of GCI has been emphasized. The “nature of this world-wide pandemic” 

is a not replicable factor that added immediacy and high need to the motivational factors for all 

partners. Immediate financial investment from AmeriCorps VISTA ensured that grantees had the 

budgets to rapidly set up a program and allowed CCRC to scale up relatively quickly.

25 Id. Page 14. 

26 Even Better If sub-section.
23

organizations. Team leaders from NCCC tested the model while cases remained low. 

Next, members were added, and then members serving in AmeriCorps VISTA 

summer associate program came on board, bringing two grantees and the ORO 

Mountain Region into the project. 

Planning also took on more breadth as the program continued and staff were no 

longer building but preparing for forecasted COVID rates and onboarding larger 

groups from different streams of service. The program began with, and utilized 

intermittently, short-term lengths for members. AmeriCorps NCCC and VISTA 

programs were the first waves for a reason - the eight-to-twelve week service terms 

made them ideal to test out the model of service. AmeriCorps NCCC and VISTA also 

had relatively quick turnarounds for setting up a program, making them the fastest 

streams to get trained on short notice. As the project grew and processes were 

solidified, programs with longer-term lengths were added to CCRC. AmeriCorps 

Seniors had no limit on how long they could serve, and indeed many volunteers 

remained in service until June 2021. AmeriCorps State and National also required 

longer-term lengths, plus a large dedication of hours per week (when compared to 

AmeriCorps Seniors’ part-time service). CCRC program was challenged by the 

unpredictability of COVID-19, and case counts seemed to ramp up just in time for 

member number scale-downs (and vice versa); however, the small-to-large and shortto-long-term planning worked well for scaling up CCRC’s capabilities and numbers. 

 

Summer Numbers 

AmeriCorps members became involved in CCRC beginning June 202027. The first 

few months of CCRC’s operation as a case investigation/contact tracing public health 

corps were relatively quiet, since COVID case counts in Colorado remained relatively 

low in the summer of 2020. CDPHE reported a seven-day positivity rate between 2.7 

and 5.55% in July, August, and September 2020. During this time, CCRC attempted 

to “build a plane while flying it,” set up a more robust surge leadership and 

supervisory structure, involve members and volunteers meaningfully in case 

investigation/contact tracing work, and streamline their trainings and onboarding. 

27 We have data for member accomplishments starting in July, since the only AmeriCorps members on 

the project at that point (NCCC team leaders) began making calls at this time. At publication, this 

report is able to draw upon data for July 2020 through May of 2021. 
24

 

From CDPHE’s 6-Month Report, published December 2020, the graph shows the 

state’s relatively low case counts through the summer months. July was a busy time 

for case investigators, as was the end of September (as cases ramped up toward fall). 

 

AmeriCorps VISTA remained the largest AmeriCorps stream of service contributing 

to CCRC in July and August 2020. Summer Associates completed the bulk of case 

investigation/contact tracing in July, while AmeriCorps NCCC North Central Region 

onboarded its teams.28 This pattern held through August, with AmeriCorps members 

in the VISTA program working 93% of case investigations and roughly 88% of contact 

notifications during that month.29 However, AmeriCorps members in the VISTA 

program only served for 8-10 weeks and began offboarding in September; this 

created a sharp decline in AmeriCorps member numbers. 

Program organizers aimed to fill this vacuum with alumni (returning to serve as 

temporary contractors and joining a larger contingency known as Optimize 

Manpower Solutions30) and AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers in the RSVP program. In 

September, AmeriCorps NCCC31 worked approximately 11.6% of cases, AmeriCorps 

28 NCCC Southwest Region also offboarded its beta-testing teams of Team Leaders and 

on/offboarded two regular, traditional corps teams during this period (Sun 5 and 7). 

29 CCRC Accomplishments

30 Onboarding “Optimize Manpower Solutions” (OMS) was an important milestone goal for both 

CDPHE and AmeriCorps. CDPHE could not directly hire many CCRC AmeriCorps alums from the 

summer, since CDPHE’s rules require the department to hire Colorado residents (and many VISTA and 

NCCC alums of the first few months of CCRC served from around the country). To retain talent and 

provide a pathway to employment, CDPHE hired full-time contact tracers through a temp agency. 

These approximately 100 contact tracing contractors (mostly AmeriCorps alumni) would go on to do 

the heavy lifting of CCRC after their onboarding in mid-September. Their accomplishments are not 

included in the cases, contacts, test results delivered, or individuals served stats shared in this report. 

31 Mostly North Central Region, with a minority of NCCC Southwest Region teams. 
25

VISTA 10.3%, AmeriCorps Seniors 4.2%, and Optimize Manpower Solutions 

contractors a whopping 62.6%.32 Contractors did the lion’s share of the COVID 

Response’s case investigation/contact tracing work. OMS would continue to shoulder 

case investigation/contact tracing workload throughout the duration of the Colorado 

COVID Recovery Program. 

AmeriCorps alumni who graduated from CCRC service had a huge role in building 

out CCRC’s staff leadership/supervisory structure during this period. CDPHE scaled 

up its supervisory structure by directly hiring alumni - with the largest pool of 

available talent coming from the ranks of AmeriCorps VISTA’s summer associate 

program. Both Lexy Foor (AmeriCorps NCCC Southwest alumna) and Natalie Wowk 

(AmeriCorps VISTA alumna) would go on to become CCRC branch managers, in 

charge of all CCRC teams in one or more of CDPHE’s five epidemiological regions. 

Several more would become CCRC ‘Team Leads’ - direct supervisors for one or more 

cross-stream teams of investigators. 

32 CCRC Accomplishments. The large majority of the remaining percentage of cases was worked by 

Colorado School of Public Health students.
26

Member Numbers/Streams, July-September 2020

Stats for above graphs 

● Bar graph shows AmeriCorps parties’ numbers only for June through early 

September. 

● Pie graph shows non-CDPHE, non-CSPH parties’ numbers at the end of 

September. This was the approximately one-week period during which AmeriCorps 
27

Seniors was the only stream of service actively serving in CCRC. Weekly Report 9 –

October 1, 2020; 130 AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers make up roughly 62% of CCRC. 

Service Instances 

July: 3,710 

August: 6,404 

September: 6,754 

Cases Investigations 

July: 1,132 

August: 767 

September: 597 

Contact Notifications 

July: 302 

August: 694 

September: 41 

B. Staffing for Success 

In June 2020, staff from the AmeriCorps NCCC Southwest region were tasked by 

Gina Cross, acting director. AmeriCorps NCCC, with interviewing candidates and 

selecting a potential program associate to serve in an administrative support function 

for CCRC. While the program had been functioning well, it was understood that the 

success of the program ultimately required more attention than any existing staff 

member could provide. Sam Twynam was selected for the program associate 

position. Sam had a great deal of experience in national service having served as an 

AmeriCorps NCCC member in the Pacific Region, a Colorado Reading Corps 

member as part of an AmeriCorps State program, and an AmeriCorps VISTA Leader 

in Colorado Springs. These experiences gave Sam firsthand knowledge of the 

differences between the streams of service and helped him conceptualize and 

predict challenges before they arose. As a program associate, Sam acted as the 

project’s primary liaison, data analyst, principal publicist, and the closest thing to a 

program manager that such a large and collaborative project could engage. 

Sam would gain more responsibilities as the year progressed. He became the primary 

author of the “Colorado Contact Tracing Weekly Report,” where he presented the 

successes and challenges of the project, noteworthy news, data summaries and 

more. These weekly reports were widely circulated and helped all parties keep a 

finger on the pulse of COVID-19 in Colorado and the current iteration of CCRC’s 

response. In the AmeriCorps VISTA and AmeriCorps State and National successes 

and challenges sections of this report, the reader will notice that the budget for a 

dedicated program team enabled these nonprofits to be successful as grantees of 
28

their programs. This was no less true on the AmeriCorps side, as having a dedicated 

“project expert” in the program associate role - with the bandwidth to take on and 

report project challenges - allowed other staff to continue their regular work (made 

more difficult during the pandemic) without loss of productivity. 

Sam also facilitated the logistical component of the program, working with Gary 

Community Investments to ship, disperse, collect, and return tech equipment like 

laptops, portable hotspots, headsets, and more to campuses and programs all across 

the country. He would also serve as the primary liaison for the project by meeting 

with key stakeholders, facilitating conversations between streams of service, and 

providing updates to leadership when requested. 

Everyone involved has seen firsthand the benefit of Sam’s involvement in the project. 

Many consider him the “glue” that keeps the project together and have thanked him 

for his outstanding service throughout.33

C. National Civilian Community Corps Successes and Challenges 

 

Successes 

AmeriCorps NCCC has been touted as one of the most flexible and responsive 

streams of service. Given its short project terms and ability to easily redeploy, the 

AmeriCorps NCCC program is a natural fit in the disaster response context. While 

there were significant challenges throughout AmeriCorps 

NCCC’s involvement with the program, the 

implementation of CCRC program is considered a huge 

success for AmeriCorps NCCC. 

The initial development of the project was facilitated out 

of the Southwest region, however every NCCC campus 

served on this project. North Central provided members 

during summer 2020, Pacific members served on the 

project during winter 2020, and the Southern region 

provided its campus to send members during its 

transition back into the field. This national approach 

ensured the Southwest region had capacity to serve 

other vital projects throughout its nine-state region. 

Given the flexible nature of the NCCC program, staff 

were able to more frequently assess the needs of the 

program and scale participation up or down throughout 

33 While Sam’s position was a temporary, one-year position, Sam will continue with the agency as he 

has accepted a role as Portfolio Manager in the ORO Mountain Region. 

(Gabe Cohen, 

AmeriCorps NCCC Team 

Leader)
29

the year. While not perfectly aligned with the existing need in case 

investigation/contact tracing, this scaling proved invaluable to both CDPHE and 

NCCC. Adding to this strength, NCCC members proved to be some of the fastest to 

make it through CDPHE’s technically rigorous trainings, beginning case 

investigation/contact tracing service rapidly after onboarding.34

The personal impact of participating in this program may be hard to measure but 

NCCC Southwest staff know many members are now considering employment in 

public health (including a few who have since gone on to paid roles at CDPHE) or 

working in disaster response and mitigation through agencies like FEMA.35 To learn 

more about the impact of this project on various members, please see the section 

below entitled “Impact of the program on the members.” 

Early project development on the state side was directed by Russ McKelvey - deputy, 

containment program, plans at CDPHE - and Brian Wegner - administrative 

coordinator at Serve Colorado. AmeriCorps NCCC staff worked with Russ and Brian 

to finalize trainings, beta test systems, forecast potential AmeriCorps issues and 

troubleshoot existing ones. 

Challenges 

Being the first stream of service to participate in CCRC posed significant challenges 

for AmeriCorps NCCC. The first was the member experience. AmeriCorps NCCC 

eligibility requirements state that members must be 18-26 years old36, be a U.S. 

Citizen or Lawful Permanent Resident, pass an initial drug screening test upon arrival 

to the program, and must be available for 10-12 months of full-time service consisting 

of extensive travel. AmeriCorps members in the NCCC program come from a wide 

range of personal and professional backgrounds. By contrast, other early 

investigators came from the Colorado School of Public Health where students had a 

broader understanding of core public health principles and were interested in 

making a career in the field, or from the AmeriCorps VISTA summer associate 

programs whose members applied specifically for the chance to serve as 

investigators. CDPHE supervisory staff informed NCCC that members required more 

supervision and felt frustrated by how little some knew about public health. It took 

longer to get the teams to a comfortable place and many teams reported feeling 

34 It generally took NCCC members two weeks or less to finish these online trainings. This speed was 

informally attributed to NCCC members’ youth and status as “digital natives.” By contrast, some 

AmeriCorps Seniors took a month or more to make it through the self-paced trainings. 

35 One NCCC Southwest (team leader) alumna, Lexy Foor, went straight from beta-testing the case 

investigation/contact tracing platforms of CCRC to becoming a Branch Manager (full-time employee 

with CDPHE, in charge of all CCRC teams in one of Colorado’s epidemiological regions).

36 Traditionally members ranged from 18-24 years old, but the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic 

Security Act of 2020 increased the upper age limit for participation as an AmeriCorps member to 26 

years old. 
30

mentally and emotionally exhausted by the unique nature of the disaster and their 

service. 

While this stream of service has many benefits in a disaster response context, there 

were still some basic requirements that posed challenges. While traditional sponsors 

are not required to contribute a “program match” - a requirement that every dollar 

from a funding source must be matched with a specific percent of the organization's 

own funds - they are required to provide two critical requirements for a success: 1) 

housing for members and 2) a work plan for them to follow. 

AmeriCorps NCCC approached its partners early in the program to inquire about any 

housing solutions they might be able to identify. Given that members from NCCC 

Class 26B were in case investigation/contact tracing, and Class 27A would soon need 

to onboard to the program, this lack of housing caused issues with the Southwest 

Region Campus as COVID-19 social distancing policies limited how many members 

could be on campus at any given time. Serve Colorado executive director John Kelly 

and Gary Community Investments president and CEO Mike Johnston both explored 

various options from dorms at the University of Denver (which were now vacant due 

to the school being all-remote learning) to state-owned buildings like the GrantHumphreys Mansion. Unfortunately, none of those housing options ever came 

through. 

After the holiday break, some investigators would remain at their Home of Records 

conducting case investigation/contact tracing remotely while others would fly out to 

the AmeriCorps NCCC Southern Campus in Vicksburg, Miss. Those investigators 

discovered that the supplied hotspot technology did not have sufficient bandwidth.

This led to challenges connecting with calls and dropped calls during the team’s time 

on the Southern campus. After troubleshooting for several weeks, NCCC invested in 

a signal booster/extender that was meant to address the problem. 

The next big challenge was the shifting work plan for the project. The initial group of 

Team Leaders out of the Southwest region had served as beta testers for the case 

investigation/contact tracing software and for the training that CDPHE was to provide. 

The North Central region expressed some challenges around training and 

onboarding their members as there was a large group of AmeriCorps members in 

the VISTA program that CDPHE was prioritizing due to their shortened service 

commitment. This led to large periods of no service for these members throughout 

the summer. CDPHE requested that NCCC commit to two terms of service moving 

forward as they were worried the training and onboarding would be too timeintensive.. While not how NCCC traditionally operates, the Southwest region agreed 

to provide a stable case investigation/contact tracing volunteer force. 
31

There were peaks and valleys throughout the year 

when it came to case investigation/contact tracing 

work availability. CDPHE expressed frustration during 

several instances when a peak in cases coincided with 

a transition or a departure of members. The Southwest 

region was grateful for the valleys, as it meant low 

numbers of COVID cases but also required the team to 

find ways for members to continue to acquire service 

hours during lulls in the project. 

The addition of the AmeriCorps State and National 

members to the project meant reprioritizing case 

investigation/contact tracing to AmeriCorps State and 

National members and NCCC soon exited the project. 

NCCC shifted from case investigation/contact tracing 

to having members assist the Federal Emergency 

Management Agency in mass vaccination sites across 

the country. 

 

D. VISTA Summer Associates’ Successes and Challenges 

 

(Emily Hadsell, NCCC Corps 

Member)
32

Successes 

According to AmeriCorps VISTA grantees, a few elements helped the VISTA summer 

associates program contribution get off the 

ground. First, Community Resource Center and 

Conservation Legacy were granted “no cost 

share” - meaning they did not need to externally 

fundraise to support the cost of the VISTA 

program. Sufficient funds were made available 

for grantees to hire the people they needed 

(recruiters, program staff, etc.) and successfully 

launch in a quick manner. Close collaboration 

between CRC and CL program staff allowed for 

the program, documents, and tools to be built 

collaboratively and personnel resources to be 

pooled. This collaboration allowed the two 

nonprofits to work through their 1,000+ 

applications much quicker. It should also be 

noted that the VISTA Member Support Unit 

supported the project by adjusting typical 

deadlines and procedures in order to get the 

members onboarded quickly. A lot of support 

was required to make the project work on a 

timeline that fit within VISTA regulations, 

including utilizing a staff person in Hawaii to 

work “overnight” hours to get things processed in time. 

Another advantage was the remote nature of the service, allowing anyone interested 

in serving as an investigator to apply and participate regardless of geography. 

Despite a global pandemic, the work became accessible to all age groups, locations, 

abilities, and pre-existing conditions. The Summer Associates program’s lack of an 

upper age limit made it so that applicants from ages 18-80 could participate in 

meaningful service. VISTA’s early participation also increased associates’ chances of 

employment - as many of them went on to work for CDPHE directly, or on CDPHE’s 

OMS temp staff of investigators. This happened regardless of any public health 

experience previous to service with CCRC - an important “foot in the door” for 

AmeriCorps members. 

The ebb and flow of case investigation/contact tracing work allowed summer 

associates to engage in a great deal of professional development, provided both by 

CDPHE and grantee program staff. When call volume was low, members could 

expand their knowledge of public health and epidemiology by completing training 

modules (on epidemiology, equity in public health, etc.) provided by CDPHE or the 

(Gil Campbell, VISTA and 

AmeriCorps State and National

member)
33

more ‘extracurricular’ activities (alumni panels, leadership and expert talks, etc.) 

organized by grantees. 

An additional success reported by grantee staff was that the VISTA program enjoyed 

a high retention rate after the initial onboarding period, likely due, in part, to the 

short service term commitment of eight-to-ten weeks. This short-term length also 

meant that AmeriCorps members looked for opportunities to stay on, which 

abounded in this early iteration of CCRC. 

One final, major success was VISTA recruitment. Of all the streams of national service 

engaged in the effort, no program faced the challenge of greater recruitment targets 

(350 members), nor compressed timeframe for recruitment (approximately one 

month). Despite these challenges, by the end of the recruitment campaign, CRC and 

CL had received 1,034 applications for the 350 available positions. This recruitment 

success proved to be the first indicator of the strong desire of Americans to serve on 

the front lines of COVID recovery. A diversity group of applicants were attracted to 

the VISTA positions, from retired medical professionals to those who lost their job to 

COVID closures. 

Four steps complimented CRC and CL recruitment efforts and contributed to this 

success. 

1. Public service announcements were created by Gary Community Investments 

and the ORO Mountain Region in partnership with Comcast and the 

AmeriCorps Office of External Affairs. These PSAs engaged high profile 

Coloradans including Governor Polis, Lt. Governor Dianne Primavera, Denver 

Bronco Dalton Risner, Olympic medalist Missy Franklin, and U.S. Senator 

Michael Bennet. The PSAs were general in nature, making them useful to later 

recruitment efforts by AmeriCorps Seniors and AmeriCorps State and National. 

2. CL and AmeriCorps NCCC each leveraged their robust alumni networks to 

amplify messaging about CCRC service opportunities. 

3. An ORO Mountain Region connection with the Peace Corps created access to 

the Evacuated Peace Corps Volunteer network. Through this connection, bilingual, public health professionals became a part of the early CCRC. Several 

later moved into paid positions with CDPHE. 

4. Finally, Serve Colorado established a single landing page for interested 

Americans to learn more specifics about different service opportunities in 

CCRC. This one-stop-shopping approach simplified national service for those 

who heard about the service opportunities with CCRC. 

Challenges 

The short VISTA summer service term had its disadvantages in the eyes of the public 

health professionals at CDPHE. They pointed out that members were spending two to 

three weeks of their eight-to-ten week terms in training (without making a single call), 
34

and the remaining five-to-eight weeks did not provide enough time for members to 

gain true mastery of the ins and outs of case investigation/contact tracing work. 

Grantee staff reported that the equipment provided to members for use in case 

investigation/contact tracing posed some challenges. Each AmeriCorps member was 

given a Chromebook (a small laptop with an operating system that relies on an 

internet connection). The rigorous training put on by CDPHE tested the 

Chromebooks to their limits and required add-ons to run required modules. Even the 

most tech-savvy members found the Chromebooks difficult to operate at times. 

Grantees reported that the quality of calls, especially video calls, could be poor,

regardless of internet quality. Although hotspots were provided to members who 

needed them, the hotspots relied on cellular data - a resource that remained hard to 

come by for members in rural locations. 

1) The ebb and flow of case investigation/contact tracing work proved a doubleedged sword. CCRC was designed to operate as surge support for a system of local 

public health authorities who would hand over cases during a surge in COVID-19 

numbers in their locality. When local public health agencies/authorities had capacity 

to handle their own cases, AmeriCorps members had no direct service to perform. 

CCRC’s built-in training and data cleaning tasks only covered so much downtime, and 

this problem was only solved because CRC and CL had the staff capacity to create 

activities and events for idle members. (This is a problem plagued multiple streams at 

different times in the project. It wasn’t unique to VISTA, but it was made worse by the 

consistently low case counts in Colorado during summer 2020.) 

Phase 3: The Height of Surge Support 

A. CCRC Programming during COVID-19 spike 

During the 2020 fall and winter, Colorado experienced surging cases of COVID-19 

and its highest average case count of the pandemic. Colorado saw its first case of the 

faster-spreading B.1.1.7 (Alpha) variant, received the first shipment of the Pfizer 

vaccine (December 14, 2020), and CDPHE reported a seven-day testing positivity rate 

between 5.42% and 12.88% (less at either end of this time period and spiking in midNovember). During this time, CCRC leadership tried to ramp up member/volunteer 

numbers after the September drop-off, ensure case investigation/contact tracing 

coverage during the holidays, bring on/retain two new streams of AmeriCorps 

service, and thank/connect members in service. 
35

From Weekly Report 22, published 12/30/2020 

VISTA members had offboarded from the project by early September. This “cliff” in 

member numbers proved to be an ongoing challenge for CDPHE as COVID-19 

numbers ramped up. Leadership needed investigators as soon as possible, making 

the AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers some of the most valuable CCRC participants 

during this time. The need for trained individuals also prompted AmeriCorps NCCC 

(Southwest Region) to pledge more teams than had originally been committed, in 

spite of the logistical difficulties housing these residential teams presented. From 

early October to late November, NCCC Southwest brought on roughly 80 members 

in a mixture of remote and campus-bound waves. While grantees worked to get 

roughly 115 AmeriCorps Seniors through highly technical trainings, Serve Colorado 

worked with sub-grantees, Community Resource Center and Conservation Legacy, 

on the same.37

This period saw CCRC at its most productive. While a majority of the case 

investigation/contact tracing surge support work was done by contractors and 

college students, AmeriCorps teams proved to be a huge asset. All numbers below 

are the combined totals of AmeriCorps teams (NCCC, AmeriCorps Seniors, and 

AmeriCorps State and National). Individuals served = cases + contacts + .75 (test 

results delivered). During October, CCRC switched case investigation/contact tracing 

37 VISTA veteran grantees from earlier in the project were brought on to recruit and bring on 50 

AmeriCorps State and National members in late November and early December (with plans for 50 

more in the new year). 
36

software. The October numbers below combines totals from both software systems 

and corrects minor errors initially reported. 

Member Numbers/Streams, Oct-Dec 2020
37

Stats for above pie charts 

● Bar graph depicts member numbers/streams for the majority of this period. 

● Weekly Report 13; 10/29/20; 131 AmeriCorps mems/vols make up 52.4% of 

CCRC. 

● Weekly Report 17; 11/25/20; 164 AmeriCorps mems/vols make up 53.7% of 

CCRC. 

● Weekly Report 22; 12/30/20; 178 AmeriCorps mems/vols make up 52% of 

CCRC. 

MATCH ABOVE 

October: 6,481 

November: 6,318 

December: 5,944 
38

Cases Investigations 

October: 880 

November: 1,376 

December: 2,383 

Contact Notifications 

October: 499 

November: 539 

December: 60 

B. RSVP Successes and Challenges 

AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers in the RSVP program were recruited by Volunteers of 

America Colorado and Cultivate grantees and brought on from late August through 

September 2020. Many AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers quickly resigned or took 

longer than CDPHE staff expected to complete a tech-heavy two-to-four week 

training. And,the AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers who remained after training stood 

as the sole, active AmeriCorps participants from September 25 until NCCC teams 

cleared training on October 19. Though their initial onboarding was rougher than 

expected, AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers remained a useful asset to CDPHE, which 

considered their part-time contribution to be “extra” to the regular, 40-hour 

contributions of other case investigators. 

Successes 

In contrast to a stream of service like AmeriCorps NCCC, the AmeriCorps Seniors 

RSVP program attracted a fair number of retired doctors and nurses, eager to help in 

Colorado’s COVID-19 response. Additionally, since the RSVP program provides more 

of a standard “volunteer” experience (uncompensated, fewer hours/week, a 

dedication of spare time, flexible scheduling), volunteers were able to serve irregular 

hours (weekends, etc.) if they felt inclined. 
39

Some volunteers consistently found case 

investigation/contact tracing work to be too 

intense for the time/attention they had to spend, 

so CDPHE turned this challenge of the stream into 

a strength. They created two teams solely 

dedicated to the State Lab, whose task was to call 

people who were given free COVID-19 tests at 

state-run testing sites and deliver their test results 

over the phone. It’s estimated that these teams -

the self-proclaimed “COVID Killers” - made an 

estimated 67,500 call attempts to deliver an 

approximately 32,803 test results to Coloradans 

and people traveling from out-of-state who 

received testing in Colorado. This small group of 

AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers greatly increased 

the number of individuals served by the larger 

project because, in contrast with a case 

investigation (which can take a couple of days for 

a single case and longer if they have many 

contacts), test result calls were quickly completed to many individuals. 

AmeriCorps Seniors, when compared with other participants, had the lowest “refusal 

rate.” As investigators, members ask personal and detailed questions about a COVID19 positive person's activities during their infectious period. These conversations can 

take hours and cases often resist the probing nature of the investigator’s line of 

questioning. When CDPHE compared refusal rates among different participant teams 

in September and October 2020, they found that AmeriCorps Seniors were more 

successful in completing some or all the investigation. The rate of interview refusal for 

NCCC and VISTA at the time varied between 8% and 12% (varying between the 

subset and/or grantee who onboarded them); during the same period, AmeriCorps 

Seniors volunteers’ refusal rate was between 3% and 7% (Weekly Report 16). In the 

words of CDPHE, this “demonstrat[es] that they are great at making connections with 

those they call” (CDPHE Six-Month Report). 

Challenges 

Some of AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers’ strengths proved to be double-edged 

swords. Unlike AmeriCorps NCCC or AmeriCorps State and National, volunteers had 

no obligation to serve 40-hour weeks, instead hovering in the 5-20 hours per week 

range. AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers are used to the RSVP program having flexible 

schedules, giving the time you have to your community project. This was an 

immediately flagged problem area for CDPHE employees, trying to build week-long 

coverage of case investigation/contact tracing surge support in each of the state’s five 

epidemiological regions (see map below). Grantees, CDPHE, and ORO Mountain 

(Pat Taylor, VISTA Member and 

AmeriCorps Seniors Volunteer) 
40

Region worked together to forge more committed schedules for volunteers, so that 

their supervisors would know when to depend on their help. However, the loose 

nature of the AmeriCorps RSVP program persisted as a minor issue. CCRC and 

grantees had to go the extra mile to encourage AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers 

through both the stressful times and the doldrums. This again goes back to the 

“volunteer” mentality; grantee staff noted, as a general observation from running 

AmeriCorps RSVP programs in the past, that if service was too stressful, or volunteers 

did not feel there was a currently compelling need to serve, volunteers tended to 

resign. 

On top of this, some AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers experienced generational 

challenges while volunteering in a completely remote and technology-dependent 

role. For some, the technology learning during the first two, intense weeks of 

onboarding was too steep. AmeriCorps Seniors saw its highest, most concentrated 

rates of attrition in the first weeks of volunteer participation. This challenge fostered 

some collaborative and innovative solutions, as these volunteers were highly valuable 

to CCRC, who was facing a “cliff” in member numbers after the offboarding members 

of the VISTA program. 

ORO Mountain Region approached Sam Twynam with the idea of connecting 

members from NCCC with AmeriCorps Seniors who needed technology-specific 

help. Sam worked with two AmeriCorps NCCC teamsto create a roster of “on-call” 

hours, AmeriCorps member names, and phone numbers. The “office hours” 

document was sent to grantees and CCRC Team Leads who then shared it with their 

An early map of CCRC’s five epidemiological (“epi”) regions across the state of 

Colorado. Each team, which could consist of multiple streams of service, public 

health students, and contact tracing temp staff, was assigned a region, a supervisor, 

and a schedule. This scheduling ensured that each region had adequate case 

investigation/contact tracing coverage every day of the week, meaning that a team 

might serve Wednesday-Sunday
41

AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers. AmeriCorps members in the NCCC program were 

able to help AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers with their Chromebook, Google suite, 

hotspot, and other basic technical challenges that didn’t require the help of CDPHE’s 

IT department or a public health professional like CCRC Team Lead. 

This connection between AmeriCorps Seniors and AmeriCorps NCCC proved to be 

successful and retention rates vastly improved in the third cohort of AmeriCorps 

Seniors,who joined in September, when the office hours were in full swing. CDPHE 

also made efforts to simplify their training for a less tech-savvy audience, so no single 

element can be heralded as responsible for this improvement. The columns below 

show the improved retention rates over the course of the three cohorts, reported in 

Weekly Report ten in early October. However, perhaps the most significant legacy of 

this cross-stream connection was how much it was enjoyed and appreciated by 

AmeriCorps members and volunteers. AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers told grantee 

staff and AmeriCorps members told NCCC program staff that it was a highlight of 

their service. AmeriCorps staff and grantees took this to heart and worked to deepen 

connections within/across streams and generations within CCRC. The “League of 

AmeriFriends”38 would be set up later in 2020 and go live in 2021 - aiming to connect 

members and volunteers in an informal setting, to encourage these productive social 

connections. 

Cohort 1 - 8/24/2020 

# members: 98 

Dropped: 34 

Retention rate: 65% 

Cohort 2 - 9/8/2020 

# members: 47 

Dropped: 11 

Retention: 77% 

Cohort 3 - 9/21/2020 

# members: 30 

Dropped: 4 

Retention: 87% 

C. AmeriCorps State and National Successes and Challenges 

 

AmeriCorps State and National 

38 See the Examples of Early Replication section for a description of this cross-stream, social affinity 

group that assigned members and volunteers to diverse, intergenerational “pods” and allowed case 

investigators to further connect to one another in a more relaxed setting. 
42

AmeriCorps State and National members joined CCRC in November 2020 as a 

partnership between Serve Colorado (state commission), Community Resource 

Center, and Conservation Legacy. Between November 30, 2020, and January 25, 

2021, CRC and CL onboarded 100 AmeriCorps members in the State and National 

program to help support COVID containment efforts through case 

investigation/contact tracing. CRC and CL were familiar with the structure through the 

summer AmeriCorps VISTA program. Taking lessons learned, both grantees sought 

to streamline onboarding and strengthen the member experience. This portion of the 

project was funded through Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act 

funding that CDPHE received in partnership with Education Awards provided by 

AmeriCorps through the National Service Trust. 

In partnership with Gary Community Investments, AmeriCorps State and National

members were equipped with Chromebooks to provide service remotely. Due to this 

virtual service opportunity, AmeriCorps members in the State and National program 

served from 13 of 64 counties in Colorado and 19 other states. 

Successes 

A benefit of AmeriCorps members in the State and National program is the ability to 

serve in the same role for longer periods of time. AmeriCorps members signed up for 

eight-to-ten month terms of service, and even though some members didn’t stay for 

their whole term, the longer terms allowed CCRC to maintain a national service 

workforce for a longer time period without having to frequently train new cohorts of 

members and volunteers. Of the 100 AmeriCorps members in the State and National 

program72 are currently serving, with the vast majority of exits due to compelling 

personal circumstances related to the pandemic (mental health concerns, caring for 

loved ones who contracted COVID-19, etc.). 

AmeriCorps State and National partners brought a diversity of expertise and working 

styles to the project which created a collaborative environment, which started with a 

flexible grant-making process. Conservation Legacy and Community Resource 

Center were able to leverage their experience hosting AmeriCorps members in the 

VISTA program over the previous summer. Using this prior knowledge helped create 

an environment where all parties were able to collectively solve problems in real time. 

In addition, the collaborative nature between partners helped promote AmeriCorps 

State and National positions through an accelerated recruitment timeline. Public 

service announcements created for recruitment with help from Gary Community 

Investments and in partnership with connections to Comcast were widely utilized to 

spread the word on this AmeriCorps State and National service opportunity. 

As COVID-19 numbers fell, members had fewer case investigation/contact tracing 

calls to make. This created some challenges but also opened opportunities for 
43

AmeriCorps State and National members to assist with special projects for CDPHE 

and the Governor’s Office. Several members were able to assist with resource 

navigation efforts - helping individuals understand precautions to take and how to 

access vaccines; tracking the appropriate handling of vaccine doses distributed to 

implementation sites; and more recently assisting with vaccine education efforts in 

rural areas with local nonprofit organizations. 

Similar to AmeriCorps VISTA, the remote nature of the service allowed for an 

increased diversity of member recruitment. CRC saw members apply from 29 of 

Colorado’s 64 counties, including rural communities that wouldn’t have been able to 

participate otherwise; and Conservation Legacy had members serving Colorado 

remotely from California to New York and states in between. 

The diversity of the AmeriCorps members in the State and National program served 

to emphasize that intergenerational service can be accomplished in one program 

Members ranged in age from 19 to 75 years, some with a high school diploma and 

others with higher education degrees. Serving with CCRC has been a great 

opportunity for members to learn more about public health; many members have 

shown interest in continuing in the public health field. 

In addition, this team was dedicated to service. Of the 100 AmeriCorps members in 

the State and National program serving with CCRC, four chose to serve again with 

CCRC through AmeriCorps VISTA over the summer, 19 AmeriCorps members had 

previously served on other projects with AmeriCorps through NCCC, VISTA, or 

AmeriCorps State and National, and 16 had a direct military affiliation. 

Cohort data: 

Group 1 -

11/30/2020 

Group 2 - 

12/7/2020 

Group 3 -

1/11/2021 

Group 4 -

1/25/2021

# mbrs (CRC) 17 22 38 2

# mbrs (CL) 11 1 12 3

TOTAL 28 23 50 5

Challenges 

2) The need for surge case investigation/contact tracing work declined in 

February and March 2021, creating some challenges. Unique to other streams of 

service, AmeriCorps members in the State and National program serve a specified 

minimum number of hours. The decline in case investigation/contact tracing work 

made it challenging for AmeriCorps members to maintain their recommended 
44

weekly number of hours of service to successfully complete their term of service. To 

combat this, CDPHE, CL, CRC, and Serve Colorado collectively sought alternative 

activities for members to support within the realm of COVID-19 containment. A surge 

in variant cases in April temporarily provided hours for CCRC members as local 

public health agencies/authorities were overwhelmed with the influx. As June 

approached, a sharp drop in cases created another challenge. As of the writing of this 

report, AmeriCorps State and National partners are working together to find 

alternative activities for members. 

The emotional toll of case investigation/contact tracing for a longer period of time 

was difficult for some AmeriCorps members, especially those who were directly 

impacted by COVID-19. Project staff helped support members in various ways: Serve 

Colorado provided all members with access to counseling support, while CRC and 

CL created wellness sessions facilitated by members and offered peer support 

opportunities as well as individualized check-ins with staff. 

The structure of CCRC within CDPHE was adjusted throughout the project. During 

AmeriCorps members’ terms of service, supervisor structures shifted, and team leads 

changed. These organizational shifts improved the internal structure of CCRC, but 

changes were challenging for some members. The flexibility of CDPHE and member 

support provided by Conservation Legacy and Community Resource Center assisted 

members greatly during each transition. 

 

NOTE: AmeriCorps State and National members will continue to serve with the 

CDPHE and the Governor’s Office on case investigation/contact tracing and vaccine 

outreach efforts through September 2021. 

AmeriCorps State 

and National 

Impact by Month 

Case 

Investigations 

Contact 

Notifications 

AmeriCorps State and National 

% of CCRC 

December 453 (5.06%) 86 (3.30%) 44 (13.5%) 

January 1345 (18.1%) 322 (13.4%) 98 (28.3%) 

February 1551 (38.6%) 899 (35.3%) 91 (33.1%) 

March 1505 (43.6%) 1000 

(39.8%) 

85 (33.2%) 
45

April 2387 (40%) 889 (40.8%) 76 (37.6%) 

May 1856 (44%) 690 (47.5%) 73 (42.7%) 

Data from Weekly Reports 23 (December data), 28 (January data), 32 (February data), 

35 (March data), 40 (April data), and 44 (May data). 

CCRC End and Future Projects 

A. Scaling the program to respond to the need 

CCRC entered 2021 with a huge amount of people power, left over from a slowly 

receding wave of high COVID-19 numbers in November and December 2020. The 

program began the year with 167 AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps Seniors 

volunteers, who made up 51.2% of a larger 326-person corps. There were 74 

AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers through RSVP, 49 AmeriCorps members through 

NCCC, and 44 AmeriCorps members through AmeriCorps State and National active 

at the beginning of the year (although the number of active AmeriCorps State and 

National members was about to double as a third cohort of members began training 

in January 2021). CCRC had a lot of capacity alongside low case counts during much 

of this time, although their member numbers were crucial during the fourth wave of 

COVID-19 cases in April 2021. Overall, CCRC had to cautiously scale down - an 

announcement CDPHE leadership made formal in February 2021. Although exact 

number reduction goals fluctuated with the changing needs of the pandemic, the 

general effort was to downsize CDPHE staff who supervise members, AmeriCorps 

NCCC, and AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers since AmeriCorps State and National, and 

the contractors regularly worked uninterrupted 40-hour weeks. 

The plan to keep CCRC active through the end of 2021 in a case investigation/contact 

tracing capacity remained unchanged. Although in-person vaccination work was 

advocated for by CCRC leadership, CDPHE ultimately funneled this work to different 

teams. Having teams dedicated to case investigation/contact tracing remained a 

great insurance policy as more and more variants were detected in Colorado. CDPHE 

decided to renew contracted staff, as a subset of temporary personnel through the 

end of the year, downsize to a smaller number of investigators by the summer, 

consolidate teams (after the loss of Team Leads) within CCRC’s five regions, opt out 

of renewing the program’s MOU in July 2021 (as AmeriCorps State and National 

could continue without it as the sole AmeriCorps presence, if need be), and highlight 

CCRC’s pathway to employment for its members. For a glimpse of how member 

numbers fluctuated during this period, see the data sub-section below. 
46

During winter and spring 2021, Colorado experienced lower sustained case counts of 

COVID-19. Colorado also saw the faster-spreading B.1.1.7 variant of COVID-19 

become the dominant form of COVID-19 in the state, gained access to more vaccines 

and worked to increase vaccination rates, and CDPHE reported a seven-day testing 

positivity rate between 2.82% and 8.26%. Seven-day testing positivity was highest 

coming into the new year, then steadily declined before ramping up into the “fourth 

wave” in Colorado - consistently around 5-6% and peaking in mid-tolate April. CCRC 

adapted its training and work to the new COVID-19 variants, with an initially muchlonger script and other extra work for investigators that led to increased levels of 

burnout on the part of a corps that was beginning to scale down. 

In the final months of the program, COVID-19 rates and member numbers both 

decreased. While waves of higher COVID-19 numbers were handled by CCRC during 

this period, the seven-day testing positivity rate remained low in Colorado. 

AmeriCorps members in the NCCC program were pulled from the program to assist 

FEMA with mass vaccination sites across the country and many AmeriCorps Seniors 

volunteers finished their service commitments.39 These departing AmeriCorps 

Seniors volunteers included two teams working on a special project for the State Lab. 

After completing training, AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers were assigned to call 

people who had taken COVID-19 tests at state-run testing sites and report test 

results. Although they made thousands of call attempts in addition to the calls they 

completed to successfully report test results, one person could be served relatively 

quickly by the State Lab teams (when compared with a full case investigation, which 

could take two or more days). For this reason, once these teams offboarded in midApril, the number of individuals served by AmeriCorps teams each month declined.40

The final formula for determining the number of individuals served was revised as a 

result; the final number of Coloradans served was adjusted to a more conservative, 

accurate count. 

Member Numbers/Streams, Jan-May 2021 

39 Since AmeriCorps Seniors RSVP volunteers had all met and exceeded their initial term length 

agreements, many stayed on to help only because the need was great. When case counts became 

consistently low, organizers noticed a pattern in RSVP volunteers departing the program. 

40 As a reminder to the reader, all data below are the combined totals of AmeriCorps members and 

AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers. Individuals served= cases + contacts +3⁄4 of all test results delivered. 
47
48

Stats for above pie charts 

● Jan; W.R. 26; 1/28/21; 229 AmeriCorps mems/vols make up 59% of CCRC. 

● Feb; W.R. 29/30; 2/25/21; 140 AmeriCorps mems/vols make up 48.3% of 

CCRC. 

● March; W.R. 34; 3/25/21; 126 AmeriCorps mems/vols make up 47.1% of 

CCRC. 

● April; W.R. 39; 4/29/21; 90 AmeriCorps mems/vols make up 42.7% of CCRC. 

● May; W.R. 43; 5/27/21; 83 AmeriCorps mems/vols make up 46.9% of CCRC. 

○ Note that the same colors denote different streams in this last pie graph. 

SAME AS ABOVE 

January: 6,813 

February: 5,016 

March: 3,840 

April: 4,162 

May: 2,626 

Case Investigations 

January: 2,390 

February: 1,923 

March: 1,679 

April: 2,586 

May: 1,916 

Contact Notifications 

January: 651 

February: 1,076 

March: 1,109 

April: 1,041 

May: 710 
49

As more variants arrived (Beta and Delta), the case investigation script was revised so 

that all COVID-19 cases were treated as “variant of interest”, “variant of concern” or 

“variant of high consequence”. CDPHE introduced a COVID-19 variants hub on their 

data-driven website, beginning in mid-April. Colorado’s Governor announced the 

removal of a mask mandate in the state in mid-May and roughly 2.6 million 

Coloradans were vaccinated by June 1, 2021. During the first few months of 2021, 

CCRC leadership tried toramp down member/volunteer numbers after COVID-19 

numbers decreased and stayed low, reduce hours for existing investigators (first just 

Sundays off, then entire weekends41, help members/volunteers cope with variant 

investigations and with the downsizing of CCRC staff/supervisors, and further connect 

members/volunteers to one another. 

From Weekly Report 44, published 6/4/2021. 

B. Examples of Early Replication 

In the first few days of the Biden administration, national service was highlighted as a 

tool to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. This, among other factors, helped increase 

national interest in programs with a similar structure to CCRC. Although project 

partners had been approached by community organizations in their regions (ORO 

Mountain Region’s states and NCCC Southwest’s states), and had involved partners 

from all over the U.S. in the project, AmeriCorps leadership began to see replication 

of the program’s model on a grander scale across the United States. 

One of President Biden’s first executive orders called for the creation of a U.S. Public 

Health Jobs Corps. Modeled after AmeriCorps NCCC/FEMA Corps, U.S. Public 

41 With the exception of one team of investigators that continued to work Saturday shifts. 
50

Health Jobs Corps would provide contact tracing and vaccination work all over the 

U.S. and aim to mobilize 100,000 people. In the Biden administration’s first 100 days, 

NCCC was asked to contribute teams42 to the first waves of national service-assisted, 

in-person vaccination efforts. The teams departed CCRC to serve in a disaster relief 

capacity at mass vaccination sites around the country. The final NCCC teams left in 

February 2021, leaving AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers and teams from AmeriCorps 

State and National. 

Partnerships between national service and public health did not end there, as the 

CDC partnered with AmeriCorps43 and FEMA partnered with Peace Corps44 to place 

members/volunteers to work in the public health sphere. Long-time champion of 

public service and former AmeriCorps board member, Phyllis Segal, also took an 

interest in CCRC during this time. Mrs. Segal was particularly interested in the 

intergenerational aspect of CCRC - the fact that members of all ages were 

contributing to the pandemic recovery in Colorado. She co-authored a Newsweek 

article45 arguing for the utility of an intergenerational vaccine corps and mentioned 

CCRC as a possible model to replicate.46

Mrs. Segal was especially interested in 

CCRC affinity group dubbed “The 

League of AmeriFriends,” which had its 

kick-off event during the Martin Luther 

King, Jr., Day of Service on January 18, 

2021. The concept stemmed from the 

success of the intergenerational tech 

connection forged between NCCC and 

AmeriCorps Seniors during the fall of 

2020, commonly mentioned as one of 

the highlights of the project for NCCC 

members and RSVP volunteers alike. 

Grantee staff and AmeriCorps staff 

worked to recruit and connect small, 

voluntary groups of AmeriCorps 

members and AmeriCorps Seniors 

volunteers for a kind of “extracurricular” 

social connection. The idea was to get 

them connected to members outside of their assigned teams within CCRC and create 

42 NCCC can redeploy teams of AmeriCorps members to respond to national disasters through a 

process called Mission Assignments.

43 White House Announces $400 Million for Public Health AmeriCorps

44 Peace Corps Volunteers to Aid U.S. COVID-19 Response by Deploying to FEMA-supported 

Community Vaccination Centers 

45 We Need a Dedicated COVID Vaccine Corps. Why Not an Intergenerational One? 

46 Published 1/8/2021 and reported in the Colorado Contact Tracing Weekly Report on 1/14/2021. 

(Pamela Edwards, AmeriCorps State and 

National member)
51

a better-connected corps that could help itself through the emotional and social 

difficulties of case investigation/contact tracing from home. 

Phyllis Segal worked to be connected to the league’s small-group facilitators, 

volunteers, and members to conduct interviews for articles she continued to write on 

the intergenerational service model. Her leadership at Encore.orghelped produce a 

similar public health corps in the Bay Area of California. The Encore Intergenerational 

Vaccine Corps47 aims to combine the strengths of multiple generations and streams 

of service. The program couples retired health professionals, through the 

AmeriCorps Seniors RSVP program, with other members through the AmeriCorps 

State and National program to assist with vaccination site logistics. The Corps aims to 

be 300 members/volunteers strong. 

CCRC was also mentioned as a model in a March 17, 2021, CNN op-ed piece,

48 coauthored by David Gergen of Harvard Kennedy School. The piece argues for service 

as a uniting force and points to how AmeriCorps programs have already had a 

positive impact in communities by helping to combat COVID-19. Colorado COVID 

Recovery Program leadership also heard interest from many localities about setting 

up their own version of CCRC, scaled to their location/priorities. Leadership hosted 

meetings with the city of Topeka, Missouri’s public health department, and New 

Mexico’s state service commission. AmeriCorps staff on the project also won the 

agency-wide “CEO Award” for their efforts on a successful project that addressed 

COVID-19 directly and on a relatively large scale (December 2020). The project 

gained significant attention for the largest-scale, cross-stream service collaboration of 

the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic before going on to be replicated in 

different forms throughout the country.

47 AmeriCorps Mobilizes 300 for Bay Area Intergenerational Vaccine Corps

48 This program puts people to work serving America. Now it’s going to jump in size
52

C. Impact of the program on members 

The impact of CCRC, like the impact of national service, is deeply profound and 

personal to each individual who serves. 

The program exceeded expectations as a pathway to 

employment for the members and volunteers who 

served, from early summer 2020 to the project’s winddown phase. The table below shows which programs 

members and volunteers served with and how many 

were hired directly by CDPHE, or onto their temp staff of 

investigators. Roughly 934 members/volunteers served 

with CCRC in some capacity since the program’s 

inception. (CDPHE adds that this statistic is likely not 

perfect but is the best current estimate.) Of those 934, 84 

former CCRC members and volunteers were hired to 

continue case investigation/contact tracing. This 

amounts to roughly 11% who gained direct employment 

due to their service experience in the Colorado COVID 

Recovery Program. 

 

Hired 

CDPHE OMS 

AmeriCorps 

Seniors 1 7 

NCCC 2 1 

VISTA 8 65

In an effort to capture the true impact of the program on members, we have included 

their words below: 

“During my time with CDPHE I've learned to roll with the punches. The minute you've 

finally nailed down the process for something, it changes, sometimes drastically. You 

can't rely on the rules to workday by day. Every day is a brand-new challenge. I 

thought I was a very flexible person before I started this job, and now I see I can do 

even more than I thought before. I've learned that public health is about building trust 

more than anything. If people don't trust you it doesn't matter if what you're telling 

someone to do is in their best interest - they have to trust you first.” -CL AmeriCorps 

State and National member, WR 38, 4/22/21 

“Being able to reach out to people directly feels beneficial. After months of hearing 

about ways to stop COVID-19 I finally feel as though I am making a difference. I have 

always been an extremely empathetic person. This program has given me the tools to 

(Benjamin Liu, VISTA 

Member)
53

effectively control my empathy in tough situations, as well as given me an opportunity 

to focus my energy and empathy towards the goal of defeating COVID-19.” -CRC 

AmeriCorps State and National member, WR 34, 03/25/2021 

“The longer I do this job, and the more I learn about all the ways that the pandemic is 

impacting society, the more motivated I feel to use my time and skills toward helping 

our country navigate and eventually recover from the virus. I was interested in a career 

in healthcare before starting this job and working as a CI/CT [case 

investigation/contact tracing] has reaffirmed that goal. My interest in health equity has 

been reinvigorated through this work and the training required for it.” -VISTA summer 

associate member, WR 7, 09/17/2020

“I am shocked and humbled and grateful that I was able to provide direct support for 

someone suffering from severe symptoms of COVID-19. It was a powerful moment 

and further proof as to why I serve and why I want to continue to serve. It felt really 

good. Sometimes I feel so small in the universe. But being an AmeriCorps member 

and doing such important service has shown me how big I can be and what a powerful 

difference I can make.” -CRC AmeriCorps State and National member, WR 35, 

04/01/2021 

“Overall, this experience with CDPHE has connected to my bachelor’s degree of 

Family Science in Public Health, my passion to help others and my interests in my 

career moving forward much greater than I ever initially thought it would. It has turned 

out to be such a rewarding experience not just with the public health aspect and being 

directly involved but also working with and getting to know wonderful, supportive 

people along the way. Occasionally I will have moments where I realize how actively 

involved I am in the public health side of COVID-19 and the prevention aspect of 

trying to reduce the spread of the virus and be amazed that I am able to help out in 

this way. I know that in terms of my career this entire experience will assist me greatly 

in the future once I complete my hours and am searching for that next step or 

position.” -CL AmeriCorps State and National member, WR 37, 04/15/2021

“The classes I have taken regarding health equity have been so insightful. As a white 

woman from a middle-class background, I had no idea of the magnitude of the 

problem. I look forward to getting more involved in righting this wrong in our country. 

That is probably the biggest impact my participation has had on my life. I also learned 

so much about the LGBTQ community and about the expanded definitions regarding 

personal sexuality. I have come to realize that all these ideas and concepts have 

always been a part of our lives, but they were never discussed or given such a broad 

vocabulary to help define this complex subject. I am delighted to be a part of a society 

that is awakening to and embracing these differences.” -CRC VISTA summer associate

member, WR 7, 09/17/2020
54

“I was laid off at the beginning of the pandemic and have struggled to re-enter the 

workforce at my previous level. With this service position, I’m able to prevent a big gap 

in my work experience and have gained exposure to anew field, network, and 

perspective while I rethink my career future options.” -CRC AmeriCorps State and 

National member WR 44, 06/01/2021

“I have skills that I never realized and have been given the ability to shine.” –

AmeriCorps Seniors Cultivate volunteer Jim Lytton 11/16/2020 

“A sense of satisfaction that I helped a little. A sense of accomplishment that I have 

new skills to listen to and learn from a broader group of people.” – AmeriCorps 

Seniors VOA volunteer Debbie Sagen 11/16/2020 

“A sense of having contributed in a small way to fighting the pandemic. Sometimes 

people just needed someone to talk to, and I am happy when I could provide that 

support as well as health information. I also have a greater appreciation for our health 

departments nationwide.” – AmeriCorps Seniors Cultivate volunteer Carol Farren 

11/16/2020 

“I took away many things: 1. An understanding of our state health department and a 

deep appreciation of the expertise and dedication they apply as they continue to 

manage the pandemic; 2 In addition to my improvement in technology and 

communication skills, I think a became a better team worker; 3. an appreciation of the 

wonderful people of Colorado; and a deep appreciation of the VOA AmeriCorps 

Seniors and their dedication to helping others. Personally, I have a lot of hope for the 

future.” – AmeriCorps Seniors VOA volunteer Ann Stanford 11/16/2020 

2021 Data (Jan-May) 

In the final months of the program, COVID-19 rates and member numbers both 

decreased. While waves of higher COVID-19 numbers were handled by CCRC during 

this period, the seven-day testing positivity rate remained low in Colorado. 

AmeriCorps members were pulled from the NCCC program to join the first waves of 

the future USPHJC commissioned by the Biden administration Executive Order and 

many AmeriCorps Seniors departed the corps. These departing Senior teams 

included two teams working on a “special project” for the State Lab.

After completing training, these teams were assigned to call people who had taken 

COVID-19 tests at state-run testing sites and report out their test results. Although 

they made thousands of call attempts in addition to the calls they completed to 

successfully report test results, one person could be served relatively quickly by the 

State Lab teams (when compared with a full case investigation, which could take two 
55

or more days). For this reason, once these teams offboarded in mid-April, the number 

of individuals served by AmeriCorps parties each month declined.49

The final formula for individuals served was the result of a meeting between Sam 

Twynam and Heather Baily during this time period and revised the way we 

documented the test results delivered into the total individuals served.50 This meant 

that the final number of Coloradans served was revised from very high to very low to 

a faithful midpoint over the course of the project. 

49 As a reminder to the reader, all data below are the combined totals of AmeriCorps members and 

AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers. Individuals served = cases + contacts +3⁄4 of all test results delivered. 

50 See the “Final Data” section for further explanation.
56

How-To Guide/Collaborative Model 

Part of what made CCRC a valuable program to study is its multi-stream approach to 

service, how quickly it moved from its planning to execution stages, and its ability to 

successfully scale its operations up and down while providing the same quality of 

service. This section can serve as a guide for future programs that hope to replicate 

the successes experienced by CCRC in their own multi-stream projects while being 

aware of many potential challenges. The components of CCRC deemed to make the 

program successful are detailed below: 

A. Centralized Coordination 

The Colorado COVID Recovery Program required several coordinated partners, each 

of whom brought different resources (and coordination of different elements) to the 

table. The project’s guiding MOU was signed into effect on July 1, 2020, for a oneyear term, by the following parties: 

● AmeriCorps 

○ Offices based in CO include: NCCC Southwest Region and ORO 

Mountain Region 

● Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment 

○ Colorado’s state agency dedicated to public health

■ Not a centralized authority over public health in the state 

■ The head agency of a decentralized public health system of local 

public health agencies 

● Serve Colorado - the Governor’s Commission on Community Service 

○ Colorado’s state commission for community service, overseeing 

AmeriCorps State and National programs and grants 

● COVID Check Colorado, LLC (Gary Community Investments) 

○ Major nonprofit partner who supplied funding for and shipping of 

project tech 

The Colorado COVID Recovery Program is a unique case, as there has never been an 

AmeriCorps cross-stream collaboration quite like it. AmeriCorps’ Office of Research 

and Evaluation previously analyzed findings from “Operation AmeriCorps,” another 

recent cross-stream project with many partners and produced a report on the 

findings of its first year. 

Operation AmeriCorps does not offer a 1:1 comparison for study, but the schema 

devised to determine its successful organizational elements bear scrutiny in a CCRC 

context. ORE note from its research “the importance of high levels of organizational 

network capacity in order to achieve change to a pressing social problem.” 

Specifically, “a strong, ‘deputized’ backbone organization that is empowered to 
57

(centrally) manage partnerships, resources, and activities”

51

- as well as other key, but 

less organizationally central partners is crucial for that organizational capacity.52

According to ORE, this program structure is of benefit in making quick and 

coordinated decisions and leveraging partner strengths, but requires the capacity for 

a lot of communication,53 as well as other key, but less organizationally central 

partners is crucial for that organizational capacity.54 According to ORE, this program 

structure is of benefit in making quick and coordinated decisions and leveraging 

partner strengths, but requires the capacity for a lot of communication.55

Once Operation AmeriCorps partners were assigned a role within this model, ORE 

worked to identify whether (and to what degree) the following elements were 

present: 

● Backbone organization – To what extent did the project have an identifiable 

coordinating organization? 

● Partner relationships – What was the nature of partner relationships? More 

specifically, how formalized were these relationships and to what degree was 

the impacted community involved? 

● Mission clarity – To what degree were partners and participants clear on what 

the project was aiming to accomplish? 

● Communications and data – To what extent did the project have systems in 

place that effectively coordinated information and data among partners? 

● Catalytic56– Underpinning all of the above elements, to what extent could the...

grant be seen as responsible for instigating the creation of these components 

of network capacity?57

These elements add an interesting lens through which to view the Colorado COVID 

Recovery Program. 

Backbone Organization 

Although not formally outlined in the MOU, AmeriCorps and CDPHE are the two 

primary backbone organizations in this collaboration. They are the only two 

organizations involved at every level, with every program, and in every major 

51 Operation AmeriCorps National Evaluation: One Year Findings, CNCS ORE, 1/13/17, Page 6.

54 Ibid. Other groups of importance in the schema devised by ORE include: “a group of other key 

partner organizations involved closely in day-to-day service provision (called operating partners); and 

additional outside supporters that provide strategic support and resources as required (called 

peripheral supporters)...”

55 Ibid. 

56 Related to or involving the action of a catalyst (Oxford English Dictionary). 

57 Operation AmeriCorps National Evaluation: One Year Findings, CNCS ORE, 1/13/17. Bulleted list 

drawn verbatim from Page 6.
58

decision. Each organization brought complimentary national and state-level 

resources to the COVID-19 response effort. AmeriCorps supplied two regional 

organizations (in NCCC SW and ORO Mountain Region), national funds in the form of 

grants, program staff (including a full-time liaison/program manager), and four 

flexible streams of service (NCCC, VISTA, AmeriCorps Seniors, and AmeriCorps State 

and National). CDPHE provided public health trainings, supervision, and a 

knowledgeable supervisory staff for members/volunteers performing sensitive, highly 

technical work involving personal health information. They also supplied the key 

epidemiological decision-making and forecasting that allowed CCRC to scale to 

respond to the level of surge support needed for COVID-19 case 

investigation/contact tracing. 

Partner Relationships 

The roles of partners were formalized in the July 1, 2020, MOU and expectations 

were revised, according to need, through monthly high-level meetings and bi-weekly 

to weekly operational-level meetings between major partners. As discussed 

elsewhere in this report, Colorado enjoyed some pre-existing, uniquely strong 

relationships between parties that allowed the broad MOU to be enough to begin 

the process and relationships to be explored and revised in good faith according to 

the project’s need. 

Mission Clarity

The MOU provided broad language for Colorado COVID Recovery Program partners 

to work with. There was, for instance, the consideration to adapt member/volunteer 

work to in-person vaccination work (directing traffic, signing people in, etc.) at certain 

points during the project, because the MOU had not specified that only case 

investigation/contact tracing work be performed (although this ended up being 

CDPHE’s preference). The MOU provided the formalized statement of all parties’ 

strong dedication to combatting COVID-19 in Colorado. Clarity of how this would 

work in a more detailed way came through collaboration and communication 

between project partners. 

Communications and Data

Although information was relayed between individual parties (revolving around 

backbone organizations) each week, the high-level planning meetings were only 

once a month. This left an obvious gap in communication especially about data and 

member accomplishments, particularly on the AmeriCorps side. This was anticipated 

from the beginning and national funds were used to select a project-dedicated 

program associate. Communications on this project were frequent between all 

parties, but the program associate position allowed for a “bird’s eye view” of all 

parties and developments not only from the two backbone organizations, but also 

from the various streams of service and their grantees. The 44 weekly reports created 

on the project relayed up-to-date information on all parties, to all parties, on a regular 
59

basis. In these weekly reports, CDPHE’s updates were the most important to seeing 

the impact the project was having statewide; Sam’s liaison work with CDPHE kept 

data and communications flowing. See the “Bird’s Eye View” section below for more 

on the program associate role’s importance.

Catalytic 

The ‘catalytic’ question asks to what extent the grant behind Operation AmeriCorps 

could be seen as responsible for “instigating the creation of [all of the 

aforementioned] components of network capacity.”58 Within the context of the 

Colorado COVID Recovery Program, the paradigm posed by the question is 

reversed. It was the capacity of the pre-existing network of national service and other 

partners in Colorado that allowed for the procurement and creation of supporting 

grants and collaborations. As referenced throughout the report, Colorado’s service 

organizations had a high degree of pre-existing trust, history of positive working 

relationships, service alumni networking, and mutual investment in one another’s 

success. This network of fruitful relationships and the trust in it from agency 

leadership allowed the collaboration to quickly procure and put funds to use. In this 

instance, it was the network capacity that allowed grants to be successful within the 

context of the program. 

Other Operation AmeriCorps Recommendations 

Included amongst ORE’s other notes and recommendations for projects on this scale 

are: 

● Grantees as backbone organizations or having a formalized relationship with 

backbone organization prior to grant (Ex: MOU) 

● More integration at every level = more successful grant implementation 

● Organizations with a higher degree of experience or familiarity as AmeriCorps 

grantees had an easier time 

○ Relationship between grantee and backbone organization is of 

particular importance 

● Grantees (city governments, in the case of Operation AmeriCorps) who were 

made the backbone organization have fewer implementation issues (likely 

because they know their own regulations and requirements) 

● All partner agreements under a project should be revisited on an annual basis 

● Administrative difficulties are lessened where a “pre-existing, detailed 

contractual agreement and strong working relationship”59 between grantees 

and backbone organizations exist60

58 Ibid. 

59 Id. Page 14. 

60 Ibid. Bullet points are paraphrased from Page 14.
60

The Colorado COVID Recovery Program followed several of these recommendations. 

The MOU signed in July 2020 allowed for a formalized relationship between key 

organizations, with AmeriCorps and CDPHE being the de facto backbone 

organizations. These two organizations’ sizes and specializations allowed for the 

integration needed at every level to maintain grant success. CRC and CL, two 

nonprofits already familiar with AmeriCorps and its grants, went on from VISTA 

grantees in the summer of 2020 to act as AmeriCorps State and National subgrantees in late 2020 and 2021. Additionally, these organizations had close and preexisting relationships with AmeriCorps, and frequent communication with 

AmeriCorps and CDPHE’s CCRC leadership team. In the case of both 

VISTA/AmeriCorps State and National and AmeriCorps Seniors (grantees Cultivate 

and VOAC), weekly or twice-weekly meetings with both AmeriCorps staff and CDPHE 

staff were the norm throughout project planning and implementation. 

The monthly planning meetings with COVID Recovery Program leads allowed project 

partners to reevaluate the MOU leading up to its one-year anniversary, in this case 

deciding that the MOU had served its purpose in launching a multi-program, 

public/private partnership to fight COVID-19 and need not be renewed. The MOU 

was broadly worded, yet clear, enough, to make all partners aware of their roles for 

the duration of the project while providing the flexibility to adapt to the fluctuating 

needs of Colorado’s COVID-19 response. The backbone organizations (AmeriCorps 

and CDPHE) had few implementation issues in each of their realms (people/program 

power on a national level and public health response on a state level, respectively). 

However, where issues were identified, each had a dedicated program staff and point 

of contact to ease and increase communication. This dedicated liaison/program staff 

also maintained each backbone organization’s high capacity for continued 

communication. 

A Bird’s Eye View 

In the early days of the project, it was decided the proposal to create a temporary, 

federal position dedicated to the Colorado COVID Recovery Program and assigned 

to the Colorado-local offices. The search began, among the national service 

community, for recommendations of alums to perform the work. Sam Twynam was 

selected by NCCC Southwest Region leadership to be the “conduit” connecting the 

MOU’s parties. As a program associate, Sam acted as the project’s primary liaison, 

data analyst, principal publicist, and the closest thing to a program manager that such 

a large and collaborative project could engage. Sam created a five–seven-page 

weekly report on the happenings and developments of the major project partners for 

44 weeks and engaged all parties’ leadership to learn more about CCRC’s successes, 

challenges, and effectiveness in case investigation/contact tracing surge support. 

These weekly reports were widely circulated and helped all parties keep a finger on 

the pulse of COVID-19 in Colorado and the current iteration of CCRC’s response. In 
61

the VISTA and also AmeriCorps State and National successes and challenges sections 

of this report, the reader will notice that the budget for a dedicated program team 

enabled these nonprofits to be successful as grantees of their programs. This was no 

less true on the AmeriCorps side, as having a dedicated “project expert” with the 

bandwidth to take on and report out about project challenges allowed other staff to 

continue their regular work (made more difficult during the pandemic) without loss of 

productivity. 

Sam’s appointment as program associate was echoed on the CDPHE side with the 

position of “AmeriCorps Liaison” always being filled by an AmeriCorps alumnus. 

Sam’s work, in concert with CDPHE’s AmeriCorps Liaison, often helped iron out issues 

as they arose; this connection served as another important touchpoint for project 

partners, as both liaisons proved to be useful gatekeepers to their respective worlds. 

Sam’s position is proof that future projects need to put not only money, but also 

people power, where their mouths are when setting up a sizable cross-stream 

collaboration. 
62

B. Resources 

 

National Buy-In and Funds 

As stated throughout this report and echoed by numerous partners, resources were 

critical to the success of this partnership. Combatting the COVID-19 pandemic was a 

national priority and agencies throughout the Federal and State government were 

ideating solutions to new pandemic problems and circumstances. AmeriCorps 

National leadership understood the need to support state responses to COVID-19, 

and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act legislated new policy that 

supported the agency during COVID (e.g. raising the eligibility age for NCCC 

members, providing constructive credit for members who were unable to complete 

1,700 hours of service due to their programs being impacted by COVID-1961, and 

more.) 

It is important to highlight the contributions of Gary Community Investments and their 

subgroup, COVID Check Colorado LLC, as critical to the success of the program. 

While AmeriCorps provided the peoplepower, the program did not have the 

resources to provide each member with the technology necessary to carry out case 

investigation/contact tracing. GCI’s investment of Chromebooks, personal hotspots, 

headsets and shipping made it possible for members to contact trace regardless of 

their location. Many other states reached out to the AmeriCorps NCCC hoping to 

replicate CCRC in their state but, unfortunately, could not identify who would be 

providing tech to their members and were ultimately unable to implement the 

program. 

 

Even Better If 

Although the Colorado COVID Recovery Program was highly successful (for a largely 

unprecedented collaborative project), there is definite room for improvement in 

replicating this model elsewhere. 

Member Buy-In 

The streams of service that recruited specifically for investigators (VISTA and 

AmeriCorps State and National, for example) generally had higher retention rates 

than those that recruited members and assigned them to case investigation/contact 

61 AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps Senior volunteers receive a full Segal Education award after 

1700 hours of service. 
63

tracing (such as NCCC62 and RSVP63). This was again improved by the 

specificity/accuracy of the “position description” in recruiting materials. case 

investigation/contact tracing work is difficult in ways that no member imagines until 

they perform it; however, knowing the service they would perform (and the 

expectations of technological proficiency implicit in them) would help to retain 

members who were mentally and emotionally prepared for public health service. 

Longer Terms and Program Exceptions 

Both CDPHE supervisors and nonprofit grantee staff found some AmeriCorps 

program rules created barriers to effective case investigation/contact tracing service. 

VISTA summer associate program members were very useful more of them were 

hired to begin building CCRC staff network than any other single stream of service. 

But those members serve for only eight-to-ten weeks. When two to three weeks is 

training, this leaves a short window for service. This window, in the opinion of CDPHE 

staff, didn’t allow case investigators enough time to master the skills needed for their 

service. 

The ratio of service to training (80/20 ratio) and required hourly minimums (35-40 

hrs/wk) stipulated by some programs meant that supervisors had to make work for 

members during times of low case counts. They also had to be cognizant to keep 

training to a minimum - even when the entire corps needed to be retrained to use a 

completely different case investigation/contact tracing software (as happened during 

the switch from “REDCap” to “Dr. Justina” in October 202064). 

Wi-Fi in Rural/Unsupported Areas 

62 CCRC supervisors complained that NCCC members took more of their time/energy to motivate, 

since they ‘had not signed up’ for the work. NCCC Pacific Region supplied two well-received teams to 

CCRC in January 2021. These teams (and their NCCC Team Leaders) were hand-selected by NCCC 

Pacific Region Units Department staff - a luxury of time and consideration that other regions did not 

have when selecting teams. This more considered approach seemed to create a more positive and 

successful NCCC/CCRC merging. Another approach considered but never attempted was the 

formation of “composite teams,” where an NCCC region will recruit within its corps for a specific team 

assignment. This was not attempted during this project due to the concern that inadequate numbers 

may sign up. 

63 Although RSVP grantees did recruit specifically for contact tracers, many RSVP volunteers later 

complained that the recruitment wasn’t accurate to the work being performed. This was partially 

because the roles assigned by CCRC evolved between the beginning of recruitment and the time 

Seniors finished training. It was a problem widely noted that some members went in with 

misapprehensions about what contact tracing work entailed - or they did not fully understand until they 

had been through the emotional and intellectual rigors of a case investigation. This was compounded 

for RSVP volunteers by the steep technology learning curve presented by Google suite, contact tracing 

software, and Chromebooks. 

64 This took place in August in pilot jurisdictions and was then implemented at a larger scale in 

October. 
64

When a corps is fully remote, they heavily rely on reliable internet access. Calls, case 

investigation/contact tracing software, and video trainings all needed a strong wi-fi 

connection to enable members and volunteers to be successful. This posed a 

challenge for rural members since, even when they were given a mobile hotspot65, 

they still could not adequately connect. Mobile hotspots were a huge boon to many 

traveling members, including NCCC Southwest teams who had to be relocated and 

returned to residential environments in waves during the pandemic. However, while 

housed on the Southern Region campus in Vicksburg, MS, teams found that the TMobile cellular reception was inadequate for running a strong internet connection on 

the mobile hotspots. A supplemental “internet allowance” may allow members in the 

future to select the most powerful wi-fi for their area. Allowing members to serve 

remotely from their home of record could also solve the problem of wifi portability. 

Connection and Socialization 

Although each member/volunteer was assigned to a region and team within CCRC, 

their interactions with their teams were almost purely work-related. Members and 

volunteers reported increased satisfaction when they could have the chance to 

socialize and connect outside of their team. The League of AmeriFriends and the 

NCCC-AmeriCorps Seniors tech troubleshooting collaboration were two examples of 

times when members reported benefits to cross-stream, intergenerational, and extraregional connections. The service members performed through CCRC took a toll on 

mental health especially during times of high case counts and stress. It seems 

counterintuitive, but this may be just the time to have some unstructured socialization. 

Future corps may want to build in this social interconnectedness in from the very 

beginning. 

Mutual Education 

There were times when collaborating organizations felt at odds because they did not 

understand one another’s programs and policies. CCRC supervisors came to 

understand that, for some members, CCRC was their first time in a professional 

environment. They could not have the same starting expectations of a retired health 

professional serving with AmeriCorps Seniors as they could for a freshly graduated 

18-year-old serving with NCCC. Learning the ins and outs of the various AmeriCorps 

programs (in a more formal way and not just on the fly) would have better tempered 

their expectations and helped them be more accommodating supervisors. On the 

other hand, some AmeriCorps staff would rearrange NCCC team rosters without 

realizing this would affect CCRC’s regional team structure. So, sitting down and 

formally educating one another about programs and then working to seamlessly 

65 A mobile hotspot is a piece of technology that produces a wi-fi connection that devices like laptops 

and smartphones can access through a mobile data connection. In areas where cellular networks were 

weak, mobile hotspots proved weak tools.
65

integrate them and make compromises would have helped during these points of 

tension. 

Partner Reflections 

In early September 2020, reflections from major partners in the collaboration were 

gathered and analyzed for ORE. Among other questions, the qualitative feedback 

report’s authors asked: “What about this pilot would you be sure to do again? What 

would you be sure to avoid? What would you add?”66 Alongside longer service terms, 

authors note that respondents recommended future cross-stream program 

organizers avoid members entering service until the site(s) have a strong supervisory 

structure in place. Respondents also said that future organizers should overestimate 

the time it takes to finalize a large, multi-party MOU.67 Alongside longer service 

terms, authors note that respondents recommended future cross-stream program 

organizers avoid members entering service until the site(s) have a strong supervisory 

structure in place. Respondents also said that future organizers should overestimate 

the time it takes to finalize a large, multi-party MOU.68

CDPHE and VISTA grantees both noted that extra projects, plans, activities, and 

trainings should be ready for members to work on when call volume is inevitably low 

(particularly on a disaster project like this with unpredictable workflow).69 Although 

this exhausts the short list of general “even better ifs” from the qualitative feedback 

report, the document is a good resource for “bringing a large-scale, short-term 

AmeriCorps opportunity [like VISTA summer associates] to scale.”70 VISTA summer 

associates grantees Conservation Legacy and Community Resource Center shared 

specific best practices in this vein.71

C. Scaling 

Bottom-Up/Needs Determined Locally 

66 Qualitative Feedback on the Colorado COVID-19 Recovery Pilot Program prepared for the CNCS 

Office of Research and Evaluation, 9/11/20, Page 24. This document was produced for ORE in 

September 2020 (utilizing the qualitative feedback of major partners to understand the CO COVID 

Recovery Program). The reader should note that these recommendations are specific to the early days 

of CCRC (July-August) and the streams of service involved at that point (primarily VISTA).

68 Ibid. 

69 Ibid. 

70 Ibid. 

71 Id. Pages 24-25.
66

It was a local, Colorado-based organization that initially brought to AmeriCorps the 

idea of the Colorado COVID Recovery Program.72 CDPHE designed CCRC to act as 

surge support when local public health authorities were overwhelmed by the number 

of cases in their area and needed help investigating all of them. The regional 

structure of CCRC’s teams enabled the corps to respond to the highest local need for 

surge support, in real time, seven days a week. Although AmeriCorps provided funds 

on the national level, it was Colorado’s regional AmeriCorps offices who interfaced 

daily with CDPHE and other project partners. After the signing of the MOU, Colorado 

partners were the guiding forces behind the directions the project took. CCRC scaled 

its member numbers and intensity of response to the COVID-19 outbreaks in 

Colorado, the variants that were detected in the state, and the models of future 

infection rates developed by Colorado’s public health professionals. Although the 

project’s model has already been replicated (to lesser and greater degrees) around 

the nation, CCRC was an effort based on moment-to-moment local needs during a 

national crisis. 

72 See Michael Johnston (GCI CEO) letter above.
67

Index of Abbreviations and Key Links 

Abbreviations 

3) CCC - COVID Check Colorado, LLC (part of GCI) 

4) CCRC - COVID-19 Containment Response Corps 

5) CDPHE - Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment 

6) CI/CT - Case Investigation/Contact Tracing 

7) CL - Conservation Legacy 

8) CNCS - Corporation for National and Community Service 

9) CRC - Community Resource Center 

10) CSPH - Colorado School of Public Health 

11) Dr. Justina - CI/CT software purpose-built for CDPHE; replaced REDCap in 

October 2020 

12) FEMA - Federal Emergency Management Agency 

13) GCI - Gary Community Investments 

14) MOU - Memorandum of Understanding 

15) NCCC - National Civilian Community Corps 

16) OMS - Optimize Manpower Solutions (CI/CT temp staff made up of CCRC 

alums) 

17) ORO - Office of Regional Outreach 

18) REDCap - Research Electronic Data Capturing (CI/CT software) 

19) RSVP - Retired Senior Volunteer Program (AmeriCorps Seniors program) 

20) AmeriCorps VISTA - Volunteers in Service to America 

21) VOAC - Volunteers of America Colorado 

Key Links 

1) COVID Containment Response Corps 6-month report 

2) COVID Containment Response Corps MOU 

3) Qualitative Feedback on the Colorado COVID-19 Recovery Pilot Program 

prepared for the CNCS Office of Research and Evaluation

4) COVID Collaboration Weekly Report 20 (6-month mark)

5) COVID Collaboration Weekly Report 43 (last report)