Office of Research and Evaluation 

September 28, 2023 

Results Driven Service: The 2023 State of the 

Evidence on AmeriCorps’ Impact
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Welcome 

Katy Hussey-Sloniker, MBA, MSW 

Learning Officer, Office of Research and Evaluation 
The AmeriCorps Office of Research and Evaluation 

The mission 
Celebrating the AmeriCorps Evidence Story 

Michael Smith, CEO 

AmeriCorps 
The State of the Evidence 

Scott Richman, Ph.D. 

Senior Researcher, Mathematica 
AmeriCorps 2023 State 

of the Evidence Report 

September 28, 2023 

Scott Richman, Mathematica 
10 

Agenda 

• Overview of the AmeriCorps 2023 State of the Evidence 

Report 

• Highlight key themes arising from the reviewed evidence 

on where AmeriCorps seeks to make an impact 

- The individual, organization, local community, and societal levels 

• Hear reflections on how the agency builds evidence to 

support and enhance national service and civic 

engagement 
11 

AmeriCorps’ evidence-building investments 

• AmeriCorps generates and uses actionable evidence to 

inform how it operates and improve upon its effectiveness 

• AmeriCorps regularly invests in evidence building 

- Provides funding and technical support to grantee organizations 

- Program offices and state commissions 

• AmeriCorps Office of Research and Evaluation (ORE) 

- Conducts its own research 

- Funds third-party evaluations 

- Funds research grants 

Use evidence reviews and syntheses to identify themes 
12 

AmeriCorps 2017 State of the Evidence 

Report 

• AmeriCorps ORE conducted one of the agency’s 

first large-scale evidence syntheses 

- Discussed studies and evidence developed from October 2014 to 

June 2017 

• Highlighted key themes such as: 

- Volunteerism and AmeriCorps service benefit individuals’

economic opportunity 

- Older Americans who volunteer experience health improvements 

- AmeriCorps-funded interventions provide a return on taxpayer 

investments 

Friedman et al. (2016); Jacob et al. (2015); Spera et al. (2013); Tan et al. (2016) 
13 

Overview of the AmeriCorps 2023 State of the 

Evidence Report 

• Purpose of the report 

- Synthesize AmeriCorps-conducted or -funded research and evaluations 

published since 2017 

- Further the knowledge base on national service, volunteerism, and civic 

engagement 

• State of the Evidence Framework 

- Developed to guide the evidence review and synthesis of key themes 

- Consists of four domains that represent where AmeriCorps seeks to make an 

impact in pursuit of its mission 
State of the Evidence Framework 

• Participants 

- The individuals who join 

AmeriCorps as members 

and volunteers to serve 

local communities through 

AmeriCorps programs 

• Partners 

- AmeriCorps grantees and 

sponsoring organizations 

receiving AmeriCorps 

program funding to 

implement service projects 

• Communities 

- The individuals, groups, 

and local areas that 

experience services from 

AmeriCorps-funded 

grantees or sponsors 

delivered by AmeriCorps 

members and volunteers 

• Society 

- National service, 

volunteering, and civic 

engagement in the United 

States 

14 
15 

Scope of the review 

• Studies published between July 2017 and December 2022 

conducted by: 

- AmeriCorps program grantees 

- AmeriCorps ORE 

- AmeriCorps ORE research grantees 

- AmeriCorps ORE-commissioned contractors 

• Eligible studies needed to meet at least one criteria: 

- AmeriCorps participants as the focus of the research 

- AmeriCorps participants involved in delivering services that AmeriCorps partners 

provided to communities 

- National service, volunteerism, or civic engagement as the focus of the research 
16 

Review process 

• Compiled studies from: 

- AmeriCorps Evidence Exchange 

- AmeriCorps ORE research grantee profiles 

- AmeriCorps ORE 

• A total of 116 studies reviewed 

• Applied a structured review process to 

extract key information on each study’s:

- Substantive focus; AmeriCorps focus and topic areas 

- Intervention components and focal populations 

- Research design 

- Key outcomes of interest and main findings 
17 

Characteristics of the reviewed studies 

• Studies most commonly: 

- Produced by AmeriCorps program grantee external evaluators 

- Focused on the community domain of the State of the Evidence framework 

Percentage of studies by who conducted the research 

Percentage of studies by State of the Evidence 

framework domain 

*studies could be categorized into more than one domain 
18 

Characteristics of the reviewed studies 

(continued) 

• Causal study designs 

used most often 

• Broad range of other 

research approaches 

Percentage of studies by research design/approach 

*RCT = randomized controlled trial; QED = quasi-experimental design; ROI = return 

on investment 
19 

Discussion of key findings 

• Themes organized around the four domains of the State of 

the Evidence framework 

- We placed a relatively greater emphasis on impact studies for identifying themes 

- Discuss emerging findings from other study types that coalesce around each 

other or support other studies’ impact findings

• Intent is to capture the state of the evidence produced or 

supported by AmeriCorps between 2017 and 2022 

- Not cumulative with other evidence produced before that timeframe 

- Evidence and knowledge building are ongoing process 
The State of the Evidence Findings 

Participant Level 

Individual AmeriCorps Members and Volunteers 
21 

State of the Evidence: Participants 

• AmeriCorps empowers AmeriCorps participants to help 

address the challenges local communities face 

- Their experiences can help their professional, personal, and civic development 

• Research questions 

- What are the characteristics of participants who serve with AmeriCorps? 

- What outcomes and impacts, if any, do AmeriCorps participants experience? 

• Key findings associated with 16 studies (14 percent of 116 

studies) with a focus on AmeriCorps participants 
22 

Characteristics of AmeriCorps members 

• Possess the cultural competency to work with communities 

of people who differ from themselves 

- AmeriCorps Member Exit Survey data on nearly 360,000+ AmeriCorps members 

- Members enjoy exploring differences with (over 88 percent) and respect the values 

of (over 94 percent) people from different cultures and backgrounds 

• Enter their service terms with 

unique backgrounds and 

motivations to serve 

- Member profiles using AmeriCorps 

Longitudinal Study data 

Dermanjian and Johnson (2022); Hudson-Flege (2018) 
23 

Benefits to AmeriCorps members: employment 

and education outcomes 

• Mixed evidence of impact from four QED or RCT studies 

• AmeriCorps members were more likely than comparison groups to: 

- Work in the nonprofit, public, or government sectors 

- Show increases in basic work skills 

• AmeriCorps members and comparison groups were similar on: 

- High school completion, courses completed, current employment, hourly wages, and length 

of employment 

- Receiving a call back for a job interview 

- Views on employment success and educational success 

Anderson et al. (2019); Frazier et al. (2018); Hudson-Flege (2018); Levine et al. 2018 
24 

Benefits to AmeriCorps members: civic 

engagement 

• Mixed evidence of impact from three QED studies 

• AmeriCorps members scored higher than comparison groups on: 

- Views on the importance of being active in the community; feasibility of working with 

neighbors to meet local needs 

- Expressing political views and participating in volunteer activities 

• AmeriCorps members and comparison groups were similar on: 

- Views on community-based activism 

- Sense of community, social trust, and self-efficacy to solve community issues 

Anderson et al. (2019); Frazier et al. (2018); Hudson-Flege (2018) 
25 

Benefits to AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers 

• AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers experienced significantly 

greater improvements in their physical and 

psychological well-being than a comparison group 

- Longitudinal Study of 

AmeriCorps Seniors Foster 

Grandparent and Senior 

Companion Programs 

Improvements in self-perceived health 

among those who completed their service 

- Systematic Review of 

AmeriCorps Seniors Impacts 

Improvements in physical health, overall 

functioning, life satisfaction, mental 

health, and social connectedness 

Frazier et al. (2019); Georges et al. (2018) 
Experience and Reflection: 

The State of the Evidence for Participant Level 

Sonali Nijhawan, MSW 

Director, AmeriCorps State and National 
The State of the Evidence Findings 

Partner Level 

AmeriCorps grantee and sponsor organizations 
28 

State of the Evidence: Partners 

• AmeriCorps strives to support and empower nonprofit, faithbased, and community organizations to address critical issues 

in their local areas 

- Help partners increase their reach 

- Enhance infrastructure and foster community partnerships 

• Research question 

- In what ways has AmeriCorps helped build the capacity of grantees and sponsor 

organizations to achieve their missions and better serve their communities? 

• Key findings associated with ten studies (nine percent of 116 

studies) with a focus on AmeriCorps partners 
29 

Partnering with AmeriCorps helped 

organizations meet their project goals 

• Compared to similar sites that did not host 

AmeriCorps members, AmeriCorps partners: 

- Built 13 percent more homes per year 

- Completed 30 to 42 percent more trail or habitat management 

tasks (for example, planned trail and fuel management work) 

• AmeriCorps NCCC sponsoring organizations from 2016 to 

2019 indicated that their AmeriCorps NCCC service team: 

- Supported the organization’s mission (96 percent)

- Helped enhance services to the communities (92 percent) 

Hamdan and Robles (2022); McCreary et al. (2020); Viola et al. (2018) 
30 

Indications of partner capacity increases but 

more evidence is needed 

• Evidence of impact from a QED study 

- AmeriCorps VISTA sponsor organizations had 71 percent more volunteers two 

years later than did a comparison group of non-AmeriCorps VISTA 

sponsor organizations 

• Evidence based on outcome and descriptive studies 

- An AmeriCorps State and National volunteer infrastructure program helped 

improve community-based organizations’ volunteer management practices

- Approximately one-third of AmeriCorps NCCC projects implemented between 

2012 and 2019 used capacity-building activities (such as supporting organization 

partnerships and coalition building) 

JBS International (2018); Messamore et al. (2021); Sum et al. (2020) 
Experience and Reflection: 

The State of the Evidence at the Partner Level 

Mike Sullivan 

National Director, AmeriCorps Programming, SBP 
Shrinking the time between disaster and recovery! 

SBP AmeriCorps members and staff welcoming home 

families in New Orleans, LA, Panama City, FL, San Juan, 

PR, and Lake Charles Louisiana in 2023. 
The State of the Evidence Findings 

Community Level 

Individuals, Groups or Communities that 

Experience AmeriCorps-Funded Services 
34 

State of the Evidence: Communities 

• AmeriCorps programs aim to strengthen local communities by 

addressing the local issues and challenges they face 

- AmeriCorps-funded partners and their members and volunteers enter local areas to 

deliver interventions to communities and individuals within them 

• Research questions 

- What outcomes or impacts do communities served AmeriCorps-funded partners and 

their members and volunteers experience? 

- What does the research say about investments in and scaling of effective interventions? 

• Key findings associated with 71 studies (61 percent of 116 

studies) with a focus on communities served by AmeriCorps 
35 

Studies focused on AmeriCorps benefits to 

communities 

• Fifty-one studies examined community impacts or outcomes 

from interventions delivered by AmeriCorps-funded partners 

and their members and volunteers 

Veterans and 

military families 

1 

Number of reviewed studies examining AmeriCorps outcomes and impacts in the community domain, 

by AmeriCorps focus area 

Disaster services 

2 

Economic 

opportunity 

8 

Education 

31 

Environmental 

stewardship Healthy futures 

6 6 

*Numbers do not add to 51 because studies could be represented in more than one focus area 
36 

AmeriCorps-funded interventions improve 

education outcomes 

• Reading and tutoring programs increase students’ literacy

outcomes 

- Particularly for younger students (kindergarten to grade 6) and on specific literacy 

development components (such as letter sound fluency or whole word reading) 

• Peer coaching focused on college preparation improve high 

school students’ outcomes

- Increasing school attendance and grade point averages 

- Completing a greater number of college admissions applications, scholarship 

applications, and financial aid applications 

- Enrolling in college 

Bettinger et al. (2019); Caverly et al. (2019); Chapin Hall (2017); Edmonds (2019); Kowalski et al. (2018); Lambert (2019); Markovitz et al. (2018); Pepper et al. (2018); 

Richardson et al. (2018); Rolfhus et al. (2021); Spinney et al. (2019); Van Norman (2020) 
37 

AmeriCorps-funded approaches are protecting 

at-risk environmental ecosystems 

• Five QED studies showed that 

AmeriCorps-funded approaches 

protect at-risk environmental 

ecosystems 

- Restoration methods 

- Suppressing invasive plants 

- Fuel reduction treatment activities 

Christiansen (2019); Naiman-Sessions and Shteir (2019); The Watershed Company (2018, 2019, 2021) 

Increases in plant survival rates 

and beneficial plant coverage 

Decreases in plant damage 

Decreases in noxious and 

invasive species coverage 

Decreases in fire regime 

condition class (wildfire risk) 
38 

Investing in community-based solutions 

generates greater value in return 

• Twelve return on investment (ROI) studies 

on AmeriCorps programs showed that: 

- All 12 programs showed a positive return on invested 

dollars under the assumption that AmeriCorps members 

experience earning impacts for 15 or 30 years after 

finishing their service program 

- Each of the agency’s six focus areas of interest has an 

AmeriCorps-funded program demonstrating a positive ROI 

Borgida et al. (2022); Clark et al. (2022a, 2022b); Modicamore et al. (2020a, 2020b); Munaretto et al. (2020a, 2020b, 2021); 

Naugler et al. (2021a, 2021b, 2021c); Voigt et al. (2022) 
Experience and Reflection: 

The State of the Evidence at the Community Level 

Antonio Mendez 

Deputy Director of Regional Programming, 

AmeriCorps NCCC 
The State of the Evidence Findings 

Society Level 

National Service, Volunteering and Civic 

Engagement in our Society 
41 

State of the Evidence: Society 

• AmeriCorps strives to make a lasting impact on the civic health 

of society and to be a thought leader in the field of volunteering 

and civic engagement 

- Goal of supporting and conducting research and evaluations that advance the 

knowledge base and public understanding of volunteering and civic engagement 

• Research questions 

- What are the societal rates of volunteerism, and civic engagement? 

- What new insights has AmeriCorps-funded research generated to advance the field’s 

understanding of national service, volunteering, and civic engagement? 

• Key findings associated with 25 studies (22 percent of 116 

studies) with a focus on society 
42 

Volunteerism in the U.S. 

• Current Population Survey (CPS) Civic Engagement and 

Volunteering (CEV) Supplement- 2019 Data 

• Volunteering rates have remained stable at 30 percent over the 

last 20 years 

• Rates of volunteering higher for: 

- Women (33 percent) compared to men (25 percent) 

- Individuals with a college degree or higher (44 percent) compared to those with less than 

a high school diploma (12 percent) 

- Individuals in households with an annual income of $150,000 or more (44 percent) 

compared to those in households with an annual income of less than $40,000 

(20 percent) 

AmeriCorps Office of Research and Evaluation (2021) 
43 

Participatory research can successfully study 

and address complex social problems 

• Participatory research 

- Community members are actively involved in the research, using their 

community expertise to identify local issues and develop actionable solutions 

• Eight studies by ORE research grantees used participatory 

research approaches to address various community issues 

- Example: Adult and youth co-researchers documented local environmental 

injustices and identified strategies for community members to implement 

Example: Researchers worked with refugees to understand how to foster civic 

engagement and support community members to become drivers of change 

- 

Dutt et al. (2021); Jacquez et al. (2021); Willett et al. 2021 
44 

Volunteer-management practices 

• Volunteer management practices associated with positive 

organizational and volunteer outcomes include: 

- Assigning tasks that align with volunteers’

career goals 

- Using supportive messaging toward volunteers’

work and their general well-being 

- Providing training and professional learning 

opportunities 

- Cultivating positive relationships 

Hager and Brudney (2021); ICF International (2021) 

Increases in 

volunteer longevity 

and satisfaction 
Experience and Reflection: 

The AmeriCorps State of the Evidence at the Societal Level 

David Medina 

COO and Co-Founder, Results for America 
2023 Federal Standard of Excellence 
30 State Service Commissions Defined/Prioritized Evidence in their 

AmeriCorps State/National Grant Applications in FY23 

● AL 

● AK 

● AR 

● CA 

● CO 

● CT 

● FL 

● GA 

● ID 

● IN 

● IA 

● KY 

● LA 

● MA 

● MD 

● MN 

● MS 

● MT 

● NE 

● NV 

● NJ 

● NY 

● OH 

● RI 

● TN 

● TX 

● WA 

● WV 

● WI 

● WY 
Thank You 

Nichole Dunn 

Results for America’s Vice President, Federal Policy

nichole@results4america.org 
Mary Hyde, Ph.D. 

Director, Office of Research and Evaluation 
50 

2023 State of the Evidence 

Findings, Recommendations and the AmeriCorps 

Learning Agenda 2022-26 

• Plan 

• A ssess and Build 

• Use 

Download the AmeriCorps Learning Agenda at: 

https://www.americorps.gov/sites/default/files/document/Am 

eriCorps-Learning-Agenda-2022-2026.pdf 
Thank you for attending today’s webinar 

Join us in our year long Celebration of 

Service and Its Evidence Story. 

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webinar will be provided in the next two 

weeks on the AmeriCorps Our Impact 

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