Transcript AmeriCorps Student Leaders in Service Supervisor Training

AmeriCorps Student Leaders in Service
Supervisor Training
August 9, 2012
Clark University
Worcester
Welcome campus supervisors!
What’s new?
Program Officer Site Visit
• CNCS site visit required every five years for a grant
• Ours will be: August 27-28, 2012
• Will go over policies and procedures, grant
compliance, member training/development, etc.
• Would like to interview 2-3 actively serving
members if possible. Will any of your members be
around? Would they want to participate?
Allowable Service- Definition
• Service, which can be co-curricular or academically-based, MUST be
completed at nonprofits, public agencies, or faith-based and community
organizations AND fall under one of these AmeriCorps six key areas:
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Disaster services
Economic opportunity
Education
Environmental stewardship
Healthy futures
Veterans and military families
• Any campus positions/activities that DO NOT meet a local community
need or do not have an impact on the local community are not considered
allowable ASLIS activities and should not be counted on timesheets.
Unmet Community Needs
Think specifically in terms of challenges your community faces: poor
access to health care, below average school performance, homelessness
or poverty housing, hunger or poor access to healthy foods, etc. How are
these needs identified, especially considering your members’ service
projects?
Questions to think about:
• What is the specific community need the AmeriCorps project is
addressing?
• How has that need been identified?
• What are the goals and outcomes associated with the service project?
Example
According to the Department of Education, students at a
public elementary school are performing below grade
level in reading. Members will work with the school to
organize a reading program that places community
members with students in need of reading support. Short
term goals are developing systems for the program to
function and recruiting volunteers. Outcomes may include
greater reading proficiency among students.
Value Added
Value added refers to the additional benefit a community receives by having
AmeriCorps members participate in service projects locally, in addition to ongoing
volunteerism or what is required of an academic program. Also, value added service
could be looked at as service that wouldn't get done otherwise without the ASLIS
member.
AmeriCorps members should be able to show how they are responding to an
identified local need and how they are positively impacting the community in a
specific service area.
Questions to think about:
• What extra service does the ASLIS member provide that meets an unmet need that
otherwise, without the ASLIS member, would not be met?
• How does the addition of AmeriCorps change or enhance what was already
happening in the community through student service?
Examples
Example 1:
With the aid of the ASLIS program, a nursing program has formed a partnership with a
nonprofit home care facility that provides services to families with children with
disabilities. In addition to fulfilling clinical requirements, the students provide respite care
to the children for a day, while the caregivers have time to take care of their personal needs.
The value added is that AmeriCorps members are placed in nonprofit settings that serve
high needs clients, and learn how caregiver services can ease the burden for parents and
allow them to take care of their own social, physical, and mental needs.
Example 2:
A high school develops a mentoring program with a middle school to prevent bullying. As
part of the mentoring program, the AmeriCorps member provide academic and social
support and teach mentees conflict resolution skills and tolerance development. The value
added is that because AmeriCorps members are committed to a specific number of required
hours, they provide increased and consistent peer modeling and reduce conflict that
impairs students’ ability to learn in a safe, respectful environment.
Member Position Description Audits
As a result of the 2011 congressional hearings, AmeriCorps has taken proactive steps to
provide evidence-based assurances that members are avoiding prohibited activities and are
in compliance with the rules and regulations that govern their service.
In September 2011, AmeriCorps instituted a process to sample all active members within
the AmeriCorps grant programs quarterly. The pool of members selected is a random
sample. AmeriCorps will review Position Descriptions of each member selected as well as
requiring grantees to attest that the activities outlined in the Position Descriptions are
within the scope of the grant.
What does this mean for ASLIS?
The Program Coordinator will be reading member position descriptions in the enrollment
packet VERY carefully and if not enough detail is given or the service seems unallowable,
he/she will not enroll the member and follow-up with the supervisor and member to
clarify.
Changes to the Enrollment Workbook
• New Member Position Description Form- asks about
the community need being addressed, beneficiaries
and how their service will overall benefit the
community
• Added pre-service reflection questions on the former
Site Agreement and Member Development Plan Form
since many of you pointed out that the questions were
redundant
New Enrollment/Exit Forms
The old AmeriCorps enrollment and exit forms
technically expired in 2010, so please use the new
forms from the enrollment packet and on our
website.
The new forms look almost identical so be sure to
check the top of the form and see if it says “National
Service Trust Enrollment/Exit Form” as opposed to
“AmeriCorps Enrollment/Exit Form”
CORI
• New iCORI system online
• New CORI Acknowledgement Form
▫ Asks for more information but the only required
items are: last name, first name, date of birth and
last six digits of SSN
▫ SSN was not required before so please make sure
members included the last six digits
Recaps
2012-2013 Education Award Amounts
Position
# of Hours
Award
Half Time
900
$2,775
Reduced Half Time
675
$2,114
Quarter Time
450
$1,468
Minimum Time
300
$1,175
FBI Fingerprinting
For each covered individual a program hires or enrolls on
or after April 21, 2011, who is age 18 or older and whose
position will involve recurring access to vulnerable
populations, in addition to a National Sex Offender Public
Web site check, the program must conduct:
(1) A search (by name or fingerprint) of the state criminal
registry for the state in which the program operates and
the state in which the individual resides at the time of
application; and
(2) A national search by submitting fingerprints to the
Federal Bureau of Investigation.
FBI Fingerprinting- Gap Period
A covered individual hired by, or enrolled in, a
program on, or after, April 21, 2011, who then
departed the program before the effective date of
the regulation (TBD), is not subject to the special
rule for recurring access to vulnerable populations.
FBI Fingerprinting- Update
• Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and
CNCS are in negotiation
• July 15, 2012- CNCS has to respond to the OMB’s
suggestions
• End of summer: Expected to publish final
Regulations and initiate FBI fingerprinting (we
then have 60 days from final Regulations being
published to comply)
Stipends
• While all AmeriCorps service must be unpaid, there are instances in
which a member may receive a stipend from their academic program
or from the community-based agency during their service at that site.
Hourly wages are not allowed, but stipends may be allowed under the
condition that they do not amount to an hourly wage or a living wage.
The stipend may not exceed the living wage for the area in which the
member is serving. We recommend that you consult the Living Wage
calculator to determine the rate.
http://www.livingwage.geog.psu.edu/index.php
• The Campus Supervisor must write a note, on the organization's
letterhead, explaining that the member is receiving a stipend, the
amount is not based on an hourly wage, and does not exceed the living
wage.
• Stipends/positions must be approved by the Program Coordinator.
The 30 Day Rule
• We must notify CNCS within 30 days of a member’s enrollment and exit
from the program.
• If a member finishes his/her hours early, exit paperwork must be
turned in within 30 days of the last day of service. This means
completing their last timesheet/exit form/exit survey within 30 days
of that last day of service.
• If exit paperwork is not passed in right away, the member must
continue to pass in timesheets so there are no gaps.
Please remember to turn paperwork in on time! Do not hold onto exits.
Mail them in when you get them so we comply with the 30 day rule.
End of Term Evaluation
This form was a new requirement last year. It is a
one page form to fill out and send in with exit
paperwork for each member.
Accessing the Education Award
• Once members have passed in their exit paperwork,
MACC will exit them out of the system.
• It is then the member’s responsibility to create a My
AmeriCorps account and initiate an education award
request.
• AmeriCorps will not contact the member or send the
award without a member request.
For information on My AmeriCorps, please see the Member
Handbook or the My AmeriCorps PowerPoint on your jump
drive.
Friendly Reminders
• What is a COMPLETE enrollment workbook? Only send complete
workbooks!
• Does your member need a CORI? Did you send the CORI
Acknowledgement Form? Criminal Record Check Verification Form?
• Did you give me enough time to enroll members within 30 days of their
enrollment dates?
• Make copies of everything before you send it to me!
• Make sure you are using the CURRENT version of a form (look at the
dates!) Find current forms on the MACC website/ASLIS/Forms. If
necessary, delete old files and throw out/delete old jump drives.
• Make note of member enrollment dates, look at first timesheets. Do
they have hours before the enrollment date?
The Future of ASLIS
• 2012-2013 is the last year of this three year grant
• We will be re-competing in January 2013
• We will be designing a new program/model for recompetition that aligns better with CNCS priorities
and the National Performance Measures
• We will hold a focus group in the fall to gather
campus input on what that new model should look
like
The Future of ASLIS- Costs
If we have to start conducting FBI fingerprinting in
addition to CORIs on members , the new program
will most likely require a host site fee. This fee will
help cover the costs for a complete AmeriCorps
background check because CNCS is not providing
grants any additional money for the checks. At this
time, our estimate is that it would be around $200
per campus.