"Seven federal agencies are partnering to implement President Biden’s American Climate Corps, announcing this week they would work together to recruit 20,000 young Americans and fulfill the administration's vision for the new program. 

The goals spelled out in the memorandum of understanding include comprehensively tackling climate change, creating partnerships throughout various levels of government and the private sector, building a diverse corps and serving all American communities.

The agencies—which included the departments of Commerce, Interior, Agriculture, Labor and Energy, as well the Environmental Protection Agency and AmeriCorps—also vowed to ensure a “range of compensation and benefits” that open the positions up to a wider array of individuals and to create pathways to “high-quality employment.”  

Leaders from each of the seven agencies will form an executive committee for the Climate Corps, which Biden established in September, that will coordinate efforts with an accompanying working group. They will create the standards for ACC programs, set compensation guidelines and minimum terms of service, develop recruitment strategies, launch a centralized website and establish performance goals and objectives. The ACC groups will, beginning in January, hold listening sessions with potential applicants, labor unions, state and local governments, educational institutions and other stakeholders. 

The working group will also review all federal statutes and hiring authorities to remove any barriers to onboarding for the corps and standardize the practices across all participating agencies. Benefits for corps members will include housing, transportation, health care, child care, educational credit, scholarships and student loan forgiveness, stipends and non-financial services.

As part of the goal of the ACC, agencies will develop the corps so they can transition to “high-quality, family-sustaining careers with mobility potential” in the federal or other sectors. AmeriCorps CEO Michael Smith said the initiative would prepare young people for “good-paying union jobs.” 

Within three weeks of rolling out the ACC, EPA said more than 40,000 people—mostly in the 18-35 age range—expressed interest in joining the corps. The administration set an ambitious goal for getting the program underway, aiming to establish the corps’ first cohort in the summer of 2024. 

The corps members will work in roles related to ecosystem restoration and conservation, reforestation, waterway protection, recycling, energy conservation, clean energy deployment, disaster preparedness and recovery, fire resilience, resilient recreation infrastructure, research and outreach. The administration will look to ensure 40% of the climate-related investments flow to disadvantaged communities as part of its Justice40 initiative.  

EPA Administrator Michael Regan said the MOU would allow the ACC to “work across the federal family” to push public projects focused on environmental justice and clean energy. 

“The Climate Corps represents a significant step forward in engaging and nurturing young leaders who are passionate about climate action, furthering our journey towards a sustainable and equitable future,” Regan said. 

The ACC’s executive committee will hold its first meeting within the next 30 days. It will draw support from a new climate hub within AmeriCorps, as well as any staffing the agency heads designate."

-via Government Executive, December 20, 2023

-

This news comes with your regularly scheduled reminder that WE GOT THE AMERICAN CLIMATE CORPS ESTABLISHED LAST YEAR and basically no one know about/remembers it!!! Also if you want more info about the Climate Corps, inc. how to join, you can sign up to get updates here.

USAmerican? Not Sure What You're Doing After High School or College? May I Once Again Suggest NCCC?

This is my semi-annual reminder that you have an option besides going straight to work, getting more school, or joining the military!

Its called AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC). It's a free program for young people aged 18-26. They provide your training, food, uniform, transportation, team, stipend, and projects, and you do community service full time while figuring out your life. You can do up to 2 service terms with them in a row, which is about 2 years of total service.

There are currently 4 tracks to choose from:

The first is Summer of Service, a 3-month "mini" NCCC program. You do an abbreviated training and 1 or 2 projects. If you like it you can "extend" this into a 10 month Traditional program. See below for application windows:

The second is NCCC Traditional, a 10-11 month program in which you train for 1-2 months, and serve the rest of the time doing anything from building houses, clearing trails in national parks, responding to natural disasters, and working in museums and Boys and Girls Clubs. See below for application windows:

The third is NCCC FEMA Corps, a 10-11 month program in which you train for 1-3 months and then serve FEMA's mission to prevent, mitigate and respond to disasters. You must be a US citizen, be able to pass a background check, and get a security clearance for this one. See below for application windows:

The fourth is NCCC Forest Corps, a 10-11 month program in which you train for 1-3 months and then serve on projects designed to combat climate change, spur reforestation efforts, and prevent wildfires. See below for application windows:

Click Here to go to the AmeriCorps NCCC website.

I am a former NCCC Traditional Team Leader and welcome any questions you may have.

I get stung by a lot of insects in my job, and it's fun how they're all different.

Yellowjackets are the most recent one I've gotten, and they're sharp. It feels very much like a nettle when you first get stuck, just a little Zap. But the tingling, prickling pain lingers for the next hour, coming in waves. It feels like getting tazed by a second grader who finds it so hilarious that he has to pause for giggles.

Fire ants feel spicy, but insistent, a surprising burning prick that turns to a hot itchiness quickly. Like getting slapped by a circus clown whose trying just a little TOO hard.

Wasps feel burning and scornful. Painful, but impersonal. Less acute on the initial sting, but with some real weight behind it. Like James Earl Jones putting our a cigar on your shoulder blade.

So about Americorps-

How possible is getting hrt in Americorps? Is it covered in the health benefits or???? (Asking bc the health benefits website part is just- Not working??? Idk what to do with that)

I don’t have easy access to HRT where I live, meaning I’m not on it, so unfortunately I don’t have any direct experience with this. However, the health insurance they do provide only covers you while you’re working for them, and it’s very rudimentary. Like it only covers things that happen to you while on the job; I had gotten a spider bite and if I didn’t have my own insurance it would have covered the antibiotics.

Long story short, I don’t believe it would cover HRT, mostly because I think it would fall under “prior to AmeriCorps”.

Look, sometimes you need to interrupt an ESOL lesson to ask the translator on the phone to tell one of our senior students that they look cool as hell.

So I was doing a service project at another school last night. I popped into the Scholastic Book Fair for about ten seconds and...

Oh no. Oh no no no. Not you.

It's Karen. You can slap on a fresh coat of paint. She's still the same entitled, spoiled brat that everyone in-universe treats as "adorably quirky" and "so imaginative." By the power of American Girl, stay away, Demon Child.

A comic based off of my time with Americorps! I’ve learned a ton so far into my service, and I am SO GLAD I didn’t accidentally chop this baby in half with a fire rake. 

#16 - Peace is for Foreigners. America Needs Cheap Labor

Americorps is like the Peace Corps, only for America. Americorps Volunteers are young adults who serve their country by doing whatever the government reckons needs doing, wherever it needs doing, for no money down and a bit of college tuition later. The young people get a living stipend. It amounts, Petra has been told, to about three dollars an hour for the average Americorps work day. 

Americorps volunteers tend to live together in smelly clumps near all-you-can-eat buffets.

I showed up to my first day of Americorps training January 2020 with very few practical skills, but a whole lot of enthusiasm. After we completed our initial training--pack tests, fire courses, and lots more--the real work began. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the physical challenge of field work--even on the days just barely above freezing, cutting trail into frozen mud, or on the hottest, most humid summer days, exhausted from dragging logs across a burn unit in full sun, I felt genuine happiness to be in my body every day alongside my wonderful coworkers. When our carefully planned, highly anticipated projects didn’t happen (IE prescribed burns), we learned quickly to take it with humor. “That’s the job!” is something we said to each other often, when we had to switch gears at the last second, due mostly to the weather. You can’t argue with the wind, the sun, or the rain—you just have to work with whatever they give you. We started working on this adaptable attitude just in time for COVID-19 to undermine almost every planned aspect of the VSCC program. Prescribed burns were shuttered for the year after just one burn in D3, we couldn’t travel, and all in-person training opportunities were either cancelled or made virtual. Within a few days, though, we had a new rhythm—and while everything around us shut down completely, we were able to continue working and growing and learning together. “That’s the job” ended up being one of the most important lessons I learned that year. Whether changing plans at the last instant, quickly learning how to use a new piece of equipment, adapting to a new policy, or coming up with a novel solution to a problem with limited time and materials, “that’s the job” meant that you showed up and you did what you could. Not everything is perfectly under control at all times. You don’t always have the equipment, materials, policies, or people you need. Sometimes, some projects just can’t get done with the available resources. But there is ALWAYS something you CAN do to improve the state of things—and that’s the job. #gratitude #thankyou #virginiastateparks #ilovevirginiastateparks #americorps #americorpsVSCC #VSCC #growth https://www.instagram.com/p/CgzcE0oryrQ/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

hii!! i haven’t see you around in a while!! how you been??

Hey how are you??? I've been pretty busy!! I started a volunteer service program that has me moving a lot, so a lot of changes. It's hard but i do like it!

Entry 76

I am so behind. So terribly behind in life. I know I should stop comparing myself to others but I know no other way to go forward. I feel so much shame and guilt for not putting myself together and making more attempts to better myself. I want to. I know I need therapy but I keep pushing it aside and making the same excuses. I keep scheduling driver’s tests that I always end up canceling two days…

View On WordPress

i attended a fundraising gala for the non profit I work at last night

it was my first time at that sort of event, and my first time actually being around real life rich people. Talking to them, hearing them speak, seeing how they behave from up close, rather than through a screen or retelling. They're mostly decent and nice people, but there were one kinda quirky observation I had.

Rich people love to clap. I swear to God their favorite passtime is clapping for each other. And even when they were applauding for the actual Americorps workers who actually did the labor for the nonprofit (and were waiting on the event), it had such an air of condescension. Like "ah yes, good job poors!" Every time I heard them break into self-satisfied applause during a speech by either a staff member or corps worker, it had the undertone of "I didn't do any work or make the world a tangibly better place and this lack of genuine impact on the world despite my mountain of horded wealth has left me feeling existentially unfulfilled and inexplicably guilty, but I'm clapping for the people doing the work so I get to feel just as good, and satisfied in myself!" It's all just self gratification and naval gazing. Like they want to be justified in being a rich parasite

Y’all I did NOT just find out that AmeriCorps NCCC has like an account on this dumpster-forsaken site.

I’ve been in this program since October and??? Why would they be here???

Anyways — as a current CM — if you wanna know anything about it, feel free to ask me. I have Bias, of course, but I have ✨experiences✨

(I’m not saying this to discourage anyone from applying, just if anyone wants to ask specific questions about the program or my experience as a non-binary member—I remember not finding much about that when I was preparing for my term)

🎙#83 | 🆕 ¡UNA NUEVA TEMPORADA DE LATINO LIBRE USA! 👩🏻🇲🇽 Marlene Rojas, mexicana, traductora, reside en Boston- Massachusetts, y es una alta ejecutiva del organismo AmeriCorps, entidad dedicada a reclutar voluntarios que brinden ayuda a los inmigrantes latinos. La labor que realiza la organización es proporcionar ayuda a los inmigrantes para que superen problemas inmediatos, también capacita y coloca a miembros de AmeriCorps para brindar instrucción de inglés para hablantes de otros idiomas (ESOL), capacitación de preparación laboral y servicios de ciudadanía en organizaciones comunitarias en todo Massachusetts. 𝗘𝗦𝗧𝗘 𝗘𝗣𝗜𝗦𝗢𝗗𝗜𝗢 👉 https://www.hispanicsolutionsgroup.com/episodio-nuevo/ep-83-marlene-rojas-traductora-mexicana-afirma-que-voluntariado-ayuda-bastante-a-inmigrantes/

Month summery

The quilt we made for Sankofa.

Took a First Aid Class for work