AmeriCorps grants are awarded to eligible organizations proposing to engage AmeriCorps members in evidence-based or evidence-informed interventions/practices to strengthen communities. An AmeriCorps member is an individual who engages in community service through an approved national service position. Members may receive a living allowance and other benefits while serving. Upon successful completion of their service, members earn a Segal AmeriCorps Education Award that they can use to pay for higher education expenses or apply to qualified student loans.

Public Health AmeriCorps will include an investment from the American Rescue Plan Act workforce funding that will enable the recruitment, training, and development of a new generation of public health leaders who are ready to respond to the public health needs of the nation by providing public health service in communities.

Public Health AmeriCorps has two main goals:   

• Help meet public health needs of local communities by providing needed capacity and support in state and local public health settings and advancing more equitable health outcomes for communities who are currently or historically underserved.  
• Provide pathways to good, quality public health-related careers by providing exposure through onsite experience, training, and more, with a focus on recruiting AmeriCorps members who reflect the communities in which they will serve.

AmeriCorps members will serve primarily in state, local, Tribal, and territorial public health departments or in service to public health departments. It is strongly recommended that AmeriCorps members serve in at least teams of two. AmeriCorps has found that placing at least two members at a service site location provides economies of scale and aids in retention of members. 

AmeriCorps’ priorities for this funding opportunity are:

• Efforts to help local communities respond to and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Applicants may propose programming to aid communities in their efforts to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, including public health challenges that have been exacerbated by the pandemic, such as mental health and substance abuse.
• Programs creating pathways to good-quality public health-related careers through onsite experience and training (including pre-apprenticeship or registered apprenticeship programs, work experience and job training programs, and other workforce training and development programs),
• Organizations leading service in communities with concentrated poverty, rural communities, tribal communities, and those organizations serving historically underrepresented and underserved individuals, including but not limited to communities of color, immigrants and refugees, people with disabilities, people who identify as part of the LGBTQIA+ community, people with arrest and/or conviction records, and religious minorities. 

• City or township governments
• County governments
• Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized)
• Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments)
• Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education
• Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education
• Private institutions of higher education
• Public and State controlled institutions of higher education
• Others (see text field entitled "Additional Eligibility Criteria" for clarification)
• Special district governments
• State governments

Estimated Total Program Funding: