AmeriCorps volunteers are still set to come to Incline Village this coming year even though Gov. Jim Gibbons and lawmakers didn't approve $365,000 in state funds to qualify for $7.5 million in federal money.

For the upcoming year the Corporation for National and Community service will issue the grant to keep the program funded from 2009 to 2010.

The AmeriCorps Program out of the Parasol Tahoe Community Foundation needs about $370,000 a year, and about $184,000 comes from a mix of state and federal funding. The 15 AmeriCorps volunteers work at local organizations like Tahoe Women's Services, the Tahoe Environmental Research Center, Project MANA, the Incline Village General Improvement District's WasteNot and Senior programs, the Children's Cabinet of Incline Village, the American Red Cross, The Boys and Girls club, the Tahoe Rim Trail Association and the Parasol Tahoe Community Foundation.

Originally when the bill didn't pass there was a lot of concern because AmeriCorps is such a big part of our community, said Allison Becker, AmeriCorps Program Director for the Parasol Tahoe Community Foundation. The threat of not having an AmeriCorps is pretty huge for some organizations because of the economic times.

As for the state program, Shawn Lecker-Pomaville, chief executive officer of Nevada Volunteers, which oversees Nevada's AmeriCorps program, says $32,000 is needed by early October just to keep the federal dollars coming in while efforts continue to find the full $365,000 in state or private funds.

The state money is needed to ensure the program gets $7.5 million in other funding for the next two fiscal years, starting on Wednesday and running through mid-2011. The other funding is a mix of dollars from federal, private and other non-state sources.

If we lose AmeriCorps, we really lose a major cog in the community and volunteering service sector of Nevada, she said.

In 2008, 139 AmeriCorps members, mostly college-age Nevadans who were paid minimum-wage salaries, worked in various education, human service, environment and public safety areas and also recruited more than 4,000 volunteers who donated their time.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 at 9:21 pm and is filed under Children and Youth, Civic Engagement, Community Foundations, Volunteerism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.