Future of NCCC...

Hey All,

A few weeks ago Mikel Herrington, Acting Director of AmeriCorps NCCC, came to Sacramento for a visit. While he was here, I learned a few things that I thought I would share, because I thought it was pretty neat.

The full enrollment of NCCC is 1440 members each year! However, right now NCCC is not operating at full capacity due to budgets. Currently there are only 1030 members enrolled for next year. Increasing to capacity would increase the cost of the program, but it would lower the “cost per member.”

One day, the Corporation hopes to serve at full capacity and potentially even double. The way the campuses are currently set up, it would be possible to run 2 classes at one time. Right now, corps members arrive on campus for a month of training and then spend most of their time out on project. They return at the end of the year for a few weeks and graduation. If the training and the graduation are staggered and more staff was hired to manage the teams, it would be possible to run 2 classes per year at each campus. Which I think would be INCREDIBLE! It would definitely lower the cost per member and would increase productivity, and make a more efficient use out of our resources. In order to make this change, NCCC would definitely need an increased budget—although I think its is totally worth the investment!

Currently there are five campuses: Sacramento, CA; Denver, CO; Vinton, IA; Vicksburg, MS; and Perry Point, MD. The start dates all vary. The new Serve America Act will raise the education award to match the Pell Grant amount yearly. The annual increase will take effect for members starting Oct. 1st of each year. For next year, the team leaders are scheduled to start in September and the Corps Members will start in October—therefore only the Corps Members will receive the increased education award. In order to eliminate this from following years, start dates may all be moved to either Aug/Sept. or Jan/Feb.

I understand that maybe this isn’t alllll that interesting to everyone reading this, but these are some MAJOR changes to the program that I have been completely immersed in for the past year and I thought I would share.

It was really great to be able to sit down with the Director of NCCC and have a discussion about upcoming changes, things we would like to see in the future of NCCC and actually feel like we were being heard.