National Civilian Community Corps

[[Image:Americorps NCCC Team.jpg|thumb|250px|Example Of An AmeriCorps*NCCC Team- Aged 18-24

(Source: Team Eagle 2, Perry Point, MD Campus: Service Year 9, 2003)]]

National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC), or AmeriCorps*NCCC is an AmeriCorps program in which 18 to 24-year-olds dedicate 10 months to address national and community needs. 1,200 members are trained annually at and operate from one of four regional campuses, located in Sacramento, California, Denver, Colorado, Vinton, Iowa, and Perry Point, Maryland. They travel with their team throughout a multi-state region to a series of service projects, each typically lasting six to eight weeks.

Projects fall in the areas of disaster relief, public safety, the environment, education, and other unmet needs. Teams frequently work with non-profit organizations such as Habitat For Humanity and the American Red Cross, tutor students in public schools, and build trails for various national and state parks.

While in the program, members receive room and board, a modest living stipend of approximately $13 a day, health coverage, and, upon successful completion of the program, a taxable education award of $4,725.

Members are required to complete a minimum of 1,700 hours of service, including 80 independent service hours. However, members complete an average of 1,850 service hours per term.

Inception (1992)
The NCCC program was loosely based on the depression era Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), although in practice, the differences between NCCC and CCC projects were quite marked in both practical intent and outcome. In some respects, NCCC teams resemble their CCC predecessors, who were also required to function under rugged conditions for prolonged periods and engage in strenuous conservation and wildfire-fighting projects, flood control, and disaster relief.

In 1992, "a bipartisan group of Senators worked hand-in-hand with the first Bush Administration to resurrect the CCC in a new form for a new era, creating what is now know as AmeriCorps NCCC...."

Official founding (1993-2005)
With bipartisan sponsorship, the program was enacted into law in 1993 (referred to as the "Civilian Community Corps") and signed by President Bill Clinton as a demonstration program charged with determining:


 * Whether federally funded residential service programs can significantly increase the support for national and community service
 * Whether such programs can expand the opportunities for young men and women to perform meaningful, direct, and consequential acts of community service in a manner that will enhance their own skills while contributing to their understanding of civic responsibility in the United States
 * Whether retired members of the armed forces can provide guidance and training under such programs that contribute meaningfully to the encouragement of national service
 * Whether domestic national service programs can serve as a substitute for the traditional option of military service.

While some of the primary motivations cited in the 1993 inception of AmeriCorps*NCCC changed and evolved over time, the basic focus of the program has remained the same: environment, education, public safety, and other unmet needs, disaster relief, and the addition of a "disaster services (preparedness and response)" heading in 2006/7.

2005 - present
Much of the Fiscal Year 2006 and 2007 funding issued to NCCC was directly specified as being intended for hurricane relief in the Katrina impacted upper-gulf region. In 2007, in response to budget pressures, the Corporation for National and Community Service announced the closure of the Charleston, SC and Washington, DC campuses. Fifty percent of the remaining NCCC will be deployed to the Gulf Coast to aid with Hurricane Katrina relief until at least 2010.

Programs
The NCCC trains its members to serve in a variety of fields.

NCCC Corps Members receive instruction at NCCC Corps Member Training Institutes located at each regional campus. Instruction is designed to prepare individuals and teams to serve in educational (and other) projects.

All National Civilian Community Corps members are trained in CPR, first aid, and disaster services, and about 15 percent are red-card certified fire fighters.

Fire fighting
All National Civilian Community Corps members are trained in CPR, first aid, and disaster services, and about 15 percent are red-card certified fire fighters.

NCCC teams have successfully served in fighting major wildland fires  and in completing fire mitigation work, according to National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service officials.

Environmental conservation
NCCC does extensive environmental conservation work, which often contributes as well to its disaster recovery or disaster mitigation efforts.

Education
NCCC Corps Members receive instruction at NCCC Corps Member Training Institutes located at each regional campus. Instruction is designed to prepare individuals and teams to serve in educational (and other) projects. In addition, NCCC Team Leaders are trained to be coach, mentor, team captain, and project manager, as needed.

NCCC teams have worked in partnership with school systems across the country. A summary of national service work by AmeriCorps NCCC, released in early 2006, states that NCCC had by then tutored 319,000 students.

In conjunction with the American Council on Education (ACE), NCCC Corps Members who complete course requirements during their year of service can earn undergraduate credits hours for "Introduction to Service Learning" and "Core Supervisory Skills." (See ACE's "National Guide Online")

Upon successful completion of service, NCCC Corps Members earn a (taxable) education award of $4,725 for college tuition -- awards that are matched by many colleges and universities.

Impact and reactions
"Since 1994, more than 12,000 members have invested more than 20 million service hours on 6,500 service projects with thousands of nonprofit organizations and other public agencies to provide disaster services, tutor children, preserve the environment, build homes for low-income families and meet other challenges. In FY 2006, 100 percent of members served in the Gulf Coast Region on multiple team deployments assisting local communities to recover from the effects of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma.

NCCC does extensive environmental conservation work, which often contributes as well to its disaster recovery or disaster mitigation efforts.

NCCC teams have successfully served in fighting major wildland fires  and in completing fire mitigation work, according to National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service officials.

Criticisms
AmeriCorps (which includes the NCCC program) is "an American network of more than 3,000 non-profit organizations, public agencies, and faith-based organizations." AmeriCorps has met with sharp criticisms from some fiscal conservatives who accused it of being a "boondoggle".

Funding
As a part of AmeriCorps, within the Corporation for National and Community Service, the National Civilian Community Corps is Congressionally funded. Appropriations are proposed by the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies subcommittees in the House of Representative and in the Senate.

Other than a one-time supplemental appropriation for Gulf-Coast hurricane relief, NCCC funding has remained at approximately $25 - $26 million since 2002. As of early October 2007, the Senate and House had yet to meet in conference to arrive at consensus legislation.