Celebrating local heroes serving in AmeriCorps

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 9, 2021

CONTACT:

Heather Dirck

AmeriCorps NCCC

Community Relations Specialist – Southwest Region Campus

hdirck@cns.gov

Celebrating local heroes serving in AmeriCorps

AmeriCorps Week 2021 is March 7-13, an opportunity to recognize the service of the 270,000 Americans engaged in AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps Seniors programs annually. Despite the unprecedented challenges posed in 2020, dedicated citizens continue to help communities, serving those impacted by COVID-19, ensuring students stay on track to graduate, combatting hunger and homelessness, responding to natural disasters, fighting the opioid epidemic, helping seniors live independently, supporting veterans and military families, and much more.

Arieanna Lee of Cape Girardeau, Mo. is currently serving with the National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC), a 10-month, full-time AmeriCorps program. Founded in 1994, AmeriCorps NCCC strengthens communities and develops its young adult members into leaders.

AmeriCorps NCCC operates out of four campuses, which serve as regional administrative hubs and training facilities. These campuses, located in Sacramento, Calif., Aurora, Colo., Vinton, Iowa, and Vicksburg, Miss., train and deploy new classes of members several times each year. Lee began her term of service on October 7, 2020 at the Pacific Region campus in Sacramento and will graduate from the program on July 14, 2021.

As a Corps Member, Lee is completing a series of different six- to 12-week-long service projects in different places across her assigned region as part of a 5- to 12-person team. Projects support disaster relief, the environment, infrastructure improvement, energy conservation, and urban and rural development. More information about her specific service projects is available upon request.

Before joining the NCCC, Lee attended Jackson High School. Lee said, “I chose to do a term of national service because it is a way to give back and a way to grow wrapped up into one amazing opportunity.”

AmeriCorps NCCC members complete at least 1,700 hours of service during the 10-month program. Corps Members are all 18 to 26 years old; there is no upper age limit for Team Leaders. In exchange for their service, all program participants receive $6,345 to help pay for college. Other benefits include a small living stipend, room and board, leadership development, team building skills, and the knowledge that, through active citizenship, they can indeed make a difference. AmeriCorps NCCC is one of hundreds of programs administered by the larger AmeriCorps agency. For more information about AmeriCorps NCCC, visit the website at www.americorps.gov/nccc.

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