More than $5 million in federal grants from the Corporation for National and Community Service will be given to more than 11 AmeriCorps programs to serve communities across the state. Two of those 11 are right in the Roaring Fork Valley.
Colorado State University Extension’s 4-H STEM Initiative and Youth Corps for Colorado will receive more than $3 million combined that will go towards projects up and down the Valley.
"Without that money, we would not be able to have the capacity we have now," Brandon Watkins, the Associate Director at Colorado Youth Corps Association, said.
All together, his AmeriCorps group received over $3 million dollars to help fund environmental stewardship projects throughout the Valley. He said it cannot be overstated how grants like this help AmeriCorps groups.
"Without that $3 million, there is just no way CYCA would be able to fund the projects to the scale we fund them now," Watkins said.
Serve Colorado, Governor Polis’ Commission on Community Service, announced the $5.8 million dollar federal grant last week. It will help AmeriCorps groups, like Youth Corps for Colorado and CSU Extension’s 4-H STEM Initiative, across the state.
Sharon Riegsecker, the programs officer for Serve Colorado, said the $5.8 million grant is one of the largest federal investments for AmeriCorps in Colorado.
"We believe that these nearly 800 members are able to reach rural communities, many of which are not seeing as much federal resources as other communities," Riegsecker said.
Since AmeriCorps began in 1994, more than 35,000 Coloradans have served for the organization, with the new grant adding 800 more members. Members typically serve for one year, and most of the grant money will help fund their living expenses and project equipment costs while out in the field.
That is one of the reasons why Colorado State University Extension applied for the grant. CSU Extension’s 4-H STEM Initiative received just under $400,000. Melinda McPherson, CSU Extension’s AmeriCorps Member Director, said the money will help add more AmeriCorps members to the area, especially within their focus on Garfield County.
Three AmeriCorps members through CSU Extension's 4-H STEM Initiative will partner with different elementary schools, libraries and after school programs to offer students who live in areas with more than 50 percent of students on free and reduced lunch STEM programming.
“I think [the three AmeriCorps members'] goal is to really serve as many of those elementary age kiddos as they can in the county,” she said.
McPherson said it is crucial for programs, like the ones run by the three AmeriCorps members in Garfield County, to have grant funding just to stay alive. Without the grant, CSU Extension's 4-H STEM Initiative would not be able to serve as many kids as they plan to this school year.
“We really try to provide a lot of service within the community, and a lot of our extension agents, especially those that work within 4-H are stretched really thinly," McPherson said. "So to have an extra pair of hands, or a couple of pairs of hands are huge. So, we are seeing that we are able to serve youth that would not have received services before.”
Brandon Watkins said situations are similar among AmeriCorps groups. Grants are usually the only way to fund projects, like rerouting trails and getting rid of invasive species, which the Youth Corps of Colorado works to do right here in the Roaring Fork Valley.
“So it can’t be overstated how important this money is to organizations and all the wonderful work that is going on in Colorado around environmental stewardship," Watkins said.
The $5.8 million will also fund projects to help communities with unmet education, economic, public safety and many other needs.