Americorps Program and Purpose

AmeriCorps (officially the Corporation for National and Community Service or CNCS) is an independent agency of the United States government. Americorps engages more than five million Americans in service through AmeriCorps VISTA, AmeriCorps NCCC, AmeriCorps State and National, AmeriCorps Seniors, the Volunteer Generation Fund, and other national service initiatives.

The agency’s mission is “to improve lives, strengthen communities, and foster civic engagement through service and volunteering.” AmeriCorps acts much like a foundation and is the nation’s largest annual grant maker supporting service and volunteering. It was created by the National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993. In September 2020, the agency rebranded itself as AmeriCorps, although its official name is unchanged.

The AmeriCorps Seniors umbrella includes three programs that engage seniors aged 55+ in volunteerism. These programs are the Foster Grandparents program, through which volunteers teach and mentor children; Senior Companions, through which volunteers help older adults live independently in their homes; and RSVP, through which volunteers can serve in a variety of roles to meet their communities’ needs.

The Volunteers on the Shore senior volunteer recruitment effort is an Americorps RSVP program handled by Upper Shore Aging on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.  The Volunteers on the Shore recruitment effort is made possible by grant funding from Americorps. Our mission is to create an Americorps Seniors RSVP effort tailored to our local communities (Kent, Queen Anne’s and Talbot Counties) on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

Please visit our volunteer opportunities section on our volunteersontheshore.org website to realize your talents as a local Americorps Seniors Volunteer through our Upper Shore RSVP program.