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Bonner AmeriCorps Program Management Guide
The AmeriCorps Education Award is an exciting way for campuses to further support Bonner Scholars and Bonner Leaders participating in Bonner Programs around the country. The Bonner Network is the recipient of a grant from the Corporation for National & Community Service that provides us with nearly 1,000 AmeriCorps Education Awards annually.
Step 1: Review Bonner AmeriCorps Education Award Literature
As you explore implementing Bonner AmeriCorps as part of your Bonner Program be sure to consider the following:
- Available Terms of Service: Programs may choose to enroll a member in a one-year 300 hour term, a one-year 450 hour term or a two-year 900 hour term. It is important to consider the best fit for the program model and a student’s future plans. Individuals may only receive two AmeriCorps Education Awards during their lifetime, but may possibly serve in other AmeriCorps programs such as an AmeriCorps VISTA or Teach for America utilizing other financial options.
- Type of Service Opportunities: Consider the needs of your community partners and determine what role the Bonner AmeriCorps students will play in addressing them. Please note that some service activities are prohibited by the AmeriCorps Program due to their religious, political and/or international context.
- Reporting Requirements: Bonner AmeriCorps participants must complete all of the required information in the Enrollment workbook. The Enrollment Workbook contains all the forms that need to be signed by the member and the campus administrator. The Bonner AmeriCorps Service Workbook contains the Exit form as well as the suspension and reinstatement form. Currently, each campus in the Bonner Program uses the Bonner Web Based Reporting System (BWBRS) to track students’ enrollment status, hour logs, community learning agreements and service accomplishments. For Bonner AmeriCorps members, campus administrators, site supervisors, and students must sign hard copies of particular BWRBS printouts or booklet forms and send them to the Foundation on a monthly basis. Depending on the grant year, students may also be asked to complete a short survey about their accomplishments. As with all students in the Bonner Program, we ask that Bonner AmeriCorps members complete the Student Impact Survey at the beginning and end of their time in the Bonner Program.
- Federal Work Study: As the educational award is received upon the completion of service, financial constraints and the need to support oneself may deter prospective members from considering AmeriCorps. We recommend utilizing Federal Work study, as a tool to further support your students while they are engaged in intensive and sustained service. The AmeriCorps Education Award should not effect the students financial aid package.
Step 2: Request the Number of Bonner AmeriCorps Slots For Your Program
Bonner AmeriCorps slots are awarded competitively on a first come first served basis. It is important to submit your request as soon as possible. As we have many campuses to accommodate, please request an amount that you will, in fact, be able to fill. Contact Joan Horton at the Bonner Foundation (jhorton@bonner.org) or at (609) 924-6663 to make your request. Bonner Program directors will receive an award letter indicating how many slots have been awarded.
Step 3: Recruit Students
To enroll in AmeriCorps, members must be permanent US residents, 17 or older (parental consent required if 17), and have a high school diploma or its equivalent. Documentation of such is required. Individuals may only ever receive two AmeriCorps Education Awards during their lifetime. Therefore if a student has previously been enrolled in AmeriCorps with the Bonner Program or otherwise, they may not be eligible to participate.
Bonner Programs often recruit students by implementing a campus wide advertising campaign, working with the Financial Aid office to identify students eligible for Federal Work Study, soliciting recommendations from faculty and staff, and/or targeting community service and leadership organizations on campus.
The Implementation Guide on Recruitment and Selection and the Bonner Directors Handbook provide useful suggestions that will assist you in:
(a) identifying a qualified pool of committed student leaders, and
(b) beginning the public relations process that will create widespread awareness of the program on your campus and in your regional communities.
Step 4: Enroll Students
After students are recruited, it is important that they be introduced to the AmeriCorps component of the Bonner Program and review the Bonner AmeriCorps Workbooks.The Enrollment Workbook contains all of the forms that need to be signed by the member, and the campus administrator -- all of which must be mailed to the Bonner Foundation within 20 days of the members start date. We recommend that copies be made and kept on file with the campus administrator.
Please keep in mind that in the Enrollment Workbook, the students sign an enrollment form and a member contract. These are not applications, but binding agreements between the student, campus advisor, the Bonner Foundation, and AmeriCorps. Once a complete booklet is sent to the Bonner Foundation, the student is officially enrolled in the AmeriCorps program.
Signed enrollment materials, must be mailed to the Foundation within 20 days of the student’s start date and should be addressed to:
Bonner AmeriCorps
ATTN: Joan Horton
Bonner Foundation
10 Mercer Street
Princeton, NJ 08540
Before students can be enrolled into AmeriCorps, they also must be enrolled in the Bonner Web-Based Reporting System. Please call the Bonner Foundation at (609) 924-6663 to receive login information and to schedule a phone training on how to navigate through BWBRS.
At the beginning of the student’s term in the Bonner Program we ask that every Bonner Scholar and Bonner Leader complete the Student Impact Survey, regardless of when and if they enroll in AmeriCorps.
National Criminal Background Checks and the National Sex Offender Registry:
Also at the time of enrollment, students should complete the National Sex Offender Registry Release Form and the National Criminal Background Check Release. These forms should then be mailed WITH A PHOTO ID (example: driver's license, passport) and original signatures to the Bonner Foundation at the aforementioned address.
All AmeriCorps members are required to have completed National Sex Offender Registry Checks. In addition, any AmeriCorps members who work with vulnerable populations, as defined as children under the age of eighteen, adults over the age of 65 and/or individuals with disabilities, must have national criminal background checks.
The Bonner AmeriCorps Program is providing both of these services for their AmeriCorps members. If your school provides the national criminal background check for its students, please send us a letter of notification that the individual has been checked, including where the check is located.
Step 5: Orienting Students
The Bonner Foundation requires that an orientation be held each year for all incoming Bonner Scholars and Leaders to build community among the Bonners, orient them to the program and its requirements, and begin preparing them for service and other responsibilities. The Bonner Directors Handbook and a number of other resources are available to assist you in designing your orientation.
Step 6: Provide Ongoing Training & Enrichment
The Bonner Program should develop the skills, knowledge, experience, and commitments of students engaged in community service throughout the years of their experience in the Bonner Program. The Foundation has developed a number of resources that provide campuses concrete strategies and tools to realize student development goals in the context of the specific programs: specifically, implementation guides for co-curricular, curricular, advising, vocation, an extensive set of training modules. Please note that there are some differences between eligible training and enrichment activities for Bonner Scholars/Leaders and Bonner AmeriCorps members as dictated by the prohibited activities section of the Bonner AmeriCorps member contract. These include but are not limited to political, spiritual, internationally focused events and training and/or activities that receive academic credit. When trying to figure out the most appropriate training and enrichments for your AmeriCorps members, keep in mind what kinds of events and training will prepare them for their direct service in the community. If you have any questions regarding AmeriCorps eligibility for your training and enrichments, please don't hesitate to contact the Foundation.
Step 7: Placement
A key feature of the Bonner Program is the Comprehensive Placement Process. (Consult the Bonner Program Director’s Handbook to review the specifics). This resource will be helpful in determining which partners may be right for your program's needs. For AmeriCorps placements, here are a few helpful hints:
- COMMUNITY, COMMUNITY, COMMUNITY! How is the member's service directly benefiting their community?
- Direct service-purely administrative projects are not eligible for AmeriCorps service
- Academic Credit-With many service learning and community based research classes acting as a catalyst for engaging students in courses, remember that service for academic credit is not eligible. If however, a course only requires 15 hours of service at a placement, and a student completes 20 hours, those hours obtained above and beyond the course requirement may be counted towards AmeriCorps.
Examples of some Bonner AmeriCorps placements in the network:
- Tutoring,
- Mentoring,
- Domestic Disaster Relief,
- anti-hunger relief,
- working with the elderly,
- Habitat for Humanity builds
As part of the placement process, students participating in the Bonner Program are required to complete a Community Learning Agreement (CLA). The CLA is a great tool that allows the student to collaborate with both their community partner and administrator in articulating service objectives (job description), and goals for both student development and service outcomes. New Community Learning Agreements are prepared every semester, allowing for the community partner and student to assess not only their service experience and outcomes, but also student growth. Signed CLAs should be mailed in within the first month of enrollment. Please keep in mind that no hours will be processed/approved without the CLA first being submitted to and approved by the Foundation.
Step 8: Reporting
Early in the year, students should be trained on how to use the Bonner Web-Based Reporting System (BWBRS) to track their enrollment status, Community Learning Agreements, hour logs, and Service Accomplishments. Community Learning Agreements, as mentioned earlier, are submitted at the beginning of every semester.
Hour Logs must be entered and approved by the campus administrator in BWBRS. Hard copies must be signed by the student, site supervisor and campus administrator and then mailed to the Foundation on a monthly basis.
At the end of every semester, the student prepares and submits their Service Accomplishments. This report allows the student to evaluate their experience, share service outcomes and tell incredible stories of their work with the community. This data is useful for both the campus' own reports, but also because the network must reapply each year for AmeriCorps funding. Therefore, we must make sure that data in BWBRS accurately reflects all that the students are accomplishing.
Step 9: Exit Member from AmeriCorps
Once a student has completed their service/hour requirement they should complete anEnd of Term form [pdf] and send it in with their last time log. A student must submit all required paperwork to the Foundation before they can successfully exit the program. All paperwork must be sent to the Foundation within 20 days of their exit date. If this is the student's last year in the overarching Bonner Program (and not just the end of an AmeriCorps term) they need to complete an Outgoing Student Impact Survey.
Step 10: Access the Education Award
Once the member has submitted the completed paper work (including signed time logs, Community Learning Agreements, Service Accomplishments, and an exit form) to the Bonner Foundation, we will process the exit with the Corporation for National & Community Service. At the end of each day the CNCS uploads all the exit forms. Once exited, the process to obtain the award is all done online through the Corporation's website, My AmeriCorps Portal. The student will follow all directions on the page and instruct the Trust how and where they would like to use their award. Please remember the award can only be used for educational costs, undergraduate school loans and/or graduate school tuition. Please refer to the AmeriCorps website for more information regarding appropriate use of the award. Members have up to seven years from the date of their Exit to fully use the award.
The following information outlines key events and requirements for Bonner AmeriCorps Implementation.
August
- New Directors & Coordinators Meeting (dates subject to change-range from the end of July to beginning of August)
- Students exiting AmeriCorps must have all completed paperwork to the Foundation within 20 days of their required Exit dates
- Bonner AmeriCorps Workbooks are mailed out from the Foundation to each campus
- Coordinators schedule a Bonner Web-Based Reporting System (BWBRS) training with Bonner Foundation staff, if needed
- Summer Service Accomplishments are reported on BWBRS by those students already enrolled from previous year
September
- Bonner AmeriCorps time sheets and/or Exit Materials due to Foundation from summer service
- Coordinators keep yearly agreements with Community Partners on file
- Bonner AmeriCorps Enrollment booklets are filled out by students and mailed to the Foundation with signed National Criminal Background Check Release Form, National Sex Offender Registry Check
- Release form and a photo ID within 20 days of member enrollment start date
- New students take Incoming Student Impact Survey
- Students are trained on BWBRS by campus advisors
- Site Agreements with Bonner are mailed back to the Foundation
October
- Community Learning Agreements (CLAs) are mailed to Foundation (for those members with a fall start date)
- 1st month time logs are mailed to Foundation
November
- Directors & Coordinators Meeting
- Bonner Congress Meeting
- Continue to send in monthly time logs
December
- 1st Semester Service Accomplishments are completed on BWBRS by students before Winter Break
- Monthly time logs due to Foundation
January
- Monthly time logs, and additional paperwork for students with later start dates, due to Foundation
- New CLA created regardless of whether student changes service placement. Hard copies with original signatures mailed with monthly time log.
February
- Monthly time logs due to Foundation
March
- Monthly time logs due to Foundation
April
- Monthly time logs due to Foundation
- End of year Service Accomplishments are completed on BWBRS by students before leaving for summer
May
- If student is exiting AmeriCorps, Exit Form is due with last time log. Items must be sent into Foundation within 20 days of the required Exit date.
- Students who have completed their entire time in the Bonner Program complete an Outgoing Student
- Impact Survey
- End of year Service Accomplishments are completed on BWBRS by students before leaving for summer
- Register for Summer Leadership Institute
- Monthly time logs due to Foundation
- Prepare for summer enrollments
June
- Summer Leadership Institute
- Monthly time logs due to Foundation
- Complete Slot Request Form
July
- Bonner AmeriCorps slots are awarded to each campus
- Foundation sends out Site Agreements to each campus
- Students’ summer Community Learning Agreements are mailed into the Foundation along with any other required paperwork
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