Host an AmeriCorps Fellow
Our Vision
Our flagship fellowship program recruits, trains, and places our nation’s most dynamic and diverse young leaders in a year-long fellowship in their home state to strengthen America’s public institutions, support our local communities and cultivate the next generation of transformational community and public service leaders. Our AmeriCorps Fellows are hosted by community-based organizations such as local and tribal governments or civic-oriented nonprofits and businesses.
Why Become a Host?
Benefit from the service of a highly-skilled, locally rooted leader. For less than the cost of an entry-level employee, we recruit outstanding young leaders for their skillset matching your needs, for their prior connection to your town or city and for their commitment to remaining in the community after completing their fellowship. Higher-ed partners across the nation and our great state train our AmeriCorps Fellows through an intensive summer training institute prior to beginning their service so that they can be immediately impactful in your community.
Join a national movement of cutting-edge communities to change the fabric of our country. As a member of the cohort, each AmeriCorps Fellow regularly collaborates with their peers and the national LFA network. They share challenges and solutions from their community and have the resources to adapt innovative techniques from around the country to their locality.
Strengthen the civic ecosystem in your community. AmeriCorps Fellows can connect your community to resources from LFA’s network of partners to equip your institution with the best technology, send future members to your area and build connections between regional universities, public institutions, nonprofits and small businesses
How it Works.
Confirm your host capability.
Our AmeriCorps Fellows are dynamic self-starters with a high capacity to provide value to the local hosts, but AmeriCorps Fellows’ change-making potential is maximized when the community identifies the capacity that they can support a fellow.
Recruit and select AmeriCorps Fellows for service.
We recruit outstanding and diverse recent graduates who have demonstrated a dedication to a life of service and a commitment to return or remain in a community. We place a particular emphasis on reaching low-income and first-generation college students, women, POCI, and military veterans.
Training and education
AmeriCorps Fellows will learn technical skills, undergo character and leadership development, and focus on developing equitable and innovative solutions. Training includes graduate-level coursework from leading MPA programs across the nation and our great state. AmeriCorps Fellows receive ongoing training throughout their term and benefit from mentorship and retreat with others in their cohort, as well as workshops through state community development organizations.
Service to communities.
AmeriCorps Fellows provide critical technical assistance to resource and talent-strapped local community institutions. For example, AmeriCorps Fellows are working to find locally oriented and actionable ways to build economic and community development in rural Nebraska. Research and work to find solutions for rural broadband access in communities where it’s needed most and help those communities who have it leverage it. Create free locally-specific training programs that will work to reduce the digital divide and build digital literacy in rural America.
Grow the bench of community leadership in your area.
LFA is generating an alumni force with the talent, conviction, insight, and experience to effect the fundamental changes necessary to realize our vision of a strong community for everyone. Our alumni commit to spending at least two years beyond the fellowship to serve their community and will continue to work as local change agents.
What We Ask of Hosts.
Assign an internal champion/mentor.
While we provide robust support externally, we believe it is even more essential that there is a key stakeholder, whether a director or senior government manager (city/county manager, mayor, council member, etc), who directly mentors the fellow during the term.
Make an effort to retain fellows.
We work hard to find the best homegrown leaders and bring them to you. We want to work with hosts invested in finding ways to retain these leaders in the community long-term. That could mean making a full-time offer or connecting them with private or nonprofit community partners.
Contribute to the fellowship cost-share.
The investment for hosting an AmeriCorps Fellow differs according to the cost of living per region. It includes a living allowance, housing, health insurance, training, education, and fellowship support.
AmeriCorps Fellows are neither employees of the host nor LFA, but host organizations provide a service fee to LFA which is redistributed to the fellow through monthly stipends, as per IRS guidelines. LFA works with each host to develop a creative locally tailored financing strategy.