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VISTA Request for Concept Papers - Iowa FY14
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SUMMARY: The Corporation for National and Community Service Iowa State Program Office seeks applications for the AmeriCorps VISTA program from innovative, high-performing and outcome-driven organizations that share the VISTA mission to provide long term solutions to poverty. This Request for Concept Paper (RFCP) is for placement of VISTA members in June and July of 2014 pending the FY14 federal budget.

AGENCY DESCRIPTION:  The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) (www.nationalservice.gov) is a federal agency that engages more than five million Americans in service through its core programs: Senior Corps and AmeriCorps. CNCS leads President Obama’s national call to service initiative, United We Serve. As the nation’s largest grant-maker for service and volunteering, CNCS plays a critical role in strengthening America’s nonprofit sector and addressing our nation’s challenges through service. The mission of CNCS is to improve lives, strengthen communities, and foster civic engagement through service and volunteering.

PROGRAM TITLE: AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers In Service To America) http://www.nationalservice.gov/programs/americorps/americorps-vista 

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION: AmeriCorps VISTA is a highly professional and rigorous volunteer service program, through which national service members serve with organizations full time for one year. VISTA projects focus on building permanent capacity and infrastructure in nonprofit and other organizations to help more effectively bring individuals and communities out of poverty.

Authorized in 1964, the AmeriCorps VISTA program supports efforts to eradicate poverty by encouraging individuals from all walks of life to engage in a year of full-time service.

Specifically, as noted in the Domestic Volunteer Service Act, the VISTA program is designed to:

The AmeriCorps VISTA program places VISTA members at sponsoring organizations that absorb most of the costs related to project supervision and logistical support.  VISTA provides a small living allowance and certain benefits for members.  Investment by the sponsoring organization and the community is fundamental to the VISTA program, as the VISTA resources are intended to be short-term.

To achieve its program purpose, VISTA operates under the following core principles:

Anti-Poverty Focus – The purpose of VISTA is to support efforts to fight poverty.  Any nonprofit organization, educational institution, tribal, or public agency with a program that is poverty-related in scope may be considered for VISTA project sponsorship.  The project should address helping individuals and communities out of poverty, not simply making poverty more tolerable through short-term services.

Community Empowerment – Sponsoring organizations ensure that the project engages residents of low-income communities in planning, developing and implementing the project.  The project must be responsive and relevant to the lives of the community residents, and should tap into inherent community assets, strengths, and resources.

Sustainable Solutions – VISTA members provide short-term human resources to build long-term sustainability of anti-poverty programs.  All VISTA projects should be developed with the goal to phase out the need for VISTA members and strengthen the ability of the project to continue indefinitely.

Capacity Building – VISTA members do not provide direct services to low-income individuals; rather, they work to increase the capacity of organizations to fight poverty.  Through activities such as fundraising, establishment of community volunteer recruitment and management systems, community outreach, and collaborative development, VISTA members mobilize local resources to achieve lasting solutions to poverty.  Projects focus on achieving impactful outcomes on the community and/or beneficiary population.

 

ELIGIBLE SPONSORS: Public organizations such as state and local government organizations, Indian Tribes, and nonprofit private organizations may apply to be VISTA sponsors. Please note that eligible nonprofit private organizations are not limited to those with IRS 501(c) (3) status, but rather all organizations with IRS 501(c) status that focus on anti-poverty community development.

Organizations that focus solely on advocacy and lobbying are not eligible. 

Organizations may be local, state, or national.  National organizations should consider applying to VISTA Headquarters for sponsorship of VISTA if the intent of the project is to benefit more than one state.  Sponsors must be able to direct the project, recruit and supervise the VISTA members, and provide necessary administrative support to complete the goals of the project.  Sponsors develop and manage projects with the involvement of the communities that will be served.  The beneficiary of any VISTA initiative is the poverty community.  The goal for every VISTA program is for the sponsoring organization to sustain the VISTA member’s outcomes beyond the service term.  Organizations that have previously sponsored VISTA projects for more than 3 years may apply only with a new project and program emphasis and must demonstrate a prior successful record in project management and achieving results.

VISTA MEMBERS: VISTA members come from diverse race, age, geographic, and economic backgrounds. They live and serve in some of our nation’s poorest areas.  Each VISTA member makes a year-long, full-time commitment to serve on a specific project with a sponsor.  VISTA members receive a modest living allowance and health benefits during their service and have the option of receiving a Segal AmeriCorps Education Award or an end-of-service cash stipend following successful completion of one term of service.

VISTA members are not permitted to work outside of their VISTA duties during their year of service.  VISTA members are national service professionals who build organizational capacity and perform no direct service or physical labor. VISTA members may not displace staff positions or staff duties.

VISTA members focus on capacity-building activities in one of the four strategic plan focus areas noted below.  Members do NOT perform direct service, which primarily includes activities that address individual clients’ immediate needs. Furthermore, VISTAs may NOT engage in activities that would supplant the tasks of, or displace, paid staff, contractors, or existing volunteers. This prohibition includes activities related to the application to and the management of other CNCS grants and programs.

PROJECT REQUIREMENTS: A VISTA project may be continued for up to three years; however, projects are considered for renewal on a year-to-year basis, depending on the availability of resources, program performance, and the priorities of CNCS. 

Programming should be based primarily on addressing local needs.  Project approval will be guided by programming that addresses the VISTA program’s core principles, and strategic plan focus areas and objectives.

To be considered as a VISTA sponsoring organization, an application should meet all the requirements of sponsorship listed in the Concept Paper and Application for Federal Assistance.  More information is available at http://www.nationalservice.gov/sites/default/files/documents/ac_vista_concept.pdf   

STRATEGIC PLAN FOCUS AREAS AND OBJECTIVES

CNCS developed strategic goals that encapsulate key elements needed to measure the agency’s performance as it carries out its important mission. These goals (outlined below) are the foundation for the agency’s Strategic Plan for 2011–2015.  http://www.nationalservice.gov/focus-areas 

Full Program Guidance for Project Sponsors in Fiscal Year 2014 is available at:

http://www.nationalservice.gov/sites/default/files/page/2014_VISTA_Program_Guidance.pdf 

Some criteria to consider when applying for a VISTA sponsorship are to ensure that the program:

While not a criterion, consideration will be given to:

IOWA VISTA PROPOSAL REQUIREMENTS: 

The Iowa State Program Office seeks applications for VISTA projects with a minimum of four full time VISTA members.  If an applicant is unable to administratively support this number of full time members, the applicant may collaborate with two or more partnering organizations.

The Iowa State Office specifically seeks projects that focus on the following CNCS 2011-2015 Strategic Plan Focus Areas of Economic Opportunity, Education, Healthy Futures and Veterans and Military Families:  

 

Economic Opportunity

In FY 2014, VISTA will give priority to projects that support and/or facilitate access to services and resources that contribute to the improved economic well-being and financial security of economically disadvantaged people.

VISTA project activities should focus on the following Objectives of Economic Opportunity:

Financial Literacy: Improving access to services and benefits aimed at contributing to enhanced financial literacy;

Housing: Transitioning individuals into or helping them remain in safe, healthy, affordable housing;

Employment: Improving employability that leads to increased success in becoming employed.

CNCS is a member of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH). VISTA programming in economic opportunity aligns well with the USICH strategic plan Opening Doors. The VISTA program highly encourages applications that focus on the Housing objective and utilize USICH approaches and technical assistance resources.

Education

VISTA will give priority to projects that provide support and/or facilitate access to services and resources that contribute to improved educational outcomes for economically disadvantaged children. The VISTA program will target new project development to communities that have schools that:

1. Received awards from the Department of Education under the School Improvement Grants (SIG) program. These schools must be implementing one of the SIG school intervention models.

2. Were identified by a state educational agency that has received approval from the Department of Education of its request for Elementary and Secondary Education Act flexibility, including those schools taking part in the federal interagency initiative, Together for Tomorrow.

Project activities should focus on the following Education Objectives:

School Readiness: School readiness for economically disadvantaged young children,

K-12 Success: Educational and behavioral outcomes of students in low-achieving elementary, middle, and high schools, and

Post-secondary Success: Preparation for and prospects of success in post-secondary education institutions for economically disadvantaged students.

Where feasible, project activities in these Education Objectives should seek to align with the goals of Together for Tomorrow:

Celebrate and inspire community and family engagement in education and strengthen a community culture of education success

Foster the capacity of low-performing schools to manage school-community partnerships

Focus community partnerships on boosting key measurable student outcomes—Attendance, Behavior, Course performance, and College access (the ABCs)—as a means to improve low-performing schools.

Additionally, programming that effectively introduces or expands science, technology, engineering, and math education (STEM) in targeted schools is encouraged.

Healthy Futures

The VISTA program will give priority to projects that meet health needs, including access to food resources and health care, for economically disadvantaged individuals.

Projects should support the following Healthy Futures Objectives:

Obesity and Food (Food Resources): Improving access to nutritious food.

Access to Health Care: Connecting economically disadvantaged individuals to preventative and primary health care services.

Veterans and Military Families

VISTA will support projects that either focus specifically on low-income veterans and military families as beneficiaries, or enhance existing projects to begin or better serve low-income veterans and military families. Emphasis in FY 2014 should be to expand programming in support of National Guard members and their families. Project activities should focus on the following Focus Areas:

Economic Opportunity (Financial literacy, Housing, Employment)

Education (School Readiness, K-12 Success, Post-secondary Success)

Healthy Futures (Obesity and Food, Access to Health Care)

The VISTA program encourages all projects to recruit veterans to serve as VISTA members, particularly projects that serve veterans and military families.

Cost Share VISTA members in Iowa

While VISTA regulations do not require a non-federal match, however in order to maximize federal resources and to the keep the federal cost of VISTA members to a minimum, the Corporation for National and Community Service looks to VISTA sponsors to help pay the member living allowance for some of the project’s VISTA members.  Currently, the living allowance for Iowa VISTA members is $11,136 per year.  Organizations that are able to financially support a VISTA member’s living allowance will receive priority consideration.  It is expected that in years 2 and 3 of VISTA programming, the number of cost share VISTA members will increase.

The goal of the Iowa State Office is to have one out of every four members cost shared by the sponsoring organization in year one (Example: programs with four members; one member would be coded as a cost share member, the sponsor would support the living allowance amount of $11,136).

Days of Service

The Iowa State Office supports the development of supplementary service projects to commemorate national and state-wide days of service.  While there is a long list of possible Days of Service, the Iowa State Office specifically focuses on Martin Luther King, Jr. Days of Service (or MLK Day), AmeriCorps Week and 9/11 Day of Service and Remembrance.  

VISTA members and sponsors are expected to take the opportunity on these Days of Service to conduct outreach to diverse populations and engage potential new partners.  All VISTA projects are expected to organize and participate in a Day of Service project that not only promotes community volunteering but also focuses on the CNCS Strategic Plan Focus Areas.

Rural Community Development

VISTA seeks a balanced portfolio of urban and rural programming. VISTA will, therefore, continue to invest resources to move people in rural communities out of poverty. The VISTA program will support programming in rural low-income communities that respond to the CNCS strategic Focus Areas and Objectives, as noted above.

SCHEDULE:

In Attachment 1a you will find a tentative outline of the VISTA application process for the Iowa State Office from Concept Paper to VISTA member placement.  This is not all-encompassing, but will provide an overview of the application process from start to finish.

Please note: this is an intensive timeline from Concept Paper submission to VISTA member nomination and placement.  Potential sponsors will need to be available and work closely with the CNCS Iowa State Office during this fast paced time frame in order to be successful.  

CNCS PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENTS:

The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) Performance Measurement framework provides a common focal point for CNCS' work across all programs and initiatives. CNCS has a focused set of Agency-Wide Priority Measures derived from the 2011-2015 Strategic Plan. Every CNCS Program will contribute to the Agency-Wide Priority Measures. There are also specific grantee/sponsor measures that roll up into the Agency-Wide Priority Measures, which you can see in the Agency-Wide Priority Measures chart. Each CNCS Program also has Complementary Program Measures to collect additional performance information. See how the VISTA program measures fit in with the 16 Agency-Wide Priority Measures.

VISTA performance measures: http://www.nationalserviceresources.org/npm/vista

HOW TO APPLY: Applying for VISTA is a multi-tiered process.  Organizations interested in hosting VISTA members need to submit a concept paper.  If the concept paper is accepted, your organization will be invited to submit a full application to the State Office for review and approval.

If your organization would like to proceed with applying to become a VISTA sponsor in order to develop or enhance a community-supported anti-poverty project, please visit http://www.nationalservice.gov/sites/default/files/documents/ac_vista_concept.pdf   for the Concept Paper instructions.  

Concept Papers are due by January 3, 2014 at noon.

All interested organizations must submit the Concept Paper in an electronic format (Microsoft Word or a PDF format are recommended) to ia@cns.gov by 12:00 pm Central Time on January 3, 2014.

The Iowa State Office will not be able to accept VISTA Concept Papers submitted via eGrants as the Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) is still pending final approvals.    

When submitting the concept paper in an electronic format to ia@cns.gov, please indicate “VISTA Concept Paper” in the subject line along with your organizations name.  

Only concept papers submitted by 12:00 pm Central Time on January 3, 2014 to ia@cns.gov will be considered.  The submission of a concept paper does not guarantee approval or commitment of VISTA resources.  Each submission is evaluated on its merits and is subject to the availability of resources.  Upon approval of the concept paper, applicants will then be invited to submit an Application for Federal Assistance through the eGrants system.  The tentative application timeline is sound in Attachment 1a. 

Technical Assistance: The CNCS Iowa State Office will be hosting a technical assistance call/webinar on December 5, 2013 at 1:00 p.m. central time.  If you are interested in learning more about the Request for Concept Papers (RFCP) please attend the call/webinar at:  

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Meeting information
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Topic: Iowa VISTA Request for Concept Paper process technical assistance call
Date: Thursday, December 5, 2013
Time: 1:00 pm, Central Standard Time (Chicago, GMT-06:00)

Audio Info:

Phone:  877.953.4376
Code:  61187838

Webinar Link: Go to https://cncs.webex.com/cncs/j.php?ED=46124738&UID=483531212&PW=NMDdlZjliYmVi&RT=MiM3


Meeting Number: 310 263 006
Meeting Password: vista

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FOR MORE INFORMATION: Corporation for National and Community Service, Iowa State Program Office, 515-284-4816 or ia@cns.gov.

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