Spring 2009
First Lady Mari Culver’s Shelter Awareness Day
Service Spotlight- AmeriCorps VISTA Member Melissa Simmermaker
Governor Culver recognizes National Volunteer Week in Iowa
President Obama Signs Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act
Legislature Acts to Expand Service and Honor AmeriCorps
President Obama Issues FY10 Budget Request for National Service
CNCS Launches National Listening Tour on Serve America Act
IOWA LEGISLATURE ACTS UNANIMOUSLY TO EXPAND SERVICE IN IOWA AND HONOR THE WORK OF IOWA AMERICORPS MEMBERS, GOVERNOR TO SIGN BILL LATER THIS MONTH
(Des Moines) Senate File 482 passed unanimously in both the full Senate (49-0) and full House (96-0) creating the Iowa Green Corps, the Iowa Youth Corps and making the AmeriCorps Education Award exempt from state income taxation.
Iowa will become the first state to pass legislation creating a “Green Corps” that mirrors the recently passed federal Clean Energy Corps in the Serve America Act and the second state to make the AmeriCorps Education Award tax exempt.
Future, current and former AmeriCorps members can take advantage of this tax savings if they use their education award while residing in Iowa after January 1st 2010. The Education Award still counts as income for the purposes of Federal Taxes.
The legislation codifies the recently launched Iowa Green Corps and makes it a permanent program model in the Iowa Commission on Volunteer Service’s (ICVS) grant process. It also allows ICVS to merge other funding sources to further stretch the AmeriCorps dollars. The Iowa Green Corps will utilize AmeriCorps members to provide capacity building training and implementation of major transformative projects in communities with an emphasis on energy efficiency, historic preservation, or stormwater reduction and management.
The Iowa Youth Corps Grant program authorizes the ICVS to develop Administrative Rules for summer service and service learning programs targeting communities including programs that target disadvantaged youth in service. Priority will be given to programs that serve communities with disproportionately high drop-out and juvenile crime rates. The Commission will begin developing this program and plans to incorporate the grants into the regular AmeriCorps grant application process. Youth Corps programs will utilize members age 16-25 and will match the federal Youth Corps program criteria and Summer of Service grant criteria.