NYC Civic Corps Program Evaluation. Urban Institute. Nathan Dietz, Daniel Teles, Deondre’ Jones. March 14, 2019
New York City shows a tremendous need for robust social services. Nearly 3.8 million people (45 percent of residents) live in poverty or just above the federal poverty level—and income inequality continues to increase. The scope and scale of these issues, among others, require an extensive mobilization of resources to respond effectively, but organizations often lack the capacity to do so. Approximately 5,000 community-based organizations in NYC provide education, health, economic opportunity, or emergency management services, but staff and budget constraints are common.
The Office of the Mayor recognizes these challenges in its long-term strategic plan, One New York: The Plan for a Strong and Just City, and, as part of its vision, seeks to build the capacity of the civic sector through its NYC Service office, which oversees civic engagement. The NYC Service administers the NYC Civic Corps program and connects 100 NYC Civic Corps members, all of whom are AmeriCorps members, with indirect service positions at 50 community-based organizations and city agencies. These connections supply additional support to recruit and manage volunteers.
The Urban Institute conducted an evaluation of the NYC Service Civic Corps program in 2017–2018 to assess how much organizations benefit from the Civic Corps members. The evaluation sought to answer whether NYC Civic Corps members have significantly greater volunteer management capacity, on average, than similar organizations that do not host AmeriCorps members provided by NYC Civic Corps. [Note: contains copyrighted material].
[PDF format, 75 pages].
