Table of Contents
Application Deadline
Foster Grandparent Program Replacement Opportunity
Required Documents
Frequently Asked Questions
Resources for Applicants
Training and Technical Assistance Webinars
This information is intended to support the AmeriCorps Seniors Foster Grandparent Program Replacement and Expansion Opportunity. The actual level of funding is subject to the availability of annual appropriations.
AmeriCorps improves lives, strengthens communities, and fosters civic engagement through service and volunteering. AmeriCorps brings people together to tackle some of the country’s most pressing challenges through national service and volunteerism. AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers serve with organizations dedicated to the improvement of communities and those serving. AmeriCorps helps make service a cornerstone of our national culture.
Established in 1965, the AmeriCorps Seniors Foster Grandparent Program engages adults aged 55 and over to provide caring and experienced tutors and mentors to children and youth with special or exceptional needs, or who would benefit from the one-one-one attention an AmeriCorps Seniors volunteer can provide. AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers serve in schools, Head Starts, drug treatment centers, correctional institutions, and childcare centers. Among other activities, they review schoolwork, reinforce values, teach parenting skills to young parents, and care for premature infants and children with disabilities. AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers often maintain an ongoing, intensive relationship with the children and youth served for a year or longer.
The AmeriCorps Seniors Foster Grandparent Program focuses grantmaking in the education focus area identified by the National and Community Service Act of 1990, as amended by the Serve America Act. Under this focus area, grants must provide and/or facilitate access to services and resources that contribute to improved educational outcomes for economically disadvantaged people, especially children and for children with special and/or exceptional need. Activities may include providing support and/or facilitating access to services and resources that contribute to school readiness, providing support that improves academic performance, and providing support that improves academic engagement.
AmeriCorps Seniors Foster Grandparent Programs that include the following programmatic characteristics will receive priority consideration:
- Organizations leading service in communities with concentrated poverty, rural communities, tribal communities, and those organizations serving historically underrepresented and underserved individuals, including but not limited to communities of color, immigrants and refugees, people with disabilities, people who identify as part of the LGBTQIA+ community, and religious minorities.
- Programs focused on early learning and those that prepare AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers to enter early learning careers.
- Projects that propose to serve states listed in Appendix A: Priority States and Territories.
- Organizations that serve people with arrest and conviction records and provide meaningful reentry opportunities.
- Efforts to help local communities continue to recover from the COVID-19 Pandemic through focused education efforts to address learning loss.
- Programs that support civic bridgebuilding projects (meaning projects that foster respect among diverse communities, strengthen relationships across lines of difference, forge a sense of common civic purpose, and seek to solve a community program and diminish polarization) and provide training in civic bridgebuilding skills and techniques to AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers.
Application Deadline
Application Deadline: Applications are due by 5:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024. Successful applicants will be notified prior to the start date.
AmeriCorps Seniors Foster Grandparent Program Replacement and Expansion Opportunity
Foster Grandparent Replacement and Expansion Opportunity Notice of Funding Opportunity
Grant Application Instructions
Appendix B: Foster Grandparent Program Performance Measure Instructions
Appendix C: Terms and Definitions
Appendix E: Cost per Volunteer Service Year Calculator - posted Nov. 29, 2023
Sample Budget- posted Nov. 13, 2024
Foster Grandparent Program Federal Regulations
Required Documents
All applicants regardless of funding level are required to submit an Operational and Financial Management Survey (OFMS). This link is to an online form, where you will be required to submit your response electronically.
Frequently Asked Questions
Foster Grandparent and Senior Companion Replacement and Expansion Opportunity FAQ - posted Nov. 13, 2023. Updated Dec. 15, 2023
Resources for Applicants
National Service Criminal History Check (NSCHC)
Foster Grandparent Program Regulations
Uniform Guidance § CFR 200
Training and Technical Assistance Webinars and Resources
AmeriCorps Seniors will host a series of webinars to introduce potential applicants to the AmeriCorps Seniors Foster Grandparent Program funding opportunity. Webinar topics will include an overview of AmeriCorps, examples of funded programs, a review of the Notice of Funding Opportunity, budgets, performance measurement, and submitting your application using the eGrants platform. AmeriCorps strongly encourages all potential applicants attend these sessions.
All training and technical assistance webinars will be recorded. The recordings and other related resources will be posted to this page shortly after the webinar’s conclusion.
All pre-recordings and recordings are listed below.
Introducing AmeriCorps, AmeriCorps Seniors, and Its Programs
Pre-recorded
This pre-recorded webinar briefly introduces AmeriCorps, AmeriCorps Seniors, and all its programs.
Tour of the Notice of Funding Opportunity
Pre-Recorded
This pre-recorded webinar reviews the details of each section of the FY 2024 AmeriCorps Seniors Foster Grandparents Program Replacement and Expansion Opportunity.
AmeriCorps Seniors in Action: Mobilizing a Generation
Recorded on Nov. 29, 2023
This webinar provides an overview of programs funded through AmeriCorps Seniors opportunities with a focus on how the program operates to meet the needs of communities and provides examples of volunteer activities.
Identifying Funding Priority Areas in Your Community
Recorded on Dec. 6, 2023
This webinar provides an overview of community needs assessments, community asset mapping, and theory of change to assist applicants with proposing projects that are aligned with both the funding priorities of AmeriCorps Seniors the needs of their communities.
Presentation Slides
Tour of the Notice of Funding Opportunity – Selection Criteria Review
Recorded on Dec. 13, 2023
This webinar reviews the FY 2024 AmeriCorps Seniors Foster Grandparents Program Replacement and Expansion Opportunity selection criteria.
National Performance Measures and Work Plans
Recorded on Jan. 10, 2024
This webinar provides an overview of the funding opportunity focus areas, national performance measures, and suggestions for creating a successful work plan.
Presentation Slides
AmeriCorps National Performance Measures Curriculum
eLearning courses
This series of self-paced eLearning courses provides an overview of performance measurement. AmeriCorps expects all applicants to use the National Performance Measures as part of a comprehensive strategy that relies on both performance and evaluation data to learn from their work and make tactical and strategic adjustments to achieve their goals.
AmeriCorps National Performance Measurement Core Curriculum
Best Practices in Budget Development
Pre-recorded
This pre-recorded webinar, hosted by AmeriCorps Seniors and Office of Grant Administration, review best practices in budget development for AmeriCorps Seniors funding opportunities.
Foster Grandparent Program Office Hours: Budget Q&A
Recorded on Jan. 17, 2024
During this live event, staff from AmeriCorps Seniors and the Office of Grant Administration will answer budget-related questions about the funding opportunity.
Presentation Slides
Foster Grandparent Program Office Hours: General and Performance Measurement Q&A
Recorded on Jan. 18, 2024
During this live event, staff from AmeriCorps Seniors will answer questions related to the general programming, performance measures, and work plans.
AmeriCorps Due Diligence Review and Compliance Training
Pre-recorded
This pre-recorded webinar provides insights to the function of the AmeriCorps due diligence process and how to obtain and maintain compliance, prior to receiving an AmeriCorps award and throughout the lifetime of an AmeriCorps grant.
Submitting Your Application in eGrants
Pre-recorded
This pre-recorded webinar walks through eGrants, AmeriCorps’ electronic grants management system, step-by-step.