Deadline: 15 June 2020
Supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), the Lead Agency program offers youth development organizations, networks of afterschool programs, community-based organizations, and schools/school districts grant funding, capacity-building training, and ongoing support to effectively engage young people in meaningful service and civic participation activities that put their health and safety first by following guidelines of federal, state, and local governments.
YSA’s 2020-2021 Lead Agency program supports schools and nonprofits that activate youth volunteers on 9/11 Day of Service & Remembrance (September 11, 2020), MLK Day of Service (January 18, 2021), and Global Youth Service Day (April 23-25, 2021).
Lead Agencies are a vital part of increasing youth participation in their communities by engaging new youth volunteers for the first time on national days of service. The primary role of a Lead Agency is to convene a coalition of partners who will collectively activate youth – especially those in middle and high school in under-served communities who aren’t usually asked to participate. Lead Agencies convene partner coalitions of:
- organizations with young people – afterschool, youth development, and extracurricular programs, K-12 schools, colleges and universities, and faith-based organizations, etc.
- organizations with opportunities to serve – community-based organizations, government agencies, volunteer programs, etc.
In turn, these coalitions activate youth, ages 5-25, to lead service or service-learning projects through which they:
- build youth-adult partnerships that create connections with caring adults who encourage young people to use their Sparks (passions, interests, and skills) to help others,
- provide opportunities to learn and practice 21st Century Skills (Collaboration, Communication, Creativity, and Critical Thinking),
- strengthen their community by working towards achieving the Global Goals (17 UN Sustainable Development Goals), and
- LeadASAP (through Awareness, Service, Advocacy, and Philanthropy projects that follow health and safety guidelines of federal, state, and local governments).
Funding Information
For the 2020-2021 program, YSA is offering Lead Agency Grants of up to $9,000, depending on the number of youth volunteers engaged on two or three days of service.
As per funding restrictions, they cannot allow funds for the following projects:
- Attempting to influence legislation;
- Organizing or engaging in protests, petitions, boycotts, or strikes;
- Assisting, promoting, or deterring union organizing;
- Impairing existing contracts for services or collective bargaining agreements;
- Engaging in partisan political activities, or other activities designed to influence the outcome of an election to any public office;
- Participating in, or endorsing events or activities that are likely to include advocacy for or against political parties, political platforms, political candidates, proposed legislation, or elected officials;
- Engaging in religious instruction, conducting worship services, providing instruction as part of a program that includes mandatory religious instruction or worship, constructing or operating facilities devoted to religious instruction or worship, maintaining facilities primarily or inherently devoted to religious instruction or worship, or engaging in any form of religious proselytization.
Benefits
- Providing a direct benefit to—
- A business organized for profit;
- A labor union;
- A partisan political organization;
- A nonprofit organization that fails to comply with the restrictions contained in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 related to engaging in political activities or substantial amount of lobbying except that nothing in these 9 provisions shall be construed to prevent participant from engaging in advocacy activities undertaken at their own initiative;
- An organization engaged in the religious activities unless CNCS assistance is not used to support those religious activities;
- Conducting a voter registration drive or using CNCS funds to conduct a voter registration drive;
- Providing abortion services or referrals for receipt of such services.
Eligibility Criteria
- This grant is only open to schools and organizations based in the United States.
- Applicants should focus on engaging middle and high-school aged youth, especially those from under-served communities. Applicants may work locally, regionally, statewide, or multi-state and must be based in the United States.
For more information, visit https://ysa.org/grant/leadagency/