Serve DC — The Mayor’s Office on Community Service announced today that three District organizations will receive more than $1.5 million in AmeriCorps grants from the Corporation for National and Community Service. 

The grants will support 317 AmeriCorps members who will meet vital needs across the District, including youth outreach, one-on-one student tutoring, HIV/AIDS education and neighborhood beautification.  

The 2009 grant recipients are City Year, Inc., which unites young people for a year of full-time service; Jumpstart for Young Children, Inc., which brings at-risk preschool children together with adults through one-to-one relationships that focus on building literacy in combination with social and emotional readiness; and the Latin American Youth Center, a multicultural community-based organization whose mission is to support youth and their families.

The organizations receiving funding were selected in a highly competitive national process after being recommended by Serve DC — The Mayor’s Office on Volunteerism, which plays a key role in promoting volunteering and administering AmeriCorps programs in the District.

AmeriCorps is a national service program that engages Americans of all ages and backgrounds in service to meet critical needs in education, the environment, public safety and other areas. Its members serve in thousands of nonprofit and faith-based organizations in rural and urban communities throughout the nation.

Last month President Obama signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, landmark legislation that will increase opportunities for Americans of all ages to serve, put AmeriCorps on a path to grow from 75,000 to 250,000 annual positions by the year 2017, and strengthen social innovation and volunteer generation in America’s nonprofit sector.