Field Corps Overview
Please note: Updated details and the application for Field Corps 2011 will posted here on Monday, December 6. To receive an email reminder, please sign-up here.
Overview
ServeNext.org uses the power of grassroots action to advance volunteerism, service, and AmeriCorps as strategies to tackle our most pressing social challenges and strengthen our democracy.
Over the last few years, ServeNext has organized a variety of grassroots campaigns to engage stakeholders of the service movement to collectively use their voices to help educate decision-makers across sectors and the general public about the value of service organizations.
We created Field Corps to better structure our grassroots efforts to be more durable and scalable by developing leaders who are reliable and accountable to results. In 2010, the first year of the program, we selected 10 Field Corps Organizers to lead grassroots efforts in key locations around the country.
The program aims to develop selected participants into well-trained and well-connected organizers that build and lead local networks of constituents. These networks will unite stakeholders from across the service movement: community volunteers, nonprofit staff and leadership, AmeriCorps alumni, teachers who work with service and service-learning programs, recipients of service, local business leaders, youth and seniors in service, faith-based community, college students, and more. The goal is simple: use collective grassroots action to engage members of congress and other key decision makers about the impact of the service field so they will be more likely to support it.
Program Details
Field Corps is a selective, 12-month commitment designed to fit the schedules of working professionals. We select cohorts with diverse backgrounds, community leadership abilities and ambitions, eager to gain new skills and relationships, and, of course, passionate about service and social change.
Core activities of Field Corps Organizers include:
- Support and mobilize a local Network of fellow constituents and a local leadership council.
- Cultivate strong relationships with local leaders in politics, business, media, faith-based, etc., as well as with partners in the service field.
- Deliver presentations and lead meetings about the service movement to recruit more people to ServeNext Networks and encourage more people to serve.
Benefits for Field Corps Organizers include:
- Receive extensive training in areas such as communications, strategic planning, community organizing, online outreach and new media strategies, legislative advocacy, electoral engagement, and more. This will take place at the retreat and through distance one-on-one training during the six month program.
- Make extensive connections with a wide-range of leaders and community members.
- All expenses paid for both of the three day Field Corps training retreats (March and September).
- A stipend
Program Requirements
- Travel to and participate in both training retreats in their entirety.
- Applicants must possess a strong background in the service field OR a genuine passion for the role service can play in addressing social challenges and improving democracy.
- Applicants should be able to demonstrate a previous commitment to improving and serving their current communities.
- While traditional community organizing experience is not required, experience organizing and motivating a group of people towards a common goal is.
- Applicants plan to live in their current area of residence for the foreseeable future.
- Organizers will need to commit about 10-15 hours per week for the duration of the program.
Growth Plans
ServeNext is building a permanent grassroots advocacy infrastructure that is national in scope and grows continuously. Pursuing this goal requires great local leaders. Each year we will add an addition several positions to our annual Field Corps class while continuing to support Organizers to lead the already established ServeNext Networks.