Communities In Schools Affiliates Awarded $1.9 Million in AmeriCorps Grant Money

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Jun 15, 2010, 02:53 ET

ARLINGTON, Va., June 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Communities In Schools is proud to announce that several of its affiliates have been awarded more than $1.9 million in AmeriCorps grants to help improve education and mentoring around the country.

Communities In Schools of Arizona, the project lead for a multi-state campaign entitled "Eliminating Roadblocks to School Success," was awarded $1,195,286 in funding. The grant will provide for 92 AmeriCorps members to serve as full-time coordinators in Communities In Schools local affiliates in Arizona, Washington state, Pennsylvania, Detroit and New Orleans. The school-based coordinators are expected to begin work in October.

In addition, Communities In Schools of Central Texas received $709,578 in AmeriCorps funding to continue its work with students in local elementary and middle schools. The funding will allow many of the 96 AmeriCorps members there to work with the same students as before, following them to the next grade to provide mentoring, academic support and in-class tutoring as well as assistance with service-learning projects.

"This grant allows us to position school-based coordinators, who are the axis of our unique model, into more schools, thereby delivering needed resources directly to more students ," said Dan Cardinali, president of Communities In Schools.

The AmeriCorps grants, totaling $234 million nationwide, are the first to be released under a law signed by President Obama in April of 2009. The law is designed to boost the number of participants in the national service program from 75,000 to 250,000 by 2017. With this new round of grants, more than 57,000 AmeriCorps members are expected to be put to work in communities around the country this fall.

Communities In Schools surrounds students with a community of support, empowering them to stay in school and achieve in life. Through a school-based coordinator, Communities In Schools connects students and their families to critical community resources tailored to local needs. Working in nearly 3,300 schools in the most challenged communities, in 26 states and the District of Columbia, Communities In Schools serves more than 1.3 million young people and their families. It has become the nation's leading dropout prevention organization, and the only one proven to increase graduation rates and decrease dropout rates.

Visit our website at www.communitiesinschools.org

SOURCE Communities In Schools