Work Experience

Americorps VISTA volunteers serve full-time for a year at a nonprofit organization or local government agency. The goal is to create or expand programs to bring individuals and communities out of poverty. Full-time members of AmeriCorps VISTA receive modest living allowance, health care, and other benefits. If they complete their service, they will receive $4,725 to pay for college, graduate school, or to pay back qualified student loans.

City Year engages young people ages 17-24 in 10 months of full-time service for children and communities across the country. Participants are trained in leadership skills. They serve as tutors, mentors, and role models in the United States and South Africa. City Year provides a uniform, a cell phone, health insurance, a weekly stipend and child care coverage.

Goodwill

Job Corps is a great way to complete an education, learn a marketable trade, make friends and graduate with a good job in hand. Each Job Corps center is unique, but they all feature campus-like settings with dormitories where students live.

Peace Corps provides volunteers with a living allowance that enables them to live in a manner similar to the local people in their community. The Peace Corps also provides complete medical and dental care and covers the cost of transportation to and from the country of service. When participants return from their 27 months of service, they receive just over $6,000 toward their transition to life back home. This money can be used for securing housing.