The American Legion Auxiliary asserts a national leadership role in voluntary service to veterans, servicemembers, and their families by organizing and managing the Call to Service Corps. The Call to Service Corps annually enlists a group of talented and dedicated full-time AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps VISTA members to build the capacity of Auxiliary National Headquarters, Auxiliary state departments, and other nonprofit military, veteran and civilian organizations to increase their resources and services to those who are serving and have served our great nation. With nearly 20 organizations beyond our own departments benefitting from the ALA Call to Service Corps, the Auxiliary is in a premier national spotlight unparalleled in our organization’s more than 90-year history.
The Call to Service Corps is supported by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), a federal agency that administers the AmeriCorps, AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America), and other national service programs. The CNCS is now the ALA’s largest external funder, investing more than $1 million of human resources and financial support into the ALA Call to Service Corps.
The Call to Service Corps has two components – the Call to Service Corps VISTA Project and the Call to Service Corps Consortium.
ALA Call to Service Corps VISTA Project
The ALA Call to Service Corps VISTA Project enhances the capacity of the Auxiliary to generate volunteer service by The American Legion Family targeted toward poverty alleviation by and for veterans, military servicemembers and their families. The project traces its history to 2009, when the Auxiliary was awarded a special one-year AmeriCorps VISTA project and an assignment of 19 AmeriCorps VISTA members through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. In 2010, the Auxiliary leveraged successes from its first year to receive a three-year annually renewable grant to continue the project. Call to Service Corps members serving ALA National Headquarters through this project develop training, technical assistance, tools and resources for use by Auxiliary state departments and local units for volunteer recruitment, retention, engagement, management and program development. Corps members assigned to departments implement volunteer development, community service, communications and fund development activities.
ALA Call to Service Corps Consortium
The ALA Call to Service Corps Consortium builds and enhances the capacity of consortium member organizations to individually and collaboratively generate and provide volunteer service by and to military servicemembers, veterans and their families. The project launched in 2010, when the Auxiliary stepped forward in the spirit of service to other organizations with common purpose to our own to serve as an intermediary organization for receiving and placing AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps VISTA members in a range of nonprofit military, veteran and civilian organizations. Call to Service Corps members assigned to organizations in the consortium perform capacity building and direct service activities. Their range of activities includes organization needs assessment, volunteer management, marketing and communications, event planning and execution, program development, and service delivery.
ALA Call to Service Corps Members
Our stellar group of ALA Call to Service Corps members is diverse and includes veterans, military spouses, relatives of veterans and servicemembers, Legion Family members, civilians, young adults, mid-career professionals, and retirees – each responding to the Auxiliary’s call to Service Not Self.
ALA Call to Service Corps Consortium Members
The American Legion Auxiliary is proud to support the veteran and military mission work of the following organizations that belong to the ALA Call to Service Corps Consortium:
• American Red Cross National Headquarters
• American Red Cross, South Florida Region
• Big Brothers Big Sisters of America
• Blue Star Families
• Give an Hour
• Madison Street Veterans Association
• Military Officers Association of America
• National Military Family Association
• Operation Homefront
• Ride 2 Recovery
• Senior Volunteer Services
• Still Serving Veterans
• Student Veterans of America
• Tennessee’s Community Assistance Corporation
• The Mission Continues
• Veterans Innovation Center