LEARNS Youth Impact Newsletter: Web 2.0 Ever wonder what a blog, wiki, or RSS feed is? Or what the fuss is all about with MySpace or Facebook? Or if any of these might help you as a volunteer or program manager working with youth? The LEARNS' latest edition of Youth Impact, "MySpace and YouTube and Blogs, Oh My! Enhancing Your Youth Program With Web 2.0 Tools," explains key Web 2.0 technologies and offers ideas on how volunteers and programs can put them to use. Read the newsletter now.

e-Organizer: Web Instruments of Change The e-Organizer, brought to you by the Corporation's training and technical assistance provider, Campaign Consultation, Inc., will show you how to maximize free and inexpensive online tools and resources to mobilize people around issues and within organizations. Access the e-Organizer.

National Conference on Volunteering and Service, June 22-24, 2009 in San Francisco, CA. Mark your calendars today to attend the world's largest gathering of volunteer and civic leaders next June in San Francisco, one of the most innovative and exciting cities in the world! Co-convened by HandsOn Network and the Corporation for National and Community Service, the annual event provides attendees with an opportunity to learn, connect, and be inspired through a wide range of exciting and informative plenary sessions, workshops, special events, service projects, exhibits, specialized "tracks," and more. Past speakers have included Presidents George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter, Colin Powell, Representative John Lewis, Jon Bon Jovi, and many more. For more information and for highlights from Conference 2008, visit www.VolunteeringandService.org.

Volunteering in America (2008) offers comprehensive data on volunteering trends, retention, and the growing voluntourism movement, with state and city rankings and profiles of volunteering trends and demographics — all at a new interactive website. The Resource Center offers tools and resources to address these new findings and strengthen volunteer management. New materials are available on the topics of volunteer retention, recruitment, human capital strategies, cost-effective volunteering and voluntourism.

VISTA Campus Website Launched! VISTA has cut the virtual ribbon on the VISTA Campus, an online learning environment for the VISTA community. Our aim is to support you in your development throughout and beyond your VISTA service. The Campus includes self-paced tutorials and courses, reference materials, discussion boards, a campus bookstore and more to help improve your skills and connect with other VISTAs. Access the site at vistacampus.org.

The Resource Center has a new look!. We have a fresh, clean layout, making it easier to absorb key ideas. You can go directly to key resources on a particular topic using the new Browse feature. RSS feeds bring live news directly from the Corporation for National and Community Service. On the home page, the "Grab & Go" link enables quick resource downloads, including tip sheets and podcasts, and the "Consult a Pro" link provides quick access to featured consultants and T/TA providers. We welcome your Feedback!

Check out four new online tools from Campaign Consultation, Inc. to help increase awareness, knowledge and skills in resource and fund development. These fun, interactive teaching tools cover The Power of Direct Mail, Building Your Case for Support, Business World Travel Kit, and Producing Proposals That Work.

SLICE (Service-Learning Ideas and Curricular Examples) is the newest tool from Learn and Serve America's National Service-Learning Clearinghouse. It's an easy-to-search database with hundreds of high quality service-learning lesson plans, syllabi, and project ideas. Access project plans to organize service-learning in school or out of school, with youth of all ages. Take a look at this powerful new tool by visiting the website at SLICE.

New Web Widgets. The Corporation reach extends into the Web 2.0 world of social networking! The new “widgets” or website badges, enable volunteers, grantees, sponsors, alumni, and others to easily spread the word about the importance of volunteering and service. Included are one for volunteers that reads, "I make a difference. I'm a volunteer" and one for organizations that reads, "Our volunteers make a difference." Newsroom widgets and recruitment widgets are also available. They are designed to be easily installed directly on blogs, MySpace, Facebook and other social networking sites.

State Commissions and Faith-Based and Community Organizations. This easy-to-use course helps commissions assess their ability to minimize obstacles for potential sub-grantees, and it provides commission leaders with a resource for referral and training of staff and others. Also contains resources for building partnerships, and organizational capacity for FBCI work. Created cooperatively by the Corporation for National and Community Service, the National Crime Prevention Council, and ETR Associates. Log in to the Online Learning Center to access this course.

Spirit of Service Award Winners. These annual awards recognize outstanding participants in each of the Corporation’s three main programs—Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and Learn and Serve America. This year, the Corporation and the Points of Light & Hands On Network are instituting a new corporate Spirit of Service Award honoring one company that embodies an ethic of service through its entire business enterprise, including a commitment to engaging employees, customers, and business peers in giving back as a core business practice. Read about the Senior Corps award recipients; AmeriCorps award recipients; and Learn and Serve Recipients Wendy Doromal, Nick Metrakos, and the seventh grade class at Monforton School.

New Senior Corps Marketing Materials. For the first time in many years, new marketing materials have been created for all three Senior Corps programs: RSVP, Foster Grandparents, and Senior Companions. The new brochures video are part of a renewed effort by Senior Corps to attract ages 55 and up to volunteering and service in order to meet critical community needs. All of the new materials drive potential volunteers to GetInvolved.gov. The materials may be ordered from www.nationalservicepubs.org.

New Cross-Sector Partnership between Senior Corps and the Administration on Aging, the National Council on Aging, and Atlantic Philanthropies. This groundbreaking new partnership leverages the strengths of the federal government, private nonprofit, and private philanthropic sectors to increase civic engagement and volunteering by those age 55 and older. The core of the partnership is a grant from the Administration on Aging to the National Council on Aging of $1 million a year for up to three years. The scope of the grants will reach 24 programs. The Corporation has pledged additional research and evaluation resources, as well as help in identifying key partners.

AmeriCorps Week Video Contest Winners were announced at the national conference in Altanta (June 1-3) and are available for viewing at www.americorpscontest.org.

Notice of AmeriCorps Funding Opportunity. The Corporation is announcing the anticipated availability of $67,628,000 to award new and re-competing AmeriCorps State and National grants.

Rigorous Longitudinal Study of AmeriCorps Finds Significant Impacts Eight Years Later. Released in coordination with a Brookings Institution briefing this morning, the study, Still Serving: Measuring the Eight-Year Impact of AmeriCorps on Alumni, is the most rigorous evaluation ever conducted on AmeriCorps’ long-term impacts on its members. The report, executive summary, and other information are at www.NationalService.gov/research/.

President's Council Releases New Toolkit to Help Engage ALL Youth in Service. During National Volunteer Week, the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation launched a new online toolkit, “Youth Engaged in Service (YES): How and Why to Incorporate Volunteer Projects into Your Youth Program”, intended to provide local youth leaders in low-income communities – coaches, ministers, volunteers, and community program coordinators - the tools and resources needed to incorporate youth service into their existing efforts. For more information, visit www.presidentialserviceawards.gov/yes/.