As an intermediary organization, how should we join ServiceYear.org? Should our placement sites all create organization accounts?
If you are an AmeriCorps organization that places members at different host sites, your organization (as the direct grantee) should sign up on ServiceYear.org as the host organization. Individual host sites should not create separate host organization accounts, and can instead work with your organization to recruit for their placements as best fits your branding and recruitment structure.
If your organization does not receive AmeriCorps funding but uses a placement structure, it will likely make sense for you to also sign up as the host organization, and not have your placement sites create separate organization accounts. Please feel free to reach out to our team if you would like to discuss your setup further.
Completing your basic setup:
On ServiceYear.org, you’ll complete your initial setup by adding your organization profile, and one or more positions that describe your program design. Once you have a certified position, you can add as many listings as needed to recruit for it. Since positions are distinct from recruitment listings, you have the option to add one general position that describes your programming at a high level and to decide after becoming certified if you would like to recruit using one listing that represents all placements, or by adding tailored recruitment listings for individual placements.
In most cases, we recommend adding just one position that outlines your program at a high level. This will help you get set up more quickly, give you less information to have to manage over time, and will still give you flexibility on how you want to represent your placements. When completing your position, a few fields that might be helpful to give extra consideration to are:
Total number of members: Make sure this number is representative of all service year corps members who will participate in the program.
Position Description: Think of this as a brief description that summarizes the overall program. If you choose to recruit for specific placements, you’ll have the option later on to add or modify this description for specific listings.
Community Needs Addressed: What are the community needs that this program as a whole will be addressing?
Outcomes: What are the overall goals of this project? What is it seeking to achieve and improve?
Service Activities: What types of activities will service year corps members engage in? This can be a broader description that lists some of the types of activities that members are likely to perform, and does not need to be comprehensive.
Skills gained: What are some of the main skills that members are likely to gain from working in this position? As with other fields, this does not need to be a comprehensive list but should list some of the skills that your service year corps members are likely to develop through their service.
Setting up your recruitment:
We leave it up to you to decide how to best recruit for your program. This means that you can choose between using a more general recruitment listing or adding an unlimited number of listings to represent different placements.
If choosing to add listings for different placements, you’ll also have the option to let staff members from your placement sites join your account to help manage their own recruitment. This can mean letting those team members publish their own listing(s) which utilizes a unique name/description, and setting themselves as the point of contact to help manage recruitment for that opportunity. You can add staff members from your placement sites as “Program Managers,” which allows account access to only recruitment and corps member management functions.
If choosing this option, share this article with team members from your host sites. This will share info on how they can request access to join your organization account, and how they can set up their recruitment listing and manage recruitment once they’ve been added.