TerraCorps Receives Funds to Make National Service Opportunities More Accessible

Smithfield, RI, June 21, 2023: TerraCorps, an environmental nonprofit that runs an AmeriCorps national service program, has received multi-year grant funding from a private foundation to increase the stipend its service members receive by 44% beginning in August 2023. By supporting TerraCorps, the anonymous foundation hopes that the conservation career pathway established by the organization will become more accessible to a diversity of people who are underrepresented in the environmental workforce.

“The TerraCorps service model has proven to be an effective pathway for the next generation of leaders to launch environmental careers,” says TerraCorps President and CEO David Graham Wolf. “Over 80 organizations in our sector have hired TerraCorps alumni and 75% of alums are currently working in a career directly related to their TerraCorps service. This funding will make TerraCorps opportunities more accessible to some people who otherwise might not be able to make the economics of national service work.”

TerraCorps partners with a network of 40+ nonprofits throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island focused on community needs related to local land conservation and sustainable agriculture including land trusts, watershed councils, and community farms and gardens. These partners act as service sites for a new cohort of up to 60 AmeriCorps service members annually.

Audubon Society of Rhode Island has been selected as a TerraCorps service site for the 2023-24 service year, which runs from August 28, 2023, through July 26, 2024.

Service members are paired with a site supervisor who provides guidance and mentorship while they learn to manage community programs and projects over an 11-month, 1700-hour service term. Members serving at Audubon Society of Rhode Island will focus on environmental conservation and stewardship. They will be involved with property improvement projects and habitat enhancement, bird and wildlife monitoring, and organizing community volunteers.

TerraCorps members receive a $26,667 stipend (pre-tax), healthcare coverage, and may qualify for child care assistance, federal student loan forbearance, and a Segal AmeriCorps Education Award for satisfactory completion.

TerraCorps is currently accepting service member applications. If you are interested in learning more about how serving with TerraCorps will offer you professional experience and opportunity in the environmental sector, please visit terracorps.org/available-member-positions. For additional information about the opportunity to serve with Audubon Society of Rhode Island, please contact: Laura Carberry, Audubon Director of Properties at lcarberry@asri.org. 


About TerraCorps: TerraCorps cultivates an ecosystem of people and organizations that center community land ownership, access, and stewardship to support a diversity of interests that benefit human health and environmental sustainability. We value the power of local nonprofits to best understand and serve their communities. Our goal is to help them succeed by providing them access to the AmeriCorps national service model to build organizational capacity. The program is funded in part by a grant provided by AmeriCorps, a federal agency, and administered in Massachusetts by the Massachusetts Service Alliance and in Rhode Island by ServeRI.

About AmeriCorps: AmeriCorps, a federal agency, brings people together to tackle the country’s most pressing challenges through national service and volunteering. AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers serve with organizations dedicated to the improvement of communities. AmeriCorps helps make service to others a cornerstone of our national culture.