The Columbian | Serving Clark County, Washington

A one-year, $624,000 AmeriCorps grant might save the Northwest Service Academy.

The grant — awarded by the Washington State Commission for National and Community Service — is enough to fund the program’s Mount Adams facility in Trout Lake and 48 full-time volunteers.

The academy received a tough break this year when it lost $11.4 million in national funding. It closed an office in Portland last week, and expected to close the Mount Adams facility in December and to phase out all programming by the year’s end.

The new grant is expected to bring in $1.2 million after contributions from community partners.

“This grant is good news for us,” said Tim Foley, executive director of the academy. “It means we will be able to meet community needs,” and can determine how to continue meeting those needs.

The Northwest Service Academy is an AmeriCorps program administered by Educational Service District 112. In the past, it placed nearly 500 volunteers annually with schools, nonprofit groups and government agencies to help with community service and environmental projects in the Pacific Northwest.

The program typically attracts people starting careers in the environmental or educational realms, Foley said. Volunteers earn a modest stipend and an education award after a successful term of service.

Staffers aren’t sure why the academy lost national funding this year.

“We were told it was very competitive,” Foley said. The group plans to change its priorities to try to make the program more attractive to AmeriCorps nationally.

“We have to retool ourselves,” he said. The group is looking at the new grant application and will soon “get back to the drawing board” to try to secure lost funding.

Print this article