Richmond Healthy Futures Opioid Prevention and Economic Opportunities Program [RHOPE] returns to the Virginia AmeriCorps portfolio maintaining existing partnerships and services focusing on opioid recovery. They will expand their program to include workforce development services for community members disproportionately affected by the economic impact of COVID-19.

The College of Engineering at Virginia Tech will engage 15 AmeriCorps members in activities to support the STEM education needs of students in rural communities affected by COVID-19. Building off the success of student activities and partnerships with teachers through the VT PEERS project, members will help design and assemble hands-on engineering activity kits and virtual tutorials which can be distributed by teachers and completed by middle and high school youth either at schools or at home.

Boxerwood Education Association (BEA) in Lexington is taking on a planning grant to design an AmeriCorps program to meet the needs of youth development and environmental education nonprofits in Rockbridge County, Buena Vista, and Lexington. BEA plans to design a model that addresses community needs by placing local young adult AmeriCorps members with community-based organizations focused on the mutually reinforcing areas of education and environmental stewardship.