WAICC History, Vision, and Goals

Washington State InterCorps Council

History, Vision, and Goals

During the 1997-1998 program year, four AmeriCorps Leaders were responsible for the development of an InterCorps Council (ICC) in Washington. Through suggestions, and work done through focus groups with members, the group was able to successfully implement Washington’s first InterCorps Council. Amongst their accomplishments, the ICC held a statewide training on "A Successful Day of Service: Practical Applications to MLK Day." For the 1997-1998 program year, the AmeriCorps Leaders identified four objectives for the ICC to be:

Collaboration amongst programs on days of service

Sharing resources (regionally and statewide)

Provide training opportunities

Development of innovative ways to unify AmeriCorps in Washington State

For the 1999-2000 program year, the ICC in Washington State met as regional councils.

Overall, the goals of an ICC are:

To promote the Corporation for National Service and an ethic of service
To facilitate regional, as well as statewide, communication amongst National Service members
To encourage collaboration between streams of service by planning training sessions, service projects, and social activities for National Service members in their regions
To support the Washington Commission for National and Community Service (WCNCS) and the Corporation for National Service- Washington State Office (CNS-WA) in planning and implementing state wide activities such as the AmeriCorps Launch, and MLK day of service events.
Serve as an Advisory Council for the WCNCS and CNS-WA to communicate state and national member concerns and ideas.

Membership

Members of the ICC will include Washington Leader Corps members who will initially take the lead facilitation role in the regional ICC meetings. Each AmeriCorps, VISTA, and RSVP program or team may nominate representatives to attend regional ICC meetings.

ICC Vision Statement:

The InterCorps council is a diverse, all-inclusive council representing all streams of National Service in Washington State to the Corporation for National Service and the Washington State Commission. We will serve as a clearinghouse for member’s ideas and will advocate for members concerns and issues. We are committed to the improvement of cross-stream communication, collaboration and networking, including outreach to other service organizations. In this process we will be committed to promoting and enhancing leadership skills of ICC Members.

ICC Objectives

Define regional council boundaries

Establish and recruit a diverse corps of members that represent all streams of service

Define a plan that addresses cross-stream collaboration to focus on national service day projects

Create an advisory council of alumni with the idea that alumni will help to create a sustainable Inter Corps Council

Determine a plan/forum to address members concerns and regional needs

The ICC will provide a forum for members from all streams of National Service to provide networking and training opportunities, as well as to address member ideas and concerns to better serve the state of Washington. The ICC will be an excellent tool to pool our programs’ resources, and collaboratively support each other in the work and service projects that each are committed to. In addition to inviting current AmeriCorps members to contribute to the ICC, we also extend our invitation out to AmeriCorps alumni to serve the council in an advisory role.