FAQs

California Volunteers is the State Service Commission responsible for engaging Californians in service, volunteering, and civic action to tackle our State’s most pressing challenges and lift up all communities. California Volunteers has engaged local communities through innovative and impactful grant making and program development at both the state and local levels for nearly 30 years. By supporting more than 4,000 AmeriCorps State Fellows annually, California Volunteers aims to inspire the next generation of civic leaders, create a pathway to debt-free college, and build a culture of service and civic engagement in California.

The CaliforniansForAll College Fellowship is a Governor’s initiative administered by California Volunteers in partnership with California colleges and universities with a strong commitment to civic and community engagement. The purpose of this initiative is to build the next generation of civic leaders by engaging college students from all backgrounds in meaningful community service, while providing them with a path toward reducing college debt. In this way, the CaliforniansForAll College Fellowship will help mitigate the disproportionate impacts – for both students and communities - of the COVID-19 public health emergency.

The College Fellowship will advance three primary goals: 

• Goal 1: Engage college students in meaningful service opportunities that build leadership skills and civic responsibility. 
• Goal 2: Help students from diverse backgrounds graduate college on time and with less debt; 
• Goal 3: Support the work of community-based organizations focused on key local priorities (e.g. K-12 Education, Food Insecurity, Climate Action).

Each participating university will receive a 19-month grant to support first the planning, and then the program  implementation for the first year of the College Fellowship on their campus. Subsequent awards to grantees for the second cohort of students are contingent upon successful completion of the first-year of implementation, with amendments being awarded to those programs for the following fiscal year.