Volunteer Maine highlights no‑cost NCCC teams, AmeriCorps grants and volunteer management support for municipalities

Tom Mariola, Senior Planner with the Municipal Planning Assistance Program at the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, opened the March webinar by introducing Michael Ashmore, program development and training officer for Volunteer Maine (the Maine Commission for Community Service).

Michael Ashmore told webinar attendees that Volunteer Maine offers multiple programs that municipalities can use to add capacity, from short deployments of National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) teams to multi‑year AmeriCorps grants and a new service‑fellows placement stream for smaller towns. "Volunteerism matters, that service matters because it engenders personal and civic responsibility," Ashmore said, describing the commission’s mission and the statewide programs it manages.

The nut of Ashmore’s message was practical: communities can request federal‑service teams or apply for funding and training to expand local capacity. He described NCCC teams as campus‑based crews that deploy on roughly eight‑week "spikes" and can carry out construction, trail work, habitat projects and disaster response. "You can request an NCCC team to come to your town, at…