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 no cost," Ashmore said, adding that teams typically arrive with basic tools and expect only simple housing and food support from the host community.

Ashmore also summarized AmeriCorps operating grants Volunteer Maine runs. Under one formula program he described, host organizations may request between two and five full‑time equivalent AmeriCorps positions; each FTE is funded at roughly $27,000 through the grant and that money primarily covers living allowances and associated personnel costs. Larger regional or county programs can request more positions and place members in multiple towns.

For very small or resource‑limited municipalities, Ashmore outlined Volunteer Maine’s service‑fellows program, which places paid fellows in eligible rural towns for roughly year‑long assignments to advance specific projects such as resiliency planning. He said eligibility follows federal rural coding: much of northern, eastern and western Maine qualifies, while several more populous counties are excluded; towns under 5,000 in some service areas may be eligible. (Specific county lists and town eligibility were described during the webinar and should be confirmed with Volunteer Maine.)

Disaster response was another emphasis. Ashmore said NCCC personnel receive basic FEMA training and can be used for debris removal, muck‑and‑gut operations, and for setting up volunteer reception and management systems after a disaster. He noted that, in declared disasters, teams can sometimes deploy on short notice and that Volunteer Maine coordinates with the Maine Emergency Management Agency to manage unsolicited volunteers and donations.

Beyond deployments and grants, Ashmore pushed volunteer management as an organizational skill municipalities can develop. He described Volunteer Maine’s training offerings — from an online volunteer‑management certificate to in‑person service enterprise training and a monthly Volunteer Managers Network — and argued municipalities should treat volunteers as a human‑resource to be planned, screened, onboarded and recognized rather than left to ad hoc recruitment.

Ashmore cited local examples of service programs and placements — including trail projects, waterfront park work in Bangor and school garden builds — to illustrate what teams and members have accomplished in Maine. He also said Volunteer Maine is coordinating climate‑service efforts (the Maine Climate Corps brand) and working on pathways that connect service roles to employment and credentials with partners including the Department of Labor and the Governor’s Energy Office.

Tom Mariola said the webinar recording and Ashmore’s slides will be posted to the Municipal Planning Assistance Program website; Ashmore said he would send a PDF of the presentation to Tom for distribution and offered to talk with municipalities about planning projects and grant opportunities. The presentation included links and resources that Ashmore said he would share via the posted materials.

For municipalities contemplating volunteer‑led projects or applying for service funding, Ashmore recommended starting with a clear needs assessment and project plan (for example: housing for an NCCC team and a defined scope of work), and to use Volunteer Maine as a partner for training and grant planning.

Ending note: Tom Mariola closed by reminding attendees the next webinar in the Maine Planning Basics series will be a Floodplain 101 session on April 4 and that materials from this session will be available online.