Do you want to serve communities while exploring a career in conservation? Through AmeriCorps, you have the opportunity to grow your skills, improve people’s lives, and protect the amazing natural world of Western North Carolina.
Conserving Carolina leads two conservation-focused AmeriCorps programs in Western North Carolina: Project Conserve and Summer of Service. Project Conserve members dedicate themselves to a full-time, 11-month service term (with some exceptions). Project Conserve positions are available at 14 conservation organizations throughout Western North Carolina. Summer of Service is a 9-week program at Conserving Carolina for local 17-to-21-year olds.
AmeriCorps Project Conserve
AmeriCorps Project Conserve helps members grow their careers and empowers them to make a meaningful difference throughout their lives. A wide range of Project Conserve positions are available at 13 different conservation organizations in Western North Carolina. Project Conserve members strengthen conservation efforts through important roles that include:
- Promoting healthy waterways
- Restoring natural habitat
- Building and maintaining trails
- Monitoring conserved lands
- Reforesting urban communities
- Leading outings and events
- Educating children and adults
- Supporting citizen science
- Coordinating volunteers
- And more!
Project Conserve members receive a living stipend, education award, and other benefits. Learn more.
Typically, Project Conserve members serve full-time, 11-month terms. Some part-time or shorter-term service positions may also be offered. In most cases, members may apply for a second service term.
People of all ages (18+) are invited to apply. AmeriCorps Project Conserve members are often starting careers in conservation, exploring new career directions, or seeking to expand their skills as community leaders, change-makers, and professionals.
see project conserve opportunities HOW TO APPLY
The Mission and Vision of Project Conserve
The mission of AmeriCorps Project Conserve is to serve Western North Carolina by building stronger, more educated, and more informed communities. Thanks to the dedicated service of AmeriCorps members, community members will better understand the threats to their local environment. They will be equipped with the tools and resources they need to take direct conservation action. And, they will have significant opportunities to take part in conservation activities through volunteering.
Ultimately, we hope to ultimately achieve greater understanding of conservation and to engage people to protect threatened ecosystems in Western North Carolina.
AmeriCorps Summer of Service
Summer of Service is a life-changing 9-week program based in Hendersonville, NC for local young adults between the ages of 17 and 21. This 300-hour program with Conserving Carolina emphasizes personal growth, a deeper connection with the natural world, and an introduction to a range of possible career directions. At the same time, Summer of Service members give back to their communities by supporting valuable conservation projects.
Summer of Service members participate in conservation projects such as:
- Removing kudzu and other invasive plants
- Planting or maintaining community gardens
- Building and improving trails
- Protecting hemlock trees from the hemlock woolly adelgid
- Cleaning up rivers and streams
Summer of Service members are paid a stipend for their service, as well as an education award. Summer of Service members include students in high school, community college, and college, as well as individuals in the workforce.
About AmeriCorps
AmeriCorps, a federal agency, brings people together to tackle the country’s most pressing challenges, through national service and volunteering. AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers serve with organizations dedicated to the improvement of communities. AmeriCorps helps make service to others a cornerstone of our national culture. Learn more at AmeriCorps.gov.
Project Conserve is administered by Conserving Carolina and funded by an AmeriCorps grant from the North Carolina Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service in the office of Governor Roy Cooper, and the critical support of our host sites and community partners.
Commitment to Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion
Conserving Carolina is committed to supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion through our AmeriCorps programs. See our Commitment to Social Justice. In our partnerships with Project Conserve host sites throughout Western North Carolina, we seek to work with organizations that share this commitment.
In Project Conserve, we carry out our commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion in these ways:
- We offer training and support to AmeriCorps members, in order to foster greater understanding of equity, diversity, and inclusion issues, as well as approaches to create positive change.
- We support host sites in their efforts to create a welcoming and inclusive service environment. We encourage them to develop service activities that support social justice goals as well as their overall mission.
- We seek to grow relationships with marginalized communities. We involve AmeriCorps members in community-led projects that address local needs in an equitable and inclusive way.
Read our Commitment to Social Justice
Current AmeriCorps Host Sites
