YSA: “We Serve to Remember 9/11 Day of Service” Grants – US

Programming efforts should also honor and pay tribute to those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001, their families, and those who rose in service in response to that tragedy.

Grantees are required to engage at least 100 youth as volunteers in planning and implementing the service activities. 80% of the required youth volunteers must identify as youth who are not usually asked to serve and who face systemic barriers to participation. These include:

• Young people of color (Black, Hispanic, Asian, and Indigenous youth);
• Youth from underserved low-income families and neighborhoods; and
• Youth who are often beneficiaries of service, rather than participants in service (youth in rural communities, youth who are homeless, youth in foster care, youth with disabilities, youth in the juvenile justice system, youth who are immigrants or refugees, youth from military families, youth who are LGBTQ+, and youth who are English language learners).

Ineligible Activities

• No, there are no issue-specific requirements. However, because this is a federally-funded grant (Via AmeriCorps dba the Commission for National and Community Service), the following activities are prohibited:
  • Attempting to influence legislation;
  • Organizing or engaging in protests, petitions, boycotts, or strikes;
  • Assisting, promoting, or deterring union organizing;
  • Impairing existing contracts for services or other collective bargaining agreements;
  • Engaging in partisan political activities, or other activities designed to influence the outcome of an election to any public office;
  • Participating in, or endorsing, events or activities that are likely to include advocacy for or against political parties, political platforms, political candidates, proposed legislation, or elected officials;
  • Engaging in religious instruction, conducting worship services, providing instruction as part of a program that includes mandatory religious instruction or worship, constructing or operating facilities devoted to religious instruction or worship, maintaining facilities primarily or inherently devoted to religious instruction or worship, or engaging in any form of religious proselytization;
  • Providing a direct benefit to:
    • A business organized for profit;
    • A labor union;
    • A partisan political organization;
    • A nonprofit organization that fails to comply with the restrictions contained in section 501(c)(3) of the International Revenue Code of 1986;
    • An organization engaged in the religious activities described in paragraph 7 of this section, unless Corporation assistance is not used to support those religious activities.
  • Conducting a voter registration drive or using Corporation funds to conduct a voter registration drive;
  • Providing abortion services or referrals for receipt of such services; and
  • Such other activities as the Corporation may prohibit.

Funding Information

• This year, YSA will award up to 100 grants of $1,000 each.

What they are looking for?

• Projects must be youth-led;
• Projects must include elements to honor and pay tribute to those who lost their lives on 9/11, their families, and those who rose in service in response;
• Projects must take place on or around September 11th National Day of Service and Remembrance (September 11, 2024);
• Applicants must be based in the United States, and activities must benefit people in the United States. This includes American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Washington, D.C

Eligibility Criteria

• If you meet the following criteria, you are eligible to apply for this year’s grant:
  • You are a nonprofit organization, school, afterschool program, government entity, or young person between the ages of 5 and 25;
  • You live in the United States. This includes American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Washington, D.C.; and
  • You are able to implement your proposed project on or around September 11, 2024 (Saturday, September 7, 2024 through Sunday, September 15, 2024).

For more information, visit YSA.