This five-year project for AmeriCorps builds on the accomplishments of several previous projects for the independent federal agency since 2012, including Evidence and Evaluation Support for AmeriCorps State and National Grantees, and AmeriCorps Grantee Evaluation Monitoring and Guidance. This follow-on project is intended to support the agency’s continued, long-term effort to integrate evidence and evaluative thinking into all agency-funded programs and initiatives. NORC at the University of Chicago is providing that direction through a set of comprehensive technical assistance and evaluation capacity-building activities that encompass the four major stages of evaluation: planning, design, implementation, and scaling.

This project calls for several specific activities, organized into the following major tasks over the project’s life span:

• Support evaluation planning
  
• Support evaluation implementation
  
• Provide guidance and technical assistance on evidence building and reporting for AmeriCorps Seniors and VISTA programs
  
• Provide guidance and assistance on scaling
  
• Assess needs for an organizational capacity assessment tool