Prohibited Activities for AmeriCorps Members

While wearing anything that affiliates you as an AmeriCorps member, you may not participate in or count AmeriCorps hours while engaging in any of the following activities:

  1. Attempting to influence legislation

  2. Organizing or engaging in protests, petitions, boycotts, or strikes

  3. Assisting, promoting, or deterring union organizing

  4. Impairing existing contracts for services or collective bargaining agreements

  5. Engaging in partisan political activities, or other activities designed to influence the outcome of an election to any public office

  6. 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

  7. 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

  8. Conducting a voter registration drive or using CNCS funds to conduct a voter registration drive

  9. Providing abortion services or referrals for receipt of such services; and such other activities as CNCS may prohibit.

  10. Providing a direct benefit to— i. A business organized for profit; ii. A labor union; iii.A partisan political organization iv. A nonprofit organization that fails to comply with the restrictions contained in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 related to engaging in political activities or substantial amount of lobbying except that nothing in these 9 provisions shall be construed to prevent participants from engaging in advocacy activities undertaken at their own initiative; and v. An organization engaged in the religious activities described in paragraph 3.g. above, unless CNCS assistance is not used to support those religious activities

For more information refer to the Handbook or Guidebook above.

Program Code of Conduct

  • Members are expected to dress and behave appropriately.

  • Members always need to wear something that identifies them as an AmeriCorps member while they serve (button, pin, lanyard, name tag). Your Campus Coordinator will provide this to you when you are fully enrolled.

  • When interacting with the media, programs should clearly represent themselves as an AmeriCorps program and members as AmeriCorps members. All communication pieces involving AmeriCorps in any way are required to include “AmeriCorps” and/or the AmeriCorps logo.

  • Members who commit certain crimes while serving will be exited from the program without award. Specific offenses, sexual harassment, and Drug-Free Workplace topics can be found in the member handbook on OUSF website.

  • Members also have access to grievance procedures to ensure that their treatment in AmeriCorps is both fair and appropriate. You can find more information about our grievance procedure on OUSF website.