Federal Independent Agencies
News releases, reports, statements and associated documents from federal independent agencies.
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Richmond Fed's Economic Quarterly Analyzes the Role of CDS in Sovereign Debt Crises
RICHMOND, Virginia, Sept. 30 -- The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond issued the following news release:
In the latest issue of Economic Quarterly, researchers at the Richmond Fed suggest that large dealers of credit default swaps (CDS) can provide liquidity in times of financial distress by shouldering credit risk that smaller traders want to unload.
The researchers, led by economist Bruno Sultanum, study the average positions of large CDS dealers close to sovereign credit crises in Argentina, Venezuela, and Ukraine. In these cases, they find that large dealers tended to sell CDS as risk increased
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RICHMOND, Virginia, Sept. 30 -- The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond issued the following news release:
In the latest issue of Economic Quarterly, researchers at the Richmond Fed suggest that large dealers of credit default swaps (CDS) can provide liquidity in times of financial distress by shouldering credit risk that smaller traders want to unload.
The researchers, led by economist Bruno Sultanum, study the average positions of large CDS dealers close to sovereign credit crises in Argentina, Venezuela, and Ukraine. In these cases, they find that large dealers tended to sell CDS as risk increasedand buy CDS as risk decreased.
This behavior is the opposite of what one would expect if the large dealers were merely taking speculative bets, as some commentators have contended.
This issue of Economic Quarterly also features "Inflation Target Zones as a Commitment Mechanism" by Richmond Fed economist Felipe Schwartzman. Economic Quarterly is a free publication containing economic analysis pertinent to Federal Reserve monetary and banking policy.
NCD Chairman to Keynote Symposium on Health Equity
WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 -- The National Council on Disability issued the following news:
National Council on Disability (NCD) Chairman Neil Romano will be the keynote speaker at Achieving Health Equity through Access for All with Disabilities (AHEAD) Symposium Oct. 2.
The virtual event, hosted by NYU College of Dentistry, will bring together experts in the areas of health care advocacy, access, and funding at the state and federal levels for people with disabilities to discuss improving access to oral health care for people with disabilities.
Following Chairman Romano's keynote, panel discussions
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WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 -- The National Council on Disability issued the following news:
National Council on Disability (NCD) Chairman Neil Romano will be the keynote speaker at Achieving Health Equity through Access for All with Disabilities (AHEAD) Symposium Oct. 2.
The virtual event, hosted by NYU College of Dentistry, will bring together experts in the areas of health care advocacy, access, and funding at the state and federal levels for people with disabilities to discuss improving access to oral health care for people with disabilities.
Following Chairman Romano's keynote, panel discussionswill focus on funding and access issues; the family/provider relationship; the impact of COVID-19 on the disabilities community; and the importance of public-private partnerships in advancing access to care.
Details on the symposium and registration for this open to the public event are available at dental.nyu.edu/ahead.
Mr. Romano was appointed to NCD in February 2015 by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. He was reappointed for a second term of three years by McConnell, and was designated as Chairman by President Donald J. Trump on Feb. 28, 2018.
First established as an advisory council within the Department of Education in 1978, NCD became an independent federal agency in 1984. In 1986, NCD recommended enactment of an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and drafted the first version of the bill which was introduced in the House and Senate in 1988. Since enactment of the ADA in 1990, NCD has continued to play a leading role in crafting disability policy, and advising the President, Congress and other federal agencies on disability policies, programs, and practices.
NAE Transitions the Management of the Online Ethics Center to the University of Virginia
WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 -- The National Academy of Engineering issued the following news release on Sept. 29:
The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) announced today the transition of the Online Ethics Center for Engineering and Science (OEC) to the University of Virginia School of Engineering (UVA Engineering), effective October 1.
Since 2007 the NAE has managed the OEC and has expanded its resources and reach as well as the active engagement of the community. The OEC has provided engineers, scientists, faculty, and students with educational resources for understanding and addressing ethically
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WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 -- The National Academy of Engineering issued the following news release on Sept. 29:
The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) announced today the transition of the Online Ethics Center for Engineering and Science (OEC) to the University of Virginia School of Engineering (UVA Engineering), effective October 1.
Since 2007 the NAE has managed the OEC and has expanded its resources and reach as well as the active engagement of the community. The OEC has provided engineers, scientists, faculty, and students with educational resources for understanding and addressing ethicallysignificant issues that arise both in the practice and from developments in science and engineering. It has also served those who promote learning and advance understanding of responsible research and practice in engineering and science.
"The NAE is gratified to transfer the OEC over to UVA Engineering where this center can benefit from enthusiastic student participation and thrive in its mission to provide the resources needed to address our world's ethically significant problems in engineering and science," said NAE Executive Officer, Alton D. Romig, Jr. "This center has been a feature initiative of NAE and we are confident that UVA Engineering will expand it under their leadership."
Going forward, UVA will host OEC's vast library of online resources and serve the engineering and science community using funding provided under a current grant from the National Science Foundation.
"We are proud to be the new home for the Online Ethics Center," UVA Engineering Dean Craig H. Benson said. "We look forward to continuing the center's mission of supporting students and professionals as they strive to apply engineering, science and technology concepts with the best interests of society in mind. This aligns very well with UVA Engineering's core values for leadership with integrity and good judgment."
Rosalyn W. Berne, associate professor of science, technology and society in the Department of Engineering and Society at UVA Engineering who has led the center for the National Academy of Engineering since 2018, will continue as the center's director at UVA.
"Serving as the principal investigator for the OEC is a humbling responsibility," Berne said. "I remember Caroline Whitbeck, the OEC founder, and how important this site was in the earlier days of ethics education, before search engines like Google were there to help us to find ethics resources for our teaching and research. OEC has become a vast and rich digital collection of ethics resources. The opportunity before us now is to evolve the OEC into an active space of collaboration and engagement for those interested in ethics in engineering, science and social sciences."
Arizona State University and Illinois Institute of Technology will continue to serve as co-principal investigators. The NAE will discontinue the management of OEC effective September 30, and disestablish the Center for Engineering Ethics and Society (CEES), which has maintained the OEC at the NAE for 13 years.
Ongoing program redesign efforts are considering an expanded purview for NAE on matters of cultural, ethical, social, and environmental responsibility in engineering.
N.Y. Fed President Williams: A Solution to Every Puzzle
NEW YORK, Sept. 30 -- The Federal Reserve Bank of New York issued the following remarks via videoconference on Sept. 29 by President and CEO John C. Williams at the U.S. Treasury Market Conference:
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Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the sixth annual U.S. Treasury Market Conference. I wish we were able to meet in person at the New York Fed. But, while the location for this year's conference may have moved from an auditorium to your living room, the goal remains the same: To bring together market participants and representatives from five public sector bodies--the New York Fed, the Board
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NEW YORK, Sept. 30 -- The Federal Reserve Bank of New York issued the following remarks via videoconference on Sept. 29 by President and CEO John C. Williams at the U.S. Treasury Market Conference:
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Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the sixth annual U.S. Treasury Market Conference. I wish we were able to meet in person at the New York Fed. But, while the location for this year's conference may have moved from an auditorium to your living room, the goal remains the same: To bring together market participants and representatives from five public sector bodies--the New York Fed, the Boardof Governors, the Treasury, the SEC, and the CFTC. And, the events of the past year make the conversations we will have today all the more valuable and timely.
Today, I'd like to begin with stressing the importance of well-functioning financial markets and then look at two recent episodes of volatility and the lessons learned. I'll close by explaining the Fed's role to support functioning in this critical part of the financial system.
At last year's conference, I spoke about the transition away from LIBOR. Because I am certain all of you have committed to memory everything I said then, I'll keep my remarks on LIBOR today short and to the point: We have only 459 days until the availability of LIBOR can no longer be assured, and everyone needs to put their nose to the grindstone in their efforts to prepare for the move off LIBOR. In the immortal words of Captain Jean Luc Picard--make it so!
Before I continue on to today's topic or quote other favorite Star Trek characters, I need to give the standard Fed disclaimer that the views I express today are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect those of the Federal Open Market Committee or others in the Federal Reserve System.
The Heart of the Economy
The markets that are the center of attention today--the Treasury market, the repo market, and the mortgage-backed securities market--represent the heart of the circulatory system of our financial system and our economy, and indeed the global economy. When they are working smoothly, all the other parts of the system can perform as they should.
But, the opposite is true as well. If these critical markets break down, credit stops flowing, and people can't finance the purchase of a car or a home, businesses can't invest, and the economy suffers, resulting in lost jobs and income./1
Financial markets aren't static--they evolve over time in response to changes in technology, regulation, and business models. The Treasury market is not immune to this process of change. We have seen the emergence of principal trading firms, changes in regulations of key intermediaries, and the growth of nonbank financial institutions./2 With this evolution, it is vitally important to ensure that safeguards and systems also evolve so that these markets function well in all circumstances and conditions, including unprecedented events like the pandemic.
We need to reflect on and learn from these experiences and consider ways to make these and other markets more robust, thereby minimizing the potential negative consequences to the economy and the need for extraordinary policy responses.
Market Conditions in September and March
I know it might seem like a lifetime ago, but allow me take you to mid-September of last year.
A number of otherwise ordinary occurrences--including corporate tax payments and settlement of newly issued Treasuries--were expected to put some upward pressure on short-term rates, but the market response was out of proportion to the magnitude of the shock.
Conditions in funding markets became highly volatile, with both secured and unsecured lending rates rising sharply. Indeed, the size of the reaction in repo rates, the spillover to the federal funds market, and the emergence of strains in market functioning were well outside of recent experience. And the market stress was looking to get worse, not better. /3 /4
In response to these developments, the Federal Reserve conducted a series of large-scale repo operations with the aim of calming conditions in funding markets and bringing the federal funds rate within the target range. The provision of liquidity had the desired effect of reducing strains in markets, narrowing the dispersion of rates, and keeping the federal funds rate within the target range./5
Moving to more recent events, in March of this year the global spread of the pandemic led to a rapid and massive movement of funds around the world as investors sought to protect themselves from the highly uncertain and darkening economic outlook. These flows threatened to overwhelm the financial system and resulted in intense strain and disruption in short-term funding markets and markets for Treasury securities and agency mortgage-backed securities./6 Measures of market functioning deteriorated to levels near, or in some cases worse than, those we saw at the peak of the 2008 global financial crisis./7
In response to the extraordinary volatility and signs of market disruption caused by the pandemic, the Federal Reserve greatly expanded its repo operations and decisively and immediately began purchasing enormous quantities of U.S. Treasury securities and agency mortgage-backed securities. Our approach was to deliver a rapid and overwhelming response that would give assurance to market participants that liquidity would be there in the coming days and months.
These actions, combined with the introduction of emergency lending facilities to provide liquidity to funding and credit markets, proved successful. They quickly restored market functioning and averted what could have been a much more severe pullback from markets and the flow of credit to households and businesses./8 Indeed, the rapid restoration of market functioning helped restore a robust flow of credit at historically low interest rates to the economy, which has provided a boost for the recovery.
Lessons Learned
I don't like to be ominous or foreshadow the future. But, if another crisis were to occur, we must to be able to look back on this time and know that we learned everything we could from recent events. After the financial crisis of 2008, a significant amount of work both in the United States and around the world was invested in studying the causes of that crisis and finding ways to make the financial system more resilient.
The ultimate goal of those reforms was to ensure that the next time the global economy was hit by a major shock, the financial system would be a source of support for the economy, rather than amplify weakness. Those efforts were hugely successful. The resilience of the U.S. banking system in particular has been a key factor in positioning our economy for a strong recovery, despite the enormous challenges posed by the pandemic.
It's crucial that our financial system can handle shocks and disruption. We must use the opportunity before us and study the events in September and March to identify the root causes for the market stress and disruption./9 We need to understand how changes in the market ecosystem--whether due to regulation, technology, or other factors--have influenced market resilience. Like the post-financial-crisis reforms, this is an opportunity to think hard about what changes will help fortify the financial system against future shocks.
The Role of Central Banks
Despite our best efforts, we should not fool ourselves that we can design a system that is bulletproof against every circumstance. The events of the past year have demonstrated the critical role central banks can and must play in extraordinary times when market stress and dysfunction threaten to spill over into the economy. No private institution has the ability to provide liquidity at the speed or scale that the Federal Reserve and other central banks have this year.
Although we often talk about the Fed in terms of monetary policy and interest rates, the Federal Reserve System was originally created to ensure the stability of the financial system./10 That role is as relevant today as it was 107 years ago, and will continue to be in the future.
Conclusion
Let me conclude by returning to my analogy of these critical markets as the heart of our circulatory system. Recent events have reaffirmed what many already knew. Liquid, well-functioning markets for Treasury and related securities are absolutely essential for credit to flow and the economy to prosper. Assuring that these markets are robust and resilient to unknown future circumstances may seem like a daunting task, but as Captain Picard also taught us, "Things are only impossible until they're not."
Thank you.
Footnotes:
1/ John C. Williams, Rising to the Challenge: Central Banking, Financial Markets, and the Pandemic, Remarks at the 16th Meeting of the Financial Research Advisory Committee for the Treasury's Office of Financial Research (via videoconference) (July 16, 2020).
2/ U.S. Department of the Treasury, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Joint Staff Report: The U.S. Treasury Market on October 15, 2014, July 13, 2015.
3/ John C. Williams, LIBOR: The Clock is Ticking, Remarks at the 2019 U.S. Treasury Market Conference, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, New York City (September 23, 2019).
4/ John C. Williams, Money Markets and the Federal Funds Rate: The Path Forward, Remarks at the MFA Outlook 2019, New York City (October 17, 2019).
5/ Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Statement Regarding Repurchase Operations, September 20, 2019.
6/ The impact of these strains on liquidity in the Treasury market is discussed in Michael Fleming and Francisco Ruela, Treasury Market Liquidity during the COVID-19 Crisis, Federal Reserve Bank of New York Liberty Street Economics, April 17, 2020.
7/ For the Treasury market, see Michael Fleming and Francisco Ruela, Treasury Market Liquidity during the COVID-19 Crisis, Federal Reserve Bank of New York Liberty Street Economics, April 17, 2020. For MBS, see Jiakai Chen, Haoyang Liu, David Rubio, Asani Sarkar, and Zhaogang Song, MBS Market Dysfunctions in the Time of COVID-19, Federal Reserve Bank of New York Liberty Street Economics, July 17, 2020; and Jiakai Chen, Haoyang Liu, David Rubio, Asani Sarkar, and Zhaogang Song. Cash-Forward Arbitrage and Dealer Capital in MBS Markets: COVID-19 and Beyond, Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Reports, no. 933, revised September 2020.
8/ For the various New York Fed Open Market Desk statements on the expansion of repo operations during March 2020, see Repo and Reverse Repo Operations. FOMC statements regarding asset purchases at this time include: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Reserve Issues FOMC Statement, March 15, 2020; Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Reserve Issues FOMC Statement, March 23, 2020; and Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Reserve Announces Extensive New Measures to Support the Economy, March 23, 2020. The improvement in Treasury market functioning following these actions is discussed in Michael Fleming, Treasury Market Liquidity and the Federal Reserve during the COVID-19 Pandemic, Federal Reserve Bank of New York Liberty Street Economics, May 29, 2020. In the March 23 statements, the FOMC also announced it would start to purchase agency commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) to smooth market functioning in that market that helps to finance multi-family housing. For more on the deterioration of CMBS market functioning, the Fed purchases and their impact on the CMBS market during this period, see Woojung Park, Julia Gouny, and Haoyang Liu, Federal Reserve Agency CMBS Purchases, Federal Reserve Bank of New York Liberty Street Economics, July 16, 2020.
9/ FSB Sets Out Action to Maintain Financial Stability during COVID, July 15, 2020.
10/ John C. Williams, Rising to the Challenge: Central Banking, Financial Markets, and the Pandemic, Remarks at the 16th Meeting of the Financial Research Advisory Committee for the Treasury's Office of Financial Research (via videoconference) (July 16, 2020).
Inter-American Foundation: Community Resilience in the Time of COVID-19 - Lessons From the 2017 Mexican Earthquakes
WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 -- The Inter-American Foundation issued the following story:
For international humanitarian relief, it may seem faster and more efficient--maybe even cheaper through economies of scale--to respond with a "one-size-fits-all" approach to a natural disaster or pandemic like COVID-19. But over time, this option may actually be less sustainable. Communities that lead their own solutions tailored to their particular context are more engaged throughout recovery, ultimately rebuilding stronger.
The Inter-American Foundation (IAF) is not a humanitarian assistance agency, but we have
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WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 -- The Inter-American Foundation issued the following story:
For international humanitarian relief, it may seem faster and more efficient--maybe even cheaper through economies of scale--to respond with a "one-size-fits-all" approach to a natural disaster or pandemic like COVID-19. But over time, this option may actually be less sustainable. Communities that lead their own solutions tailored to their particular context are more engaged throughout recovery, ultimately rebuilding stronger.
The Inter-American Foundation (IAF) is not a humanitarian assistance agency, but we haveoften supported organizations rebuilding after natural disasters, as in the 1979 hurricane in the Dominican Republic, 2010 earthquake in Haiti, and hurricanes Stan and Mitch in Honduras and Nicaragua. In our 50 years of accompanying communities as they respond to natural disasters, we have observed that groups affected personally by events dedicate more creative energy to recovery.
Creativity from Adversity
Three years ago this month, a series of earthquakes rattled residents in the Mexican states of Morelos, Oaxaca, Mexico State, and Puebla. Surrounded by the rubble of collapsed buildings and grieving lost loved ones, residents knew that rebuilding would be long and difficult. They would have to get creative. With IAF support, our community foundation partners in the affected states capitalized on their deep roots in the region and local leadership to successfully develop a long-term recovery and resilience plan.
Community foundations like Fundacion Comunidad in Morelos gathered the best ideas from more than 40 grassroots organizations to address all of the secondary crises stemming from the earthquakes, such as food insecurity, youth unemployment and underemployment, and educational disruption.
One of those ideas came from a youth-led organization, which proposed establishing a stand on the campus of Morelos State University. The stand, called "Resiliente," would sell fair trade coffee and locally-sourced food products and employ people with disabilities. Three years later, Resiliente has thrived with Fundacion Comunidad's startup funding and expanded into a coffee shop selling locally-crafted ceramics in downtown Cuernavaca, managed by 30 people with some type of disability.
As the entire world faces a long recovery from the social and economic crises caused by COVID-19, Fundacion Comunidad's creative approach and those of other community foundations like it contain several lessons for communities and funders.
Lessons Learned
Four main lessons stand out from the Mexican earthquake experience that are applicable to our current context:
* Leave room for flexibility: In the immediate aftermath of the earthquakes, community foundations adjusted their traditional work and administrative processes to focus on the crisis.
* ... But keep focus on the mission: The foundations were initially flooded with in-kind contributions like canned tuna and clothes from Mexican and U.S.-based organizations. Solidarity surges in times of crisis and communities needed short-term relief before local food systems had stabilized. This kind of quick response helps see people through a temporary disruption, but organizations can fall into mission creep if they lose a clear sense of purpose. Community foundations quickly honed in on their core mission--support for their communities' long-term development. Within the first month after the earthquake, staff from community foundations started phasing out food donations and returned to funding community initiatives.
* Prioritize building community solidarity: The foundations emphasized the process of dialogue and collective decision-making because they recognized that solidarity was an asset. By letting local organizations and residents express their ideas and talent, they encouraged local ownership and promoted long-term sustainability.
* Rely on local networks and relationships: To quickly ramp up their humanitarian response in the wake of the disaster, locally-rooted community foundations drew from their networks and connections. One community foundation relied on a local network of coffee-producing organizations to facilitate logistics to distribute emergency supplies. They felt like they owned the process because they were using locally-sourced emergency goods to promote the local economy.
A New Global Crisis
Resilience is ultimately about both general preparedness and the ability to adapt to new circumstances. These lessons prepared Mexican community foundations to address an unexpected emergency--a world pandemic--that would strike in 2020. Community foundations acted quickly to rally communities and activate national and international support networks.
For example, Fundacion Comunitaria Oaxaca created a program called "solidarity communities" that draws from local Mixtec practices of reciprocity to encourage people to purchase local goods and pursue local ideas to address COVID-19. Through the Pact for Early Childhood, community foundations created thousands of learning kits to promote children's development and emotional wellbeing. Fundacion Merced worked with organizations on strengthening their digital offerings. Comunalia, the network of Mexican community foundations, established a multi-donor COVID-19 Fund for its members drawing from Mexican funders as well as the IAF, C. S. Mott Foundation, and Coca-Cola Foundation to promote local economic recovery during and after the pandemic. They are working on standardizing how they respond to natural disasters, including pandemics.
And how has Resiliente fared? It has been living up to its name. The pandemic impacted the coffee shop's sales, but the cooperative members were unfazed, regrouping and searching for alternatives using the community-centered techniques they had learned from the earthquake. They focused on new income opportunities, such as a delivery service for their products. Resiliente had learned a few lessons in resilience.
EXIM Reports Third-Quarter Default Rate to U.S. Congress, Underscoring Agency's Commitment to Protect Taxpayers
WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 -- The Export-Import Bank of the U.S. issued the following news release:
The Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) has reported to Congress a 0.531 percent fiscal year 2020 third quarter default rate, as of June 30, 2020. Previously, EXIM reported a 0.473 percent default rate as of March 30, 2020. The small increase reflects the economic slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. EXIM's default rate remains well below the 2 percent statutory cap.
As detailed in EXIM's June 2020 Default Rate Report, the agency's consistently low default rates are the result of continuous
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WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 -- The Export-Import Bank of the U.S. issued the following news release:
The Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) has reported to Congress a 0.531 percent fiscal year 2020 third quarter default rate, as of June 30, 2020. Previously, EXIM reported a 0.473 percent default rate as of March 30, 2020. The small increase reflects the economic slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. EXIM's default rate remains well below the 2 percent statutory cap.
As detailed in EXIM's June 2020 Default Rate Report, the agency's consistently low default rates are the result of continuousefforts to improve strong underwriting processes, employee expertise, and effective management of exposure and recoveries on those credits that default. EXIM's default rate is determined by dividing the total amount of the required payments that are overdue by the total financing of its active credit portfolio, which includes all disbursements under its loans, guarantees, and insurance policies that will mature after the date of the fiscal-year quarter that is being reported.
EXIM's Risk Management Committee consists of Board Members Judith D. Pryor and Spencer Bachus III. In conjunction with EXIM's Chief Financial Officer Mary Buhler, the committee oversees the periodic stress-testing of EXIM's portfolio and the monitoring of industry, geographic, and obligor exposure levels, and reviews the agency's quarterly Default Rate Report.
EXIM has made concerted efforts to enhance its risk protection and mitigation. For example, following the restoration of the quorum of EXIM's Board of Directors by the Senate in May 2019, the Board of Directors formally approved Chief Risk Officer Kenneth Tinsley, who had been appointed to the position in January 2016. EXIM staff also provided the Risk Management Committee with additional COVID-related risk analyses and stress tests to track and account for emerging risks related to the COVID pandemic.
EXIM has provided relief measures for U.S. exporters and financial institutions impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The relief measures--which include waivers, deadline extensions, streamlined processing, and flexibility--were originally announced in March 2020 and have been extended through October 31, 2020.
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REPORT: https://www.exim.gov/sites/default/files/congressional-resources/default-rate-report---june-2020---508-compliant.pdf
Corporation for National & Community Service: AmeriCorps Unveils New Logo, New Name for Agency
WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 -- The Corporation for National and Community Service issued the following news release on Sept. 29:
Today, the Corporation for National and Community Service released a new brand strategy for the future, announcing it will now operate as "AmeriCorps," as part of a larger effort to grow awareness of service opportunities for all Americans. Along with the new name, the federal agency also revealed a new visual identity for the agency and all its programs, the first major update for the agency since it was created 25 years ago. While the agency's operating name is "AmeriCorps,"
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WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 -- The Corporation for National and Community Service issued the following news release on Sept. 29:
Today, the Corporation for National and Community Service released a new brand strategy for the future, announcing it will now operate as "AmeriCorps," as part of a larger effort to grow awareness of service opportunities for all Americans. Along with the new name, the federal agency also revealed a new visual identity for the agency and all its programs, the first major update for the agency since it was created 25 years ago. While the agency's operating name is "AmeriCorps,"its legal name will remain the Corporation for National and Community Service.
The changes announced today unite all national service programs under the name AmeriCorps. Organizations and members funded through the AmeriCorps VISTA, NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps), and State & National programs, as well as the Volunteer Generation Fund, will operate and be promoted as AmeriCorps. The agency's three programs that cater exclusively to volunteers 55 years and older under the Senior Corps name - Foster Grandparents, Senior Companions, and RSVP - will now operate and be promoted under the banner of AmeriCorps Seniors.
As the nation continues to grapple with the challenges of COVID-19 and other disasters, the demand for volunteers is growing. Across the country, many are asking: how can I help? These new changes are designed to help connect those Americans to service opportunities in areas of critical need: education, public health, food insecurity, and economic uncertainty.
"When called upon, Americans have always been there to help. Today is no different, and this spirit of service is needed now more than ever," said Barbara Stewart, CEO of AmeriCorps, the federal agency for service. "That's why we're redoubling our efforts to be sure all Americans know about their opportunities to serve through AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps Seniors. We're committed to strengthening the role of service and volunteering in our country for the next century, building on a long history of national service."
A multi-year effort, the brand refresh is officially part of the agency's Transformation and Sustainability Plan, which was announced in 2018. As part of this plan, the agency conducted an extensive brand review that included external research and the engagement of branding experts to help develop a clearer and more compelling brand architecture and narrative. To support its brand development, AmeriCorps solicited combined fee-based and pro bono offers from contractors. AmeriCorps selected brand consultancy Brandpie to assist with the branding project. AmeriCorps is among a limited number of federal agencies which has legal authority to accept gifted services.
Along with a new name and brand strategy, the agency also unveiled a refreshed logo, which pays tribute to the iconic AmeriCorps brand, while updating it for the digital age. This logo blends the letter 'A' with an American flag to symbolize the way AmeriCorps members and volunteers inspire and improve communities through service, creating a visual representation of the agency's role in uniting Americans. A redesigned americorps.gov website is on the horizon for next year, with a preview launched today that reflects AmeriCorps' new brand architecture, messaging, and look.
Within the next three years, AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps Seniors grantees will update their materials to reflect the new identity, using tools provided by the agency to help them recruit AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers to respond to the unique challenges within their own community.
For more than a quarter century, AmeriCorps has demonstrated how Americans can come together to help each other and their country prosper. Each year, more than 270,000 AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers serve with organizations, working in more than 40,000 locations nationwide to tackle the nation's most pressing challenges, including preparing students for success, rebuilding communities and revitalizing cities, supporting veterans, fighting the opioid epidemic, responding to disasters, preserving public lands, fostering economic opportunity, and more.
AmeriCorps also remains poised to respond as the nation faces unprecedented natural disasters alongside a public health and economic crisis, with teams of AmeriCorps members currently deployed to Hurricane Laura relief efforts, wildfire response, and Midwest storm recovery. Even as they address these rising challenges, AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps Seniors maintain a sustained effort to fight hunger, keep communities safe, and facilitate youth education in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
