NJ COVID-19 Service Corps Gets to Work

Mioandrys Rodriguez, left, and Amar Helwani are two of a dozen Montclair State students who have joined the NJ COVID-19 Service Corps.
Mioandrys Rodriguez, left, and Amar Helwani are two of a dozen Montclair State students who have joined the NJ COVID-19 Service Corps.

The University is leading AmeriCorps efforts to help the state recover from the pandemic, with a dozen Montclair State students accepted into the New Jersey COVID-19 Service Corps. They are working for nonprofits and local agencies, particularly in New Jersey’s low-income communities, where the impacts of the pandemic – job loss, hunger, homelessness and limited access to medical and mental health care – are endemic.

The Center for Community Engagement secured a $418,000, three-year grant from the New Jersey Commission for National and Community Service for the effort as well as a $100,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s New Jersey Health Initiatives.

Corps members are paired with agencies, including the Jewish Family and Children’s Services of Northern New Jersey and Wafa House, a nonprofit agency formed to provide social service outreach to Muslims in Passaic County. AmeriCorps provides a modest living stipend and an education award to use toward repaying students’ loans or for further education.