PROGRAM OVERVIEW

In 1999, campus and nonprofit leaders came together to discuss and strategize about how they could work together to address the most compelling needs of their local community. As a result of these discussions, campus and nonprofit leaders developed the New Jersey AmeriCorps Bonner Leader Program (NJABLP), an innovative campus-based program housed at four college campuses in central New Jersey. The program is designed to strengthen the capacity of nonprofit organizations by recruiting AmeriCorps members to serve at participating agencies and to mobilize the resources of area college campuses in an effort to provide technical assistance to community partner organizations.

Similar to other Bonner Programs, the New Jersey AmeriCorps Bonner Leader Program identifies and trains a cohesive team of students from community colleges and four year, large and small, public and private, colleges and universities who serve as minimum-time members at specific community agencies. The New Jersey AmeriCorps Bonner Leader Program is unique, however, due to the part-time and full-time members who serve at community partner agencies. These members are recruited directly from the community and serve alongside teams of student members from participating college and universities.

Given the breadth of the program and the varying needs of communities, members serve with a wide range of organizations addressing community needs related to poverty, education, the environment, citizens with disabilities, elderly populations, disaster relief, and other human needs. However, members are involved primarily in mentoring at-risk youth, hunger relief, adult education and volunteer recruitment in under-resourced communities in New Jersey. 

Check out this sweet video (its old school!) about NJ Bonner Leaders