You will begin your CivicSpark Fellowship on Monday March 10 and will begin ‘on-site’ (either virtually or in-person) on Tuesday March 11. If you have any specific questions about the following, please reach out to your Site Supervisor as these vary by your site:

• Host site address, parking information, etc.
• Day-to-day schedule
• Office requirements, including hybrid/on site requirements
• Project-specific work
• Any other site/project-specific questions

Your Site Supervisor/Host Site contact should be cc’d in your offer email. If you do not have that information, please reach out to Justin Brosseau, justin@civicsparkfellowship.org, for your Site Supervisor’s contact information.

You will need to submit new hire paperwork prior to your start date. You cannot begin the program until all items are submitted, so be sure to complete all the documents thoroughly and as soon as possible! In order to begin, please follow these steps:

1. Please click below according to the state in which you will serve. You will need to apply via PHI’s portal to begin the onboarding process:

• California Job ID 1993
• Washington Job ID 1995

**Please note that any requests for your address should be for the address you will be living in during your service year, which should be in your state of service and within 50 miles of your project site.

2. Please select from the list of acceptable I-9 documents here and upload the appropriate I9 documents here. A member of the HR team, Hector, will reach out to you to schedule a brief Zoom meeting to verify your I-9 document(s).

If you have any questions, please reach out to recruitment@phi.org.

A baseline screening requirement for all AmeriCorps members is to pass a background check, called a National Service Criminal History Check (NSCHC). No Fellow can begin their service, including attending orientation or starting your service project at your partner site, or receive a living allowance payment, until ALL background check results have been received by Public Health Institute and cleared. Keep in mind that background check results may take several weeks to receive.

Prior to ordering your background check, you must submit a PHI application (linked above by your state placement) and your I9. If you have not done so, please complete the steps outlined in the section above as soon as possible.

Once you have submitted your PHI application and I9, our team will initiate the background check process. Please keep an eye out for an email from Truescreen at that time, where you will create an account and begin the process. You will need to schedule a fingerprint appointment as part of the check – we recommend that you schedule the appointment as soon as possible.

Completing these steps on time is crucial for a seamless onboarding experience. If you have any questions or need assistance, you can contact Hector Rodriquez at HRodriguez@phi.org.

Prior to your start date, you’ll receive an email to create an account with MyAmeriCorps. MyAmeriCorps is the portal through which your service is tracked and in which you can access your AmeriCorps benefits during the service year (such as loan deferment) and after (interest repayment, Segal Ed Award). There are several steps to the process:

1. Along with your I-9 documents noted in section 3, please upload an image of your social security card via the same sharefile link. A few days after that, you will receive an email from AmeriCorps to your personal email inviting you to create an account (check your Spam box if you don’t see anything in your inbox!) and “enroll” in CivicSpark.
   1. See this video for a quick tutorial on the process.
2. Open the email and go to the link mentioned to register.
3. The MyAmeriCorps page will open up, and you will go to the bottom where it says “Register to create a new member/alum account”. You will then fill in the necessary information and click “Submit”, and we’ll receive a notification that you’ve completed this process.
   1. For those of you who already have a MyAmeriCorps account created prior to beginning CivicSpark, you won’t have to create a new account. Once you get the email to enroll, just login using your current account info. You’ll then go to the left side of the page and there should be an “Enrollment” section for you to fill out.
4. AmeriCorps will then do a check on some of the requirements for the program to ensure you’re ready to begin (e.g. confirming background checks are done, checking your social security number and citizenship status)
   1. Note that this process can take several days to several weeks, so please be sure to complete your account setup as soon as possible.
5. Once everything is confirmed, we will do a formal enrollment for each of you on our end during Orientation.

**Please complete your portion of the enrollment process within 2 days of receiving the email (the link expires within that timeframe) so we can be sure to have all the items completed by Orientation. The entire enrolling and check portion can take 3-7 days or more depending on verification needs, so the sooner we’re able to begin your enrollment the better!**

Once you’ve completed items #2-4, your background checks are cleared, and your AmeriCorps information is certified, we will send you the official CivicSpark Contract with your official start and end date, benefits information, and other items. Contracts will be sent out starting early March, assuming you have cleared everything.

As a reminder, your annual stipend will be $18,550 in California and $18,020 in Colorado and Washington before taxes. Your specific breakdown will be listed in your Official Offer Letter and Job Description.

The contract will include this and other information noted above. You will need to review and sign the contract before your first day of service.

Each year, we upload a bio and headshot for each of our Fellows on our website. Use this link to complete a form where you will submit your bio, and headshot, and other information about yourself.

CivicSpark has a Fellow Housing Board that incoming Fellows can use to connect and/or find housing in their region (if needed). The first tab is for Fellows who are looking to either find housing or connect with Fellows to room with; the second tab is for those who know of or have a specific room for rent; the third tab is for more general housing leads, or if current Fellows and CivicSpark alumni are available to assist incoming Fellows about regional housing opportunities.

California Fellows: The AmeriCorps Housing Facebook Group is another great resource open to all California AmeriCorps Members looking for housing and roommates, or for posting leads and specific rooms for rent.

Fellows moving to California or Colorado can also use HomeShare Online, a roommate-matching and homesharing platform, where folks can find affordable housing in the communities they serve. Through the platform, renters and homeowners can post profiles and match based on compatibility, securely message one another, take background checks and create a homesharing agreement to set expectations for their shared space. If interested, you can create an account to search for housing in those two states.