VINTON, Iowa — Darrell Battle, originally from Americus, Georgia, has joined 185 other individuals from across the United States at the AmeriCorps NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps) campus in Vinton, Iowa. These individuals are devoting 10 months to giving back to communities throughout the North Central Region of the United States.

Since arriving on February 10, Battle and the other members have gone through an intensive training to prepare them for serving in communities. This four-week training period emphasized teamwork, leadership development, communication, diversity and service learning. During this time, members were also assigned to one of 21 teams. Each team serves on four-seven projects during their term of service with NCCC.

On March 10, NCCC members completed their training and were officially inducted into the AmeriCorps NCCC program with the ceremony being held at Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School Gymnasium in Vinton. On March 11, NCCC teams left Vinton to begin serving on their first NCCC service project. Battle and his team are serving with are serving with Sherman Lake YMCA in Augusta, Michigan until April 22.

On this project, the team has been serving cabin leaders for school groups (typically 5th and 6th graders) in which they are assisting in their Integrated Education program. They are also providing a positive atmosphere while serving as an overnight cabin counselor to the school children – such as, providing a safe and healthy cabin atmosphere in which the campers will thrive, and guiding children to and from different camp activities. The NCCC team is reinforce qualities such as Honesty, Respect, Caring, and Responsibility.

Prior to joining NCCC, Battle graduated from Americus Sumter High School South Campus in 2014.

The AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) and its FEMA Corps units engages approximately 2,800 young Americans in a full-time, 10-month commitment to service each year. AmeriCorps NCCC members address critical needs related to natural and other disasters, infrastructure improvement, environmental stewardship and conservation, and urban and rural development; FEMA Corps members are solely dedicated to disaster preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery work. The programs are administered by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). CNCS is the federal agency that engages more than five million Americans in service through its AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, Social Innovation Fund, and Volunteer Generation Fund programs, and leads President’s national call to service initiative, United We Serve. For more information, visitwww.nationalservice.gov.