Atlas Service Corps

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Atlas Service Corps ("Atlas Corps") is a US nonprofit organization with a mission “to address critical global issues by developing leaders, strengthening organizations and promoting innovation in the nonprofit sector through building an international network of skilled professional Fellows.” It was incorporated and recognized as a 501(c)(3) organization by the U.S. IRS on April 7, 2006. In 2006, Scott Beale developed the idea for Atlas Corps while working for the U.S. Department of State in India.

Program

Atlas Corps provides fellowships to rising nonprofit leaders from around the world to volunteer overseas for 12–18 months to learn best practices, share unique insights and then return home to create a global partnership for development. The signature program of Atlas Corps is bringing developing world leaders to volunteer at US nonprofits for a one-year fellowship. These fellows learn best practices and exchange development strategies in such social causes as poverty, health, human rights, the environment, education, women's rights, and hunger. The fellows then return to their home countries to work on programs relating to their fellowships, and bring the learned skills and collaborative networks with them. Atlas Corps fellows from Brazil, Colombia, India, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and the U.S. The first fellows came to the U.S. in 2007 with “highly skilled nonprofit decision-makers from India and Colombia to the United States for a year, running from Sept. 1 to Aug. 30.” ^[1]

A Multinational Peace Corps

Atlas Corps has been referred to as a reverse Peace Corps or multinational Peace Corps. The Brookings Institute profiled it as a best practice in June 2009 and stated: “As early as 1966, when he was the Associate Director of the Peace Corps, Harris Wofford noted that the original idea of the Peace Corps included “reverse volunteering” through which men and women from developing nations would perform volunteer work in communities throughout the United States. Resistance from the State Department and the U.S. Congress snuffed a couple of attempts by the Peace Corps to start a reverse volunteering component, but two recent private sector models exist that demonstrate the inherent feasibility of the concept. … Atlas Corps is arranging for professional-level volunteers from India, Colombia and other developing nations to work in US-based non-profit organizations.” ^[2]

Board of directors

Gared Jones, Ashoka India (Board Treasurer); Courtney Kramer, U.S. State Department (Board Secretary); Julia Cohen, Voxiva, Inc; Jeff Huening, J.P. Morgan; Manmeet Mehta, Ashoka; Camila Payan, Organization for American States; Lincoln Willis, Lawyer; Jamie Zembruski, Attorney with Nixon Peabody;

Senior Advisory Board

Senator Harris Wofford, Co-founder of Peace Corps, former Senator of Pennsylvania; Dr. Isabel Londoño, Founder, Colfuturo; Geri Critchley, Management Systems International (MSI); Ramesh Bajpai, Executive Director, American Chamber of Commerce, India; Jay Bakshi, Board Member, Indian Business and Community Foundation; David Bornstein, Author, How to the Change the World; Bill Drayton, Founder, Ashoka: Innovators for the Public; Ed Freel, University of Delaware; Shankar Venkateswaran, Executive Director, America India Foundation-India; Dawn Rittenhouse is Director, Sustainable Development for the DuPont Company.

References

1. ^ The Washington Post, "Value Added: The Nonprofit Entrepreneur" http://voices.washingtonpost.com/washbizblog/2009/03/value_added_17.html
2. ^ The Brookings Institution, "International Volunteer Service: A Smart Way to Build Bridges" http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2009/06_volunteering_caprara.aspx

External links

• Atlas Service Corps
• Atlas Service Corps on YouTube
• Atlas Service Corps on Twitter
• Atlas Service Corps on Facebook