hi! iām coming from your nccc post and was wondering if you could tell me a little more about what life was like day to day? did you have any say in which spikes you would go to, or were they all assigned? what was the transition out of americorps like and did they have resources for life afterwards? thanks so much!!
A Day in The Life (On Spike):
You get up and do PT as a team. PT is a lot more relaxed on spike than it is in training, and it might be done before or after the day's work. If you're on a fire or disaster team it might be up to 5 days per week, though most teams and projects only require PT 3 days per week for 45-60 minutes each time. If you're a non-disaster team that is on a disaster project where you're working really wild hours in a really physical environment, you might not need to do PT at all.
You then have some time to get yourself showered or ready for the day, eat breakfast, etc...
You go to work. On most spikes service is a lot like a job. Generally it is M-F, 8-5 with a lunch break. You get to work via the 15-passenger van. You do whatever your project sponsor has agreed that your team will do for their project. This can literally be anything- building houses, clearing trails, serving meals, painting walls, interior demolition, mucking and gutting flooded homes, cutting fire line for controlled burns, teaching at a boys and girls club, etc...
You come home. Generally whoever is assigned to make dinner that night gets started making it. Everyone else either relaxes or does their assigned chores (cleaning spike housing, cleaning the van, food management, recruiting duties, planning independent service, project documentation, etc...). The TL may have one or two CMs for individual meetings.
You eat dinner as a team.
If it's a team meeting night, you also have a team meeting. Team meetings are usually once per week and about 1-2 hours in length. My team couldn't stand this so we broke up the required elements of the team meeting over the course of the week and just did them during dinner time.
You do not have any say in what spikes you go on. They are assigned by the Unit Leader so even your TL has no idea until they're told toward the end of the previous spike.
The transition out of AmeriCorps is called "LAA" or Life After AmeriCorps. Prep starts about halfway through the service term, when you have LAA Day. LAA Day is similar to a job fair, plus classes on how to do adulting things like apply for jobs, write resumes, apply for housing, etc... LAA continues until you graduate, but doesn't really extend further than that.