The Corporation for National and Community Service's announcement today of the winners of the 2009 grant competition brings the number of AmeriCorps members who should be in place by the fall to almost 88,000, corporation officials said.

The appropriation in the 2009 budget fully funds about 75,000 positions and stimulus funds added about 13,000 more positions.

The largest grant among new and recompete grantees recommended by state commissions - a total of $41.6 million in grants - is $4.66 million to the Washington State Employment Security Department for the Washington Service Corps. The largest total for a single program brand was $6.9 million that went to City Year locations in Boston ($1.76 million), Chicago (@1.1 million), Cleveland ($598,000), Louisiana ($738,000), Philadelphia ($2.3 million) and San Antonio ($403,200).

Other grants to state commissions that topped $1 million went to: Bay Area Community Resources/ BAYAC Americorps, $1.36 million; the Minnesota Literary Council for the Minnesota Reading Corps, $1.8 million; the Montana Conservation Corps, $1.5 million; and New York's Harlem's Children's Zone for its Peacemaker Program, $1.35 million.

City Year's Boston headquarters received the largest new national direct grant: $3.1 million of the total $19.7 million awarded in that category. Other $1 million plus grants went to: Public Allies' Wisconsin headquarters, $2.7 million; Habitat for Humanity, $2.96 million; Massachusetts' Jumpstart for Young Children, $1.96 million; and Washington. D.C.-based National Association for Public Interest Law for its Equal Justice Works, $1.16 million.

For a complete list of the awards announced today, click here.

CNCS also announced that the number of applications to AmeriCorps has soared in recent months. In May, AmeriCorps received almost 36,000 online applications, nearly double that of the previous month and triple the number received in May 2008.