Sankara Healthcare Foundation’s
Presidential Volunteer Service Award ( PVSA )
The goal of Sankara’s PVSA program is to inspire children, teens and young adults, ages 5 and up, to commit to serving their local communities. PVSA was established by an Executive Order of President George W Bush and founded in 2003 by the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation to “recognize the important role of volunteers in America’s strength and national identity.
A President’s Volunteer Service Award is a prestigious and national award. It is an impressive honor to add to your resume and helps students and professionals get a high tier for volunteer service.
Sankara Healthcare Foundation Inc. is a Certifying Organization (CO) for this award to its volunteers. A CO is an organization that has been granted authority through an application and review process to administer the PVSA to volunteers.
Sankara’s volunteers who complete a set number of hours may be eligible to receive the PVSA award which includes a Certificate, Medal/Coin and a congratulatory letter from the President of the United States.
The volunteer hours can be accumulated over a 12-month period starting August 1st of the current year to July 31st of the following year. The awards will be announced in September annually.
At Sankara we will do our best to provide opportunities to fulfill the hours needed. However, we encourage volunteers to propose external opportunities to be considered for approval. Opportunities must be aligned with the mission or an extension of Sankara’s mission – health, wellness, nutrition, environment and animal welfare, mental health and education related to the above pillars – in order to be considered for approval. Preference will be given to group opportunities. The form to request a review of the external organization seva must be submitted at least 14 days before the seva date. The form is available on the Volunteers Forms page under the Volunteers tab on our website.
How to Apply for the PVSA?
In order to be eligible for the PVSA volunteers:
- The higher of 12 hours or 20% of the minimum required hours for an award category must be from cooking for Project HEAL ( if Project HEAL is available in your area). For example, to be eligible for the Bronze award for the 11-15 age group, at least 12 hours must be towards cooking for a HEAL service. For the Bronze award for the 16-25 age group, a minimum of 20 hours have to be towards cooking for Project HEAL.
- Volunteers must complete at least one HEAL seva month by serving a cooked dish at least once a month to be eligible for the PVSA
- Volunteers must submit their hours online after completion of a service within 14 days of finishing that activity using the form Submit Volunteer Hours In some cases other forms of proof of completion may be required.
- Volunteer hours for the award must be completed between August 1st of the current year to July 31st of the following year. For example : If applying for PVSA during the 2021-22 year hours must be completed by 07/31/2022.
- Volunteers must apply for Sankara’s PVSA award to request a review of their volunteer activities no later than July 31st of the application year. For example : If applying for PVSA during the 2021-22 year application must be submitted by 07/31/2022.
- Click here to Apply for PVSA
- Applicants must be a US Citizen or Permanent Resident in order to be eligible for the PVSA and documentation will be required when applying for the award.
Final decision on awarding applicants is made by Sankara. For more information please contact pvsa-user@giftofhealth.us