Vicksburg’s AmeriCorps NCCC campus is about to welcome nearly 166 new members and begin a season of community and disaster-related service.

The new members arrive Monday to join 29 team leaders from 16 states who began their service Jan. 30 and 72 others already in the field, bringing the total of NCCC members at the Southern Region campus to 238, spokesman Erika Roberts said.

“We are excited about expanding our campus to nearly 250 young people,” said Gary Turner, region director, who oversees operations at the campus.

“These are some of the brightest, most motivated and talented young people of their generation,” he said. “I applaud them for choosing to give a year of their lives to being on call to respond to disasters and to helping communities meet critical needs.”

AmeriCorps NCCC is a full-time, team-based residential, national service program for men and women ages 18 to 24, who are organized into teams of 10 to 12 members. They travel throughout regions of the United States, serving communities on 6- to 8-week projects related to disaster preparation, response, recovery and infrastructure improvement.

The Vicksburg campus opened in 2009 on the grounds of the former All Saints’ Episcopal School on Confederate Avenue and is one of five regional bases in the country. The others are in Perry Point, Md., Vinton, Iowa, Sacramento, Calif., and Denver.

Vicksburg’s new arrivals represent the Southern Region’s shift from a fall to a winter campus, Roberts said. The 72 members already working on field projects arrived in July as a sort of “bridge class” during the transition.

“It was a strategic decision,” Roberts said of the change. “Instead of having corps members come in the height of the hurricane season, and then take a month for training, we wanted to have them come in the winter and have plenty of time to get them on board and ready.”

Vicksburg NCCC members fan out into 11 Southern states, performing community service in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.

Team leaders commit to 11 months of service, members 10 months.

The newest AmeriCorps NCCC members will be formally inducted March 26.