A New Civic Institution for the New Century

A Forum — January 10, 2003

Background

To celebrate its ten years of service as a non-partisan, professional development organization educating the youth policy community and bridging the gaps between policy, practice, and research, AYPF commissioned a series of four papers focusing on the next decade of youth policy. At this forum, Alan Khazei and Michael Brown presented the first paper of this series. Khazei and Brown addressed the future of youth service. And James Kielsmeier and Shirley Sagawa then responded to Khazei and Brown.

Forum Summary

Alan Khazei, CEO of City Year, asked the audience to imagine America as a nation in which the compassion and idealism released after Sept. 11 infused every aspect of our civic life and every adult became civically engaged through service. Alan argued that service does two important things to transform and improve communities: it meets America’s needs (such as ending illiteracy, hunger, and homelessness) and it creates citizens. To realize the vision of civic engagement, Alan argued, we should focus on three specific goals: 1) Make service-learning an integral part of every child’s education from kindergarten through college; 2) create a new “Senior Heroes” program that mobilizes senior citizens to serve a minimum of 20 hours each week in exchange for a small stipend and education award; and 3) expand the existing AmeriCorps program to enroll a critical mass of one million young people annually by 2020.

Alan argued that to build national service to scale, we need to simultaneously develop the key programs in which people will serve and the funding infrastructure required to make those programs sustainable. He recommended that policymakers focus on the development of five key programmatic initiatives: service-learning, full-time senior service, “All Star Service Communities,” linked military and civilian service, and a global service corp. To build the funding infrastructure to support service, policymakers should borrow a concept from the for-profit sector and develop a marketplace for national service. The federal government should diversify its investment in national service to maximize the value service organizations return to society.

In addition to long-term efforts to build the infrastructure needed to bring national service to scale over the next two decades, Alan identified several immediate steps that can be taken to support national service: 1) Perhaps most important, pass the Citizen Service Act of 2002 (H.R. 4854) to reauthorize America’s national service programs; 2) the President and Congress could create a bi-partisan Blue Ribbon Commission to launch a “Serve America” campaign and propose ways to take service to scale; 3) invite the President, Cabinet Members, members of Congress, and all of our public leaders at every level to perform monthly community service; 4) draw the public’s attention to Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as an annual American Service Day; 5) the President should host an annual White House summit on the state of national and community service; and 6) should convene a White House Summit of the nation’s leading philanthropists and challenge them to commit to investing $1 billion in organizations and efforts that facilitate Americans serving; 7) challenge employers to explicitly recognize the value of public service; 8) amend the Family and Medical Leave Act to allow all employees to take up to two weeks unpaid leave each year to serve; 9) as suggested by the President, broaden the way that post-service awards can be used (for example, as a down-payment on a home or to save for retirement); 10) raise the post-service Award from $4, 725 to adjust for inflation since 1993, tie it to the rate for inflation, and make it tax-free; and 11) bring model national service programs to scale by increasing the resources available to them.

James Kielsmeier, President of the National Youth Leadership Council responded to Khazei by reminding the audience that they should not lose focus on the productive value of service for our country. Service is productive not just for those who serve; it also helps to meet our country’s needs. He pointed as an example to the role of Victory Gardens played in providing food to our population during World War II. People stepped forward to help meet our nation’s needs. He agreed that in the post-Sept. 11 world, a window of opportunity has been opened; the question, he said, is whether we will step forward to seize this opportunity by expanding the opportunity to serve to all segments of our population, young and old alike. We are now at a tipping point: We need to take action to increase funding to support service programs, bring policymakers into direct contact with service providers, bolster the pedagogical support for service learning, and pass the bill introduced by the late Sen. Wellstone, the Hubert Humphrey Civic Education Enhancement Act.

Shirley Sagawa, author of Common Interest, Common Good and a lead drafter for both the National and Community Service Act of 1990 and the legislation that led created AmeriCorps, expanded upon the ideas presented by Khazei and Kielsmeier by examining the role of service in supporting the well-being and positive development of America’s youth. She discussed the finding of a recent report by the National Academy of Sciences’ Board on Children, Youth, and Families (entitled “Community Programs to Promote Youth Development”). This report presented the findings from a two-year study examining the scientific evidence about community interventions and programs designed to promote positive youth development. One of the findings of the report was that positive youth development is based on about two dozen personal and social assets such as connectedness, feeling valued, a sense of personal responsibility, and confidence in personal efficacy. All of these assets can be developed through high quality service programs, Shirley argued. National and community service is an important and cost-effective way to help youth develop the assets they need to succeed.

As policymakers reconsider the reauthorization of and appropriations for the National and Community Service Act and other youth-related legislation, they should keep the following strategies in mind if they are to help youth develop the assets they need to succeed: 1) Make service-learning the common experience of every American student; 2) Make better use of out-of-school hours by extending the learning day through service; 3) Make a summer of service a right of passage for every eighth grader; 4) Offer every out-of-school youth a positive transition to adulthood through service and conservation corps and 5) Create better channels for AmeriCorps alumni to fill positions in shortage professions such as teaching and health care.

American Youth Policy Forum   1836 Jefferson Place NW,  Washington DC 20036
Telephone 202-775-9731      |      Fax 202-775-9733      |     Email aypf@aypf.org