[House Hearing, 111 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
RENEWING AMERICA THROUGH NATIONAL SERVICE AND VOLUNTEERISM
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
COMMITTEE ON
EDUCATION AND LABOR
U.S. House of Representatives
ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
HEARING HELD IN WASHINGTON, DC, FEBRUARY 25, 2009
__________
Serial No. 111-4
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Education and Labor
Available on the Internet:
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COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR
GEORGE MILLER, California, Chairman
Dale E. Kildee, Michigan, Vice Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon,
Chairman California,
Donald M. Payne, New Jersey Senior Republican Member
Robert E. Andrews, New Jersey Thomas E. Petri, Wisconsin
Robert C. ``Bobby'' Scott, Virginia Peter Hoekstra, Michigan
Lynn C. Woolsey, California Michael N. Castle, Delaware
Ruben Hinojosa, Texas Mark E. Souder, Indiana
Carolyn McCarthy, New York Vernon J. Ehlers, Michigan
John F. Tierney, Massachusetts Judy Biggert, Illinois
Dennis J. Kucinich, Ohio Todd Russell Platts, Pennsylvania
David Wu, Oregon Joe Wilson, South Carolina
Rush D. Holt, New Jersey John Kline, Minnesota
Susan A. Davis, California Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Washington
Raul M. Grijalva, Arizona Tom Price, Georgia
Timothy H. Bishop, New York Rob Bishop, Utah
Joe Sestak, Pennsylvania Brett Guthrie, Kentucky
David Loebsack, Iowa Bill Cassidy, Louisiana
Mazie Hirono, Hawaii Tom McClintock, California
Jason Altmire, Pennsylvania Duncan Hunter, California
Phil Hare, Illinois David P. Roe, Tennessee
Yvette D. Clarke, New York Glenn Thompson, Pennsylvania
Joe Courtney, Connecticut
Carol Shea-Porter, New Hampshire
Marcia L. Fudge, Ohio
Jared Polis, Colorado
Paul Tonko, New York
Pedro R. Pierluisi, Puerto Rico
Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan,
Northern Mariana Islands
Dina Titus, Nevada
[Vacant]
Mark Zuckerman, Staff Director
Sally Stroup, Republican Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
Hearing held on February 25, 2009................................ 1
Statement of Members:
Courtney, Hon. Joe, a Representative in Congress from the
State of Connecticut, submission for the record:
Golden, Christopher P., Service Nation 100 ``Young
Leaders,'' co-founder, myImpact........................ 56
Honojosa, Hon. Ruben, a Representative in Congress from the
State of Texas, submission for the record:
Firman, James P., Ed.D, president and CEO, National
Council on Aging....................................... 55
McKeon, Hon. Howard P. ``Buck,'' Senior Republican Member,
Committee on Education and Labor........................... 5
Prepared statement of.................................... 6
Miller, Hon. George, Chairman, Committee on Education and
Labor...................................................... 1
Prepared statement of.................................... 3
Statement of Witnesses:
Caprara, David L., director and nonresident fellow, Brookings
Initiative on International Volunteering and Service....... 36
Prepared statement of.................................... 38
Dorsey, Cheryl L., M.D., M.P.P., president, Echoing Green.... 24
Prepared statement of.................................... 26
Hamilton, Lisa, president, UPS Foundation.................... 41
Prepared statement of.................................... 42
Harris, James, youth participant, Usher's New Look Foundation 22
Prepared statement of.................................... 23
Jones, Van, founder and president, Green for All............. 27
Prepared statement of.................................... 29
Preston, Kenneth O., Sergeant Major of the U.S. Army......... 33
Prepared statement of.................................... 35
Raymond, Usher IV, recording artist, chairman, Usher's New
Look Foundation............................................ 18
Prepared statement of.................................... 20
Stengel, Richard, managing editor, TIME Magazine............. 9
Prepared statement of.................................... 12
Wofford, Hon. Harris, former U.S. States Senator............. 13
Prepared statement of.................................... 15
Letter, dated February 25, 2009, from Age for Change
Network................................................ 57
RENEWING AMERICA THROUGH NATIONAL SERVICE AND VOLUNTEERISM
----------
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
U.S. House of Representatives
Committee on Education and Labor
Washington, DC
----------
The committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:07 a.m., in Room
2175, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. George Miller
[chairman of the committee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Miller, Kildee, Payne, Andrews,
Woolsey, McCarthy, Tierney, Kucinich, Davis, Bishop of New
York, Sestak, Loebsack, Hare, Shea-Porter, Polis, Tonko,
Pierluisi, McKeon, Petri, Castle, Roe, and Thompson.
Staff present: Tylease Alli, Hearing Clerk; Alejandra Ceja,
Senior Budget/Appropriations Advisor; Nina DeJong,
Investigative Associate; Adrienne Dunbar, Education Policy
Advisor; Sarah Dyson, Policy Assistant; Curtis Ellis,
Legislative Fellow, Education; Carlos Fenwick, Policy Advisor,
Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions; Denise
Forte, Director of Education Policy; Liz Hollis, Special
Assistant to Staff Director/Deputy Staff Director; Fred Jones,
Staff Assistant, Education; Jessica Kahanek, Press Assistant;
Julia Martin, Education Policy Advisor; Stephanie Moore,
General Counsel; Alex Nock, Deputy Staff Director; Joe Novotny,
Chief Clerk; Lisa Pugh, Legislative Fellow, Education; Rachel
Racusen, Communications Director; Meredith Regine, Junior
Legislative Associate, Labor; Melissa Salmanowitz, Press
Secretary; Margaret Young, Staff Assistant, Education; Kim
Zarish-Becknell, Policy Advisor, Subcommittee on Healthy
Families and Communities; Mark Zuckerman, Staff Director;
Stephanie Arras, Minority Legislative Assistant; James
Bergeron, Minority Deputy Director of Education and Human
Services Policy; Cameron Coursen, Minority Assistant
Communications Director; Amy Raaf Jones, Minority Professional
Staff Member; Alexa Marrero, Minority Communications Director;
and Linda Stevens, Minority Chief Clerk/Assistant to the
General Counsel.
Chairman Miller [presiding]. The Committee on Education and
Labor will come to order for the purposes of discussing
volunteerism, public service to America.
And I want to begin by thanking all of our witnesses for
joining us, for their time and their expertise. And we
appreciate you making that effort.
I am going to recognize myself for the purposes of making
an opening statement, then I will recognize Congressman McKeon
for an opening statement, and then we will turn to our
witnesses.
I want to welcome everyone to today's hearing on how
service and volunteerism can help us build a stronger, vibrant
America.
We are at a critical moment in our nation's history. With
our nation being tested by unprecedented challenges--an
economic crisis, an energy crisis, struggling schools and
more--our public needs are greater than ever.
These tests also present an enormous opportunity to make
America part of the solution by tapping into their patriotic
spirit and a desire to serve.
Service has been a key part of America's story since 1961,
when President John F. Kennedy took the challenge to a
generation to ask ``not what your country can do for you'' but
``what you can do for your country.'' He inspired millions of
Americans to make a difference at home and around the globe by
establishing the Peace Corps, Volunteers in Service to America
programs.
In the 50 years since, hundreds of millions of Americans
have helped build a powerful legacy. In 2008, over 61 million
adults volunteered. From 2002 to 2007, the number of volunteers
across the country grew by more than a million, according to
the Corporation for National and Community Service.
There are many ways to serve, from nonprofit community
organizations to the military to public service. According to
the Partnership for Public Service, the federal government
currently needs to fill thousands of service jobs in critical
fields, including medicine, public health, foreign languages,
and information technology. And for many Americans, military
service has opened new doors to careers in addition to serving
the country during times of war and peace.
As many of you know, we have a new President who has a
personal interest in service. President Obama began his career
by volunteering on the South Side of Chicago. And last night, I
was gratified to hear him make national service a key part of
his bold agenda to revive and rebuild our country.
To help get more students to college, he proposed making
college more affordable for Americans who serve or volunteer.
He called for Congress to take urgent, bipartisan action to
launch a new era of American service for the current and future
generations, making it clear that improving service must be one
of the next actions we take to help lift our economy out of
this crisis.
I look forward to working with all members of this
committee to deliver him this legislation as quickly as
possible.
The economic recovery plan he enacted was a good first step
toward rebuilding our service capacity. It invests $200 million
in as many as 13,000 new service opportunities with AmeriCorps,
one of the several programs we will hear about from today's
witnesses. AmeriCorps, along with VISTA, Senior Corps, Learn
and Serve America, and others, has become a successful model
for public and private partnerships.
In neighborhoods across the country, these programs are
integral partners with business and local government, helping
meet vital needs from mentoring programs for children of
prisoners--to feeding the hungry--to providing independent
living services to seniors.
These programs yield proven, measurable benefits. They can
foster inspiration, teach valuable skills, and prepare
Americans for jobs. They also provide resources needed to
tackle the great challenges, like improving student achievement
or rebuilding cities in time of disaster.
For example, in Harlem, Brian McClendon has volunteered
with the Harlem Children's Zone for 12 years, in an AmeriCorps
program that helps improve the quality of life for children and
adults in some of New York City's most impoverished
neighborhoods. The program not only provided McClendon with a
job, but it also helped him stay away from the other challenges
of the neighborhood while he was growing up in Harlem
In Jacksonville, Florida, Thelma ``Granny'' King, a retired
registered nurse, helps emotionally and academically challenged
inner-city students through SeniorCorps. She uses auditory,
cognitive and kinesthetic skill-building activities to help
students with no linguistic ability to learn to communicate
using their bodies. Her success with these children has helped
her raise their graduation rates by 82 percent.
I have seen similar benefits in my district, where I love
to walk the trails that are managed by the California
Association of Local Conservation Corps, an AmeriCorps program
that engages disadvantaged youth in rebuilding parks and trails
and encourages them to become stewards of the environment. The
young people involved in this program often come from
challenging communities, and they have every obstacle in their
way and every odd working against them. And yet this program is
making a real difference in their lives and to our society,
providing a sense of ownership, confidence and purpose while
introducing them into green jobs for the future. We need more
programs like this.
Today we will hear from witnesses from across the service
spectrum about the innovative approaches to engage youth and
older Americans in green jobs and other service opportunities.
They will share their perspectives on the power of service in
changing communities and how we can leverage these
opportunities to move forward.
And they will help inform our efforts as we start working
immediately, in a bipartisan basis here in this community and
with the Obama administration, to deliver the president a
bipartisan legislation that reinvigorates America's spirit of
national service.
And now I would like to recognize my colleague, Congressman
McKeon from California, who is the senior Republican on the
Education and Labor Committee, for the purposes of an opening
statement.
[The statement of Mr. Miller follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. George Miller, Chairman, Committee on
Education and Labor
I'd like to welcome everyone to today's hearing on how service and
volunteerism can help us build a stronger, vibrant America.
We are at a critical moment in our nation's history. With our
nation being tested by unprecedented challenges--the economic crisis,
the energy crisis, struggling schools and more--our public needs are
greater than ever.
These tests also present an enormous opportunity to make Americans
a part of the solution by tapping into their patriotic spirit and
desire to serve.
Service has been a key part of America's story since 1961, when
President John F. Kennedy first challenged a generation of Americans to
ask ``not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for
your country.''
He inspired millions of Americans to make a difference at home and
around the globe by establishing the Peace Corps and Volunteers in
Service to America programs.
In the fifty years since, hundreds of millions of Americans have
helped build a powerful legacy.
In 2008, over 61 million adults volunteered. From 2002 to 2007, the
number of volunteers across the country grew by more than a million,
according to the Corporation for National and Community Service.
There are many ways to serve--from nonprofit and community
organizations to the military to public service. According to the
Partnership for Public Service, the federal government currently needs
to fill thousands of service jobs in critical fields, including
medicine, public health, foreign languages, and information technology.
And, for many Americans, military service has opened new doors to
careers in addition to serving the country during times of war and
peace.
As many of you know, we have a new President who has a personal
interest in service: President Obama began his career by volunteering
in the South Side of Chicago.
Last night, I was gratified to hear him make national service a key
part of his bold agenda to revive and rebuild our country. To help get
more students to college, he proposed making college more affordable
for Americans who serve or volunteer.
He called for Congress to take urgent, bipartisan action to launch
a new era of American service for current and future generations--
making it clear that improving service must be one of the next actions
we take to help lift our economy out of this crisis. I look forward to
working with all members of this committee to deliver him this
legislation as quickly as possible.
The economic recovery plan he enacted was a good first step toward
rebuilding our service capacity.
It invests $200 million to create as many as 13,000 new service
opportunities with AmeriCorps--one of several programs we'll hear about
from today's witnesses.
AmeriCorps, along with VISTA, Senior Corps, Learn and Serve
America, and others, has become a successful model of public and
private partnerships.
In neighborhoods across the country these programs are integral
partners with business and local government, helping meet vital needs
from mentoring programs for children of prisoners to feeding the hungry
to providing independent living services to seniors.
These programs yield proven, measurable benefits. They can foster
inspiration, teach valuable skills, and prepare Americans for jobs.
They also provide the resources needed to tackle great challenges--like
improving student achievement or rebuilding cities in times of
disaster. For example:
In Harlem, Brian McClendon has volunteered with Children's
Zone for 12 years, an AmeriCorps program that helps improve the quality
of life for children and adults in some of New York City's most
impoverished neighborhoods.
The program not only provided McClendon with a job--but
also helped him stay away from drugs, gangs and violence while growing
up in Harlem.
In Jacksonville, Florida, Thelma ``Granny'' King, a
retired registered nurse, helps emotionally and academically challenged
inner-city students through SeniorCorps. She uses auditory, cognitive
and kinesthetic skill-building activities to help students with no
linguistic ability learn to communicate using their bodies.
Her success with these children has helped raise their graduation
rates by 82 percent.
I've seen similar benefits in my district, where I love walking
trails that are managed by the California Association of Local
Conservation Corps--an AmeriCorps program that engages disadvantaged
youth in rebuilding parks and trails and encourages them to become
stewards of the environment.
The young people involved in this program often come from
challenging communities. They have every obstacle in their way and
every odd working against them.
And yet, this program is making a real difference in their lives--
providing a sense of ownership, confidence and purpose while
introducing them to the green jobs of the future.
We need more programs like this.
Today we'll hear from witnesses from across the service spectrum
about innovative approaches to engage youth and older Americans in
green jobs and other service opportunities.
They'll share their perspective on the power of service in changing
communities and how we can leverage these opportunities as we move
forward.
And they will help inform our efforts as we start working
immediately, in a bipartisan basis here in this committee and with the
Obama administration, to deliver the President bipartisan legislation
that reinvigorates America's spirit of national service.
______
Mr. McKeon. Thank you, Chairman Miller.
And good morning. It is great to be here with such a
dynamic panel of witnesses who make volunteerism cool.
I am a long-time supporter of volunteerism, whether it is
something we do as individuals and families in our own
communities or something we do as citizens coordinated at the
national level. Volunteerism is a hallmark of what makes
America great. Volunteering our time and our talents is a way
that all Americans can give back.
We all have something to contribute no matter where we are
from, how much money we earn, or what we do for a living.
Millions of Americans volunteer in their communities from
serving meals to those who are hungry, to mentoring
underprivileged children. Much of this work is done
independently without an infrastructure or a program to
coordinate the work. People just roll up their sleeves and give
where they can.
Many other Americans have gotten involved with private
philanthropy. For instance, some of our witnesses today have
created and immersed themselves in private volunteering
initiatives to bring individuals together to serve as a group.
Hearings like this one give us an opportunity to shine a
spotlight on the organizations that are doing things all on
their own to promote volunteerism and service, whether it is
within a corporation or an entire industry.
I also think it is important to hear what a wide and
diverse range of groups can do to promote service. For that
reason, I am pleased to have an expert here to discuss the
important role faith-based organizations play in getting
Americans involved in helping their communities.
In addition to the work of individuals and private groups,
many other Americans have chosen to engage in what we call
``National Service,'' the service programs coordinated on the
national stage by the Corporation for National and Community
Service. Approximately 2\1/2\ million Americans engage in
community service each year through the Corporation's programs,
which exist in all 50 states and right here in the District of
Columbia.
This hearing provides us with a good opportunity to learn
more about the unique opportunities that exist within the
national service realm. For instance, I am interested in what
these programs can do to assist veterans continuing with their
desire to serve and help the current members of the military
and their families.
Later this year, this committee will once again attempt to
reauthorize national service programs. We can bring these
programs into the 21st century by ensuring they are targeted,
effective and efficient. And I look forward to doing that.
We can also ensure the programs allow the participation of
smaller organizations, faith-based or otherwise, to
participate. Many Americans choose to participate through these
local organizations who really know the needs of the
communities they serve. I hope we also bear in mind that
government-coordinated national service is just one segment of
a much broader system of volunteerism in this country.
I want to commend our witnesses for their work in the range
of volunteer strategies. You are giving of yourselves and
setting an example for others to do the same. And for that I
want to personally thank you.
And I want to thank you, Mr. Chairman, for having Sgt.
Major Preston here from our Army. You know, when we are
fighting wars on two fronts, and we have an all-volunteer
service, I really appreciate you having him here at this table.
And this year, we are especially honoring our noncommissioned
officers as the Year of the Noncommissioned Officer, so thank
you for that.
With that, I yield. We have a full panel of witnesses
willing to testify, so I will yield back. And thank you.
[The statement of Mr. McKeon follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon, Senior Republican
Member, Committee on Education and Labor
Thank you Chairman Miller, and good morning. It's great to be here
with such a dynamic panel of witnesses who make volunteerism ``cool.''
I am a longtime supporter of volunteerism. Whether it's something
we do as individuals and families in our own communities, or something
we do as citizens coordinated at the national level, volunteerism is a
hallmark of what makes America great.
Volunteering our time and our talents is a way that all Americans
can give back. We all have something to contribute, no matter where
we're from, how much money we earn, or what we do for a living.
Millions of Americans volunteer in their communities, from serving
meals to those who are hungry to mentoring underprivileged children.
Much of this work is done independently, without an infrastructure or a
program to coordinate the work. People just roll up their sleeves and
give where they can.
Many other Americans have gotten involved with private
philanthropy. For instance, some of our witnesses today have created
and immersed themselves in private volunteering initiatives that bring
individuals together to serve as a group. Hearings like this one give
us an opportunity to shine a spotlight on the organizations that are
doing things all on their own to promote volunteerism and service,
whether it's within a corporation or an entire industry. I also think
it's important to hear what a wide and diverse range of groups can do
to promote service. For that reason, I am pleased to have an expert
here to discuss the important role faith-based organizations play in
getting Americans involved in helping their communities.
And in addition to the work of individuals and private groups, many
other Americans have chosen to engage in what we call ``national
service,'' the service programs coordinated on the national stage by
the Corporation for National and Community Service. Approximately 2.5
million Americans engage in community service each year through the
Corporation's programs, which exist in all 50 states and right here in
the District of Columbia. This hearing provides us with a good
opportunity to learn more about the unique opportunities that exist
within the national service realm. For instance, I'm interested in what
these programs can do to assist veterans continuing with their desire
to serve and to help the current members of the military and their
families.
Later this year, this committee will once again attempt to
reauthorize national service programs. We can bring these programs into
the 21st century by ensuring they are targeted, effective, and
efficient, and I look forward to doing that. We can also ensure that
programs allow the participation of smaller organizations--faith-based
or otherwise--to participate. Many Americans choose to participate
through these local organizations who really know the needs of the
communities they serve.
I hope we also bear in mind that government-coordinated national
service is just one segment of a much broader system of volunteerism in
this country. I want to commend our witnesses for their work in the
range of volunteer strategies. You are giving of yourselves, and
setting an example for others to do the same. And for that, I want to
personally thank you.
With that, we have a full panel of witnesses waiting to testify, so
I will yield back. Thank you.
______
Chairman Miller. Thank you very much. And thank you for
recognizing Sgt. Major Preston.
I think those of us who have visited our troops in Iraq and
Afghanistan and else in the world recognize that our soldiers
are returning home with a set of skills that they probably
never imagined that they were going to acquire as they work in
communities all over those countries--in urban settings and as
isolated and a rural setting as you can possibly be in
Afghanistan--and working with people to build communities, to
build schools, to build relationships.
And it is rather remarkable, and we would be remiss if we
did not figure out how to provide the opportunities for them
when they return to America to use those magnificent assets.
I am going to--first of all, members of the committee may
submit opening statements that will be made part of the
permanent record. And I will give a brief introduction of our
witnesses, and their longer bios will be included in the record
of the committee.
And I will begin with Richard Stengel, who will be our
first witness, is the managing editor of Time, the world's
largest weekly news magazine. Mr. Stengel collaborated with
Nelson Mandela on his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom,
later coproducing the documentary Mandela. In 2008, he
coordinated the Service Nation Presidential Candidates Forum,
where he interviewed the candidates about the views on national
service. Mr. Stengel currently is a board of trustees and
member of City Year, a lead partner in the Service Nation
coalition.
Senator Harris Wofford served the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania from 1991-1994, after which he was appointed CEO
of the Corporation for National and Community Service by
President Clinton. Senator Wofford is on the board of America's
Promise, Youth Service of America and the Points of Light
Institute. He also is spokesperson for Experience Wave, an
organization that seeks to develop public service opportunities
for older citizens.
Usher Raymond, IV is the renowned recording artist and
founder of Usher's New Look charity, a nonprofit organization
designed to teach youth about sports and entertainment
industries. Since then, it has mentored over 1,300 youth, with
many of its campers going on to the Mogul VIP program where
they explore career paths via internships and mentoring. Usher
received the key to the city of New Orleans in 2008 for his
commitment to rebuilding the Gulf Coast. His Restart concept
helped more than 750 families establish housing through renting
utility assistance while providing more than 1,200 youth and
families with clothing and food.
James Harris is a former Camp New Look participant, where
in 2007 he received the designation of Star Camper. He also was
a Mogul VIP participant and is currently a student at Johnson
Community College with plans to major in Business
Administration and Entrepreneurship. Mr. Harris is a 19-year-
old aspiring rapper, entrepreneur, philanthropist, politician,
expert witness and everything else, apparently. [Laughter.]
There is a man with a vision and a set of goals. Welcome to
the committee.
Dr. Cheryl L. Dorsey is the president of Echoing Green, a
global nonprofit which has awarded millions in startup capital
to social entrepreneurs worldwide since 1987. While studying at
Harvard Medical School, Ms. Dorsey used her own Echoing Green
fellowship award to establish Family Van, a community mobile-
based health unit designed to provide outreach and health care
service. Ms. Dorsey has received numerous awards and honors for
her commitment to public service including the Pfizer Roerig
History of Medicine Award and the Robert Kennedy Distinguished
Public Service Award.
Van Jones is the founding president of Green For All, a
U.S. organization that promotes opportunities for the
disadvantaged and green-collar jobs. Green For All seeks to
build an inclusive green economy that will alleviate poverty
and ecological crises. Mr. Jones is Time Magazine 2008
Environmental Hero, one of Fast Company's 12 Most Creative
Minds in 2008, and the New York Times bestselling author of The
Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Solve Our Two
Biggest Problems. He is a 1993 Yale Law School graduate and
senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.
Sgt. Major of the Army Kenneth O. Preston is the thirteenth
sergeant major of the Army, where he serves as personnel
advisor to the Army's chief of staff, primarily in the areas
regarding soldier training and quality of life. During his 28-
year career, he has served in many fields including, and most
recently, in Iraq. He has been awarded many decorations
including two Legions of Merit, the Bronze Star Medal, the
Defense Meritorious Service Medal, four Army Meritorious
Service Medals, five Army Commendation Medals, three Army
Achievement Medals, Southwest Asia Service Ribbon, Liberation
of Kuwait Ribbon, and a Kosovo Medal, and a NATO Medal and
Joint Meritorious Unit Award. [Applause.]
Wow. And a Congressional Hearing Medal. [Laughter.]
Thank you. Thank you. That is magnificent.
David L. Caprara is the director and nonresident fellow at
the Brookings Institute on International Volunteering and
Service and executive vice-president of Youth Federation for
World Peace. Formerly, he directed faith-based and community
initiatives for the Corporation of National Community Service
and Volunteers in Service to America known as VISTA.
He has co-directed several international discussions on
service including the International Roundtable on Volunteering
and Service and the International Conference on Faith and
Service. He has also worked extensively with government,
serving the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the
Virginia Governor's Commission on Citizen Empowerment, and the
White House Task Force on Disadvantaged Youth.
Lisa Hamilton is president of the UPS Foundation, managing
volunteer programs, grants, education initiatives and other
philanthropic partnerships. She has joined UPS as a tax
research and planning manager in 2006 and has also worked as a
program manager for the foundation. Ms. Hamilton serves on a
number of boards including the Annie E. Casey Foundation,
Boston College Center on Corporate Citizenship, the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce Business and Civic Leadership Center and
the Atlanta Education Fund.
And Mr. Castle is recognized.
Mr. Castle. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
While not a speaker here, I would like to introduce
somebody, a young lady from Wilmington, Delaware, Amy Liu, who
is at our hearing. She is a Prudential Spirit Community
Volunteer of the Year winner of 2009 for Delaware. She is
serving the nation in many ways, which is the focus of today's
hearing. And at the age of 17, she is very familiar with that
kind of service.
In May of 2008, she established a Szechwan earthquake
relief fund that successfully raised more than $43,000 to aid
victims of the disaster in South Central China. It is truly an
honor that this accomplished young woman and her father were
able to join us for today's hearing.
Nearly 20,000 young people across the country were
considered for this award, and she is the winner. We are
delighted to have Amy here. The other winner from Delaware,
Madison Dodge, was invited today but was unable to attend,
unfortunately. But Amy Liu represents all that is good about
the young people of America.
Chairman Miller. Where is Amy?
Mr. Castle. Thank you, Amy, for being here. [Applause.]
Chairman Miller. Thank you. Amy, thank you so much for your
service.
I would also like to recognize, before we turn to Richard
the chairman of the board for the Corporation for National and
Community Service, Alan Solomont.
Alan? Alan, please stand. [Applause.]
And the acting CEO, Nicky Goren. Nicky, where are you?
[Applause.]
Thank you.
Richard, we are going to turn to you. When you begin to
speak, a green light will go on. You will be given 5 minutes.
Your written statement, which I know is much longer, will be
placed in the record of the hearing in its entirety. And you
proceed in a manner in which you are most comfortable. At about
4 minutes, an orange light will go on, and we would like you to
think about wrapping up your thoughts. But we want you to do it
in the manner that is comfortable to you and coherent to us.
And then eventually you will see a red light--you are out.
Welcome to the committee, and thank you again for taking
your time to be with us.
STATEMENT OF RICHARD STENGEL, MANAGING EDITOR, TIME MAGAZINE
Mr. Stengel. Actually, my contribution to national service
will be keeping my statement very short.
I want to thank you Chairman Miller and Ranking Member
McKeon for convening this important and timely hearing. It is
particularly timely, as we saw last night President Obama kick-
started the national service movement, something that he has
been dedicated to since he was a candidate. And I am delighted
to be here and honored to be here as well. Thank you for
convening this important hearing.
I was tasked with giving a kind of overview and history of
national service, so I went back to the very, very beginning.
And that was 1787, the very hot summer in Philadelphia when the
framers were convening, writing the Constitution. And when they
emerged after about 3 months, Benjamin Franklin stepped outside
the hall, and a woman came up to him and said, ``Dr. Franklin,
what hath thee wrought?'' And he said, ``A republic, madam, if
you can keep it.''
And it is a famous statement, and what he meant was is that
the framers were not actually very optimistic about keeping a
republic, keeping it going. And what they meant was that it
wasn't a machine that would go of itself, and a republic
depended on civic participation, the participation of people in
a democracy. That for a republic to work and a democracy to
work, everybody had to participate. So national service is in
our DNA as a republic.
By the way, let the record show that my neighbor, Harris
Wofford, was not at the Constitutional Convention. [Laughter.]
However, he is a true founder of the national service
movement.
And you are one of the great men in this movement, and I
look forward to hearing from you in a moment.
Now, many, many years later now, the two central acts of
democratic citizenship in our country these days are voting and
paying taxes. And that is not something that the founders think
would really be enough to keep a republic going.
One of the paradoxes right now that we are seeing is that
there are a lot of people who feel a lack of confidence and a
lack of belief in our institutions, in government and Congress
and what have you. Yet, at the same time, volunteerism is at an
all-time high.
And it is not really a contradiction, as I see it, because
people feel like the private space can be a remedy for what
they see as the flaws in the public space. And what our
challenge is in the service movement--yours and ours--is to try
to unite private purpose with public service. And I think the
moment now is great for that.
In fact, we are at a unique moment in our history to help
try to mobilize Americans to do this. We are fighting two wars
overseas. We are in an unparalleled economic recession. The
idea, though, for service is that service can actually help
those areas of the economy where we are most challenged--that
is education, public health, infrastructure. And through
national service we can actually be a kind of almost a silver
bullet to solve some of these problems, the persistent public
problems in public health and education that haven't been
remedied by legislation and could actually be remedied by
service.
Service, by the way, is not Republican; it is not
Democratic. It is beyond party. It is something that both
parties can unite behind, that all Americans can unite behind.
And at such a difficult time in the economy, what we all have
to show, what is incumbent upon all of us, is to show that the
return on investment is very high. And I hope to do that.
So if we look at the landscape right now, there are 61
million Americans who volunteered in their communities in 2007.
That is a million more than in 2002. And they contributed more
than 8 billion hours of service that was worth more than $158
billion to America's communities.
About one-quarter of Americans over the age of 16
volunteered, about one-third of them, which is the largest
cohort, in faith-based institutions. And I am not even
mentioning the military service, which in some ways is the
noblest service and the oldest service in American history.
Talking about AmeriCorps, there are 75,000 Americans now
who are volunteering through AmeriCorps. But 540,000 Americans
have volunteered through AmeriCorps since it started in 1994.
And if you do a cost-benefit analysis of AmeriCorps programs,
one of the conclusions is that for every dollar in investment,
that results in $1.50-$3.90 in direct, measurable benefits to
community. I call that a good return on investment.
I think we are also at an inflection point in America now
when it comes to service. A lot of people have talked about
what happened after 9/11, and I think people on both sides of
the aisle have agreed that there was a spirit in America where
people felt like they needed to be called on to make
sacrifices. And we didn't--we sort of missed that moment in
some ways.
I think we are at another moment now with a new president,
with people being involved in the political process in a way
that we haven't seen almost in our lifetime, that we could
actually call on people to serve. And I think the economy only
makes that more imperative that we do that.
In September of 2007, I wrote a cover story in Time called
``The Case for National Service.'' By the way, when you are the
editor of the magazine, you can publish your own cover story.
[Laughter.]
That is one advantage. But the idea was that we wanted to,
as an institution, endorse this idea of national service, that
I believe in it passionately myself. But I also believe that
people in the media, which by the way I believe is another form
of public service, can actually get behind these ideas that
benefit the country as a whole.
So I wrote that cover story. There were a bunch of ideas in
there that have actually been picked up in the Hatch-Kennedy
bill that was mentioned this morning--things like increasing
the size of AmeriCorps, the creation of an Education Corps, a
Green Corps, a Health Corps, and even a National Service
Academy, and even the idea of making a cabinet-level
appointment for national service the way, actually, some states
have done. Governor Schwarzenegger has done that in California.
You know, the passage of that bill, which I know many of you
endorse, is something that would be very important to the
national service movement.
At Time, we have continued to talk about national service.
And we sponsored, as you mentioned, along with a great
organization, Service Nation, a national service summit last
year where then-candidate Obama and Senator John McCain
convened for a kind of a truce to talk about national service.
And it was a symbol of the fact that it is, again, beyond
party.
We are again going to do a national service issue this year
and convene a summit. And I would hope to have ideas and
suggestions from all of you about how to do that. I think here
is an example of the way media and government can collaborate
on something that is in all of our interests as citizens.
And I just again want to say that I think we are at a
critical moment for national service. And it can help us solve
many of the most acute problems that are facing us now as a
people. Service I don't believe is a luxury. It can help us
rebuild as a nation, restore confidence, and prepare for the
future.
It was Benjamin Franklin who famously said that Americans
can do well by doing good. And I think that has never been
truer now when it comes to national service.
Thank you very much.
[The statement of Mr. Stengel follows:]
Prepared Statement of Richard Stengel, Managing Editor, TIME Magazine
After more than three months of secret negotiations during the
sweltering summer of 1787, the founding fathers emerged from
Independence Hall with a Constitution. As Benjamin Franklin stepped
outside, a society woman accosted him and said, ``Well, Doctor, what
have we got?'' Franklin replied, ``A republic, madam, if you can keep
it.''
A republic, if you can keep it. The Framers were not all that
optimistic about the future of the republic. They understood that it
was not a machine that would go of itself. What they knew was that for
it to work, people had to be involved; they had to be active
participants in a representative democracy. Otherwise, the republic
would not keep.
A half-century later, the great French social scientist Alexis de
Tocqueville published his book Democracy in America about his year in
the United States. He famously wrote that ``Americans of all ages, all
conditions, all minds constantly unite.'' He saw thousands of
associations of ordinary people coming together to build hospitals and
churches and schools. ``Everywhere,'' he wrote, that there is ``a new
undertaking, you see the government in France and a great lord in
England, count on it that you will perceive an association in the
United States.'' America was something new under the sun. In the Old
World, there was no such thing as volunteering--everything was done by
the monarchy, the aristocracy or the state. America basically invented
democratic volunteerism and national service. Service is in our DNA as
a nation and as a people.
These days, the two central acts of democratic citizenship are
voting and paying taxes. But from the standpoint of the Founders and
Mr. de Tocqueville, that is far from enough. For a while now, we have
seen confidence in our institutions at all-time lows, but volunteerism
and civic participation at modern highs. This would seem to be a
contradiction, but it is not. People, especially young people, feel
that the public sphere may be broken but that they can personally make
a difference through community service. The challenge is to try to
unite private and public purpose.
Today, we are at a unique moment in our history when we have an
opportunity to mobilize Americans to help address critical issues
facing our republic. We are fighting two wars overseas, and we are in
the midst of an unparalleled economic recession. The parts of our
economy that have the greatest need are the sectors that benefit most
from service: education, public health and infrastructure. One way to
keep the republic at such a difficult time is through universal
national service--civilian and military. Whether that means addressing
the high school dropout crisis or solving persistent public-health
problems, national service is a kind of silver bullet that will help
address our most intractable problems. It is neither Republican nor
Democratic--it is beyond partisanship. And it is critical to show that
when it comes to national service, the return on investment is high and
measurable.
Let's look at the landscape now. Nearly 61 million Americans
volunteered in their communities in 2007, giving more than 8 billion
hours of service worth more than $158 billion to America's communities.
More than a quarter of Americans over the age of 16 volunteered in some
way. There were one million more volunteers in 2007 than in 2002. More
than a third of volunteers served through religious organizations.
75,000 Americans are serving through AmeriCorps this year, and more
than 540,000 have served in AmeriCorps programs since 1994. A cost-
benefit analysis of AmeriCorps programs has concluded that every $1 in
investment results in $1.50 to $3.90 of direct measurable benefits to
the community: children tutored, playgrounds built, homeless people
fed. AmeriCorp volunteers mentored more than 210,000 children and youth
last year.
It seems that America is at an inflection point when it comes to
service. At this very moment, Americans are stepping forward in record
numbers to serve. Applications for many national-service programs are
three times what they were last year. Whether this is because of the
economic downturn or record levels of voter involvement during the
election cycle, we don't know. Probably both. After 9/11, there was a
desire to serve and sacrifice that was never really fulfilled. Last
year, there was a national feeling that involvement in politics and
government was a way to make a difference. Whether it is the turn in
the economy or how people have been turned on by politics, we should
grab the opportunity to get even more people involved.
In September of 2007, I wrote a cover story for TIME called ``The
Case for National Service.'' In that story, we advocated a ten-point
plan for universal national service that included a national-service
baby bond, the creation of a Cabinet-level department of national
service, the expansion of AmeriCorps, the creation of an Education
Corps, a Green Corps and a Health Corps, and the creation of a National
Service Academy. We hoped that someday the most common question young
Americans would ask one another would be, ``Where did you do your
service?''
The cover sparked an enormous amount of attention both nationally
and in the service world. A number of the ideas in the cover story have
been incorporated into the Serve America Act, a comprehensive service
bill that has been introduced by Senators Kennedy and Hatch. There are
many innovative ideas in that bill, and we believe that legislation is
necessary to make it easier for nonprofits to run national-service
programs. Congress should focus on competition, quality, transparency
and accountability for those organizations. We've continued to talk
about national service, and our efforts have included sponsoring, along
with Service Nation, a national-service summit last year during the
presidential campaign in which candidates Obama and McCain discussed
service for 90 minutes on national television. Our issue last year,
``21 Ways to Fix Up America,'' had pieces from Colin Powell, Arnold
Schwarzenegger, Miley Cyrus, John DiIulio, John McCain and Barack
Obama. This is a subject I'm passionate about, and I've had great
support from the business side of TIME. Time Inc. has been at the
forefront of the corporate service movement, and Time Warner, our
parent company, has a proud tradition of civic leadership. TIME, Time
Inc. and Time Warner employees engage in civic work throughout America
and the world. At TIME, we're committed to continuing this call for
service, and we'll do another special issue this September. I believe
the media can play an important role in stimulating civic engagement,
and I welcome your ideas and suggestions on what we might feature this
year.
America is at a critical moment right now where national service
can help us solve many of our most acute national problems. At a time
like this, service is not a luxury but an effort that can help us
rebuild, restore confidence and prepare for the future. It was Ben
Franklin who first said that as Americans, we can do well by doing
good--that has never been truer than it is right now. Thank you.
______
Chairman Miller. Thank you.
Senator Wofford?
STATEMENT OF HON. HARRIS WOFFORD, SPOKESPERSON, EXPERIENCE
WAVE, FORMER U.S. SENATOR
Mr. Wofford. Chairman Miller and Ranking Member McKeon,
thank you for convening this first full committee hearing of
the 111th Congress by this pioneering committee and for your
fine opening statements. And I appreciate the excellent work
Representative McCarthy and Representative Platts did on
national service in the Subcommittee on Healthy Families and
Communities.
Now, my grandsons, hearing that I was going to be on a
panel with Usher, came to life and said, ``That is really
cool.'' [Laughter.]
I am happy to be here with all these cool panelists.
Rick, I am sorry I missed the Constitutional Convention in
1787. [Laughter.]
But I think 2009 is going to be a very good year, thanks in
part to your cover stories and the summit you helped convene.
But at that summit, when both presidential candidates,
Obama and McCain, supported a quantum leap in national service
and became cosponsors of the Serve America Act that day
introduced in the Senate by Senators Ted Kennedy and Orrin
Hatch, the networks, following their habit of treating good
news as no good news, announced that the two candidates had
agreed on national service, so there was no news coming from
the summit.
Well, last night in his address to Congress, President
Obama made news on a number of fronts, not the least on the
front of citizen service. Now is the time to act boldly and
wisely, he said. And he asked Congress to enact the Kennedy-
Hatch bill. That bill is a companion and corollary of the GIVE
Act, which we are most immediately considering today. I hope
that this pace-setting hearing will in due course lead to the
great good news of bipartisan enactment of comprehensive
legislation that expands greatly the opportunities for all
Americans to serve.
Now, this week I just returned from India with a
congressional delegation led by John Lewis and Spencer Baucus,
joined by Martin Luther King III. We traced the trip made 50
years ago by Martin Luther King Jr., which I had helped arrange
long ago. King was a man of service who said, ``Everybody can
be great--because anybody can serve.''
Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, those of us here
in support of the GIVE Act are trying to practice what Dr. King
prescribed. We hope that in the same spirit you will recommend
legislation to encourage and enable anyone at any age to serve.
Let me tell one other story of long ago. Soon after
President Kennedy's death, my wife and I, been living in
Ethiopia where I was Peace Corps director and representative
for Africa, were invited to Israel. We put at the top of our
list a meeting with the great philosopher Martin Buber. In our
conversation with him, I cited a passage from his book Paths in
Utopia in which he said that though his dream of Israel and
Palestine cooperation and Arab-Jewish brotherhood had been
plowed under by events, a great idea will return when idea and
fate meet once more in a creative hour.
When I asked Buber if he saw signs of that hour coming
soon, Clare guffawed and said that from what she saw it would
be a long time coming. As we parted, Buber said to me that I
was obviously a romantic, and he hoped I knew how lucky I was
to be married to a realist. And to Clare he said, you are right
that these creative hours when idea and fate meet come only
rarely after long intervals, but they do come. And once one
comes, I hope your realism will not make you miss it.
Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, the crisis in
our economy and the world's economy and the conditions in the
world and the call to action by the President of the United
States tell me that such a creative hour is at hand. This is a
time when this committee can do its part to see that Congress
and the country do not miss the opportunity.
It won't surprise you, Mr. Chairman, that I support all the
key parts of the GIVE Act, including AmeriCorps, Learn and
Serve America, and the Senior Corps. But today at nearly four
score and three years of age, I am here particularly on behalf
of the Experience Wave, a campaign supported by the Atlantic
Philanthropies to advance state and federal policies to tap the
reservoir of talent, time and skill of the boomer generation
and encourage all older adults to be engaged in work for the
common good in civic life and in service.
Unfortunately, many people and pundits view the coming
population of older Americans as a threat and a burden.
Instead, we need to see them first of all as an asset of
tremendous potential, a great force for the common good, and
they need to see themselves in that light.
The three programs of the Senior Corps of the Corporation
for National and Community Service--Foster Grandparents, Senior
Companions, and the Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP)--
together tap the talents of more than a half million older
Americans each year. All three programs have done great work
for many years, which I saw first-hand as CEO of the
corporation. Those programs provide good ways for seniors to
contribute and make a real difference for the individuals
involved and for nonprofits, faith-based and other community
organizations throughout the United States. They should be
expanded, as should the newer Experience Corps.
To crack the atom of citizen service and release its full
potential, we need to recognize that citizen service is ageless
and that it can creatively connect the generations.
The experience wave of older Americans is coming. In 2006,
the first of the 77 million boomers turned 60. The wave has
begun. The boomers represent the most active, healthy and
educated retiring generation in history. For example, the new
Experience Corps members are a diverse group. Ages range from
50-87, their income and education a wide range as well. Over
half are African American, 39 percent white.
In addition to delivering valuable help to others, those
older adults in the Senior Corps and the Experience Corps can
improve their own lives by service. Findings in two studies of
Experience Corps members by Washington University and Johns
Hopkins show a sustained increase in civic activity, in greater
public support for public education, and a wider circle of
friends and a better outlook on life.
Chairman Miller. Senator, I am going to ask if you can wrap
it up.
Mr. Wofford. So I will submit the rest of my----
Chairman Miller. Thank you.
Mr. Wofford [continuing]. Testimony of a page-and-a-half
into the record.
[The statement of Mr. Wofford follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Harris Wofford, Former United States Senator
Let me first thank Chairman Miller and Ranking Member McKeon for
convening this hearing on national service and volunteerism. It is
important and timely for every American and is an issue that defies
partisan boundaries. Citizen service belongs to no party, no ideology.
It is above all an American idea in which Americans can find common
ground.
Today, I speak on behalf of the Experience Wave, supported by The
Atlantic Philanthropies. Experience Wave is a campaign to advance state
and federal policies that tap the reservoir of time, talent, skills and
abilities of the boomer generation and enable older adults to stay
engaged in work, civic life, and service.
In President Obama's words, we find one of the compelling reasons
to embrace citizen service:
Through service, I found a community that embraced me; a church to
belong to; citizenship that was meaningful; the direction I'd been
seeking. Through service, I found that my own improbable story fit into
a larger American story. (``A Call to Serve,'' Cornell College, Iowa,
December 5, 2007)
The call to service is one that I helped issue nearly half a
century ago when I worked with President Kennedy and Sargent Shriver to
create the Peace Corps, and, later with Sargent Shriver, on the Foster
Grandparent Program.
Today, the three programs of the Senior Corps--Foster Grandparents,
Senior Companions, and the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP),
together tap the talents of one-half million older Americans in service
to their communities and their neighbors. As all three programs have
done so well for many years (which I saw first hand as CEO of the
Corporation for National and Community Service) Foster Grandparents
work with at-risk children, Senior Companions provide a lifeline to
homebound seniors, and the RSVP program engages hundreds of thousands
of volunteers in an array of community service: in disaster relief,
homeland security, environmental action, including help to other older
Americans needing education against telemarketing fraud, in the
prevention of falls, and for new involvement in a green economy. These
programs provide good ways for seniors to contribute and make a real
difference for individuals, nonprofits, and faith-based and other
community organizations throughout the United States. They should be
expanded.
I just returned from India with a Congressional delegation led by
John Lewis and Spencer Bachus. We retraced the trip made fifty years
ago by Martin Luther King, Jr. He was a man of service who said,
``Everybody can be great * * * because anybody can serve. You don't
have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your
subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A
soul generated by love.''
Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee, at nearly four score and
three years, I am still trying to practice what Dr. King prescribed. In
that spirit I am here to support legislation that will encourage anyone
at any age to serve. The GIVE Act and other legislation you are
considering does that.
Creating service opportunities for fellow Americans is one of the
most important needs of the nation. I have been lucky to be a part of
many efforts to do this--in the 1980s as the initiator of Pennsylvania
Governor Bob Casey's Office of Citizen Service and in the l990s as CEO
of the Corporation for National and Community Service, and now in this
new decade as a spokesperson for the Experience Wave.
Unfortunately, many view the coming population of older Americans
as a burden. Instead, we need to see them first of all as an asset of
tremendous potential, a great force for the common good. And they need
to see themselves in that light.
To crack the atom of citizen service and release its full
potential, we will all need to recognize that citizen service is
ageless, that it spans the generations and connects the generations.
The experience wave is coming. In 2006, the first of the 77 million
``boomers'' (Americans born between 1946 and 1964) turned 60 and the
wave began. By comparison, there were 48 million people born from 1963-
1978, the so-called ``Generation X.''
As the boomer generation begins to retire and leave vacancies,
employers in all sectors will be pressed to replace them with younger
workers who may lack the skills and experience the older workers
brought to the workplace. This knowledge and experience gap will hit
some industries and sectors particularly hard.
The boomers represent the most active, healthy, and educated
retiring generation in the history of the United States. This presents
a great opportunity for businesses, communities, and non-profit
organizations to engage mature and older workers in continued
employment or charitable service. We can't afford to miss this
opportunity.
The boomer generation wants to give back to society, to be useful.
Many know they want to try their hands at second careers, whether in
part-time or full-time work, or in volunteer service. As the idea of
encore careers spreads, many more will want to undertake them.
For this to happen we will need to create programs to retrain or
expand the skills of boomers so they can take on new or expanded
responsibilities. Charitable work will often need to be restructured.
With the right preparation, this generation can mentor or tutor young
people, prepare tax returns, give advice on health, and perform a
variety of high-skill services.
With labor shortages in health care, engineering, education,
government, and other sectors, it is in our national interest to usher
the generation that invented computers and modern medicine into an
another phase of life that may include flexible paid work as well as
charitable service or pro bono work.
In addition to delivering high quality, crucial service, older
adults can improve their own lives. Two recent studies by Washington
University and Johns Hopkins University find that service in the
Experience Corps program, in which people over 55 now tutor and mentor
disadvantaged elementary school students in 23 cities, provides a
sustained boost in health and well-being for the tutors themselves.
Experience Corps members are a diverse group. The average age is
65, but the ages range from 50 to 87. Their income and education covers
a wide range as well. Over half the members are African American and
39% are white. Findings in the two studies showed a sustained increase
in levels of activity, greater engagement in social and community
events, greater support for public education, a wider circle of friends
and a better outlook on life.
Research also indicates that adults who are active and engaged are
healthier longer and less reliant on federal programs such as Medicare
and Medicaid. So service can be a preventive medicine to help preserve
our budgets. And there are all these benefits for those who serve,
while kids' reading scores improve, the homebound receive assistance,
the forgotten are remembered, and a multitude of others are helped.
A critical factor to recognize is that many, if not most, boomers
will need to work for pay or some other income support because their
retirement savings or income is insufficient. A recent AARP survey of
1,200 boomers found that more than 80 percent expect to work at least
part-time in their retirement years.
Unfortunately, many barriers discourage people from continuing to
work. Some employer pension plans require retirement by a certain age
and many workplaces do not offer flexible schedules that many older
workers seek.
This committee can address these challenges, sustain the good works
of current programs and expand other opportunities for boomers to meet
the evolving needs of our communities, boomers, and other older
Americans.
So I offer my warm support to last year's GIVE Act. The Act
promotes programs to encourage boomers and older adults to volunteer
with a range of opportunities including:
Next Chapter Grants to fund organizations such as
community colleges and other nonprofits to serve as one-stop resources
for finding paid or volunteer jobs that provide service to the
community;
Time Banking which would create local service exchanges
where both parties are compensated with reciprocal amounts of volunteer
service and no money changes hands;
Requirements that states develop comprehensive plans to
tap the resources of boomers and older adults for volunteer and paid
work;
Bilingual Volunteer Recruitment to enhance outreach for
senior volunteer programs so that bilingual volunteers are recruited;
and
The creation of additional programs to help ensure that
low-income Americans, including older adults, have opportunities to
serve, including Silver Scholarships.
In addition, your colleagues in the Senate have addressed the issue
with program expansions and innovations which should be supported by
both chambers of Congress and by both sides of the aisle:
Senators Kennedy and Hatch have introduced the
comprehensive Serve America Act which includes the Senior Corps; and
new Encore programs; and
Senator Dodd and Congresswoman DeLauro have written the
Encore Service Act which includes the Silver Scholars program--
highlighted by Congressman Sestak--an initiative that encourages older
adults to continue lifelong learning and apply it to new careers and
goals.
The potential for drawing millions of boomers into serving local
communities is one of the promising elements in national service
legislation. We know that 10,000 boomers turn 60 every day. Some of
them have already retired, some are facing involuntary retirement due
to the economic downturn, and some will continue to work full-time for
many years. National service should offer all of them an attractive
menu of opportunities to do what most of them already say they want to
do--help others. They should be able to serve for one or many years,
there should be part-time and full time opportunities; education awards
should be available for transfer to a grandchild or a child they have
tutored or mentored. It is important for the outreach, recruitment and
program design for this population to be tailored to what is known
about Boomers.
Mr. Chairman, I ask that the following documents be placed in the
record: a letter to the Obama transition team from some of our nation's
service leaders, a letter from the Age for Change coalition supporting
service legislation, and an op ed that Representative Lewis and I wrote
that was published on inauguration day.
Mr. Chairman and committee members, I remind you of the good work
you have done with the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). Now
all boomers are protected by it. Your committee can now help the
boomers become or remain engaged in valuable employment and volunteer
work by moving these national service bills forward this year.
In difficult economic times, the power and value of volunteer
service is greater. You have passed the Recovery and Reinvestment Act
to help jump start the economy. In the next series of actions, we hope
you will enact legislation, such as the GIVE Act, to provide an
intergenerational investment--allowing more people to help their
communities and their fellow Americans who are in need.
But also please visit the Experience Wave website at
www.experiencewave.org.
You'll see that there is a great deal of activity around
stimulating service opportunities at the state level. Thank you for
moving forward on the Federal front.
______
Chairman Miller. Thank you.
Mr. Wofford. And do I have a chance to introduce----
Chairman Miller. No. I will tell you why, because we are
going to have a problem with a vote here in a few minutes. And
I would like to get through----
Mr. Wofford. Thank you very much. They are----
Chairman Miller [continuing]. Through the testimony.
Mr. Wofford [continuing]. An outstanding group of----
Chairman Miller. But thank you so much for your testimony.
Mr. Wofford [continuing]. Of people here today.
Chairman Miller. And thank you again for all your service.
Usher, we are going to take your testimony at this point.
I will just say to the members, we are expecting votes in a
little while. We are going to proceed as deep into that vote as
we can with the testimony before we break. And then we have
three votes: one 15-and then two 5-minute votes. So hopefully
we will diminish the amount of interruption.
Usher, welcome.
STATEMENT OF USHER RAYMOND IV, RECORDING ARTIST, CHAIRMAN,
USHER'S NEW LOOK FOUNDATION
Mr. Raymond. I will try to be as quick as possible.
Chairman Miller. No, you say what you want to say.
Those other two guys flunked the test already, so don't
worry about it. [Laughter.]
Mr. Raymond. It was a testimony experience.
Thank you, Chairman Miller, very much, and Chairwoman
McCarthy, so much for this incredible opportunity to invite me
to be a part of this testimony to the House Education and Labor
Committee.
I am truly honored to be here today to discuss issues that
deeply are relevant to our nation, as evident from President
Obama's address last night. I take a personal hand in saying
that this is a priority to me, to empower youth to become more
active in their communities through community service.
When I was a child, I attended the Boys and Girls Club of
Chattanooga, Tennessee. This was my first real exposure to
community service. It was empowering. It made me realize that I
could truly make a difference, no matter what my age was.
And the youth today is no different. When I stand onstage
and see young fans, I am blown away by their energy. But I am
also excited to get off the stage and see them serving in their
communities, making a difference. They call this generation, my
generation, the Millennians. Well, I call them ``Generation
S''--a generation of service-minded youth leaders, ready to
serve. And together we are ready to change the world.
Ten years ago, I started my organization, the New Look
Foundation, because I had not forgotten the early lessons about
service. I didn't just want to write a check but yet wanted to
be hands on. As a young organization, I found many
opportunities to positively impact the lives of others. Rather
calling on youth to serve in the Gulf Coast or providing rent
and utility assistance to over 750 families after Katrina and
Rita, the one thing we recognized is that youth today have
incredible potential, drive and determination. But they need an
opportunity, and they need the tools to succeed.
Our signature program through my foundation, Camp New Look,
was created to provide youth in underserved communities with
some of those tools and opportunities to do so. At Camp New
Look, we have not only exposed 250,000 youth to the business
side of the sports and entertainment industry but seek to
mentor them in gaining careers in these multibillion dollar
industries. We empower them to increase their economic status
and careers in these industries that they love--music, sports
and entertainment. We guide them to higher education, shadowing
and internship opportunities. We show them options that they
did not know exist.
Along their path of career exploration, they will learn to
work as a team, take risks as leaders, and to respond to their
communities. James Harris used his skills learned at Camp New
Look to enroll into college to become a leader and a future
entrepreneur, as you can hear--and, as I have noticed, to
become one of our next music industry moguls. All New Look did
was give him the opportunity and the tools to succeed. And he
did the rest.
But there are so many more kids who need help, who need the
tools and opportunities to succeed. For every young person we
help, there are thousands more who are waiting to be reached.
And that is why I felt compelled to be here today to offer my
service to National Service.
On September 11th--which I happened to be there--I was
honored to be a part of the Service Nation committee. I was
brought together hundreds of people who discussed how national
service could address some of our nation's most pressing
issues. I led a workshop with a group of over 100 youth leaders
across the country to discuss how we could encourage, engage,
youth to become more active in their communities. I made a
pledge to them that I would be their voice if I had the chance
to, so I am here today.
And I want to share a little bit of what we talked about in
those meetings:
1. The need to engage more youth in service, to empower
them with the tools needed to lead. Any true change always
comes because people come together and make their voices heard.
Well, young people have always been amongst the ones to have
the loudest and the first to speak. Generation S is taking that
to a new level because of their creativity, drive and comfort
in using technology to mobilize the masses.
We should provide these resources to our schools, in my
opinion, to offer service learning programs where young people
can take their idealism and turn it into action while they are
learning to do it. Generation S will find ways to share their
experiences and feelings through technology, spreading the
ideas across the country and around the world.
2. We need to change the perspective of service within
these underserved communities. Far too many young people live
in places where it is hard, and the notion that service is that
of a sentence being handed down from a judge should change. It
should be something that is gratifying to be able to do. But we
have to support innovative ideas that are outside of the box.
To address some of these critical issues in our underserved
communities like the dropout crisis and poverty, our youth
begin to serve and be positive role models in the communities
and help influence their peers to start thinking and living
life in a different way, to make better choices and to stay in
school, to feel more connected and work together through
education.
Service is an incredible thing, and it should be something
that is not only just the right thing to do but the cool thing
to do. Don't you guys agree?
Last, but not least, other organizations like City Year,
Service America, America Corps and Hands On--I recognize these
individuals because they have been a part of developing youth
groups to succeed in life. And as I have shared with you, I
have seen it first hand.
As I continue to do so with my organization, I advise that
other organizations do the same, to open opportunities to those
kids, those people, those youth to unleash that energy and to
help make our communities stronger. We can direct their passion
for service and reward and support them by providing them with
aid in college, grants, service hours completion stipend, and
encouraging corporations and colleges to meet match funds for
the received service.
I can't think of a greater contribution to our communities
than time--our time--and not a greater reward for that time
than a returned investment in our future.
I will close with this: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said,
``the time is always right do to what is right.'' Dr. Martin
Luther King, I pass this back to you: Generation S is ready to
do the right thing. And the right time is now.
Today on behalf of Generation S, a generation of service-
minded youth leaders, I am here. And all we need is a chance
and an opportunity, and we will serve.
[The statement of Mr. Raymond follows:]
Prepared Statement of Usher Raymond IV, Recording Artist, Chairman,
Usher's New Look Foundation
Thank you Chairman Miller and Chairman McCarthy for inviting me to
testify before the House Education and Labor Committee. I am honored to
be here today to discuss an issue that is deeply relevant to our nation
and personally important to me: empowering young people to give back to
their communities through service opportunities.
When I was a child, I attended the Boys and Girls Club in my home
town of Chattanooga, Tennessee. It was my first real exposure to
community service. It was empowering, and it made me realize that I
could really make a difference, no matter what my age. Youth today are
no different. When I stand on the stage and see my young fans, I am
always blown away by their energy--but I am even more blown away when I
come off the stage and see them in action in their community. They call
this generation--my generation--the Millennials, but I call us
Generation `S', for service--because we are a generation ready to
serve. Together, we are ready to change the world.
Ten years ago, I started my organization, the New Look Foundation,
because I had not forgotten my early lessons about service. I didn't
just want to write checks. I wanted to be hands on. As with any young
organization, we found many opportunities to positively impact the
lives of others. Whether calling on youth to serve in the Gulf Coast or
providing rent and utility assistance to over 750 families after
Hurricane Katrina, we recognized young people today have incredible
potential, drive and determination. But they need opportunities, and
they need tools to succeed.
Our signature program through the Foundation, Camp New Look, was
created to provide youth from under-served communities with some of
those tools and opportunities they need. At Camp New Look, we have not
only exposed over 2,500 youth to the business side of sports and
entertainment but we seek to mentor them on how to gain careers in
these multibillion dollar industries. We empower them to increase their
economic status by pursuing careers in the industries that they love--
music, sports and entertainment. We guide them to higher education,
shadowing and internship opportunities-we show them options they didn't
know existed. Along their path of career exploration, they learn to
work as a team, take risks as leaders, and be responsible for their
communities.
James Harris used the skills he learned through his involvement at
Camp New Look and enrolled in college, became a leader in his hometown
of Kansas City, and is well on his way to being the next music industry
mogul. All New Look did was give him the opportunity and the tools. He
did the rest.
But there are so many more kids who need help--who need the tools
and opportunities to succeed. For every young person we help, there are
thousands more who are waiting to be reached. That's why I felt
compelled to come today and offer my support for National Service.
On September 11, 2008 I was honored to serve as youth chair of the
ServiceNation Summit, which brought together hundreds of people to
discuss how national service can help to address some of our nation's
most pressing problems. I led a workshop with a group of 100 other
young leaders from across the country to discuss how we encourage and
engage other young people in service. I made a pledge to them that I
would be their voice whenever I had the chance to do so.
There were many suggestions and ideas that came from our time
together, and I'd like to share a few of them:
1. We need to engage more youth in service, and we can do this by
empowering them with the tools they need to lead. Any true change has
always come about because people have come together to make their
voices heard, and young people have always been among the first to lift
their voices. Generation S is taking that to new levels, because of
their creativity, drive and comfort by using technology to mobilize the
masses. We should provide the resources to our schools to offer service
learning programs where young people can put their idealism into action
and learn while they are doing it. Generation S will find ways to share
what they are experiencing and feeling through technology, spreading
the idea across the country and around the world.
2. We need to change the perception of service within our under-
served communities. Far too many young people are living in places
where life is hard, the notion of service is still that of a
``sentence'' handed down by a judge. But we can make it cool to serve
by supporting initiatives that think outside the box. There are
critical issues in our under-served communities that we must begin to
solve--issues like the drop-out crisis and poverty. Youth can begin to
serve as positive role models, and help influence their peers to start
thinking about living life in a different way, to make better choices--
to stay in school, feel more connected, work towards their education.
Service is an incredible thing, and should be seen as not only the
right thing to do, but a cool thing to do.
3. Best in class organization like City Year and Hands On,
demonstrate that National service should be a pathway for young people
to develop as leaders while they gain the skills they need to succeed
in life. As I have shared with you, I have seen what is possible when
young people are empowered with the right tools for success. We need to
continue to open the doors of opportunity for these young people to
unleash their energy and help make our communities stronger. We can
direct their passion into service--and reward and support their dreams
by providing them with aid for college, grants, service-hour completion
stipends, and encouraging corporations and colleges to match funds they
receive for hours served. I can think of no greater contribution to
your community than your time, and no greater reward for that time than
a returned investment in your future.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., said `the time is always right do to
what is right.' Like Dr. King, this Generation `S' is ready to do what
is right, and is ready to lead the way. So today on behalf of
Generation S, I am here to say * * * if you give us a chance and the
opportunity, we will serve!
Thank you for your time.
______
Chairman Miller. Thank you very much for your testimony.
Mr. Harris--James?
STATEMENT OF JAMES HARRIS, YOUTH PARTICIPANT, USHER'S NEW LOOK
FOUNDATION
Mr. Harris. Hi.
Hi. How y'all doing? I would like to thank you chairman,
Mr. Miller, and chairwoman, Mrs. McCarthy, for allowing me to
have the opportunity to tell a little about myself and tell a
little about my story.
Well, 3 years ago when I was recommended and selected to
attend Camp New Look, I would have never thought I would be
here, sitting next to Usher, speaking to distinguished members
of the Education and Labor Committee.
Before Camp New Look, I was involved in some things that
were not positive at all. Growing up in my neighborhood, I took
a lot of negative things to be that of the norm. But at Camp
New Look, they taught me that these things were not the norm
and that I could do better.
Back at J.C. Harmon High School, my goal was to never go to
college, never to get a degree--it was just to making it into
the music world as a rapper.
In 2007 at Camp New Look, I learned how to make a business
plan from start to finish. I was also awarded the Star Camper
Award for that year. And this is where I got my first service
learning experience, at the Atlanta Community Food Bank sorting
through 40,000 pounds of food. To know that I helped reach so
many people at one time was an unbelievable feeling. And I also
come to realize that no matter how little I thought I had,
there was people out there that had much less than me. But I
had the power to help them.
Working with Usher, who I have come to believe is the true
definition of service leadership, he leads by example. He works
with us side by side, working just as hard as we do. He always
tells autograph seekers, now is the time to work--it will be
time for that later on. But we gotta get to work right now!
Me, now, I am currently enrolled in Johnson County
Community College, going for business management with a
concentration on entrepreneurship. Though I still aspire to be
a successful musician, my dreams have changed dramatically
since camp.
Camp New Look opened up new doors for me which led my
thinking to become more business-oriented. They taught us in
order to be a strong artist you must know the business aspects
of the industry. For example, me being a rapper, if I had a
degree in accounting, I can manage my own books, and I have a
second career to fall back upon. We call that a double threat.
[Laughter.]
Camp New Look inspired me to go to school. I credit Usher
and my mentors for this. They got my gears going in reverse.
They made me think differently. And they are also still playing
a role by paying for my school and my books.
In September 2008, I was also there in New York at the
Service Nation service summit representing one of the 101 young
leaders across the nation. There were leaders from every sector
of the American society there, even then like Senator McCain
and then Senator Barack Obama. That New York trip, being around
so much positivity and so much young people who actually just
wanted to do something in their communities and do something
worldwide led me to go home, Kansas City, Kansas, and take
initiative on my own.
And through New Look funding, I actually got to host my own
service project. And this taught me a lot about leadership and
organization.
Camp New Look, they made me think past my circumstances and
past my environment. They taught me not to let my situation or
other people's labels hold me back from my dreams. Now I
overlook obstacles, and I use them to my advantage.
When my peers see me back at home, they see hope. I am a
walking testimony that anyone, like myself, can achieve their
dreams. All it takes is hard work, and hard work does pay off.
If I made it--if I made it, I know anyone can make it.
I would like to thank you for your time and your
consideration.
[The statement of Mr. Harris follows:]
Prepared Statement of James Harris, Youth Participant, Usher's New Look
Foundation
Three years ago when I was recommended and selected to Camp New
Look, I never would have thought I'd be sitting here, next to Usher,
speaking to distinguished members of the Education and Labor Committee!
Before camp, I was involved in some things that were not positive
at all. Growing up in my neighborhood, I took a lot of negative things
as just being the norm. But at camp, they showed me that this was not
the norm and that I could do better.''
As a student at J.C. Harmon High School in Kansas City, I didn't
always plan to go to college. My primary goal wasn't getting a degree--
it was making it in the music world as a rapper.
In 2007, I was selected to attend Usher's Camp New Look, where I
learned to develop a business plan from start to finish and also earned
the coveted Star Camper Award. That summer at camp I gained my first
service experience working at the Atlanta Community Food Bank to sort
40,000 pounds of food. To know that I helped reach so many people who
were in need was an unbelievable feeling. It taught me that no matter
what I didn't have in my life there was someone out there who had less
and I had the power to help.
Working with Usher who I believe is the true definition of Service
leadership, he leads by example. Every time we participate in a service
project he's there leading the way working just as hard as we are. He
always tells autograph seekers, there'll be time for that later, now
its time to work!
Today I'm majoring in business administration and entrepreneurship
at Johnson Community College. Though I still aspire to be a successful
musician, my dreams have changed dramatically since attending camp.
Camp New Look opened new doors for me and allowed me to become more
business-oriented. At camp, they taught us that there is more to the
music business than being an entertainer and in order to be a strong
artist, you need to know the business side of the industry. A rapper
with an accounting degree can manage his own books and has a second
career to fall back on; we call it being a double threat.
I credit my mentors at Camp New Look for inspiring me to earn a
college degree. They got my gears going in reverse and I started
thinking differently. They believed in me when I didn't believe in
myself
Even today, Usher's New Look continues to play a role by paying for
my books and tuition.
In September 2008, I was one of 101 young leaders across the nation
to participate in the historic ServiceNation Summit in New York City,
attended by leaders from every sector of American society including
Senator John McCain and then Senator Barack Obama. It was here that I
became inspired to take my own community service to another level and
be part of a positive change at home. I returned to Kansas City and
with funding from New Look to host my own community service project,
which has taught me a lot about organization and leadership.
Camp New Look pushed me to think past my environment and my
circumstances. I learned not to let my situation or other people's
labels hold me back from my dreams. Now I can overlook certain
obstacles and use them to my advantage.
When my peers see me, it is a strong testimonial that anyone can
achieve their dreams and if I made it, anyone can make it.
Thank you for your time and consideration!
______
Chairman Miller. Thank you very much. Thank you.
[Applause.]
That is great. That is wonderful.
STATEMENT OF DR. CHERYL DORSEY, PRESIDENT, ECHOING GREEN
Dr. Dorsey. Thank you, Chairman Miller, Ranking Member
McKeon and members of the committee for having me here today.
And thank you, Mr. Harris, for that incredibly inspiring
testimony. Thank you for sharing it with us.
It is a tremendous honor to be with you all today to
testify about the power of people and ideas through service and
innovation to tackle our communities' toughest social problems
and transform lives.
Some background may provide some helpful context for my
testimony today. Twenty years ago, I enrolled at Harvard
Medical School. I was to be the first physician in my family.
Yet two blocks away from perhaps the world's best medical
school, black babies were dying at three times the rate of
white babies. The Boston Globe called this ``Birth in the Death
Zones.'' I was just a student, but I was also a local resident
outraged by this inequity.
Along with Dr. Nancy Oriol, I co-founded The Family Van, a
mobile health unit providing basic medical services, referrals,
and health education to disadvantaged families in inner-city
Boston. Today, The Family Van annually serves about 7,000
clients.
My story is not unique in that there are thousands of
citizens who see problems in their communities every day and
develop new, innovative solutions to tackle them. What is
unique, however, is that I had access to a pool of seed
capital, start up funds, from an organization called Echoing
Green that allowed me to launch my community organization.
Echoing Green is now the organization that I run.
The mission of Echoing Green is to provide start-up funding
and support to some of the world's best emerging social
entrepreneurs. Social entrepreneurs are individuals who
identify and take responsibility for an innovative and untested
idea for positive change and then usher that idea from concept
to reality. Just as entrepreneurs in the private sector are
innovative and relentless in their pursuit of success, so too
are social entrepreneurs as innovative and as relentless but in
pursuit of social impact.
Social entrepreneurship, or social innovation, is
essentially applying the principles of innovation that have
served this country so well in the private sector to the social
sector. It is all about addressing pressing social challenges.
And even though we don't think of it in this way often,
principles of innovation, entrepreneurship, accountability,
results, and competition can exist in the social sector, just
as they do in the private sector.
Let me talk a bit about Echoing Green's track record. Since
1987, our fund has made small investments totaling about $30
million in the ideas of close to 500 social entrepreneurs,
including myself, Van Jones next to me, and Ms. Marta Urquilla
behind me. These social entrepreneurs are working all over this
country and all over the world and serving millions of people
tackling issues as disparate as poverty, human rights abuses,
educational inequities and health care disparities. Just a few
examples: Echoing Green helped launch national service leaders
like Teach For America, City Year, Public Allies, Jump Start,
and BELL.
Echoing Green has also helped seed new community models
like Working Today, which provides affordable, portable health
benefits to 100,000 members across the country; the SEED
School, right across the river, the nation's first urban
boarding public school; and Credit Where Credit is Due, the
first credit union in Washington Heights, New York; and
finally, social enterprises like the Bay Area's Hallmark
Community Solutions, a nonprofit housing developer that creates
new opportunities for people with developmental disabilities.
So I actually want to make clear for a moment that I am
actually not an accidental participant in this panel. Social
entrepreneurship and national service have been important
partners in the work of social change.
First off, national service is often a critical source of
human capital for social entrepreneurs. Because social
innovation demands high levels of efficiency and maximization
of outcomes, leveraging the work of volunteers and part-time
and full-time service members is absolutely critical.
Second, AmeriCorps money has provided the second stage of
growth capital for many of the organizations I have discussed,
like Teach For America and Jump Start. Because AmeriCorps does
not dictate a program model, it has allowed creative
individuals to think of ways for full-time members and part-
time volunteers to solve problems in new and creative ways that
would not be possible under federal funding streams that
dictate specific programmatic approaches. In this way, national
service funding supports and fosters innovation in the social
sector in ways that most other funding streams do not.
Finally, as someone who runs a social venture fund and is
committed to identifying, vetting, and supporting solution-
oriented, metrics-based enterprises that unleash both social
and economic value, I do look favorably upon the role that
AmeriCorps dollars have played in spurring social innovation
and filling gaps in the social capital marketplace.
In addition, the President's call for a Social Innovation
Fund Network to catalyze public and private dollars for
identifying and scaling solutions to social problems represents
an important reorientation of government's relationship toward
the nonprofit sector and mirrors the important role that the
government has played in facilitating innovation, competition,
and economic growth in the private sector.
I hope my perspective has been of some use, and I do
appreciate the opportunity to be here today. Thank you so much.
[The statement of Dr. Dorsey follows:]
Prepared Statement of Cheryl L. Dorsey, M.D., M.P.P., President,
Echoing Green
Thank you Chairman Miller, Ranking Member McKeon, and Members of
the Committee for having me here today. It is a tremendous honor to be
with you to testify about the power of people and ideas through service
and innovation to tackle our communities' toughest social problems and
transform lives.
Background
Some background may provide helpful context for my testimony today.
Twenty years ago, I enrolled at Harvard Medical School; I was to be the
first physician in my family. Yet two blocks away from perhaps the
world's best medical school, black babies were dying at three times the
rate of white babies. The Boston Globe called this ``Birth in the Death
Zones.'' I was just a student. But I was also a local resident outraged
by this inequity. Along with Dr. Nancy Oriol, I co-founded The Family
Van, a mobile health unit providing basic medical services, referrals,
and health education to disadvantaged families in inner-city Boston.
Today, The Family Van serves about 7,000 clients each year. My story is
not unique in that there are thousands of citizens who see problems in
their communities every day and develop new, innovative solutions to
tackle them. What is unique is that I had access to a pool of seed
capital--start up funds--from an organization called Echoing Green that
allowed me to launch The Family Van. It is the organization I now run.
Echoing Green and social entrepreneurship
The mission of Echoing Green is to provide start up funds and
support to some of the world's best social entrepreneurs. Social
entrepreneurs are individuals who identify and take responsibility for
an innovative and untested idea for positive social change, and then
usher that idea from concept to reality. Just as entrepreneurs in the
private sector are innovative and relentless in their pursuit of
success, social entrepreneurs are innovative and relentless in their
pursuit of social impact.
Social entrepreneurship or social innovation is, essentially,
applying the principles of innovation that have served this country so
well in the private sector to the social sector--to the work being done
to address the pressing social challenges we face. Even though we don't
often think of it in this way, the principles of innovation,
entrepreneurship, accountability, results, and competition can exist in
the social sector, just as they do in the private sector. Those of us
who have toiled in the field of social entrepreneurship believe that
social innovation is a key driver in identifying the most effective,
highest-impact solutions to the difficult social challenges facing our
nation.
Echoing Green's track record speaks to this. Since 1987, Echoing
Green has made small investments totaling $27 million in the ideas of
close to 500 social entrepreneurs working in over forty countries
around the world and in 42 states across this country. These social
entrepreneurial organizations are serving millions around the world
tackling issues as disparate as educational inequity, poverty, human
rights abuses, and health care disparities. Examples of organizations
that Echoing Green helped launch include:
National service leaders like Teach For America, City
Year, Public Allies, Jump Start, Citizen Schools and BELL;
New community models like Working Today which provides
affordable, portable health benefits to 100,000 members nationwide; the
SEED School, the nation's first urban boarding public school and Credit
Where Credit is Due, the first credit union in Washington Heights, New
York; and
Social enterprises like the Bay Area's Hallmark Community
Solutions, a nonprofit housing developer that creates new opportunities
for people with developmental disabilities and SKS Microfinance, the
fastest growing microcredit institution in India, serving 3 million
poor women across the country.
Social innovation and service
I want to make clear that I am not an accidental participant in
this panel! Social entrepreneurship and national service have been
important partners in the work of social change. First, national
service is often a critical source of human capital for social
entrepreneurs. Because social innovation demands high levels of
efficiency and maximization of outcomes, leveraging the work of
volunteers and part-time and full-time service members is critical.
Second, AmeriCorps money has provided the second stage of growth
capital for many organizations, like Teach For America and Jump Start.
While foundations and seed capital organizations like Echoing Green
often provide the start-up money social entrepreneurs need to implement
their innovative ideas, AmeriCorps money is a critical resource to help
take their idea to the next level, once they have demonstrated that it
can work. Because AmeriCorps does not dictate a program model, it has
allowed creative individuals to think of ways for full-time AmeriCorps
members and part-time volunteers to solve problems in new ways that
would not be possible under federal funding streams that dictate
specific programmatic approaches to achieve a specific result. In this
way, national service funding supports and fosters innovation in the
social sector in ways most other funding streams do not. And third, the
link between service and innovation is more like a ``virtuous loop.''
Those in engaged in service learn how to solve community problems and
develop the kind of leadership skills that each, next generation needs
to be action-oriented and solutions-focused.
Government as catalytic partner
As someone who runs a social venture fund and is committed to
identifying, vetting and supporting solutions-oriented, metrics-based
enterprises that unleash social and economic value, I look favorably
upon the role AmeriCorps dollars have played in spurring social
innovation and filling gaps in the social capital marketplace. In
addition, the President's call for a Social Innovation Fund Network to
catalyze public and private dollars for identifying and scaling
solutions to social problems represents an important reorientation of
the government's relationship toward the nonprofit sector and mirrors
the important role that government has played in facilitating
innovation, competition, and economic growth in the private sector.
Closing
I hope that my perspective is of some use to the Committee as you
continue your most important work of bolstering America's leadership in
the realm of national service and volunteerism.
Thank you for inviting me to testify today.
______
Chairman Miller. Thank you.
Mr. Jones? Van, welcome to the committee.
STATEMENT OF VAN JONES, FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT, GREEN FOR ALL
Mr. Jones. Good to be here. Thank you very much, Mr.
Chairman Miller. I am honored to be here. I want to thank you
for your leadership on the GIVE Act.
Ranking Member Mr. McKeon, I want to thank you also for
your words about the faith community as well as our people who
are in the military service aspect of this conversation.
I also want to honor the panel. I am proud to be an Echoing
Green alum. Cheryl has done a great job of moving that whole
organization forward.
And I also want to say that, you know, you are trying to be
a double threat. I do have a demo tape in my bag, brother.
[Laughter.]
And if--you obviously going somewhere. I would look for
representation. How can I be down, you know? Very impressive,
Usher, and very impressive, Mr. Harris. You are an example of
what we are talking about.
My comments are going to be directed to the question of how
can green service--green service--be a springboard to green
jobs which can help deliver on this clean energy revolution
that President Obama was talking about last night? I think that
is a critical opportunity that we have.
One of the things I think is important for us to recognize
is that we have everything we need in this country right now.
We have genius in this country. We have programs that are
working in this country. And we have a tremendous opportunity
to put people to work in this country doing the work that most
needs to be done.
The question is, as we go about retrofitting this country,
as we go about weatherizing this country, as we go about
repowering America, how do all Americans get a chance to
participate? We want this green wave to lift all boats. And, as
it stands right now, it is not clear how a young man like a Mr.
Harris would be able to become an entrepreneur in the clean
energy sector. He could be an entrepreneur thanks to his
existing experience in the music industry, but I don't think he
should stop there.
He could be a mogul in any number of industries, including
wind, including solar, including biofuels, including
geothermal--the whole thing. And this country will be better
when there is a clear pathway for people like him to help us
solve the biggest problem we have ever faced.
How can that happen? There is a three-step process
available to us right now.
We already have number one: existing service organizations
that are reaching out to disadvantaged and disconnected young
people and getting them plugged in to green opportunities. We
have Youth Build; we have Youth Corps; we have our Conservation
Corps. They are teaching young people, giving them the tools
and the training and the technology that they need to build
green houses, to work on watersheds, to retrofit buildings
right now.
But they are not funded at the appropriate level. I think
we have an opportunity as we move the GIVE Act forward to look
at every one of these programs and have a theory that says we
are going to grab, we are going to grow it, and we are going to
green it, to make sure that every one of these programs has the
size and the orientation toward the green economy necessary to
make it work. Grab it, grow it, and green it--we have numerous
programs ready to go.
But let us not stop there. One of the worst things that
happens to our young people is they do have a good opportunity,
they do have a good experience--for a summer, or for a year.
And then that experience comes to an end. And then they are
faced with those same streets or with those same failing rural
communities and no opportunities.
So we need to have a second step that directly connects our
green service to job training. Just as this young man went
directly from this program to community college, that can be
done too in the green sector. Let us make sure that the
graduates of these green service programs--the Green Corps and
other things that are being proposed--can go directly to
community colleges, to vocational colleges, to apprenticeship
programs, so they can become the green collar workers, putting
up those solar panels, weatherizing those buildings, being a
part of this green revolution that is coming.
But the other thing we do to young people which is also
wrong is that the minute they finish their training program, we
give them a certificate and no job. We have had job training
programs for years in this country, and we measure who gets out
but not who gets into the workforce.
And the third step has to be making sure that there is a
green pathway out of poverty to prosperity: green service,
going to green job training, going into green jobs. And with
the billions of dollars that are now coming down the pike to
retrofit and repower America, we need to make sure that there
are concrete opportunities for people to get into the workforce
through these new dollars.
We need to make sure, again, this green wave lifts all
boats. One of the most important things that I can say is if we
are going to have a green economy in this country--and we have
to; our scientists tell us that it is imperative--we need to
have a green economy that has no throwaway species, no
throwaway resources, but also no throwaway young people, no
throwaway neighborhoods.
We need to make sure those communities that were left out
of the last century's pollution-based economy are locked in to
the new clean and green economy. We need to make sure that the
people who most need new work, new wealth, new health
opportunities get that. And the best way to do that is to
connect green service to green job training to green jobs.
In conclusion, I want to say this is the most fiscally
conservative, fiscally responsible thing that you can do with
the public dollars. Those green dollars are the most fiscally
responsible and conservative dollars that you can possibly
imagine, because green dollars work overtime. They work double
time. They work triple time.
That same dollar that is being used to cut greenhouse gas
emissions could be used to cut unemployment, cut poverty; if
you are retrofitting buildings, cutting energy bills, improving
the value of homes, cutting air pollution. Those green dollars
work overtime, double time, triple time. Let us put those green
dollars to work helping young men like Mr. Harris become not
just the media moguls but the clean energy moguls and leaders
of the new century.
Thank you.
[The statement of Mr. Jones follows:]
Prepared Statement of Van Jones, Founder and President, Green for All
Good morning Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member McKeon, and distinguished
Members of the Committee. I am Van Jones, founding president of Green
For All, a national organization dedicated to building an inclusive
green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. Green For
All fights poverty and pollution at the same time by advocating for a
commitment to, and an investment in, job creation, job training, and
entrepreneurial opportunities in the emerging green economy--especially
for people from disadvantaged communities.
I have attached to my testimony a concept paper entitled ``Clean
Energy Corps: Jobs, Service and Equal Opportunity in America's Clean
Energy Economy.'' This document represents a blueprint for the
transition to the green economy as envisioned by the Clean Energy Corps
Working Group, a collaboration of Green For All, the Apollo Alliance,
the Center for American Progress, the Energy Action Coalition, the
Center on Wisconsin Strategy, The Corps Network, The Susquehanna Group,
Innovations in Civic Participation, and others.
While it is my intention this morning is to focus on the important
role that service has to play in the transition to a green economy, let
me first outline the bigger picture, as framed by the Clean Energy
Corps White Paper.
Most basically and most broadly, the Clean Energy Corps, or CEC,
seeks an integration of civic, workforce, and economic development that
creates value for workers, employers, communities, and the planet.
The CEC accomplishes these ambitious and important goals through
three interrelated parts: job creation, job training, and pipelines to
job training--particularly for disadvantaged and disconnected youth--
that begin with service.
These three components will be intentionally connected though state
and local partnerships to create well-defined career pathways for CEC
participants, moving them from the entry point of service, to specific
skills training, to placement, job retention and careers in energy
efficiency, energy service, and other industries of the green economy.
To succeed, the CEC will require:
New funding for a public revolving loan fund that would
enable researchers, developers, business, and entrepreneurs to pursue
new green technologies and products.
Full appropriation for the Green Jobs Act to develop a
green workforce.
Increased funding for the Corporation for National and
Community Service to increase and improve energy and conservation-
related service opportunities through a Clean Energy Service Corps,
Senior Corps, and Learn and Serve programs.
It is about this last piece, increased support for national
service, and specifically for a Clean Energy Service Corps, that I am
here to talk about this morning.
Service is central to the CEC. The Clean Energy Service Corps is
designed to utilize service as a strategy for engaging disadvantaged
and disconnected young people in energy and conservation related
service while at the same time introducing them to and preparing them
for, careers in the green economy. The nation's youth Service and
Conservation Corps have been doing this for decades and, with your
support, they can do much more.
Background
We have seen in history how service in conservation can repair the
environment and strengthen the spirit of Americans in hard times.
Seventy-five years ago, the stock market crashed and millions of
Americans lost their jobs. In 1933, in response to the Depression,
President Roosevelt established the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).
To this day, the CCC is still considered one of the most successful
programs in American history. It provided work and vocational training
for 3.5 million unemployed single young men while conserving the
country's natural resources and building its infrastructure. By some
estimates, the men of the CCC planted as many as 3 billion trees,
protected 40 million acres of farmland from erosion, built 47,000
bridges, drained 248,000 acres of swamp land, replanted almost a
million acres of grazing land, built 125,000 miles of roads, fought
fires, and created 800 state parks and 52,000 acres of campgrounds. At
the same time, the CCC provided hope and support to both the young men
and their families.
It is time for a new CCC focused on creating the green economy.
Youth in the United States are facing an employment crisis. According
to the Center for Labor Market Studies (CLMS) at Northeastern
University, the employment rate for teens is at its lowest rate in more
than 60 years--with only 32.8 percent of all teens and only 22.7
percent of black teens in the workforce. Further, of the 1.2 million
jobs that were lost last year, approximately 60 percent were held by
workers under the age of 25. Not only are these young people not
working, they are not attending school either. Even before this
recession, one out of every three ninth graders failed to graduate from
high school in four years and more than half of all young people of
color from low-income communities drop out entirely. Currently, nearly
4 million young people, ages 18 to 24--roughly 15 percent of all young
adults--are neither in school nor working. Tragically, too many of
these young people will wind up in prison or dead.
We have a solution. Like Roosevelt, we simply need to put the
pieces together with a unifying, mobilizing call for national service
to join the urgent effort to curb global warming and help build a green
economy, supported by adequate funds to ramp up models that have proven
their effectiveness and develop new ones where necessary. The call must
also ask that we connect environmental work with the proven, but
overlooked, ability of national service programs to play a unique role
in building job readiness, particularly in building pathways to
prosperity for poor people and communities. The Clean Energy Service
Corps, the national service component of the CEC, will leverage the
energy-saving efforts of public agencies; galvanize communities; and
successfully apply technical skills, project management expertise, and
the power of service to make a difference in energy use and the impact
of fossil fuels on our environment, while enabling young men and women
to produce valued and visible change in communities, gain skills
relevant to the growing green economy, advance educationally, and
become responsible and engaged workers and citizens.
Unlike Roosevelt, however, we do not have to start from scratch. We
already have a model and a network from which to work. Modern day
Service and Conservation Corps have an established and proven record of
providing educational and economic opportunities to disadvantaged and
disconnected young people through energy and conservation related
service.
A Modern Day CCC
With support from AmeriCorps and other federal, state, and local
funding sources, as well as public and private sector partners, the
nation's 136 Service and Conservation Corps operate in 46 states and
serve 26,000 young people every year. Fifty-one percent of these young
men and women are people of color, 53 percent come from families living
below the poverty line, and 60 percent do not have a high school
diploma. In terms of service ranging from four to 24 months, these
young people serve in cities, suburbs, and rural areas performing
energy audits and retrofits, weatherizing homes, creating community
gardens and green spaces, running recycling programs, building trails,
planting trees, removing invasive species, reducing hazardous fuels,
and fighting wildfires.
Serving in teams, Corpsmembers learn how to solve problems, take
responsibility, and take pride in a job well done--all foundational
workforce competencies. In return for their efforts, Corpsmembers
receive guidance from adult leaders who serve as mentors and role
models. They have access to a wide range of supportive services, such
as child care, transportation, and counseling. They also have
opportunities to further their education and earn money for college or
additional training.
To advance educational progress, many Corps have created their own
charter schools, either in partnership with public schools or on their
own. Many grant diplomas as well as prepare Corpsmembers for the GED.
Many also have strong relationships with community colleges.
Through intentionally designed service projects, Corps provide
training in a wide range of job skills, many of which lead to employer-
recognized certifications, including weatherization certification
(which can be national), OSHA certification (a 30-hour course), power
tools (including operations and maintenance), welding, skilled trades
apprenticeship readiness training certificate, hazardous materials
handling, plumbing, commercial drivers' licenses, and other operators'
licenses (e.g. forklifts). Many of these certifications can lead to
green jobs--jobs in energy efficiency retrofitting and wind turbine
production, for example, look a lot like traditional construction and
manufacturing jobs, and the early training and certification paths are
similar.
Overall, Corps raise the quality of workforce readiness, increase
educational gains, and nurture sustained, intentional engagement with
the community. Service enables Corpsmembers who have gotten off track
to reverse former patterns of behavior, not only to find new values,
but to be accountable for living those values. They create visible and
valued contributions. They identify and solve public problems.
Corps witness a transformation in the young people they serve,
especially those that have been left behind by other initiatives. What
they need is a real opportunity: someone who will challenge them and
support them. Where that has happened, the results are significant.
Here are just a few examples of how Corps across the country are
improving lives, communities, and the environment.
Examples
Members of the Montana Conservation Corps, as part of a state-wide
governor's initiative, Warm Hearts Warm Homes Montana, have weatherized
and retrofit more than 4,000 homes in low-income communities and
reservations across the state, significantly reducing energy costs for
low-income home owners and renters by installing inexpensive
improvements, such as window kits, hot water heater blankets, weather
strips, and energy-efficient light bulbs. As you know, 40 percent of
our energy costs come from energy use in buildings. This is hands-on
work that requires a major mobilization.
In Denver, Colorado, members of the Mile High Youth Corps,
approximately 50 percent of whom are high school dropouts, perform
energy audits and retrofits that produce $110 in annual utility savings
for low-income home owners. In just one year, Corpsmembers saved over
16 million gallons of water, over one million kilowatt-hours of energy
consumption, and created a life cycle air pollution reduction of over 6
million pounds of carbon monoxide--the equivalent of removing 540 cars
from the road for a year. Many of these Corpsmembers, having obtained
their GED during their term of service, will be placed in positions
with local utility agencies.
In Freemont, Ohio, the WSOS Quilter Civilian Conservation Corps is
housed in a Community Action Agency. Leveraging additional resources
from the community, Corpsmembers learn weatherization skills on the
job. This training, which is complemented by relevant college
coursework, leads to nationally recognized certification. WSOS
graduates have been deployed to other CAAs throughout the state to help
meet the needs of other under-resourced rural communities.
In Madison, Wisconsin, Operation Fresh Start, which runs a Civic
Justice Corps model that serves formerly incarcerated and other court-
involved youth, builds energy efficient low-income housing that meets
or exceeds Wisconsin energy standards buy up to 25 percent. By
installing high quality insulation and energy efficient appliances,
Operation Fresh Start Corpsmembers enable low-income residents to save
on their energy bills year round.
In my own home town of Oakland, California, Civicorps, which is
also a Civic Justice Corps model, works in partnership with the Mayor's
office, the Department of Human Services, local law enforcement, and a
local Sustainable Business Alliance, to reintroduce non-violent
juvenile offenders into the community through a variety of green
service projects that enable Corpsmembers to gain skills and employment
opportunities with green employers. Civicorps uses service projects as
field work for science, math, and English classes--and as experiences
that, reflected on, enable Corpsmembers to see themselves as valued
contributors to the common good. To date, the majority of Civicorps
Corpsmembers have obtained their GED and gained exposure to and funding
for postsecondary education. A large number have received
apprenticeships or employment with partner businesses. Overall,
Civicorps boasts an impressive eight percent recidivism rate in a
county where the overall recidivism rate is nearly 80 percent.
The Case for Expansion
Just in case the above examples failed to convince you, the CEC
makes good economic sense. According to a cost-benefit analysis
conducted by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, every dollar invested in
weatherization produces $3.71, of which $1.83 is energy-related
benefits and $1.88 is non-energy-related. The National Consumer Law
Center reports that energy efficiency benefits low-income households
through reduced housing loss and abandonment, reduced loss of service
due to terminations, improved property values and reduced health
effects. Not to mention the savings and benefits of having a skilled,
competitive workforce as opposed to large populations of out-of-school,
out-of-work young adults.
Despite having weatherized more than 5.3 million homes, much work
remains to be done. Oak Ridge National Laboratory found that only 16
percent of households eligible for the Weatherization Assistance
Program have been served. Altogether, more than 27 million homes are
currently eligible for assistance, of which 10 to 15 million are good
candidates for weatherization.
Conclusion
We are going to need many hands to build a new, green workforce.
Not only can the nation's Service and Conservation Corps help to meet
this need, but in doing so they can change the lives of disconnected
young people and the communities in which they live. For low-income,
low-skilled young people, the emerging green economy offers pathways
out of poverty. Corps, with their emphasis on learning and growing
through service projects that meet community needs, provide an ideal
setting for that journey.
Last Congress, you had the foresight to include a Clean Energy
Service Corps in the GIVE Act. Even before the economy took a downward
turn, the Energy Conservation Corps would have enabled Service and
Conservation Corps and other non-profit organizations to serve
thousands of additional young people. Given the current economic crisis
and the need for a new green economy, the Clean Energy Service Corps is
even more critical than it was just last year.
By providing an environment in which young men and women make
meaningful, tangible, and lasting contributions to their communities,
experience success, develop positive leadership skills and move toward
a lifetime of service to their communities and the nation, the ECC will
play a role like that of the CCC of the 1930's: it will instill hope
and love of country in a new generation of young Americans.
I hope that it is your intention to, once again, include a Clean
Energy Service Corps in your forthcoming bill and I hope that you will
continue to view service as a strategy for solving all kinds of
challenges that face our young people, our communities, and our nation.
Thank you.
______
Chairman Miller. Thank you very much.
We are going to recess here. We have three votes. And then
we will come back, and Sgt. Major, we will begin with you.
In the meantime, Mr. Harris, you see if Mr. Jones is worth
doing a demo with or not. Okay? [Laughter.]
And then we will get back to you. We are looking for the
results when we get back.
Mr. Jones. I need you, brother! [Laughter.]
[Recess.]
Chairman Miller. The committee will come back to order.
Look at that, James. You get the big microphone and go
silent.
Thank you for putting up with the inconvenience of the
votes that we had, but that is sort of regular order around the
Congress.
Questions were being asked by my colleagues. The leading
question was, James, how come you have all those notes but you
never used them? You just spoke like you had it all down pat.
They wanted to know if you are giving lessons. Maybe later you
can help them out with their floor speeches. [Laughter.]
Mr. Harris. Well, it is easy for me to speak on something
that I am very passionate about. And, you know, it has been
ongoing for like these past 3 years now, and it has been having
a dramatic change just on my life, period. So, you know, it
just flows out.
Chairman Miller. There you go. Thank you.
Sgt. Major, welcome to the committee. And thank you for
being with us.
STATEMENT OF KENNETH O. PRESTON, SERGEANT MAJOR OF THE U.S.
ARMY
SMA Preston. Chairman Miller, Representative McKeon, sir,
great to see you. Other representatives and committee members,
thanks very much. It is an honor for me, personally, to be
here, a farm boy from the mountains of western Maryland.
But, sir, as, chairman, you mentioned in your opening
statement a quote from President Kennedy from his inaugural
address on the 20th of January, 1961: ``Ask not what your
country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your
country.'' And it is our responsibility as Americans to
volunteer our time and effort to make our nation and our local
communities better places to live and thrive. And this holds
true from a global perspective, as America is a member of the
global community and serves to ultimately have a positive
impact here at home.
Today we are focusing on national service, which is often
defined as volunteering one's efforts to a cause greater than
oneself. This past July, we celebrated the 35th anniversary of
the all-volunteer force. Today, the Army has more than 247,000
soldiers forward deployed in 80 countries around the world. We
have more than 135,000 soldiers currently deployed in support
of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. In
addition, there are more than 50,000 National Guard and 28,000
Army Reserve soldiers mobilized today, serving all around the
world in those 80 countries. And they are also assisting here
with homeland security and community needs at home.
The Army's mission is to fight and win our nation's wars.
The Army's capabilities provide the nation with support across
the full spectrum of conflict. And this full spectrum spans
from general war to stability and civil support operations to
humanitarian relief. And, of course, humanitarian relief
includes responding to emergencies and natural disasters like
Hurricane Katrina and most recently the severe storm damage in
Kentucky.
Careers in the Army consist of more than infantry soldiers
and tank commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan. We offer 28 career
management fields containing 221 different military
occupational specialties, and these specialties range from
general construction, veterinarian, diver, to multimedia
illustrator.
In 2008, we recruited approximately 170,000 young men and
women across all three components of the active, Guard and
Reserve. The active Army recruited 80,000 of those soldiers,
the National Guard 62,000, and the Army Reserve more than
26,000. Army retention programs are also a success story as the
Army continues to retain our very best soldiers. In 2008, we
exceeded our retention goals in the active component by 14
percent and 11 percent in the Army Reserve. The National Guard
intentionally finished the year at 93 percent of their
retention mission to maintain their authorized end strength
cap. The first 3 months of 2009 have been the most successful
retention period in Army retention history.
These incredible accomplishments, while fighting the global
war on terror, are directly attributed to the hard work of our
recruiters, all the leaders in our units and organizations that
support this Congress and support the Nation.
Throughout history, volunteers played an integral role in
the life of soldiers and their families. In the early years of
our country, volunteers mended uniforms, cared for the sick and
wounded, and comforted families of the fallen soldiers. Today
our volunteers are found throughout the military community.
Soldiers, civilians, retirees, spouses and youth provide
services in schools, hospitals, sports fields and in many
organizations and offices across the country.
Through their dedicated service, volunteers transform
military installations into communities. Each military
community has an Army volunteer corps coordinator who is
responsible for volunteer activities in and around their area.
Army Community Service is one of many installation
organizations that have a volunteer program. Volunteers come to
us from both the active and reserve component. Now, this common
bond between these volunteers is the desire to meet the needs
of our Army community. The Army Community Service has more than
10,000 volunteers who contribute more than 1 million hours of
service every year.
I am proud also that this year we will celebrate 2009 as
the Year of the Noncommissioned Officer. The three objectives
behind the Year of the Noncommissioned Officer is to recognize
the leadership, professionalism, commitment, courage and
dedication of our noncommissioned officers. The Noncommissioned
Officer Corps is the reason behind our success on the
battlefield today and why other armies around the world aspire
to be like us.
And second, we want to inform the American people and
members of Congress and our government of the roles and
responsibilities and quality service of our NCO Corps.
And third, to enhance our Noncommissioned Officer Corps'
education, comprehensive fitness, leadership manage and
recognize their pride of service.
Mr. Chairman and committee members, thank you. And I look
forward to your questions.
[The statement of SMA Preston follows:]
Prepared Statement of Kenneth O. Preston, Sergeant Major of the U.S.
Army
Chairman Miller, committee members, thank you for the opportunity
to sit before you today and discuss National Service.
President John F. Kennedy said during his January 20, 1961
Inaugural Address ``ask not what your country can do for you; ask what
you can do for your country.'' It is our responsibility as Americans to
volunteer our time and efforts towards making both the Nation and our
local communities better places to live and thrive. This holds true
from a global perspective as America is a member of the global
community and are efforts that ultimately have a positive impact here
at home. Today we are focusing on national service which is often
defined as volunteering one's time and efforts to a cause greater than
one's self. This past July we celebrated the 35th anniversary of our
All-volunteer force.
Today, the Army has more than 247,000 Soldiers forward deployed to
80 countries around the world. We have more than 135,600 Soldiers
currently deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation
Enduring Freedom. In addition, there are 51,000 of our National Guard
and 28,500 Reserve Soldiers mobilized today, serving all around the
world and assisting with Homeland Security.
The Army's mission is to fight and win our Nation's wars. The
Army's capabilities provide the Nation with support across the full
spectrum of conflict. This full spectrum includes general war to
stability and civil operations to humanitarian relief. This is more
than combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Full spectrum includes
border patrol along the Mexican border to weather disasters in New
Orleans and Kentucky.
Careers in the Army are more than the infantry Soldier and tank
commander in Iraq and Afghanistan. We offer 28 Career Management Fields
with 221 Military Occupational Specialties. These specialties range
from general construction, veterinarian to diver and multimedia
illustrator.
In FY08, we recruited 169,859 young men and women across all three
components--Active, Guard and Reserve. The active Army recruited over
80,000, the National Guard 62,000 and the Reserve over 26,000 Soldiers.
Army retention programs are also a success story as the Army continues
to retain Soldiers at tremendously high levels. In 2008, we exceeded
our retentions goals in the active component by 14 percent and 11
percent in the Army Reserve. The National Guard intentionally finished
the year at 93 percent to maintain their authorized end strength cap.
The first 3 months of FY09 have been the most successful retention
period in Army Retention history.
These incredible accomplishments, while fighting the Global War on
Terror, are directly attributed to the hard work of our recruiters, the
support of our Army leaders, elected officials, and the support of the
Nation.
Throughout history, volunteers played an integral role in the life
of Soldiers and their Families. In the early years of our country
volunteers mended uniforms, cared for the sick and wounded, and
comforted Families of fallen Soldiers. Today our volunteers are found
throughout the military community. Soldiers, civilians, retirees,
spouses and youth provide services in schools, in hospitals, on sports
fields, and in many other organizations and offices. Through their
dedicated service, volunteers transform military installations into
communities. Each military community has an Army Volunteer Corps
Coordinator (AVCC) who is responsible for volunteer activities in and
around their area. Army Community Service is one of many installation
organizations that has a volunteer program. They come to us from both
the active and reserve components. The common bond of these volunteers
is the desire to help meet the needs of Army community members. Their
desire is to assist ACS in its Mission of ``Self-Help, Service and
Stability.'' The ACS has more than 10,000 volunteers who contribute
approximately 1 million hours of service.
I am proud that this year we will celebrate 2009 as the Year of the
Non-Commissioned Officer Corps. During this year, we will recognize the
leadership, professionalism, commitment, courage and dedication of the
NCO Corps. Recently GEN Casey, Chief of Staff, Army stated he believed
the NCO Corps was the glue holding our Army together. The NCO Corps is
the reason behind our success on the battlefield today and is the
standard to which other nations' armies aspire. NCOs provide invaluable
service and have made great sacrifices in the line of service. NCOs
continually prove their dedication to service and a willingness to make
great sacrifices on behalf of our Nation. We also seek to inform the
American People of the roles, responsibilities and the quality of
service of our NCO Corps. NCOs provide inspiration and motivation. NCOs
are outstanding role models for all Americans and are exemplary
subjects that are truly representative of the Nation's moral character
and strength for all men, women and children. During the course of this
year we will continue to enhance our NCO Corps' education, fitness,
leadership development, and pride in service through the implementation
of programs and policies that support the sustainment and growth of our
NCO Corps.
Mr. Chairmen, committee members, thank you. I look forward to your
questions.
______
Chairman Miller. Mr. Capara?
STATEMENT OF DAVID L. CAPRARA, DIRECTOR AND NONRESIDENT FELLOW,
BROOKINGS INITIATIVE ON INTERNATIONAL VOLUNTEERING AND SERVICE
Mr. Caprara. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member
McKeon.
I am pleased to speak about the powerful work of faith-
based and community volunteers with you today and the powerful
impacts they are having on many of our nation's pressing social
issues.
I applaud President Obama for his signal leadership in
making the cause of service a centerpiece of his presidency--
indeed, President Bush on the state of the union in 2002,
President Clinton, President Bush 41 before him. We heard a
little bit about the founding earlier today. Certainly
Tocqueville noted this to be in our DAA [sic]. We talked about
Ben Franklin--certainly he was our first faith-based proponent.
And, in fact, according to Walter Isaacson's book was carried
in his funeral by all the faith traditions for his promoting
the social glue that became our great country.
During my tenure at the Corporation for National and
Community Service, I was tasked with leveling the playing field
and advancing innovative models across VISTA, AmeriCorps,
Senior Corps, and Learn and Serve. We teamed up also with HHS
in leveraging these volunteers with family strengthening
economic asset programs like People for People, ``the praying
running back's'' program in Philadelphia, the Latino Pastoral
Action Council in the Bronx. The Potters House of Bishop T.D.
Jakes led a massive nationwide effort promoting fatherhood and
ex-offender reentry.
Cambridge researchers have noted that children of prisoners
are far more likely to become involved in crime than kids from
other backgrounds. The Amachi Initiative, founded by former
Philadelphia Mayor Wilson Goode, provides vulnerable youth with
caring and adult role mentors who guide them in success through
life. In fact, 3,000 congregations have enrolled as partners,
mentoring more than 100,000 children of prisoners nationwide,
supported by AmeriCorps member who recruit volunteers in
congregational mentoring hubs. In 2008 alone, Senior Corps
volunteers served nearly 14,000 children of prisoners with
loving role models.
Bob Woodson, the founder of the Center for Neighborhood
Enterprise, in his landmark book The Triumphs of Joseph notes
that faith-based grassroots organizations are closest to
problems in the communities. They are often off the radar, but
they are the most trusted often by residents in times of need.
The center reaches out to former gang members who have been
transformed by their faith in God in providing life skills and
access to jobs, connecting them with other adjudicated youths
as ambassadors for peace in high-crime schools.
Baylor University researchers recently documented the
impact of the center's violence-free zone programs in six
Milwaukee public schools. Violent incidents were reduced 32
percent, along with decreased suspension rates and increased
student GPAs. Significant decreases in gang violence were also
achieved and documented in violence-free zones in Baltimore,
Dallas, Atlanta, Richmond and Washington.
The administration and private foundations should advance
such partnerships, leveraging effective grassroots efforts with
the volunteer power at CNCS and programs in education, labor
and justice.
Our nation's volunteers have also made headway in promoting
global solutions. Freedom from Terror noted a marked drop in
violent terrorism and a dramatic increase in positive views
toward the U.S. in Muslim countries like Indonesia, Bangladesh
and Pakistan following our volunteer responses after the
tsunami and earthquake disasters. The International
Volunteering Project at Brookings has achieved solid gains in
its goal of doubling a cohort of 50,000 to 100,000 volunteers
through the Building Bridges Coalition, which consists of 180
NGOs, faith-based groups, universities led by American and
corporations.
The Brookings team, with the leadership of our colleague
here today, Senator Wofford, and John Bridgeland crafted a
design for a Global Service Fellowship that would empower tens
of thousands of new international volunteers with modest
stipends redeemable through NGOs and faith-based entities. The
Global Service Fellowship bill has attracted broad bipartisan
support. Supported by Betty McCollum here in the House and Mark
Kirk in the Senate, the measure passed unanimously right after
the Service Nation Summit that Time hosted the next week, with
the leadership of Russ Feingold, who will soon reintroduce the
measure with republican co-sponsorship in the Senate.
Along with congressional action on Global Service
Fellowships, the Service Nation global service platform calls
for doubling the Peace Corps and authorizing Volunteers for
Prosperity at USAID to leverage private sector support. My
recent travels in hot spots of Israel and Palestine, Kenya,
Philippines, Brazil and other nations supported ongoing Global
Peace Festival initiatives and service initiatives on every
continent.
I witnessed first hand, Mr. Chairman, the tremendous power
of inter-faith and volunteering partnerships to heal conflicts
across tribal and religious divides. Over 120 global leaders
recently gathered to call for a new global service alliance to
build a vital link between volunteering and development to
impact peacebuilding.
And in conclusion, faith-based and community volunteers,
Mr. Chairman, are effective allies in our nation's response to
critical challenges at home and abroad. We have just scratched
the surface of the incredible wisdom and transformative hope
embodied in today's Josephs like Mr. James Harris we heard from
today from Usher's foundation.
I hope we can rally across party lines with this president
to connect these groups in a grand domestic and global force
for good as proven allies in the fight against poverty and
disease, environmental degradation, and global conflict. Such
an alliance would show our world the full potential of
America's best diplomats--our volunteers.
Thank you.
[The statement of Mr. Caprara follows:]
Prepared Statement of David L. Caprara, Director and Nonresident
Fellow, Brookings Initiative on International Volunteering and Service
Chairman Miller and Ranking Member McKeon, Members of the Education
and Labor Committee: Thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony
at today's hearing on the vital topic of our national call to service.
I am pleased to speak about the powerful work of volunteers serving
through faith-based and community organizations and the positive
impacts they are having on our nation's most challenging social issues.
I commend you for recognizing the potential of these dedicated
volunteers.
I also applaud President Barack Obama for his signal leadership in
making the cause of service a centerpiece of his presidency. His call
to a new generation to give national and even global leadership in
service to others has the potential to become a defining legacy of this
Administration.
Expanding partnerships with neighborhood mediating institutions has
proven to be an effective path in addressing many of the social
difficulties we face as a country.
During my service at the Corporation for National and Community
Service, I was tasked with leveling the playing field and advancing
innovative service programs--VISTA, AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, and Learn
and Serve America. I often considered the insightful words of one of my
mentors, Robert Woodson, founder and president of the Center for
Neighborhood Enterprise, and author of the landmark book, Triumphs of
Joseph.
Woodson, who has been frequently called to testify about grassroots
community remedies by the Congress and our nation's governors, told me
that faith-based initiatives are not about promoting a particular
faith, but rather, advancing secular outcomes that faith-based and
other grassroots groups are uniquely positioned to effect. He notes
that not only are these groups generally the closest to the problems in
a community, they are the ones most often trusted by residents,
particularly in times of need like our present economic crisis.
Volunteer efforts brought to bear by faith-based groups, since
Tocqueville first noted our nation's founding charitable traditions and
social capital in the 19th century, have been immensely important
throughout America history. In fact, according to Bureau of Labor
Statistics data, more Americans volunteer through religious groups than
any other kind of organization.
A CNCS Research and Policy Development report, entitled ``Volunteer
Management Capacity in America's Charities and Congregations,'' found
that volunteers can boost both the quality of services and delivery
capabilities in charities and congregations while reducing costs.
We could cite many examples of successful faith-based models, such
as the Latino Pastoral Action Center of Rev. Ray Rivera in the Bronx,
which has made great use of AmeriCorps volunteers in building community
capacity. Southeast Idaho's Retired and Senior Volunteer Initiative and
the Columbus, Ohio, based Economic and Community Development Institute
serving Muslim refugees from Somalia and Ethiopia, as well as Jewish
and Pentecostal Christian refugees from the former Soviet Union,
provide other models.
At the Corporation, we teamed up with HHS' Administration for
Children and Families in leveraging volunteer expertise with family
strengthening, fatherhood and healthy marriage programs, and economic
asset development with groups like People for People founded by Rev.
Herb Lusk, the former Philadelphia Eagles ``praying running back.''
Bishop Joseph Henderson converted a former juvenile detention facility
into the Bragg Hill Family Life Center in Fredericksburg, Virginia,
supported by Doris Buffett's Sunshine Lady Foundation. The Potters
House of Bishop TD Jakes in Dallas launched a nationwide initiative
promoting responsible fatherhood and ex-offender reentry with faith-
based volunteers and new media technology.
Amachi Mentoring Children of Prisoners Initiative
I would like to touch more deeply upon two innovative program
models--one, the Amachi Initiative, which utilizes CNCS volunteer
resources, and another, the Violence Free Zone Initiative engaging
former gang members and other forms of indigenous community volunteer
capacity.
Researchers at the Cambridge University Institute of Criminology
have shown that children of prisoners are far more likely to become
involved in crime in the future than children from other backgrounds.
The Amachi program, founded by former Philadelphia Mayor Rev. Wilson
Goode, provides this vulnerable cohort of young people with caring
adult mentors who help guide them to success in life, avoiding a
pathway to incarceration which statistics show would too often be the
case without such intervention.
Amachi, whose name in Africa means, ``who knows what God will bring
forth from this child,'' began training faith-based organizations to
play a key role in scaling up the program after its founding in
Philadelphia in 2003, with the support of Big Brothers Big Sisters and
area congregations. To date the initiative has enrolled 3,000
congregations as partners mentoring more than 100,000 children across
America.
The Amachi mentoring model, supported by AmeriCorps members who
assist recruitment of community volunteers and form congregational
mentoring hubs, has proven so effective that it was adopted by the
Department of Health and Human Services as the basis of the federal
Mentoring Children of Prisoners program. At the Corporation for
National and Community Service, it was our great honor to support Dr.
Goode in helping to replicate the Amachi success with the help of
Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and VISTA volunteers nationwide. We then
expanded that effective approach with a new initiative of VISTA and DOJ
programs that built mentoring and support hubs with faith-based and
community volunteers who share their love and practical transition
support for ex-offenders coming home.
Violence-free zones
Robert Woodson's Center for Neighborhood Enterprise has developed
one of the most effective gang intervention programs in our country, by
tapping indigenous community healing agents and volunteers from within
crime-ridden neighborhoods. The Center reaches out to former gang
members who have been transformed by faith, and connects them with
other adjudicated and at-risk youths in high-crime schools and
community centers.
In 1997, CNE stepped in after Darryl Hall, a twelve-year-old
District boy, was shot and killed in a senseless gang war between the
``Circle'' and ``Avenue'' crews and others that had already left fifty
young people dead in South East Washington, DC. In partnership with the
Alliance of Concerned Men, many who were ex-offenders themselves, CNE
negotiated a truce and helped the young people involved gain skills and
find jobs as an alternative to drug-dealing and crime. Those young
people were then engaged as ambassadors of peace in their
neighborhoods, motivating other youths toward positive attitudes and
behaviors. Ten years later, crew-related homicides have been eliminated
in the area since the intervention began.
Today CNE is expanding the reach of Violence Free Zones to cities
across the country including Chicago, where a major spike in gang
violence threatens to cut short the lives of our young people and their
fellow neighborhood residents.
Baylor University researchers, who Woodson recently cited in
testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, documented the impact
of the VFZ intervention model in six Milwaukee public schools where
violent incidents were reduced by 32%. Suspension rates were also
dramatically reduced, and student grade point averages rose compared to
the control sites.
Dramatic decreases of violent incidents where CNE grassroots
leaders intervened were also reported in Baltimore, Dallas, Atlanta,
and Washington, D.C.
Congress, the Administration, and private foundations would be well
served to advance dynamic linkages and partnerships with such effective
grassroots, faith-based programs together with the volunteer power of
the Corporation for National and Community Service and programs at the
Departments of Education, Labor, and Justice. Attorney General Eric
Holder could be a natural leader for such a cross-sector effort. He has
been a strong proponent of Violence Free Zones since their inception
during his prior tenure at Justice.
I believe these initiatives represent ``low-hanging fruit'' if the
new White House Council on Faith-Based and Community Partnerships wants
to scale up such results-oriented models with expanded private sector
and public support.
Hurricane Katrina response
In addition to their unique quality of being deeply embedded in
communities, faith-based organizations are usually much more nimble and
innovative than governmental bureaucratic bodies. Take for instance the
response to Hurricane Katrina. Groups like Lutheran Disaster Response,
Islamic Relief USA, and the Points of Light and Interfaith Works Faith
and Service Institute, directed by Rev. Mark Farr and Eric Schwarz,
were able to mobilize quickly. They and countless other faith-based
groups galvanized congregations, synagogues and mosques into action
with donations and volunteer ``boots on the ground'' to help families
recover, while FEMA and other agencies famously struggled to respond.
International volunteering
Our nations' volunteers have also made great headway in promoting
global solutions. Freedom from Terror polls have noted a marked drop in
support for violent terrorism and a dramatic increase in positive views
toward the United States in populous Muslim nations like Indonesia,
Bangladesh and Pakistan following our national and volunteer responses
after the tsunami and earthquake disasters, that were sustained beyond
the initial period of aid.
According to a BLS assessment report by researchers with Washington
University's Center for Social Development, approximately 52% of global
volunteers from America said their main volunteering organization was a
religious one.
The International Volunteering Project at the Brookings
Institution, launched at a forum with General Colin Powell nearly three
years ago, has achieved solid gains in doubling a cohort from 50,000 to
100,000 international volunteers through the Building Bridges
Coalition, comprised of more than 180 US-based international service
NGOs, faith-based groups, universities and corporations.
Together with the national policy leadership of John Bridgeland and
Senator Harris Wofford, who is here as an expert witness today, the
Brookings volunteering team crafted a design for a new Global Service
Fellowship initiative that would empower tens of thousands of new
international service volunteers supported with modest stipends that
could be redeemed by NGO and faith-based entities registered with the
State Department. Global Service Fellowship legislation patterned after
our research has attracted broad bipartisan support, with leadership
from Senators Russ Feingold, Chris Dodd, and Norm Coleman in the Senate
last year, and Representatives Betty McCollum, Mark Kirk and many
others in the House and Senate. Our team also helped to craft the
Service Nation global volunteering platform, which calls for doubling
the Peace Corps, enacting Global Service Fellowships, and authorizing
Volunteers for Prosperity at US AID.
In the past year my travels have included visits to hot spots of
Israel and Palestine, Kenya, the Philippines, Brazil and other nations
supporting ongoing Global Peace Festival initiatives on each continent.
Through these efforts I have witnessed first hand the tremendous power
of interfaith partnerships and volunteering to heal conflicts across
tribal and religious divides. Upcoming Global Peace Festival
initiatives in Mindanao, Jakarta, and other cities including an
International Young Leaders Summit in Nairobi next month hold
particular promise. Over 120 global leaders, NGOs and faith-based
groups have supported the call for a new Global Service Alliance in
these endeavors. Such a ``global peace corps'' will build a vital link
between volunteering and global development to impact peacebuilding
outcomes.
Closing
In conclusion, faith-based and community volunteers are not only
effective but they are an essential element of our nation's response to
critical challenges we face at home and abroad. Now is the time for our
national leaders and the private sector to tap into their full
potential in light of our massive challenges ahead.
We have only begun to scratch the surface of the incredible wisdom
and resources of transformative hope, embodied in today's grassroots
``Josephs.''
I hope we can rally across party lines with this President to
connect and support these groups in a force for good, as proven allies
in the fight against poverty and disease, gang violence, environmental
degradation and global conflict and disasters. Such an alliance would
show the world the full potential of America's best diplomats, our
volunteers.
I would like to close by quoting Dr. King's words that my former
mentor and boss Jack Kemp, the distinguished former House member and
President Bush 41's HUD Secretary, often cited in his testimony:
``I don't know what the future holds, but I know who holds the
future.''
Thank you very much.
______
Chairman Miller. Ms. Hamilton?
STATEMENT OF LISA HAMILTON, PRESIDENT, UPS FOUNDATION
Ms. Hamilton. Chairman Miller, Ranking Member McKeon and
committee members, thank you so much for convening this hearing
on the importance of volunteerism and for giving UPS the
opportunity to share its views.
During my 12 years with UPS, I have had the honor of
working 4 years in the company's charitable arm, The UPS
Foundation, and have served as its president for the last 2
years, responsible for leading philanthropic and volunteer
efforts worldwide.
Community service has always been a part of UPS's 102-year
history. That is due, in part, to our unique view of the world.
Each day, thousands of UPS drivers deliver in every community
across this nation. We see the hungry, the homeless and the
hopeless. And because we see firsthand the challenges facing
our society, we want to make a difference.
While the UPS Foundation donated more than $46 million to
charitable organizations in 2008, we believe that our
employees' volunteerism is an equally important contribution to
local communities and nonprofit agencies.
The UPS Foundation's efforts and strategy are employee
driven. UPSers are encouraged to provide time, leadership and
expertise to organizations working to meet critical needs. Each
year, they give back in record numbers, enabling the UPS
Foundation to tie half of its grantmaking to our employees'
volunteer effort.
In 2008, UPS employees, retirees and their families
volunteered nearly 1.3 million hours, largely through the
company's employee volunteer program Neighbor to Neighbor. And
during UPS's global volunteer month, our opportunity each
October for UPSers around the world to focus on volunteer
engagement, 16,000 employees in 55 countries volunteered
140,000 hours.
In the U.S., UPS developed its future leaders through a
unique volunteer opportunity called the UPS Community
Internship Program. Through CIP, as we call it, UPS managers
leave their jobs and homes for a month of service in one of
four sites run by nonprofits in New York, Chattanooga,
Tennessee, McAllen, Texas and San Francisco.
Since the program began more than 40 years ago, 1,300 UPS
managers--including me--have participated in CIP. I can tell
you that it is a life-changing experience. And participants
return to their jobs with more compassion for their fellow
employees, more knowledge of our operating environment, and a
greater commitment to serve others.
UPS also takes the time each year to recognize outstanding
volunteer effort. Each year, one employee, essentially our
volunteer of the year, receives the Jim Casey Community Service
Award named after our founder.
This year's award recipient, Richard Koch, has volunteered
over 60 hours per month for the past 12 years as a coach and
tournament director for Special Olympics, Virginia. Rich
represents the best in UPS employee volunteers through his
sincere commitment to serve others.
UPS believes this spirit of volunteerism shouldn't stop at
our company's doors. For over 10 years, one of the key areas
for our foundation has been volunteerism. To date, we have
donated more than $15 million in an effort to help nonprofit
organizations do a better job of recruiting, managing, and
retaining volunteers.
For example, our funding helped the Peace Corps recruit
former volunteers back into short-term assignments through the
Peace Corps Encore program. UPS led a disaster volunteerism
initiative and partnership with the Points of Light Foundation
and leading disaster response agencies. And we funded the
development and implementation of the National Park
Foundation's Volunteer Senior Ranger Corps.
Targeting our grantmaking to help nonprofits better manage
the precious gift of volunteer resources helps build their
capacity. As demands on nonprofit services continue to increase
while nonprofit budgets decrease, organizations will
increasingly rely on volunteers. We must work together to
ensure that all Americans have pathways to service to meet this
challenge. Companies are competitive in a lot of ways, but this
is one area where we can work together for the common good.
Thank you again for the opportunity to share UPS's views,
and we look forward to answering any questions you have.
[The statement of Ms. Hamilton follows:]
Prepared Statement of Lisa Hamilton, President, UPS Foundation
Statement of Lisa Hamilton President, The UPS Foundation Before the
Committee on Education and Labor U.S. House of Representatives February
25, 2009
Chairman Miller, Ranking Member McKeon, and committee members:
Thank you for your focus in this hearing on the importance of
volunteerism and for the opportunity for UPS to present its views.
From decades of active involvement, UPS knows the value of
volunteerism in communities across our country, and we also know its
importance to our company as a core value and key element of our
culture.
In my 13 years with UPS, I have had two opportunities to work
within the company's charitable arm, The UPS Foundation, and have
served as its President for the past two years, responsible for leading
the company's philanthropic efforts.
While The UPS Foundation distributed more than $46 million to
charitable organizations in 2007, today I'll share with you examples of
why we believe that effective volunteerism is just as, and perhaps,
more important to the long-term sustainability of our nation's
communities and nonprofit organizations.
UPS is the nation's second-largest private employer, with more than
355,000 U.S. employees, and more than 425,000 employees worldwide.
Community service has always been a part of UPS's nearly 102-year
legacy. That is due, in part, to the unique vantage point we have of
the community.
Each day, UPS people go to doorsteps in every community across our
nation. We see the hungry, the homeless and the hopeless. We see the
ills impacting our society--whether it's the need for aid in recovery
from a natural disaster or the need for revitalization in a struggling
neighborhood--and we want to make a difference.
Our employees drive our volunteer engagement strategy. They play a
pivotal role in identifying the needs of the community. As a result,
approximately half of The UPS Foundation's grants are tied to our
employees' volunteer efforts.
UPS employees are encouraged to volunteer, to give to local
charities, and to provide leadership and lend their expertise to
organizations that work to address the challenges in communities in the
U.S. and around the world.
In 2008, UPS employees and their families volunteered nearly 1.3
million hours--most of which was accomplished through the company's
employee volunteer program, Neighbor to Neighbor.
My basic point is that this is not hard to do. Companies large and
small, and their employees, can benefit enormously with just a modest
effort.
Here in the U.S., UPS takes a unique approach to community service
and volunteerism as part of its leadership development initiatives. The
UPS Community Internship Program takes UPS managers from their jobs for
a ``month of service'' in one of four sites run by non-profits in New
York, Chattanooga, Tennessee, McAllen, Texas, as well as in your home
state Chairman Miller and Ranking Member McKeon, in San Francisco.
In San Francisco, the Community Internship Program is based at the
Donaldina Cameron House and our employees participate in activities
ranging from helping to cook and serve food at Glide Memorial Methodist
Church, to volunteering at Self-Help for the Elderly, which provides
social services and meals to more than 25,000 seniors in San Francisco,
San Mateo, Santa Clara and Alameda counties.
More than 1,360 UPS managers have left their families to
participate in CIP since its inception in 1968. Several years ago we
had our first international participant, and we are now considering the
development of an international site for the program.
We also take the time to recognize the volunteer efforts of our
employees. Since 1995, UPS has awarded the Jim Casey Community Service
Award, which is named after our founder and serves as our Volunteer of
the Year Award.
Just yesterday, I had the pleasure of presenting this year's award
to Richard Koch, an employee in Richmond, Virginia, who has done
phenomenal work as a volunteer coach and tournament director for the
area's Special Olympics.
Richard represents the best in UPS employee volunteers--a
commitment to community and a desire to help by leveraging one's
expertise to the benefit of those in need.
He embodies our belief that that through volunteer leadership we
can make a difference.
This spirit of volunteerism should not stop at our nation's shores.
Companies and their employees are as much the face of America as our
official aid organizations and our military hospital ships.
UPS employees abroad volunteer through the company's Global
Volunteer initiative. Celebrated in October, Global Volunteer Month
provides a formal opportunity for UPS employees outside of the United
States to get involved in local communities. Last October, 140,000
volunteer hours were contributed by nearly 16,000 UPS employees in 55
countries.
Global Volunteer Month activities have included refurbishing
hospitals in China, clearing farm land and planting trees in the
Philippines, and organizing a distribution network for 700 schools in
Berlin.
We know we are a better company and that our employees live richer
lives as a result of these volunteer efforts.
Whether it is through our employees who volunteer in their
communities, our Loaned Executives who contribute expertise to
organizations such as United Way or FEMA, or the UPS managers who
provide guidance to CARE in an effort to improve that organization's
supply chain and distribution capabilities, the spirit of engaged and
effective volunteerism flows through UPS and into communities around
the world.
I began my testimony by asserting that community service is
entrenched in the UPS culture as a core value.
For us, volunteerism is not a once-a-year or once-a-month effort.
It is people involved in their communities every day, all year long.
Companies are competitive in many ways, but this is one area where
we can work together for the common good.
Thank you again for the opportunity today to share UPS's views on
this important matter. I look forward to the opportunity to answer any
questions you may have.
______
Chairman Miller. Well, thank you very much.
And thank you to all of the panelists for, again, giving us
your time and your expertise.
It was the--you know, we have had, in the last session we
had great bipartisan support for this legislation. And it was
the intent of this hearing this morning to kick off and renew
that support for this legislation in this session of the
Congress following the directions of the new president last
night and to get this legislation to the floor in the House and
the Senate and on to the president's desk. And I think that,
clearly, you have certainly met and exceeded my expectations.
We also wanted to make sure that the committee saw, and
America saw, that the sprit of volunteerism, of service, spans
American society--through the corporate world, through the
faith community, the military, entrepreneurial, philanthropic,
and the intellectual community that understand that this is
really at the core of America.
This is fundamental to our being. This isn't something that
we are trying to add on. This isn't something that we
discovered. This has been, as Richard pointed out, with us from
the beginning of this nation. And if you close your eyes and
you think about all the times in your lives that volunteers
have showed up and crossed your path, it is a remarkable
intersection of America where people come to assist others--to
teach, to mentor, to encourage, to support. It is a remarkable
story.
What we are trying to do, as I think as the president said
last night, is to see whether or not the government can be a
catalyst. The government can help to support the network, and
it can provide some incentives for the private sector and
individuals to participate. And those incentives very often are
key to making the connection that James showed us here that
started out with an opportunity to participate, and then to
connect to an educational opportunity, and then the vision of
the whole other world that was out there.
And to the extent to which this legislation and the federal
government in partnership with states and local governments and
with the private sector we can provide that, that is a very
exciting idea. Again, not new in America. I have been in
Congress long enough to have gone through all of the
ideological fights on various components of what now we
consider the National Corporation for Service to America. And I
think those are behind us. We now recognize that this is really
a great engagement taking place in our nation. And so I want to
thank you.
We are going to be interrupted with another vote. I do not
want to hold you before we leave for that vote.
I would just like to go back for a moment, Mr. Harris,
because we had a chance to talk before the hearing. And we were
talking about what it meant to be given the opportunity, and
you had to make up your mind whether you were going to take
advantage of that opportunity. But when the opportunity was
presented to you, and you were discussing with me a little bit
that absent that opportunity life was just going to go on on
another track. And I just wondered if you might share some of
that with the committee.
Mr. Harris. Right, because like I said, it is a lot of kids
who have the ability to do the work and actually follow
through, but without an opportunity to showcase our abilities,
we will be stuck into situations that we are in right now.
For instance, like how he was saying where you can't just
introduce me to something new and then not have any follow-
through with that. If I am in a situation to where I have to
sell drugs to provide for myself or to provide for my family,
you can educate me and tell me why it is not right to sell
drugs. You can tell me that you can't mix negative with
positive, you can't bring joy and happiness into your life by
causing the destruction of another person's life, and I can
understand that. But then, how am I going to make money?
You must introduce--you have got to show me both elements.
You have got to tell me why this isn't right, and also provide
another avenue to where I can continually to provide for myself
in a positive way. If you don't have both of those elements,
the person is going to be stuck in the situation that they are
in. Because when it all comes down to it, it is really all
about providing for oneself and providing for their family. And
then they are going to be thinking about what is best for the
next person.
But if you show both of those things, they will be thinking
about themselves, the people around them and everybody else, so
you will be motivated to do what is the greater good.
Chairman Miller. Thank you.
Dr. Dorsey and Mr. Jones, I have a question. You already
answered, Mr. Jones, but I am going to----
[Laughter.]
So I am just going to state my question for the record, and
then we will follow up. And I just want to know, want to make
sure, that we are doing everything we can--and this is also for
UPS--to encourage, you know, entrepreneurs, to encourage the
private sector in these partnerships.
You don't have to answer that now, because I am going to
get back to you in detail as we go through the final runs on
the legislation. But I just, you know, I just find out that
there is great leverage to be had out there.
And I am stunned sometimes--we have done some things on
higher education with the private sector--how much leverage
there is with a little bit of participation by the government.
And I am very interested in maximizing that. And you both have
been very involved in that, both as generating entrepreneurs
for that purpose and also recipient and the next generation,
Mr. Jones. So I just want to pose that question, and I will
leave it because I don't want to take up my time.
So I want to turn to Mr. Thompson for any comments that he
may have, and we will just----
Okay.
Mr. Jones. I would be wrong if I didn't correct the record,
though, as we do wrap up. We have an extraordinary number of
opportunities to grow people like Mr. Harris, and the Corps
Network is frankly the number one entity in America right now
that has brought together programs like the one Mr. Harris has
benefited from, got them together. They are in a strong
position, the Corps Network, and it is led by Sally Prouty. And
I just wanted to make sure the record reflects that
organization's contribution.
Chairman Miller. Mr. Thompson?
Mr. Thompson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Well, this is such an important subject, near and dear to
my heart as a volunteer in my community is where I came from,
and in the fact that volunteers make such a difference, whether
we are talking about our communities or our all-volunteer
military force we are so proud of, our churches, our business
communities and our schools.
And, actually, just within this past weekend in my
districts, the students, just the students at Penn State
University, put on the largest dance marathon in the country.
They raised almost $7.5 million in one day for pediatric cancer
research. That is volunteerism. That is making a difference. It
just touches the lives of families, of kids. It will support
research for pediatric cancer.
So, just one question in the--because I know that we are
time--and this is for Mr. Caprara. In reviewing your written
testimony, I see that you have worked with many different types
of faith-based organizations. Can you discuss why it is so
important to have faith-based organizations involved in efforts
to promote volunteerism?
Mr. Caprara. My mentor Bob Woodson once said, it is not
about the particular faith of the groups but the secular
outcomes that they bring. Teen Challenge, for example, had
three successive federal evaluations including NIDA showing an
86 percent success rate.
Truth be known, this whole faith-based revolutionary idea
in the 1990s came when they were going to be shut down in the
state of Texas because they didn't have the right--you know,
you had former drug addicts, former felons that, you know, were
transformed by their faith. They didn't have PhDs to handle
methadone. They didn't need methadone. The violence-free zone--
I quoted Baylor University's data showing a 32 percent drop in
violence. So it is about these outcomes.
And I think them being close to the problem, this so-called
neighborhood mediating institutions of grassroots volunteers,
faith-based groups, churches, schools--these are the fabric
that make our country great. So I think it is their closeness
to the problem and, as I said with Joseph, like our witness
here today, their innovativeness to go outside the box along
with other social entrepreneurs.
But it is the results, I think, that really speak volumes.
Mr. Thompson. Thank you, sir.
Given the need to vote, I will yield my time.
Chairman Miller. Which I appreciate, Mr. Thompson.
Mrs. Davis?
Mrs. Davis. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you to all of you for being here. You have all spoken
so eloquently. And I think we all have some connection to this.
This is why it should be such an important bipartisan effort,
and I certainly hope it is going to proceed in that direction.
I wanted to just mention very briefly the Mentoring for All
Act was actually put across the desk this morning--it is 1165.
And that will try and bring that infrastructure that we know
exists in state and localities but more on the national level
and try and connect up.
What I was wondering from you, and perhaps you can respond
later in some way, is how you see that as really critical,
because sometimes I think people believe that this does just
happen on its own. We know that that is not true. But there is
kind of a push back sometimes of doing this on a greater scale
at the national level. Help me to understand how you see that
as helping to create the 5 or 6 million that we still need in
this country. What is it that that kind of support would bring,
and, perhaps, what is it that inhibits people from mentoring?
Sometimes it is just a matter of good information, not knowing
where to go. Do you see that kind of structure as being helpful
in this regard?
You can answer, or if the chairman has to go to other
folks, I just wanted to throw that out there----
Chairman Miller. We are going to take the answer off the
air here.
Mrs. Davis. Okay. We can take your----
Chairman Miller. Because I have to go to Mr. Kucinich, and
then----
Mrs. Davis [continuing]. Concerns about that. Thank you.
Chairman Miller [continuing]. And then I think Mrs.
McCarthy is on her way back, and she would like to ask--the
subcommittee chair would like to ask----
Mr. Kucinich?
Mr. Kucinich. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
In listening and reading Usher's comments, when people act
on a desire to change the world to make it a better place, that
is the genesis of causing other people to become involved. And
when you discover the power to help, as Mr. Harris speaks
about, you then inspire to community service.
Now, Mr. Stengel provided a structure, which I think is
worth looking at. And the bill that Mr. Wofford is working on
is important.
Now, one quick question to Mr. Jones. You know, you and I
have talked for years about a Works Green Administration. Can
you see a fit between environmental movement, a structure of a
Works Green Administration to help transform not only a
volunteerism for environmental but also to fit into a national
policy that would restore manufacturing?
Mr. Jones. With chair's----
Chairman Miller. Yes.
Mr. Jones [continuing]. The chair's permission.
Yes, we do. And we actually have a proposal called the
Clean Energy Corps that I think you would be very interested
in, sir. It directly aligns service opportunities with job
training with actual jobs that can advance the agenda that the
president has put forward in terms of repowering, retrofitting
America.
And it draws on the--as was pointed out by Mr. Stengel
earlier--it draws on the proud tradition of the Civilian
Conservation Corps. The last time we got in this much trouble,
both with the environment and with our economy, FDR had the
wisdom to put forward a Civilian Conservation Corps, which took
the people who most needed work and let them do the work that
most needed to be done.
We have a proposal I would love to get your feedback on,
sir.
Mr. Kucinich. Thank you very much.
Chairman Miller. We--I would just say, or the chair would
just say--that we expect that to be a component. It is in the
current legislation as we hope to be able to report it from
committee.
I am waiting for Mrs. McCarthy to come back. Her
subcommittee is handling this legislation. I know she has
questions.
Mr. Jones. Well, I----
Chairman Miller. Are you going to run the filibuster on me?
Mr. Jones. I didn't--I didn't----
Chairman Miller. Watch this, James. This guy is going to
start talking and never going to stop. Watch. [Laughter.]
Mr. Jones. I will shock you, sir, and limit it to two
sentences, just to the congresswoman's point.
I think people need help to help. I think that there is a
tremendous amount of goodwill in this country, but there are
also people who don't know how to connect with certain
communities. I think people need help to be able to help. And I
would love to support your effort to make that more possible
and more available.
Chairman Miller. And one of the great things I have
discovered in this is the unusual turns you get sometimes. Mr.
Jones, you are familiar with Richmond BUILD----
Mr. Jones. Yes.
Chairman Miller [continuing]. And where we have taken not
just young people but older young people who have come to us
who have been living on the streets, who have had, you know,
tough lives, and to prepare them for the solar energy and wind
energy industries.
And sort of the interesting surprise was that Chevron is
now taking them to be welders inside of the refinery in my
hometown. And so all of a sudden they are working at a pay
scale with a skill that they never imagined. And it is really
quite a remarkable--so now we have to backfield to get people
back to the original intent, which was welding in the solar
energy industries. But you just see--I go back to Mr. Harris:
If you can connect somebody with that opportunity, you will
never cease to be amazed at what may come out of that connect.
And Usher, we want to thank you so much. Again, to see
someone who has taken their good fortune and passed it along to
the next generation is very, very exciting for all of us. You
are one of many in America who have made a wonderful decision
about helping other people and providing that opportunity. Not
everybody will take advantage of it. But the trick is to have
that opportunity there for those who will make that decision.
And I really want to thank you for taking your time.
And I know we are going to have a chance to meet up in a
more formal fashion--this is pretty formal, though, right?
[Laughter.]
I have got to quit screwing around with the microphone.
Harris, thank you so much. You bring so much history to
this and so much commitment. And hopefully we will have this on
a regular order fast track--full participation of all members
of the Congress, because I think the president touched a nerve
last night.
With that, I would like to turn the chair over to Carol
McCarthy, who has just been a workhorse on this issue for the
last many years to get us to this point.
Thank you again for your participation.
Mrs. McCarthy. Thank you. And it has been a pleasure
listening to all the testimony.
I want to say thank you to Ms. Hamilton for the work that
UPS does. I have been working with UPS probably for 13 years in
my district, working within the community on special projects.
And they have always stepped up to the plate, and they were
terrific.
And, you know, my experience with the faith base,
especially after Katrina and going down there and seeing how
our faith-based organizations were there and setting everything
up and how the organization was there. I am talking about
almost 8 months after Katrina, they were still there working.
And as far as I know, they are continuing their work there. So
I want to thank.
And certainly Sgt. Preston, thank you again for serving our
country. And thank you for bringing in all the volunteers. You
have a very unique opportunity to bring these volunteers in
from so many parts of the country and even overseas. So I thank
you for that.
The question that I wanted to ask, and I wanted to talk to
Mr. Harris about this: You know, when we heard your testimony
and how you got involved in Usher's New Look program, it opened
up doors for you. And I know that you are going to be looking
and opening up at your hometown an organization working with
Mr. Raymond's organization to do the work that you have been
doing.
I guess the question would be, how do you plan on going
about it? How are you going to start it? How are you going to
get involved when you go back home to open up that program?
Mr. Harris. First, you got to get hands on. So I decided to
hook up with an organization back in my hometown, Cross-Lines.
It is a charitable organization. They do various things for the
community as far as they do, not a food banking, but they do
have somewhat of a soup kitchen. They also, like, during
schools times--at, like, at JC Harmon High School, during prom
times they actually offered and provided prom dresses and suits
for those students who couldn't afford to get one. So they do
various works.
So in the sense of serving, and serving in my community, I
have to get hands on first with another organization that is
already established. Meanwhile, I am talking to my peers and
talking to other adults in my community, addressing issues that
are directly affecting us in our community, and then also
coming up to plans of action amongst each other and building my
own proposals. So one day when I do have everything drawn up
into the way I want it in my vision, I can actually reach out
for funding to actually see my plan actually working all the
way through, you know.
And just from watching my mentor and my friend Usher and
seeing how he started with the one thing and went to another
thing, and to see his vision all the way out. I know that
things won't come as quickly as I want them to, but I know with
hard work that I can accomplish anything. And, like I said, I
learned that from New Look, and I learned that from Mr. Usher.
Mrs. McCarthy. Well, I thank you for your work.
And, my goodness, nobody else is here. So I have it on my
own.
One of the things that, you know, I just want to say is
that we have been working on the reauthorization of this for
quite awhile. And I think that we have an absolutely wonderful
opportunity at this particular point, especially with--
unfortunately with--the economy the way it is, let us make some
lemonade out of a lemon.
And we are going to have an awful lot of students that are
graduating from college; they are not going to find a job. It
is a wonderful time to reach out to them to be able to do
service in this country and get them involved. Because we know
that if we get involved in volunteerism, the younger we can get
them, they stay that way for years and years and years. So it
is really important that we do that reach out.
I know my grade schools and certainly my high schools are
very involved in volunteerism. The country--and let us face it,
our country is a great, giving country. And it truly is. Maybe
people don't notice it, but I have noticed after every disaster
that we have had in my 13 years here, whether it was
hurricanes, whether it was fires, you know, just terrible times
around the country, people are there to volunteer. They want to
give.
And our mission is to get the word out on how to do this.
Our mission is to help you and all your organizations to get
out there and do the work that needs to be done. We are
Americans, and certainly we have a lot of work to do, but I
know we can work together.
I already asked my question.
Hey, Rob, do you want to ask? Mr. Andrews?
Mr. Andrews. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman.
I would like to thank the panel. I have had the privilege
of serving on this committee for quite a few years. And I think
this is one of the best panels I have ever heard, I have to
tell you, in the incredible diversity of opinion and
experience.
Senator Wofford and I have worked together on so many
things over the years. And Harris, I will always associate you
with national service in the most positive way possible.
Mr. Stengel, my subscription is paid up on Time--pun
intended. And we appreciate what you have done in the world of
journalism.
And really, all the witnesses are just phenomenal, just
phenomenal.
I would like to start with Usher--can I call you Usher? Is
that okay? I will tell you that my daughters, who are 16 and 14
now, finally believe I have done something of meaning in my
career here because we are having this conversation today.
I am very impressed by the foundation that you have
created. I think it is incredibly selfless and forward
thinking. Are your earnings the only source of contribution to
that foundation, or have others chipped in and helped?
Mr. Raymond. No, we have other donors. And I share the same
sentiment in this being a true purpose over platform. The
platform of what I have done for so many years----
Mr. Andrews. Right.
Mr. Raymond [continuing]. Gave me this opportunity to be
here, more than anything just to simply be of a service to
underserved communities and give them the opportunity to know
that there is opportunity there for them, to track them
throughout their careers and give them that opportunity first
and foremost by putting them in the position through the
internship programs.
This year we did something with NHL where we allowed our
kids to go in and apply what they learned. When they come up
with plans, we definitely entertain partnering as well as
sending them off in the right direction.
For me, like I said, this is purpose over platform. For
what I have done that makes your daughter enjoy what I do----
Mr. Andrews. Too much. [Laughter.]
Mr. Raymond [continuing]. It gives me an opportunity to
have money to invest in my foundation. But, you know, to have
proper bills passed and proper funds to, you know, implement
this practice into charter schools or wherever, you know, I do
it from my heart, and----
Mr. Andrews. Obviously.
Mr. Raymond [continuing]. This is the result.
Mr. Andrews. Well, you know, the reason I asked this
question is I think one of the things we can look at in this
legislation is trying to attract more private sector
contributions to the work that you have already done, to use
this bill as a magnet as you have with your abilities to
attract more money.
And, Ms. Dorsey--is it Dr. Dorsey or Ms. Dorsey? Well, I
wonder what you think of the idea that I was thinking about
when I heard your testimony, was the possibility of
incentivizing banks that have taken TARP money to have some
sort of obligation to participate would be social venture
capital funds that you are talking about.
Has the banking industry been active in helping to do the
things that you have done, or not as much as it should be?
Dr. Dorsey. Well, I won't--I don't know the specifics of
TARP to speak to that.
But I can tell you what you see from corporate banks today.
Today we are very involved, obviously, with CRA legislation
and----
Mr. Andrews. Right.
Dr. Dorsey [continuing]. How to give back through the
Community Reinvestment Act. I also do think that corporate
philanthropy, including in the banking industry, is an
incredibly important engine for philanthropy. Every year,
Americans give about $300 billion, and the vast majority of
that comes from individuals like us, about 83 percent. About 4-
5 percent comes from corporations. And I think we will probably
see some decrease of that in this economic downturn.
Mr. Andrews. I am sure.
Dr. Dorsey. But there is a way to incentive that. I think--
--
Mr. Andrews. Yes. Here is what I am wondering: You
mentioned the Community Reinvestment Act, which is Mr. Frank's
jurisdiction, the Banking Committee. But he is a big believer
in what we are doing, I know.
Banks under the CRA get credit, they get points toward
their obligations. And I am wondering if a contribution to a
social venture capital fund gets them a credit or not. If it
doesn't, we should make sure it does, because it would be a way
of making sure that some of that bailout money that some of us
are wondering a little bit about could be invested in a broader
and more significant purpose.
Mr. Harris, let me say to you. I have heard hundreds of
witnesses testify before this committee over the years. You
have been one of the absolute best.
Mr. Harris. Thank you.
Mr. Andrews. I was most impressed by the fact that you
had----
[Applause.]
Mr. Andrews. Wasn't he fun? It was great.
I was impressed by the fact you had those note cards in
your hand but didn't look at them because what you said came
from here and not from the note cards.
This may shock you, but members of this committee--most
especially me--know very little about how to effectively
communicate with someone your age and from your circumstances.
I know that is hard to believe, but that is the case.
If we wanted to get the word out about the virtues of
national service and how it has affected you and your life,
what do you think the most effective way is for us to do that?
Mr. Harris. The most effective way to reach youth is,
first, you must identify: Where are the youth during school?
Most of the time during the day, we are at school. So if
you can incorporate the actual importance of serving and maybe
some actual service into the curriculum, that is key. Appealing
to their emotion and getting those kids involved, because
junior high and high school is a critical point in any person's
life.
Mr. Andrews. Sure is.
Mr. Harris. Even though it might be a young age, that,
really, your decisions from there on up will depict the person
that you are going to become.
Mr. Andrews. Mr. Harris, you may have just written a part
of the next No Child Left Behind Act. I see our----
[Applause.]
One of the things the committee will consider this year
under Chairman Miller's leadership is the rewriting of that
law.
And, yes, I think you have come up with a great idea, which
is to somehow incentivize or require schools to put into their
curriculum the idea of teaching subjects through service.
And I again want to thank the whole panel. I think this is
great. And I feel an incredible sense of optimism from two
things this week. One is from all of you and the great job you
have done today.
But the second is hearing the president last night say very
explicitly that he is ready to sign the Hatch-Kennedy
legislation. And, you know, we feel very enthusiastic under
Chairman Miller's leadership of moving that forward and getting
it on the president's desk. And maybe we can have a concert to
celebrate the signing of the bill.
Mr. Raymond. You are hosting it.
[Laughter.]
Mr. Andrews. Oh, no.
[Laughter.]
Mrs. McCarthy. I would like to call on our colleague, Mr.
Loebsack.
Mr. Loebsack. Thank you, Madam Chair.
It is great to be here. I am sorry I had to miss the
testimony of three of you while I was doing other things and
voting and what have you. But this is a great panel. I would
concur with what Mr. Andrews just said. I am really impressed.
Not only did Mr. Harris not read his notes, but Mr. Jones
didn't either, and I--well, I went--I know you don't want to
hear this--I went to the back room, and I was talking to my
staffer wondering when you are going to run for this office at
some point. But at any rate, this is really fantastic, and I
really appreciate everything everyone said.
I am glad to be here today, and I want to thank all of you
for your testimony.
Volunteerism is really important to me for a lot of
reasons, not the least of which is because in the second
district of Iowa in June we had dramatic floods that some of
you probably saw on CNN and other cable news networks. A lot of
volunteers came not only from other parts of Iowa to Cedar
Rapids, Iowa City, the little town of Oakville--they are still
coming to this little town of Oakville that was totally
inundated where the Iowa River comes together with the
Mississippi River, a tiny town just wiped out. And there are
still volunteers there today from all over America. So
AmeriCorps and VISTA came, faith-based organizations, it was
absolutely fantastic.
I think that really demonstrated the American spirit, and I
want to thank Senator Wofford for all the work you have been
doing on this issue for so many years.
Also, I should just say--and be a little careful, since the
camera is on I suppose--but I have learned in my 2 years here
that politicians are usually, if not always, very fearful of
YouTube, you know that might catch you at the wrong time, the
wrong place, saying the wrong thing. But I am on YouTube with
AmeriCorps VISTA volunteers mucking out a basement in Cedar
Rapids Iowa, and I am really proud that I was able to do that
with those folks. Great work.
I do want to ask Mr. Jones, I know that you are--you know,
I really commend what you are interested in as far as greening
America. Mr. Kildee here and our chair, Mr. Miller, have
allowed me to take a leadership role in the Green Schools
legislation. Unfortunately, it didn't get into the stimulus
bill, although people still may be able to use some of the
funding for Green School modernization.
I think that you have at least some familiarity with
Kirkwood Community College, which is in my district, too,
because the leadership there when I was back mentioned your
book. I was wondering if you could elaborate a little bit on
how you see community colleges in particular fitting into all
of this, especially on the job training front.
Mr. Jones. Well, first of all, Mr. Harris is an example of
the fact that the very next step in his journey was a community
college.
Many of us think about the 4-year college experience as
sort of the penultimate. But the reality is many of the people
from our communities, the first opportunity they are going to
have is going to be community college.
And we have an incredible infrastructure already in this
country to do the things that need to get done. We already have
the vocational schools in place--you don't have to go build
them. We can green them, but we don't have to build them. We
have the community colleges. We have the infrastructure. We
have the teachers who are willing to teach. We have people who
are willing to learn.
What we haven't done is, as I have said, taken things that
already work, grab them, grow them, and green them. And the
community colleges are going to be in the leadership. They can
turn fastest. They can actually change curriculum faster than
the 4-year colleges. They are more accessible.
But I will say this, it is a tragedy--at least in Oakland,
where I am from--the accessibility even now for our community
colleges is going down, down, down, as the scholarships go away
and as the costs go up. And this is the worst time in the world
to make it hard for young people to get a job, or to continue
their education, or to go into service. We have got to do--
hopefully all three--but we can't pull the ladder of
opportunity up on all three of those fronts.
Mr. Loebsack. I am really happy that in stimulus bill that
we just passed, the Recovery and Reinvestment Act, that we did
increase the Pell Grant by $500, which I think is a good thing,
obviously, especially for community college students.
And I want to thank Senator Wofford. I think you were at
Cornell College, where I taught for 24 years, with President
Obama when he was Senator Obama where he gave, really, that
landmark speech, I think, on volunteerism. And I want to thank
you for being with him and going to Cornell College.
And I do have one last question to ask all of you. I know I
have very limited time here. I am from a rural state, but not
all of my district is rural. It might surprise some of you.
Mrs. McCarthy. Excuse me.
Mr. Loebsack. Yes, ma'am.
Mrs. McCarthy. If you would cease for a moment.
I know that you have to leave. So we thank you very much as
we continue this session.
Mr. Raymond. You guys gotta carry on.
[Laughter.]
Mrs. McCarthy. Yes, people are getting nervous. They want
you to leave.
Mr. Loebsack. Thanks, Usher.
Mrs. McCarthy. Thank you very much.
Mr. Loebsack. Thank you.
I want to ask everyone here if you might have any thoughts
at all about how we increase volunteerism in rural areas in
particular. Does anybody have any thoughts on that?
Mr. Wofford. Make one point pertinent to that: The stimulus
package effort is dealing with getting people to work.
Roosevelt at a somewhat similar economic crisis faced
hundreds of thousands of young people--rural young people and
urban young people--out of work, out of school. And he insisted
that the four key departments that put together the Civilian
Conservation Corps have within 4 months a quarter of a million
boys in the woods planting, ultimately, in the Civilian
Conservation Corps 3 billion trees, all of the other things
that the CCC members did.
By 4 months, they had more than 300,000 young men in full-
time service in 1,600 camps. It was a big investment that paid
off fantastically in the 3\1/2\ million CCC members.
There are corps in this country now, more than 100, that
are service and conservation corps and other forms of full-time
service. At the other end of the spectrum from Teach for
America or even most of the VISTAs, there are going to be
rural, especially young people, and inner city young people
having a very, very hard time getting a job and being out of
work and out of school.
And I think it is the moment in the quantum leap for full-
time service that is proposed by President Obama, to grow from
75,000 AmeriCorps members to 250,000 that we look at that
example of how in such a short period of time 300,000 and then
it got to 500,000. Young people were transforming our public
lands.
And there is no bigger challenge, I think, to us than, out
of history, than that first great wave of civilian national
service, most of whom then graduated into the military national
service of World War II.
Mr. Loebsack. Well, thank you all.
And I have run over my time. So thank you, Madam Chair.
Mrs. McCarthy. I want to say once more, thank you for your
participation in this hearing.
You know, we have a lot of work ahead of us, obviously,
with the economy the way it is, with the budget, which we will
receive from the president tomorrow. But I heard that there is
money in that budget for this particular program, so we are all
happy about that. We don't know how much, though. It is always
the details that we need to look at.
So with that being said, I am going to close this hearing.
Without objection, members will have 14 days to submit
additional materials or questions for the hearing record.
[Prepared statement of James P. Firman, submitted by Mr.
Hinojosa, follows:]
Prepared Statement of James P. Firman, Ed.D, President and CEO,
National Council on Aging
Thank you for this opportunity to submit these comments on behalf
of the National Council on Aging regarding the importance of civic
engagement in meeting critical economic needs.
The unique power of volunteer service has contributed to the
vitality of our nation since its birth. In the mid-nineteenth century,
historian Alexis de Tocqueville noted the unique contributions of
voluntary organizations as core strength of our young democracy. In the
following two centuries, our Presidents have recognized that
volunteering is one of America's greatest exports. President Obama
participated in the first National Presidential Candidate Forum on
Service last year, and agreed that developing an informed and engaged
citizenry through expanded national and community service (both
military and non military) is a fundamental building block of a strong
democracy and nation.
From our experience, we have learned that service has touched the
lives of millions of Americans, both those serving and those served,
young and old alike. It is the best of example of democracy in action,
and instills the principle of citizenship as a continuing ingredient of
successful life.
Service is a significant and valuable force in life transitions,
from youth to adulthood; from career to service, and from adulthood to
later life. Service brings people together and promotes collaboration
at all levels of society and builds bridges among seemingly disparate
groups to improve the quality of life of people in our nation. People
from diverse backgrounds and age groups working together through
service can solve problems, learn by doing, and get great things done
for America.
When well planned and organized, civic engagement enables public
and nonprofit service agencies to be more effective. Volunteerism
leverages human resources to serve greater numbers of citizens who are
vulnerable or living in poverty, and enhances problem-solving
initiatives in education, public safety, the environment, and other
human needs.
Beginning in 2011 and continuing over the next 30 years, the
largest cohort of citizens the nation has ever seen will turn 60. Their
vast numbers combined with their longevity will increase demands on
social services and health care systems, while record retirement rates
will create job market shortfalls. However, unlike past societal
challenges, embedded in the challenge itself is the solution. ``If
society can tap [Baby Boomer] talents, employers will benefit, living
standards will be higher, and the financing problems of Social Security
and Medicare will be easier to solve.'' (Business Week, June 27, 2007)
The current economic crisis highlights the importance of tapping
the social capital of older adults. The talent, experience, and
availability of rapidly growing numbers of adults 55+ can be mobilized
to solve local problems in myriad ways. For example, there are several
million young people who would benefit from adult mentoring, yet there
are currently fewer than 500,000 mentors. Many informal caregivers of
children with special needs and frail elderly desperately need some
respite care. The growing legions of unemployed and underemployed also
need experienced coaches to learn new skills to fill essential jobs in
industries experiencing workforce shortages.
The benefits of civic engagement extend to older Americans
themselves as well as to their neighbors and communities. The mental
and physical well being of older volunteers will be maintained and
improved through purpose and meaningful activity. Youth involved in
intergenerational mentoring programs have demonstrated improved grades,
decreases in school absences and suspensions, and decreases in drug and
alcohol abuse. Investments in civic engagement projects also contribute
to a community's economy by mobilizing volunteers; Independent Sector
currently estimates the value of volunteer time at $19.51 an hour.
Research conducted by NCOA demonstrates that adults approaching
retirement age are concerned about the future of the country and want
to give back--but in new ways with more impact. Many of them will be
interested in exploring service opportunities, but may need some
incentive and encouragement to get involved. NCOA believes that our
nation should adopt public policies that empower older adults to make a
commitment to remain active citizens in their communities in ways that
address critical human needs.
To that end, NCOA strongly supports:
Section 417 of the Older Americans Act which authorizes
appropriations for multigenerational and civic engagement initiatives;
Proposals, such as Silver Scholarships, to provide
incentives for older Americans to volunteer their time, included in
legislation re-introduced by Congressman Sestak this month, and in the
GIVE Act introduced by Congresswoman McCarthy and the Encore Service
Act introduced by Senator Dodd in the 110th Congress.
Again, thank you for this opportunity to share the views of the
National Council on Aging regarding civic engagement initiatives for
older Americans and the difference such investments can make in our
national economy and our local communities.
The National Council on Aging is a non-profit service and advocacy
organization headquartered in Washington, DC. NCOA is a national voice
for older Americans--especially those who are vulnerable and
disadvantaged--and the community organizations that serve them. It
brings together non-profit organizations, businesses and government to
develop creative solutions that improve the lives of all older adults.
NCOA works with thousands of organizations across the country to help
seniors find jobs and benefits, improve their health, live
independently and remain active in their communities.
______
[Prepared statement of Christopher P. Golden, submitted by
Mr. Courtney, follows:]
Prepared Statement of Christopher P. Golden, Service Nation 100 ``Young
Leaders,'' Co-Founder, myImpact
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, America finds itself at
a critical crossroads. Every day brings more news that is further
evidence of the systemic problems that our nation faces. The challenges
that my generation, the Millennial Generation, is inheriting are
profound and pronounced. As such, they require a committed response
consistent with our country's greatest legacies and traditions. I am
privileged to submit to the Committee today some personal thoughts on
how national service can be a solution and how, through service, this
generation is answering the call to renew America.
In September 2008, I had the tremendous opportunity to attend the
ServiceNation Summit in New York City as part of a group of 100 young
leaders. The two-day event, planned to coincide with the anniversary of
the September 11th terrorist attacks, was an unprecedented gathering of
federal, state and local politicians, corporate and nonprofit leaders
and advocates for service from all generations. If ever there was a
moment for this movement to unite under a single charter, it was then,
within the vision of the ServiceNation Declaration of Service.
``We believe there is no challenge that cannot be met with the
energy, creativity and determination of the American people,'' the
Declaration reads.
It continues, ``We call on each other and leaders from all sectors
of American life, private, public and non-profit to work together to
create ample opportunities for citizens to serve their communities,
their country, and the world.''
A call to service, reenergized at the summit, has continued to echo
across the nation. Today's committee hearing is evidence of the rising
tide of voices coalescing around a common goal: to build a country
where service is seen as a civic rite of passage for every willing and
able young American. It is this ultimate vision that is commonly shared
between my organization, myImpact, and the nearly 150 other
organizations in the ServiceNation Coalition. We are encouraged by the
signals from the Obama Administration and by the early actions of the
new Congress. I join the hundreds of thousands of young people around
the country who have made service a part of their daily lives, to
encourage your continued leadership on this very important issue.
The Millennial Generation must not be overlooked. We are a
generation of diverse opinions and of strong passion. Coming of age at
a difficult time, with a nation challenged and a world redefining
itself, we are committed to civic participation and service and are
volunteering at higher percentages than our parents did. The full
impact of our generation's contribution, in energy and ideas, is just
beginning to be realized.
It is at this time, more than any other in our recent history, that
we call on the Congress to recognize this growing effort and to provide
the resources, both institutionally and fiscally, to ensure that if a
young American steps forward wanting to serve they are not turned away.
Further, we believe that service and education go hand-in-hand and
believe strongly in the President's statement in his Address to
Congress that, ``if you are willing to volunteer in your neighborhood
or give back to your community or serve your country, we will make sure
that you can afford a higher education.''
This Congress faces many pressing issues, beginning with stemming
the economic crisis, but through these challenges can come tremendous
opportunity. On this issue, there are several important pieces of
legislation, including the Kennedy/Hatch Serve America Act, the US
Public Service Academy Act and the package of Service for All
initiatives introduced by Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd and
Representative Rosa DeLauro that advance our common cause and move us
closer to realizing our ultimate goal.
In conclusion, I would like to thank the Committee for the
opportunity to present these words as part of the record of this
hearing, to Representative Courtney for his support, and especially for
the Chairman's leadership on this issue.
______
[Additional submission by Mr. Wofford follows:]
Age for Change Network,
Washington, DC, February 25, 2009.
Committee on Education and Labor,
House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
Dear Committee Members: We the undersigned members of Age for
Change Network represent organizations committed to strengthening
service and civic engagement programs. Age for Change encourages people
50+ to create and pursue opportunities to be dynamic advocates,
committed volunteers, and valued workers in society. During the
election campaign, many candidates and policy makers called upon people
of all ages to get involved in shaping the future of their communities
and our country. Now we write to ask you to help us start the shift
from vision to reality.
Our organizations and many more with like interests have been
involved with the development and support of ideas and programs that
will:
Expand opportunities for people to serve at every stage of
life;
Encourage and guide public institutions and nonprofit
organizations to implement the necessary organizational and structural
changes that will significantly increase their effective use of
retirees and boomers.
Motivate the public, particularly individuals 50+ to
undertake life-long learning as a key to continued involvement in
community and work activities and improved health and well-being.
Clear the way for paid work for older workers who want to
or must continue working by amending discrimination and pension laws
and instituting flexible work places.
Connect leaders, employers, and community organizations to
create new opportunities, tap the potential of workers and volunteers
50+, leverage scarce resources, and build infrastructure and momentum
to support a nationwide call to service.
Therefore, we write in support or your efforts and urge you to:
Support the Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and
Education Act (GIVE Act--H.R. 5563) that includes programs to encourage
boomers and older adults to volunteer. These programs offer a range of
opportunities including: Next Chapter Grants to fund organizations such
as community colleges and other nonprofits to serve as one-stop
resources for finding paid or volunteer jobs that provide service to
the community; Time Banking which would create local service exchanges
where both parties are compensated with reciprocal amounts of volunteer
service and no money changes hands; requirements that states develop
comprehensive plans to tap the resources of boomers and older adults
for volunteer and paid work; and Bilingual Volunteer Recruitment to
enhance outreach for senior volunteer programs so that bilingual
volunteers are recruited, expanding the reach of programs and services
for which older Americans typically volunteer, including the Silver
Scholars program.
Support expansion of the highly successful Senior Corps
programs--RSVP, Foster Grandparent Program, and the Senior Companion
Program.
Support the creation of additional programs to help ensure
that low income Americans, including older adults, have opportunities
to serve.
Support the innovative programs and current program
expansions included in the Serve America Act (S.3487), including Senior
Corps, introduced by Senators Kennedy and Hatch.
Support the creation of the programs included in the
Encore Service Act introduced by Senator Dodd and Representative Rosa
DeLauro, which also includes Silver Scholars program, as does
Representative Sestak's legislation.
As you have taken action to respond to the crisis of the economy by
new efforts to invigorate the nation's physical infrastructure--roads,
bridges, schools--we urge you to strengthen the nation's civic
infrastructure. People of all ages, including those recently retired
and those nearing retirement, are a resource waiting to be tapped.
In order to maximize the opportunities of service for the rising
wave of retirees, we offer the above agenda for legislation and
regulatory action and for implementation on the ground in every
community.
Respectfully,
Age for Change Network,
Community Experience Partnership,
Experience Wave,
Grantmakers In Aging,
Minnesota Vital Aging Network,
National Academy on an Aging Society, The Gerontological
Society of America,
National Council on Aging,
Portland Community College,
The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL),
The OASIS Institute.
For more information about the Age for Change Network, contact
Sabrina Reilly, Age for Change Steering Committee member at 202-479-
6680 or [email protected].
______
Without objection, this hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 12:31 p.m., the committee was adjourned.]