[Senate Hearing 111-539]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 111-539
THE NEXT GENERATION OF NATIONAL SERVICE
=======================================================================
HEARING
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION,
LABOR, AND PENSIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
ON
EXAMINING THE FUTURE OF NATIONAL SERVICE
__________
MARCH 10, 2009
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and
Pensions
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COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR, AND PENSIONS
EDWARD M. KENNEDY, Massachusetts, Chairman
CHRISTOPHER J. DODD, Connecticut
TOM HARKIN, Iowa
BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland
JEFF BINGAMAN, New Mexico
PATTY MURRAY, Washington
JACK REED, Rhode Island
BERNARD SANDERS (I), Vermont
SHERROD BROWN, Ohio
ROBERT P. CASEY, JR., Pennsylvania
KAY R. HAGAN, North Carolina
JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon
MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming
JUDD GREGG, New Hampshire
LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee
RICHARD BURR, North Carolina
JOHNNY ISAKSON, Georgia
JOHN McCAIN, Arizona
ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah
LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska
TOM COBURN, M.D., Oklahoma
PAT ROBERTS, Kansas
J. Michael Myers, Staff Director and Chief Counsel
Frank Macchiarola, Republican Staff Director and Chief Counsel
(ii)
C O N T E N T S
__________
STATEMENTS
TUESDAY, MARCH 10, 2009
Page
Mikulski, Hon. Barbara A., a U.S. Senator from the State of
Maryland, opening statement.................................... 1
Prepared statement........................................... 1
Kennedy, Hon. Edward M., Chairman, Committee on Health,
Education, Labor, and Pensions, prepared statement............. 4
Enzi, Hon. Michael B., a U.S. Senator from the State of Wyoming.. 5
Prepared statement........................................... 6
Hatch, Hon. Orrin G., a U.S. Senator from the State of Utah...... 7
Prepared statement........................................... 10
McCain, Hon. John, a U.S. Senator from the State of Arizona...... 12
Herbert, Gary, Lieutenant Governor, State of Utah, prepared
statement...................................................... 12
Solomont, Alan, Board of Directors and Chair, Corporation for
National and Community Service, Chairman and CEO, Solomont
Bailis Ventures, Weston, MA.................................... 13
Prepared statement........................................... 15
Goldsmith, Stephen, Vice Chair, Corporation for National and
Community Service and Daniel Paul Professor of Government and
Director of the Innovations, American Government Program,
Cambridge, MA.................................................. 17
Prepared statement........................................... 19
Racicot, Marc, Former Governor of Montana, Bigfork, MT........... 21
Prepared statement........................................... 23
Sagawa, Shirley, Visiting Fellow, Center for American Progress,
and Co-founder, Sagawa/Jospin Consulting, Washington, DC....... 24
Prepared statement........................................... 26
Strong, Lester, CEO, Experience Corps, Washington, DC............ 29
Prepared statement........................................... 31
Bouchard, Michelle, President, Healthcorps, New York, NY......... 34
Prepared statement........................................... 36
Brown, Michael, CEO, City Year, Boston, MA....................... 38
Prepared statement........................................... 41
Dodd, Hon. Christopher J., a U.S. Senator from the State of
Connecticut.................................................... 46
Prepared statement........................................... 48
ADDITIONAL MATERIAL
Statements, articles, publications, letters, etc.:
Prepared statement of:
Kopp, Wendy, CEO and Founder of Teach for America........ 63
Questions of Senator Hatch to:
Mr. Goldsmith............................................ 64
Mr. Solomont............................................. 64
The Panel................................................ 65
Mr. Racicot.............................................. 65
(iii)
THE NEXT GENERATION OF NATIONAL SERVICE
----------
TUESDAY, MARCH 10, 2009
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions,
Washington, DC.
The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:30 p.m. in room
SD-430, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Barbara A.
Mikulski presiding.
Present: Senators Mikulski, Dodd, Murray, Enzi, Isakson,
McCain, and Hatch.
Opening Statement of Senator Mikulski
Senator Mikulski. The Senate Committee on Health,
Education, Labor, and Pensions will come to order. Today's
hearing is entitled, ``The Next Generation of National
Service.''
The purpose of the hearing today is to take testimony on
the status of where we are at the Corporation for National and
Community Service and our famous AmeriCorps and get the views
of the chair of the National and Community Service Commission,
along with Stephen Goldsmith, and also the vice chair.
We will also be listening to very talented social
entrepreneurs, as we look at ways to renew, refresh, and
reinvigorate national service. We are going to be listening to
a distinguished group of people that includes: practitioners,
social entrepreneurs who increase the social capital in our
country, as well as a governor who oversaw the commission in
his own State and knows what a difference service makes.
I want to acknowledge the fact that Senator Kennedy and
Senator Hatch have put forth a bill that will be our framework
as we go to markup, and also, for today's hearing. Senator
Kennedy wanted so much to be here in person to listen to you
for this review and also to get new ideas on how we can keep
national service as fresh as the country wants us to.
Senator Kennedy has prepared a statement that I am going to
read in lieu of my own. I ask unanimous consent that my full
statement go in the record.
[The prepared statement of Senator Mikulski follows:]
Prepared Statement of Senator Mikulski
Good afternoon. I'd like to welcome and thank our panel of
witnesses for being here today. I'm chairing this hearing for
Senator Edward Kennedy, a champion of national service, and a
chief sponsor of the Serve America Act. As always, I'm happy
and honored to lead the charge in his absence.
I've been called the Godmother of national service.
Wherever I go, people of all ages tell me they want to serve.
They want to be part of an effort to improve society. We've got
our economic stimulus. Now it's time to give the American
people a social.
Talking about national service legislation is especially
poignant for me. Last month it will have been 20 years since I
introduced my national service legislation that eventually
evolved into AmeriCorps. Service has always been dear to me.
After grad school, I answered President Kennedy's call to
service. I took my Master's in social work, and went down to
the VISTA training center to teach volunteers how to be
effective in the communities they serve. Seeing that group of
determined people making a difference through gumption and hard
work really made an impact on me. It was a wonderful
experience. One that has colored everything I've done since.
It's a special thing to answer a President when he asks you to
serve.
We're here today to talk about the next generation of
national service. How we can refresh, re-invigorate and reform
our national service programs to meet the challenges we face
today. Senators Kennedy and Hatch have written an excellent
bipartisan bill. National service has always been bipartisan.
FDR put his mark on national service through his Civilian
Conservation Corps, which put people back to work conserving
our public lands. President Kennedy called the Nation to serve
with his Peace Corps. President Johnson had his VISTA program
to get young people to fight the war on poverty. President
George H.W. Bush founded his ``Points of Light'' to leverage
nonprofits in doing community work. President Clinton has his
AmeriCorps.
The Kennedy/Hatch Serve America Act expands national
service so that we can increase the number of national
volunteers from 75,000 to 250,000. But this bill doesn't just
allow more people to serve. It asks people to help solve
specific challenges in the areas where our Nation continues to
struggle: we ask our high school students to join service-
learning programs to reduce school drop-out rates, improve our
neighborhood parks, and keep our communities clean through
local recycling efforts. We want to set our young Americans on
a path to lifetime service. We ask our college graduates to
give a year to a targeted service effort and help us tackle
America's education, health, energy and poverty problems. We
ask our retirees to help us value their skills and experiences
and make service work for them.
We'll leverage Federal dollars to help them transition into
service jobs by providing an ``Encore Fellowship'' to
incentivize service for an older generation that remembers
giving back isn't just nice to do, it's the right thing to do.
We ask our service alumni to give once more by enlisting in a
Reserve to be deployed during times of national crisis or need.
We ask our skilled professionals to engage in short-term
service in developing countries to improve people's living
standards, and to help rebuild America's standing in the world.
We ask our successful and dynamic non-profits to increase their
capacity and bring their innovative ideas to scale.
This isn't just about new programs and new opportunities.
It's about answering the demands of a public that isn't just
saying they want to give back, they're screaming for the
opportunity. Last year 25,000 college seniors applied for a
slot in Teach for America to teach 2 years in our Nation's most
challenging schools. There were only 4,000 slots. The Peace
Corps received approximately 13,000 applications last year for
less than 4,000 slots. And in the last 2 years, young people
across the country volunteered their time and effort to a cause
fueled by optimism and hope even though the outcome was
uncertain. I'm happy to say they got a handsome return on their
work on Nov. 4. Now we're blessed with the challenge of
harnessing this surge in goodwill and renewing the call to
service that inspired my generation, the President Kennedy
generation.
I think this legislation is a way to revive this spirit of
volunteerism and service to our country. I think it is a way to
harvest what I'm calling the ``Obama effect.'' There's this new
fascination with civic engagement that President Obama inspired
throughout his campaign. This last election unleashed an
incredible energy. People want to know how they can give, how
they can help, how they can make a difference. Our President's
actions speak to the people. When our President says that
national and community service is important, and that it has a
positive impact both on communities and the volunteers who
serve in them, he's speaking from experience.
And it's affecting people of all ages and all walks of
life. Last summer, I was talking to a veteran teacher in
Baltimore who usually had to push for 10 kids to come to her
summer math classes. Last summer that changed. She had a
waiting list of more than 100 kids.
This teacher asked one of the young boys, ``what do you
want to be? '' He said, ``I want to be smart.'' And when she
asked him what he wanted to be smart for, this young boy
replied: ``I want to be smart because of Obama. I look at Obama
and he can do it. I want to do it, too. But I know I've gotta
start out wanting to be smart.''
The teacher left the room and started crying. In her 25
years in the Baltimore Schools 1 system, no student had ever
said, ``I want to be smart.'' So Obama's reaching our students.
He reached the people last November. He's even reached Congress
by asking us to send the Serve America Act bill to his desk.
Let's give the public a chance to express the habits of the
heart that were the foundation of this country: neighbors
helping neighbors, communities sticking together.
President Obama has asked us to move quickly. And we will.
But we also know process is important. And we need to go
through the regular order--hearing from experts, hearing from
Republicans and Democrats. I'm looking forward to a mark-up
next week. But this hearing is an important step and in keeping
with the tenor set by majority leader Reid. Let's move forward
together.
Senator Mikulski. In the interest of time, because votes
might be coming at 4 p.m., I just simply want to do this for
Senator Kennedy. Let the record show that on Sunday night,
there was a tribute to Senator Kennedy at the Kennedy Center at
which he received the Profile in Courage. They sang The Man
from La Mancha's ``The Impossible Dream.''
Well, today, we are here to make sure the dream is
possible. So, in Senator Kennedy's own words, he wanted us to
say:
``Many years ago, on the fifth anniversary of the
Peace Corps, I asked one of those young Americans why
had they volunteered, and I will never forget the
answer. They said it was the first time someone asked
me to do something for my country.
``Now it is time again to ask what you can do for
your country. Americans, young and old, are looking for
new ways to serve their communities and give back to
their country. This hearing will enable us to learn new
and better ways to provide opportunities to serve.
Service has always been a bipartisan goal, and our
hearing today continues that tradition.
``From President Kennedy's creation of the Peace
Corps to President George H.W. Bush's Points of Light
to President Clinton's AmeriCorps, presidents of both
parties have contributed their own ideas. I commend
President Obama for making an early priority of his
Administration to expand service opportunities.
``In 1990, working with the first President Bush, our
committee approved the original National and Community
Service Act. Many of those who worked on it are here
today, working together. Senator Hatch, who has
committed a great deal of time and effort to national
service, and Senator Mikulski, who planted the seeds
for AmeriCorps. I am proud to work with both of them on
this bipartisan service bill, and I commend Senator
Enzi for his support as we guide this bill through.
``What the Serve America Act proves is that service
can make a great deal of difference in tackling
problems if we focus on specific challenges. Service
opportunities early in life can put young people on a
path to a lifetime of service. More and more older
Americans want to put their skills and experience to
work for their community and for their country.
``And forward-thinking social entrepreneurs are
coming up with their own effective ways of tackling
some of our greatest challenges and, at the same time,
creating more social capital, which is the true
investment in our communities.
``Now is the time to act on what we learned. This
legislation will increase service opportunities, and we
will be able to create the next generation of
volunteers.''
Senator Kennedy concludes by saying,
``National service has been a cause of mine for many
years, and the time is right today to do much more. I
look forward to working closely with my colleagues on
the committee and the President to strengthen this
service.''
So this is for the record.
This bill, of course, will be the Kennedy-Hatch bill.
Senator Enzi, I would like to turn to you for your opening
statement and then to Senator Hatch, as the lead Republican
sponsor, for his statement. Then we will go to our witness
panel.
Opening Statement of Senator Enzi
Senator Enzi. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman, and thank you
for holding this important hearing today.
I want to extend my gratitude to Senator Hatch for his
leadership on these issues and congratulate him on his good
work for the Serve America Act. Senator Hatch has been a
tireless advocate for increased opportunities for volunteer
service. He has been the chairman of this committee before. He
and Senator Kennedy have worked on this bill before.
It was a nice compliment paid to the two of them by the
President in the joint session speech that was given, where the
President asked for this to be named after the two of them. And
we should respect that wish, and they deserve it.
We look forward to the swift return of Senator Kennedy, for
whom national service has been a lifelong pursuit. He has done
so many wonderful things, and we do miss him here.
A comprehensive reauthorization of our national service
statutes is long overdue. These programs haven't received a
hard look in over 15 years. We have an opportunity with this
hearing to identify the areas where reforms are needed, where
waste can be eliminated, and where we can responsibly expand
our efforts.
As the only accountant in the Senate, I am always looking
for ways to strengthen the management and fiscal accountability
of Federal programs. Specifically, I have a continued interest
in improving the ability of small and rural programs to
effectively reach rural communities. As the Senate considers
how to streamline funding and minimize bureaucracy, we must
keep in mind the needs of rural programs and the communities
they serve.
Also, I am concerned that a significant portion of the 1
percent set aside for programs serving Native American
communities has not been used. Too often, these communities
experience the most extreme needs for education, health, and
workforce services.
The programs in the National and Community Service Act and
the Domestic Volunteer Service Act can play an important role
in improving the quality of life in Native American
communities, and we must improve their access to these
programs.
I am encouraged by the work that is being done in Wyoming
and across the country by volunteers in the Senior Corps
program. In Wyoming, over 1,000 people a year--and we only have
half a million people in our State to begin with--participate
as senior companions, foster grandparents, or community
volunteers. They perform services such as conducting safety
patrols and participating in environmental cleanup projects.
In Wyoming, the Congressional Award Council connects young
people to service opportunities and sponsors an award ceremony.
It does not receive any Federal dollars, but it has been wildly
successful.
One example is in Cheyenne, where young people are
conducting CPR and first aid classes and providing disaster
preparedness training in the community. For thousands of hours
of service, they receive a Bronze medal or a Silver medal and,
finally, a gold medal for their hours.
Across the country, there are now alumni associations of
these congressional award winners who put on spectacular
programs in their State for no award whatsoever. It is just a
habit of service that has been developed through this wonderful
program. The gold medal recipients do have a special
opportunity to travel to Washington, DC, in June and receive
their medals. The importance of these opportunities can't be
overstated.
This hearing is an important starting point for the
reauthorization of our national service laws. I look forward to
hearing the testimony of our witnesses today. Your input is an
important part of the legislative process.
I am confident that we can continue to work in a bipartisan
way, incorporating the good ideas that Senators Hatch and
Kennedy have put together, and get a bill to the President in
the next few weeks.
Thank you, Madam Chairman.
[The prepared statement of Senator Enzi follows:]
Prepared Statement of Senator Enzi
Madam Chairwoman, thank you for holding this very important
hearing today. I want to extend my gratitude to Senator Hatch
for his leadership on these issues, and congratulate him on his
good work in the Serve America Act. Senator Hatch has been a
tireless advocate for increased opportunities for volunteer
service. And we look forward to the swift return of our friend
Senator Kennedy, for whom national service has been a life-long
pursuit.
A comprehensive reauthorization of our national service
statutes is long overdue. These programs have not received a
hard look in over 15 years. We have an opportunity with this
hearing to identify the areas where reforms are needed, where
waste can be eliminated, and where we can responsibly expand
our efforts. As the only accountant in the Senate I am always
looking for ways to strengthen the management and fiscal
accountability of Federal programs.
Specifically, I have a continued interest in improving the
ability of small and rural programs to effectively reach rural
communities. As the Senate considers how to streamline funding
and minimize bureaucracy, we must keep in mind the needs of
rural programs and the communities they serve.
Also, I am concerned that a significant portion of the 1
percent set-aside for programs serving Native American
communities has not been used. Too often these communities
experience the most extreme needs for education, health, and
workforce services. The programs in the National and Community
Service Act, and the Domestic Volunteer Service Act, can play
an important role in improving the quality of life in Native
American communities, and we most improve their access to these
programs.
And I am encouraged by the good work that is being done in
Wyoming and across the country by volunteers in the SeniorCorps
program. In Wyoming over a 1,000 people a year participate as
senior companions, foster grandparents or community volunteers.
They perform services such as conducting safety patrols and
participating in environmental clean-up projects.
In Wyoming, the Congressional Award Council connects young
people to service opportunities and sponsors an award ceremony.
It does not receive any Federal dollars, but it has been wildly
successful. One example is in Cheyenne where young people are
conducting CPR and first-aid classes, and providing disaster
preparedness training in the community.
Each year the Council sponsors an award ceremony in Wyoming
where members of our congressional delegation award
Certificates and Bronze and Silver medals. Gold medal
recipients have the special opportunity to travel to
Washington, DC in June to receive their medals.
The importance of these opportunities cannot be overstated.
This hearing is an important starting point for the
reauthorization of our national service laws. I look forward to
hearing the testimony of our witnesses today. Your input is an
important part of the legislative process. I am confident that
we can continue to work in a bipartisan way, incorporating the
good ideas that Senators Hatch and Kennedy have put together,
to get a bill to the President in the next few weeks.
Senator Mikulski. Thank you, Senator Enzi, for that
excellent opening statement.
Senator Hatch.
Statement of Senator Hatch
Senator Hatch. Well, thank you, Madam Chairman.
First and foremost, I would like to thank you personally
for giving me an opportunity to make a statement at the opening
of this proceeding. I would also like to thank you for chairing
this hearing and, of course, your willingness to take charge of
this hearing in the absence of our dear friend Senator Kennedy.
Though Senator Mikulski is able to the task, I must say
that given the subject matter we are discussing today, I don't
think Senator Kennedy's absence will go unnoticed. He would be
here if he could, and he will be here in the future.
It was over 2 years ago that I approached Senator Kennedy
and suggested that we create a system to encourage our citizens
to devote significant time to volunteer service. At practically
that same time, I met with Pastor Rick Warren, who came and
visited with me and thought this would be a good idea and has
made some helpful suggestions.
As a young man, I served a 2-year volunteer mission for my
faith during which I learned firsthand the benefits of service.
It was the greatest period of my life. I wouldn't trade that
for being a U.S. Senator because I gave 2 solid years, 18 hours
a day, helping people, and it was a really wonderful thing for
me. I want to give that opportunity to as many young people as
we can, though in a different way, through this legislation.
Also Sargent Shriver--I don't know how many of you have
read ``Sarg,'' the biography of Sargent Shriver, but it is a
worthwhile read. I have read it, and both Sargent Shriver and
Eunice have been wonderful friends over the years.
In fact, in the early days, when I became chairman of this
committee and Senator Kennedy decided to give me a little bit
of a rough time at that time and whenever he gave me too rough
a time, I would say, ``OK, Teddy, I am going to go see
Eunice.'' ``Oh, no. Don't do that. Don't do that,'' he would
say.
[Laughter.]
Because he knew that Eunice would work him over, and we
have had a lot of fun through the years doing that with each
other. Fortunately, none of this was necessary on this bill.
I came to Senator Kennedy in hopes that we could find ways
to give similar opportunities to more and more people across
the spectrum--from the veteran who returns home and wants to
continue to serve to the traditional volunteer in a community
who wants to help their neighbor in times of need. Though it
has taken some time and no small amount of work, these were the
humble beginnings of the Serve America Act.
As we worked on this legislation, I personally had a list
of priorities. I also have to say that Senator Kennedy agrees
with these.
We wanted to ensure that we weren't just creating another
Federal program. We didn't want to add another level of
government bureaucracy in order to encourage volunteer service,
but to work through existing community-based efforts that
represent one of the finest and most uniquely American
traditions in the world.
In addition, if we were going to work within the framework
of existing community and national service programs, I was
insistent that we improve upon it by adding more direction and
accountability for results, to set some goals and work to
achieve them and to increase the role of States and small
communities in these programs.
We also wanted indicators of civic health, just as we have
indicators of the state of our economy. I believed that doing
so would lev-
erage even more volunteers and investment at the local level
with the belief that people closest to the actual needs, people
who share your zip code and live in your communities,
understand best how to help.
Finally, we wanted our legislation to include enough
flexibility to encompass different types of service. We wanted
to see opportunities increase for individuals to follow their
own paths when serving in their communities.
We also wanted to encourage both full-time service and
traditional episodic service, and we wanted opportunities for
Americans of all ages, from children in schools to employees in
workplaces to older Americans as they move to encore or second
careers looking for more meaning in their lives. Everyone can
serve.
All of this was a tall order, to be sure, but I think that
with the Serve America Act, we have drafted a bill that will
address all of these profiles and priorities.
As President Ronald Reagan once said, ``The work of
volunteer groups throughout our country represents the very
heart and soul of America. They have helped make this the most
compassionate, generous, and humane society that ever existed
on the face of the Earth.''
Volunteerism and selfless service are, in my opinion,
fundamental. They are fundamental American virtues, and they
will continue to be so with or without the aid of the
Government.
Now I understand those that do not see a significant role
for the Federal Government increasing volunteer service, and I
share the concerns of those who want to ensure that we spend
tax dollars in a sensible way. Quite frankly, I don't think
that such concerns are good reasons to oppose the Serve America
Act.
Currently, roughly 75,000 Americans participate in national
service every year, receiving modest living stipends and even
smaller education awards. However, the efforts of those 75,000
help to leverage more than 2 million other traditional
volunteers, who receive nothing from government to work on the
same projects.
In addition, they lead to hundreds of millions of dollars
every year in non-Federal investment in service organizations
and charities. None of these additional volunteers receive any
aid or awards from the Federal Government, and none of the
resulting private donations are underwritten by the Federal
Treasury.
While the investment in the existing programs is not
insignificant, most of the real benefits are never seen in the
Federal budget. They are real and the Serve America Act would
greatly improve upon them.
Now this is the type of return we expect to see on this
relatively modest investment, especially at a time when youth
unemployment is at 21 percent and unemployment among older
Americans is at its highest level since 1983. These are two
populations that community and national service
disproportionately engages at low cost to government with no
new bureaucracy.
Madam Chair, the programs in the Serve America Act are all
designed to foster new forms of service and to leverage
increased volunteerism from organizations at the local, State,
and national level and to mobilize skilled American
professionals to meet urgent needs abroad.
The bill establishes programs that will allow individuals
and small nonprofits to come up with innovative and creative
solutions to addressing national and international problems,
maintaining the role of communities and States as laboratories
for invention. Rather than providing direct aid to the
economically disadvantaged, the bill will encourage citizens,
private organizations, and communities to work together to
empower those in need.
In the long run, I believe that the Serve America Act will
allow communities to help themselves, meaning that the
Government will ultimately be asked to do less and less.
Once again, I would like to thank the Chair for the
opportunity to chat about this today, and I would like to just
announce that I am really pleased that my friend John McCain
has agreed to sponsor this and help push it through. It means a
lot to me, and I think he is one of the great Americans, one of
the greatest Americans that we have in this day and age. With
both him and Senator Kennedy on this bill, I think we should do
all right. Don't you think, John.
[Laughter.]
Thank you so much, Madam Chairman.
[The prepared statement of Senator Hatch follows:]
Prepared Statement of Senator Hatch
First and foremost, I'd like to thank Senator Mikulski for
giving me an opportunity to make a statement at the opening of
this proceeding. I'd also like to thank the distinguished
Senator from Maryland for her willingness to take charge of
this hearing in the absence of our dear friend Senator Kennedy.
Though Senator Mikulski is able for the task, I must say that,
given the subject matter we're discussing today, I don't think
Senator Kennedy's absence will go unnoticed.
It was over 2 years ago that I approached Senator Kennedy
and suggested that we create a system to encourage our citizens
to devote significant time to volunteer service. As a young
man, I served a 2-year full-time mission for my church, during
which I learned firsthand the benefits of service--not only for
the beneficiaries of the service, but particularly for those
who volunteer their time in the service of others. Likewise, I
think we've all witnessed with awe those who sacrifice and
volunteer to serve in the military and get the opportunity to
be part of something bigger than themselves.
I came to Senator Kennedy in hopes that we could find ways
to give similar opportunities to more and more people across
the spectrum--from the veteran who returns home and wants to
continue to serve, to the traditional volunteer in a community
who wants to help their neighbor in times of need. Though it
has taken some time and no small amount of work, these were the
humble beginnings of the Serve America Act.
As we worked on this legislation, I had a list of
priorities. Foremost, I wanted to ensure that we weren't
creating just another Federal program. I didn't want to add
another level of government bureaucracy in order to encourage
volunteer service, but to work through existing, community-
based efforts that represent one of the finest and uniquely
American traditions in the world.
In addition, if we were going to work within the framework
of existing community and national service programs, I was
insistent that we improve upon it by adding more direction and
accountability for results--to set some goals and work to
achieve them and to increase the role of States and small
communities in these programs. I also wanted indicators of
civic health, just as we have indicators of the State of our
economy. I believed that doing so would leverage even more
volunteers and investment at the local level, with a belief
that people closest to the actual needs--people who share your
zip code, and live in your community--understand best how to
help.
Finally, I wanted our legislation to include enough
flexibility to encompass different types of service. I wanted
to see opportunities increased for individuals to follow their
own paths when serving their communities. I also wanted to
encourage both full-time service and traditional episodic
service. And I wanted opportunities for Americans of all ages--
from children in schools, to employees in workplaces, to older
Americans as they move to encore or second careers looking for
more meaning in their lives. Everyone can serve.
All of this was a tall order, to be sure. But, I think
that, with the Serve America Act, we've drafted a bill that
will address all of these priorities.
As President Ronald Reagan said:
``The work of volunteer groups throughout our country
represents the very heart and soul of America. They
have helped make this the most compassionate, generous,
and humane society that ever existed on the face of
this earth.''
Volunteerism and selfless service are, in my opinion,
fundamental American virtues and they will continue to be so
with or without the aid of the Government. I understand those
that do not see a significant role for the Federal Government
increasing volunteer service and I share the concerns of those
who want to ensure that we spend tax dollars in a sensible way.
But, quite frankly, I don't think that such concerns are good
reasons to oppose the Serve America Act.
Currently, roughly 75,000 Americans participate in national
service every year, receiving modest living stipends and even
smaller education awards. However, the efforts of those 75,000
help to leverage more than 2 million other traditional
volunteers--who receive nothing from government--to work on the
same projects. In addition, they lead to hundreds of millions
of dollars every year in non-Federal investment in service
organizations and charities. None of these additional
volunteers receive any aid or awards from the Federal
Government and none of the resulting private donations are
underwritten by the Federal treasury. So, while the investment
in the existing programs is not insignificant, most of the real
benefits are never seen in the Federal budget, but, they are
real and the Serve America Act will greatly improve upon them.
This is the type of return we expect to see on this relatively
modest investment, especially at a time when youth unemployment
is at 21 percent and unemployment among older Americans is at
its highest levels since 1983. These are two populations that
community and national service disproportionately engages at
low cost to government with no new bureaucracy.
Madame Chair, the programs in the Serve America Act are all
designed to foster new forms of service and to leverage
increased volunteerism from organizations at the local, State,
and national level, and to mobilize skilled American
professionals to meet urgent needs abroad.
The bill establishes programs that will allow individuals
and small non-profits to come up with innovative and creative
solutions to addressing national and international problems,
maintaining the role of communities and States as laboratories
for invention. Rather than providing direct aid to the
economically disadvantaged, the bill will encourage citizens,
private organizations, and communities to work together to
empower those in need. In the long run, I believe that the
Serve America Act will allow communities to help themselves,
meaning that the government will ultimately be asked to do less
and less.
Once again, I'd like to thank the chair for the opportunity
to speak today and I look forward to hearing the comments from
both distinguished panels.
Senator Mikulski. I want to recognize Senator McCain. He
was one of the founding fathers of our original commission.
Senator McCain, I believe that it was in 1990.
We weren't going to do a lot of opening statements in the
interest of time, but when you have got a founding father and a
founding mother--the founding mother has got a chance to talk,
so does the founding father.
[Laughter.]
So founding father.
Statement of Senator McCain
Senator McCain. I thank you, Madam Chairman and thank you
for your commitment on this issue.
I thank Senator Enzi and, of course, my friend Senator
Hatch.
As you mentioned, I have been involved in this issue for
quite a while. Senator Bayh and I introduced somewhat similar
legislation in previous years, and I appreciate very much
Senator Hatch and Senator Kennedy's effort. I look forward to
hearing from the witnesses today, and I think the time is right
for such a measure.
I thank you, Madam Chairman.
Senator Hatch. Madam Chair, could I put a statement in the
record from our lieutenant governor in Utah, who would have
been here except for the legislative session?
Senator Mikulski. Absolutely. Without objection.
[The information previously referred to follows:]
Prepared Statement of Gary Herbert, Lieutenant Governor, State of Utah
Madame Chair, distinguished Senators, I welcome the opportunity to
give a statement on the important matters before the committee today. I
greatly appreciate the invitation to give a statement and I regret
that, during these waning days of the Utah legislative session, I am
unable to attend in person.
My name is Gary Herbert and currently serve as the Lieutenant
Governor for the State of Utah. One of my many duties in this position
is to oversee the Utah Commission on Volunteers, which administers the
State's efforts in existing national service programs as well as those
originating from within the State.
Anyone who has spent time in Utah and among its people knows that
service, generosity, and an outstanding work ethic are values that are
deeply ingrained in our State's culture. Tens of thousands of Utahns
participate every year in various service projects and initiatives. In
2007 and 2008, more than 44,000 people participated in 88 different
national service projects throughout the State. In the last year of
accounting, more than 7,200 seniors in Utah participated in Senior
Corps programs. During that same time, nearly 1,000 Americorps
participants did their work in our State and more than 35,000 students
benefited from Learn and Serve America. Indeed, projects funded through
national service initiatives have greatly enriched Utah's philanthropic
landscape.
I was greatly encouraged to see Senators Hatch and Kennedy
introduce the Serve America Act because, though we've enjoyed much
success in our State's volunteer efforts, the ailing economy has been
particularly hard on the non-profit sector, leading to a decline in
services offered by charities and community organizations. This
landmark legislation will help our State by supporting non-profit
organizations that are hurting as a result of the evaporation of
wealth, the State and local budget crunch, and increasing demands for
services that accompany difficult economic times.
The bill will also increase the numbers of people in our State who
participate in full-time, part-time and traditional volunteer service.
With unemployment among youth and older Americans at very high levels
throughout the country, investing in the community-based infrastructure
to permit thousands of volunteers from Utah to give back to their
communities and State makes perfect sense.
As in other States, in Utah, we need teachers in high-need schools,
mentors and tutors for disadvantaged youth, extra hands in soup
kitchens and homeless shelters, and volunteers in senior centers,
nursing homes and nursery schools. The non-profit and church-sponsored
organizations that work in our communities to address these issues have
been hit hard by the economy. Yet, I believe that many Utahns are
willing to be put into productive work to meet these growing needs and
the Serve America Act will help us make great strides to do so. &
I applaud Senator Hatch's leadership on this important legislation,
which will permit more Americans to do good works in hard times and
move from talk of bailouts to a spirit of overcoming challenges in
America.
Senator Hatch. Appreciate it.
Senator Mikulski. We are now going to turn to both the
chair and the vice chair of the Corporation of National and
Community Service. When they are concluded, I am going to ask
our other panelists to come up and join them and make their
testimony because we are going to be voting at 4 p.m.
We will just open up the questions to you, as essentially
our board, and then also to the people who bring both
experience and some new ideas.
I would like to turn now to Alan Solomont, the board of
directors and chair of the corporation, and then to Stephen
Goldsmith, the vice chair for the corporation. Mr. Solomont is
the CEO of Solomont Bailis Ventures in western Massachusetts,
and Stephen Goldsmith is the Daniel Paul Professor of
Government and the director of Innovations in American
Government at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in
Cambridge, MA.
Gentlemen.
STATEMENT OF ALAN SOLOMONT, BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND CHAIR,
CORPORATION FOR NATIONAL AND COMMUNITY SERVICE, CHAIRMAN AND
CEO, SOLOMONT BAILIS VENTURES, WESTON, MA
Mr. Solomont. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman, Ranking Member
Enzi, members of the committee.
Good afternoon, and thank you for this opportunity to
testify and for this committee's longstanding bipartisan
support for national service.
I especially thank you, Chairwoman, the founding mother of
national service--and the founding father--for your passionate
advocacy and strong oversight over the past 16 years. We are
grateful that you have put national service on the committee's
agenda so early in the 111th Congress.
I appear before you today as the newly elected chairman of
the board of the Corporation for National and Community
Service. I was appointed to the board by President Clinton in
2000, reappointed by President Bush in 2007, and elected
chairman last month, stepping into the very large shoes of my
good friend Steve Goldsmith.
Having served on the board for this long, I know there have
been times when you have had concern about the corporation's
management and leadership. I want you to know that we heard you
then, and we hear you now. We remain committed to transparent
and rigorous management of the resources with which we have
been entrusted. Sound management and accountability remain a
top focus of our bipartisan board and senior staff.
Let me acknowledge one member of the committee who is not
here and who happens to be my Senator. I would not be here if
it weren't for Senator Kennedy, who sponsored the original
national service legislation and who, along with you, Senator
Hatch, is driving the next generation of service envisioned in
the Serve America Act.
I was very pleased when Senator Kennedy received the
Profiles in Courage award from his niece Caroline that she
mentioned his leadership in national service.
Today's hearing comes at a pivotal moment for national and
community service. The economic crisis is causing hardship for
millions of Americans, and no one sector of society can pull us
out of it.
We have a President who understands the power of citizen
action and who has pledged to make service a central cause of
his presidency. We have bipartisan support for a dramatic
expansion in service, and we have a new generation, known as
``millennials,'' that is looking to participate in something
larger than themselves by serving their communities and their
country.
National service is about engaging citizens and solving
community problems. That idea is as old as America, but it is
made new with each generation. As each generation realizes the
impact of service, it also learns that service is
transformative. I know because, as Senator Hatch mentioned, it
was also for me.
After I graduated from college, I moved to Lowell, MA, to
be a community organizer. Lowell, the birthplace of the
Industrial Revolution, by the 1970s was down on its luck. Our
organizing project helped tenants avoid eviction and homeowners
protect their neighborhoods. We worked with businesses,
churches, and labor unions to save jobs.
I worked alongside then city councilor Paul Tsongas and a
young candidate for Congress, John Kerry. Our organizing made a
real difference in helping Lowellians cope with the economic
crisis, but it also had a profound impact on my life. I went on
to a career in business, but everything I have done since then
has been informed by what I learned from that experience,
especially my belief that things can change for the better if
we work together.
This ethic of service affects every generation, and the
next generation of young people is especially open to it. I
believe that civilian service has the potential to do, in part,
for this generation what military service did for the
``greatest generation.''
Through their military service, the men and women of the
greatest generation were exposed to the great diversity of
America. Their service bound them together and fueled their
patriotism, made them better citizens, and made America a
stronger Nation.
Today, we are at an inflection point, the beginning,
hopefully, of a new era of responsibility and citizen
engagement. We saw this in the 2008 presidential campaign when
millions of Americans from both political parties became part
of the process for the first time. We are seeing it in
volunteer centers and community organizations as Americans
respond to the economic downturn and to the President's call to
service.
The Serve America Act, first introduced in the 110th
Congress and re-introduced as S. 277 by Senator Kennedy and
Senator Hatch, will grow national service to meet these
challenges. It will invest in and expand the civic and
volunteer infrastructure to support this growth. The bill sets
the corporation on a path to enlist 250,000 members, and it
strengthens service opportunities for people of all ages.
The March 6, 2009, letter from the Office of Management and
Budget lays out the Administration's priorities for national
service. I would like to highlight a few.
The Administration supports simplifying funding streams,
management structures, and application and reporting processes.
Part of the simplification is expanded authority to use fixed-
amount grants that simplify reporting requirements while
ensuring more robust performance accountability and more
uniform collection of impact data.
Any discussion about the next generation of service should
include talking about innovation. Problems our Nation faces
can't be solved by government alone. They require all hands on
deck.
Though the corporation's role has traditionally been to
choose the best programs and ensure accountability, it also can
play a role in supporting and investing in new ideas. The Serve
America Act provides for that through the Community Solutions
Fund, which will test new ideas, leverage private support, and
expand successful programs to scale.
The Administration is pleased that the Serve America Act
also seeks to improve service learning opportunities and new
service opportunities for baby boomers and older Americans. As
someone who has been an outspoken advocate for Senior Corps, I
appreciate the value and impact of the Senior Corps programs.
Some of them, begun in the 1960s in conjunction with the war on
poverty, have done a terrific job.
As we anticipate the coming wave of aging baby boomers, now
is the time to modernize these programs for the 21st century.
The Administration has made a commitment to expand these
programs, but we cannot provide seniors with the service
opportunities they deserve without introducing competition,
greater accountability, and innovation.
Finally, the Administration would like to see an increase
in the maximum amount of the Segal AmeriCorps Education Award.
Named for a dear friend and one of the architects of national
service, the award has not been adjusted since the program's
inception in 1993.
I thank you for this opportunity to share a bit of my own
experience and some of the Administration's priorities on
national service. I appreciate your support. I truly believe
that we have the opportunity not only to transform lives and
communities, but to change our country.
I look forward to working with you and to answering your
questions.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Solomont follows:]
Prepared Statement of Alan Solomont
Chairwoman, Ranking Member Enzi, and members of the committee, good
afternoon. Thank you for this opportunity to testify, and for this
committee's longstanding bipartisan support for national service. I
especially thank you, Chairwoman--the Godmother of National Service--
for your passionate advocacy and strong oversight over the past 16
years.
We are grateful that you have put National Service on the
committee's agenda so early in the 111th Congress. I appear before you
today as the newly elected Chairman of the Board of the Directors of
the Corporation for National and Community Service. I was appointed to
the Board by President Clinton in 2000, reappointed by President Bush
in 2007, and elected as Chairman last month, stepping into the shoes of
my good friend Stephen Goldsmith, who you will hear from shortly.
Having served on the Board for this long, I know that there have
been times when you had concerns about the Corporation's management and
leadership. I want you to know that we heard you then, and we hear you
now. We remain committed to transparent and rigorous management of the
resources with which we've been entrusted. Sound management and
accountability remain the top focus of our bipartisan Board and senior
staff.
I want to acknowledge one member of the committee who is not here
and who happens to be my Senator. I would not be here if it weren't for
Senator Kennedy--who sponsored the original national service
legislation, and who--along with you and Senator Hatch--is driving the
next generation of service envisioned in the Serve America Act.
Today's hearing comes at a pivotal moment for national and
community service:
The economic crisis is causing hardship for millions of
Americans, and no one sector of society can pull us out of it.
We have a President who understands the power of citizen
action and who has pledged to make service a central cause of his
presidency.
We have bipartisan support for a dramatic expansion in
service.
And we have a new generation--known as the Millennial
Generation--that is looking to participate in something larger than
themselves by serving their communities and their country.
To me, national service is all about engaging Americans in solving
community problems. That idea is as old as America, but it is made new
with each generation. And as each generation realizes the impact of
service, it also learns that service is transformative. I know because
it was for me.
After graduating from college in the 1970's, I moved to Lowell, MA
to be a community organizer. Lowell was the birthplace of the
Industrial Revolution, but by the 1970's what was once a prosperous
mill town was now down on its luck. Our organizing project helped
tenants avoid eviction and homeowners protect their neighborhoods. We
worked with businesses and churches and labor unions to save jobs. I
worked alongside then-City Councilor Paul Tsongas, and a young
candidate for Congress, John Kerry.
The organizing we did made a real difference in helping Lowellians
cope with the economic crisis. But it also had a profound impact on my
life. I went on to a career in business, but everything I've done since
then has been informed by what I learned in Lowell--especially my
belief that things can change for the better if we work together.
This ethic of service affects every generation. And the emerging
generation of young people is especially open to it. I believe that
civilian service has the potential to do in part for this generation
what military service did for the ``Greatest Generation.'' Through
their military service, the men and women of the Greatest Generation
were exposed to the great diversity of America. Their service bound
them together and fueled their patriotism--making them better citizens
and making America a stronger nation.
Today, we are at an inflection point, the beginning of a new era of
responsibility and citizen engagement. We saw this in the 2008
presidential campaign, when millions of Americans from both political
parties became part of the process for the first time. We saw this on
Martin Luther King Day when Americans across the Nation honored Dr.
King's legacy through service. And we're seeing it in volunteer centers
and community organizations, as Americans respond to the economic
downturn and to the President's call to service. From Millennials to
Baby Boomers to the Greatest Generation, Americans want to be part of
helping their country recover, prosper, and lead.
The Serve America Act, first introduced in the 110th Congress and
re-introduced as S. 277 on January 16 by Senators Ted Kennedy and Orrin
Hatch, will grow national service to meet these challenges. It will
invest in and expand the civic and volunteer infrastructure to support
this growth. The bill sets the Corporation on a path to enlisting
250,000 members and it strengthens service opportunities for people of
all ages.
The March 6, 2009, letter from the Office of Management and Budget
lays out the Administration's priorities for national service. I would
like to highlight a few provisions discussed in the letter here.
The Administration supports simplifying funding streams, management
structures, and application and reporting processes. Part of this
simplification is expanded authority to use fixed-amount grants that
simplify reporting requirements, while ensuring more robust performance
accountability and more uniform collection of impact data.
Any discussion about the ``next generation of service'' is also an
opportunity to talk about innovation. The problems our Nation faces
can't be solved by government alone. They require that all hands be on
deck. Though the Corporation's role has traditionally been to choose
the best programs and ensure accountability, it also can play a role in
incenting and investing in new ideas. The Serve America Act provides
for that through the Community Solutions Fund, which searches for and
tests new ideas, leverages private support, and expands successful
programs to scale.
The Administration is pleased that the Serve America Act also seeks
to improve service-learning opportunities and new service opportunities
for baby boomers and older Americans.
As someone who has worked with seniors my entire professional life,
and who has been the Board's advocate for Senior Corps, I appreciate
the value and impact of Senior Corps. Older Americans are a precious
resource who bring a lifetime of skills and experience to their
volunteer work.
The programs of the Senior Corps, some of which began in the 1960's
in conjunction with the War on Poverty, have done a terrific job. I
know that because I have worked closely with Retired Senior Volunteer
Programs in my business. But as we anticipate the coming wave of aging
Baby Boomers, now is the time to modernize these programs for the 21st
century. The Administration has made a commitment to expand these
programs, but we cannot provide seniors with the service opportunities
they deserve without introducing competition, greater accountability,
and innovation into the Senior Corps programs.
Finally, the Administration would like to see an increase in the
maximum amount of the Segal AmeriCorps Education Award--named for a
dear friend who was one of the architects of national service--which
has not been adjusted since the program's inception in 1993.
Thank you for this opportunity to share my own experience and some
of the Administration's priorities on national service. I appreciate
your support, and I truly believe that we have the potential not only
to transform lives and communities but to change our country. I look
forward to working with you and to answering your questions.
Senator Mikulski. Well, Mr. Solomont, thank you very much
for your longstanding service with the board. We are going to
have some questions for you. And some we will be having for the
record.
Mr. Goldsmith.
STATEMENT OF STEPHEN GOLDSMITH, VICE-CHAIR, CORPORATION FOR
NATIONAL AND COMMUNITY SERVICE AND DANIEL PAUL PROFESSOR OF
GOVERNMENT AND DIRECTOR OF THE INNOVATIONS, AMERICAN GOVERNMENT
PROGRAM, CAMBRIDGE, MA
Mr. Goldsmith. Thank you, Madam Chairman and members of the
committee.
Senator Mikulski. Is he wired?
Mr. Goldsmith. Sounds ominous.
[Laughter.]
Thank you, Madam Chairman and members of the committee. It
is my honor to be here on behalf of this piece of legislation.
I would also like to say that, Madam Chairman, I remember,
as a young board chair of this organization, vividly remember
your admonition about the responsibilities of the board with
respect to good management, which occasioned in your office
after an unfortunate pause in the corporation. I think we have
made steady, but insufficient progress since then, and I hope
to return to that issue in a minute.
Let me say that this is an interesting and very important
time. Both the needs of this country in terms of those who are
hurting has increased and the interest of young adults and all
adults in service has also dramatically increased. In just the
last several months, we have seen a 300 percent increase in
application for those individuals in America who want to be
part of AmeriCorps.
We have a huge need, and we have a huge demand. This bill
will, in fact, respond to it.
I would like to just offer, because you have my written
testimony, a few brief principles. Let me start with a 60-
second anecdote about when I was mayor of Indianapolis. I think
we have different perspectives perhaps on the role of
government, but we probably have common agreement that nothing
helps a community more than the civic engagement of a neighbor.
When I was mayor, trying to build up our community
organizations, those organizations, particularly the small
ones, had a great shot in the arm when they had an AmeriCorps
or VISTA member who could work with them day-by-day, hour-by-
hour in organizing individuals in that neighborhood. This bill
will allow many more of those community organizations to
benefit from that very capacity that this bill adds.
We have spent the last 8 years trying, as Senator Hatch
mentioned in his statement, to think about this organization as
the infrastructure that supports volunteerism. That is why
these 75,000 AmeriCorps members are responsible for leveraging
almost 4 million Americans who participate.
The role of the Federal Government needs to be a respectful
one that supports community organizations and helps them
leverage volunteering. We think that that is our mission that
you have charged us with, and we think that is the reason for
so much bipartisan support.
As we go forward, the principles in this bill are
important, and I would just like to underscore the ones that I
think are most important. You demand that we be more
accountable, that we intensify accountability. There are
specific performance goals in this legislation, much more
specific than occurred in the original legislation and will
help hold the organization more accountable.
We are essentially a pass-through Federal agency. We need
to hold our recipients accountable for results, but we need to
be much less intrusive in how they do their work. We need to
ease the burden on those who receive our dollars.
They are small organizations, in large part, and they need
the support. They need to be held accountable, but they need to
be responded to in a less burdensome way. That is a principle
as well.
Third, we have a responsibility to level the playing field.
As Senator Enzi mentioned, we need to make sure that small
organizations, rural organizations, faith-based organizations,
those that have some who are unaccustomed to dealing with the
Federal Government have an opportunity to participate and
receive the support of our organization. In addition to easing
the burden, we need to level the playing field.
And finally, we need to be better, as Alan mentioned, in
the way that we manage the organization. We have, over the
years, spent more and more of our dollars on programs and less
and less of our dollars on our own infrastructure to manage
those programs.
We have a relatively weak foundation. We saw after 9/11
where the demand for Americans to help in their communities
exploded, literally, across the country, just good-hearted
American civic engagement. Our corporation was not equipped at
the time to handle it.
We are better off now. More importantly, what this bill
does is it makes it easier to manage the corporation. It
removes many of the silos. It provides the resources for those
support systems that are necessary.
Madam Chairman, members of the committee, I appreciate the
charge you have given to the board, and we are pledged to doing
a first-rate job. We think, as a result of this legislation,
millions of people will be helped, both those who serve and
those who receive the services.
Thank you for your time.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Goldsmith follows:]
Prepared Statement of Stephen Goldsmith
Chairwoman, Ranking Member Enzi, and members of the committee,
thank you for this opportunity to testify, and for the committee's long
history of leadership and support for national and community service.
Now is the right time to update our national service laws and
unleash the energy and ingenuity of the American people to solve
community problems. This hearing comes at a critical moment of both
need and opportunity for our Nation:
The economic downturn is causing hardship for millions of
Americans--putting more people at risk of unemployment, foreclosure,
homelessness, abuse, addiction, and other social ills.
The nonprofit sector is reeling from a double whammy of
increased demand for services at the same time it is experiencing drops
in giving and public support.
But against this bleak backdrop, there is strong momentum
for citizen service:
Last year, 62 million Americans gave 8 billion hours
of service to our Nation.
The number of AmeriCorps applications has shot up in
recent months, and volunteer centers and nonprofits are
reporting increases in volunteers.
Millennials are volunteering more than past
generations while Boomers will dramatically boost the number of
older adult volunteers in the coming decades.
Leaders in every sector--from corporate CEOs and
college presidents to Governors and grantmakers--recognize that
service is a proven strategy to tackle tough challenges.
Social entrepreneurs are redefining service and
volunteering, and Web 2.0 technologies are providing new ways
for citizens to engage and connect.
National service has bipartisan support because it was founded on
common sense, good government principles--devolution, competition,
accountability, leveraging of non-Federal resources, and public-private
partnership. We have worked diligently the last 8 years to reposition
Federal involvement as the human infrastructure that supports
volunteerism--rather than approaching our work as a method of putting
Federal workers in local nonprofits.
Today, our Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and Learn and Serve America
programs engage nearly four million Americans in service through more
than 70,000 community organizations across the Nation, addressing
issues of poverty, illiteracy, disasters, public safety, independent
living, and more. These participants have a powerful catalytic effect
by leveraging hundreds of millions of non-Federal dollars and
mobilizing community volunteers. Last year, AmeriCorps members
mobilized 2.2 million additional volunteers, helping thousands of
nonprofits expand their reach and impact.
We are also proud that the Corporation supports a wide array of
organizations, from large national nonprofits like Teach for America,
Boys and Girls Clubs, and Habitat for Humanity, to faith-based
organizations like Sisters of Notre Dame and Alliance for Catholic
Education, to small community groups.
Approximately 6 years ago, you and Senator Bond challenged the
board to hold the management more responsible and to improve the
Administration of the programs. We have made steady progress and
implemented reforms across the agency to increase efficiency, reduce
costs, streamline operations, improve program quality, strength grant
and fiscal monitoring, and build a high-performing workforce. While the
Corporation's management has improved, there are areas that need
further strengthening, and management will continue to be the Board's
top priority.
To take these programs to the next level of effectiveness, we need
changes in our authorizing laws. I'd like to highlight a few key
principles as you move ahead:
We need to intensify the focus on accountability and
results by tying funding to performance and increasing support for
rigorous program evaluation, performance measures, and assessments of
our civic health. Today, the Corporation is a hodgepodge of programs
pasted together with a set of inconsistent and confusing rules that
make clarity and transparency difficult and increase overhead costs not
only to the Corporation but, more importantly, to its grantees. Both
the Serve America Act introduced by Senator Kennedy and Hatch and the
GIVE Act passed by the House Education and Labor Committee last
Congress bring needed reforms.
While we need to do better at demonstrating the impact our
programs are having, we also need to ease the burden on our grantees by
streamlining the application and reporting process, combining funding
pools, and simplifying program management through expansion of fixed-
amount grants.
We need to continue providing a level playing field for
faith-based and small community organizations, which are doing such
critical work in our most vulnerable communities. Both the GIVE Act and
Serve America Act would open up service to more small community
organizations and rural and underserved areas.
As we intensify the focus on the issues of education,
health, clean energy, and poverty, we also need to maintain the core
principles that have been key to AmeriCorps success--flexibility,
adaptability, and a decentralized approach that gives a key role to
States in identifying their problems and selecting the organizations
best able to solve them.
In recent years, the Corporation and our grantees have
initiated some creative and successful programs with other Federal
agencies on issues such as prisoner re-entry, early childhood
education, conservation of our public lands, and more. We should
encourage more coordination with other Federal agencies.
Finally, the Serve America Act would invest in our civic
infrastructure by creating a Volunteer Generation Fund and increasing
the leveraging of community volunteers that are the lifeblood of our
schools and shelters, hospitals and hotlines.
Chairwoman Mikulski and members of the committee, the Corporation
and the entire national service field has come a long way, thanks in
large part to leadership of this committee. This bill would usher in
the next generation of service and facilitate civic engagement in a way
that respects and supports local and individual acts of kindness,
generosity, and service. We look forward to working with you to restore
America's communities and its greatness through the active citizenship
of neighbors.
Thank you again for this opportunity, and I'd be glad to answer any
questions.
Senator Mikulski. Well, we thank both of you for your
service. You also bring a great deal of experience because this
is a new century. When we created national service, it was in
1990. In the 1990s, as we all remember, there was a great deal
of talk about it being the time of the ``me generation.''
What we wanted to do on a bipartisan basis was take the
``me generation'' and begin to transition to a ``we
generation.'' The demonstration project was meant to test out
ideas because we didn't want a new bureaucracy. We didn't want
to have national service meets health and human services, where
it would be big at the top and skinny at the bottom.
We wanted to be able to have a minimal Federal and national
infrastructure and then work with governors who--I know we will
hear from shortly Governor Racicot--and to make sure that we,
first of all, had a decentralized approach. One-size-doesn't-
fit-all. And second, that there would be accountability, but
allow plenty of room for flexibility and creativity.
We did have a rocking and rolling time. That demonstration
project led to the creation of AmeriCorps; a more robust
program under President Clinton. I was both an authorizer and
an appropriator until the House dissolved the VA/HUD
appropriated subcommittee.
In 2003, I remember our confrontation, when I called the
corporation's board the ``Enron of nonprofits.'' It was stern
and stark, but it was meant to get President Bush's attention.
Really, we needed to shakeup oversight and accountability at
the corporation.
Now we have had the shakeup. Now we need to have a new
opportunity, and I think there is a mood in the country. There
is a mood in the Congress. We have got buckets of lessons
learned for accountability, so let's translate that into
creativity. We want to get on with it. We are going to get on
with the hearing as well.
We are going to call up for our next panel to join you. If
you could wait because we would like to ask you questions
because some of them will be cross--thank you--cross-
pollinated.
[Laughter.]
I was looking for a Wyoming word. We don't want to use a
Baltimore word. We want to call up Lester Strong, the CEO of
Experience Corps, representing our seniors. Michael Brown from
City Year, one of the early organizations to engage young
people.
The former governor of Montana, Governor Marc Racicot, who
has really been a strong advocate of national service and
brings the perspective of a governor and those commissions we
wanted at the State level.
President of a new organization, Michelle Bouchard of
HealthCorps in New York. This has been started with the
assistance of Dr. Oz, and though this is a group that has not
been affiliated necessarily with our national service family it
fits within the framework that is really changing healthcare
outcomes.
And, of course, Shirley Sagawa. And if I am the founding
mother, Shirley has been the midwife.
[Laughter.]
Now a visiting fellow at the Center for American Progress.
Who has done a lot of the definitive thinking on this.
We really want to hear from you, and then we will go
immediately to our questions. What I would like to do is start
off with Governor Racicot, to get his perspective on what it
was like at the State level. That is your perspective.
Then we will go to Shirley. Then we will go to the people
who actually did hands-on programs and then throw it open for
questions.
STATEMENT OF MARC RACICOT, FORMER GOVERNOR OF MONTANA, BIGFORK,
MT
Mr. Racicot. Madam Chairwoman, thank you for the privilege.
Members of the committee, it is a delight to be here.
I was born in a very small town in Montana, western
Montana. It wasn't the end of the Earth, but you could darned
well see it from there, I can assure you. My father and mother
spent their growing up years in the same community within which
I was born.
They were, obviously, ultimately married, and I grew up to
hear my father's stories. He was a loyal Democrat, by the way,
Madam Chairwoman. Went to his grave, of course, with deep
regret about what had happened to his oldest-born son. He told
me stories about the Civilian Conservation Corps.
It just so happened that one of the corps camps was not far
outside of our little town. It was one of the camps that was
located in virtually every State and in several territories
from 1933 to 1942. In those camps, 3 million young men worked
fighting fires, building public infrastructure on public lands,
and restoring the Nation's forests, public forests by planting
3 billion trees.
When unemployment began to wane and the draft was initiated
in 1940, the Civilian Conservation Corps and its camps ceased
to exist, even though, obviously, my father for many decades
thereafter and those that he worked with and knew in those
camps were inspired by that generation of service to our
country and to their communities. A period of time, I think,
during which they discovered what they could do when engaged in
common enterprise not only to benefit specific infrastructure
projects, but to enhance the social capital of their individual
communities in this country.
I was just starting high school when President Kennedy and
Congress created the Peace Corps. I can remember it exceedingly
well, and it reminded, of course, all Americans at that time of
our proud legacy of public service. Throughout my time, all of
the time I was growing up, I watched my parents help our
friends and neighbors, our church, and to serve in our little
community in a variety of different ways.
There were no heroes, just a vast number of the members of
our community of every faith and belief--or perhaps no faith at
all--who served the needs of others. It was just what everyone
did.
After my time in the U.S. Army, I entered into public
service at the county and the State level with the steadfast
belief, because of what I had seen and witnessed growing up in
this little community, that I could and should try to embrace a
purpose larger than myself and make a difference in the life of
my community. There were millions of other people just like me
who believed and did the same thing.
I can remember with clarity when President George H.W. Bush
created the Commission on National and Community Service,
followed by the efforts of President Clinton and Congress to
renew and enlarge the Nation's commitment to national and
community service through the establishment of the Corporation
for National and Community Service in 1993.
Thereafter, throughout my time serving as Montana's
governor and beyond, I was engaged with the corporation in the
advancement of national and community service and was
privileged to be nominated by President Clinton to serve a 4-
year term on the corporation's board.
It is worth noting that my colleagues during that time,
among them Governor Bush of Texas, overwhelmingly supported a
clear commitment to the work of the corporation. Ultimately, 49
out of 50 of those governors evinced that intent, signing on to
a letter that was ultimately addressed to Congress. It is well
known that President Bush continued to keep faith with his
commitment to national service and to reignite the call to
service throughout his presidency.
I have also served as chairman of Jobs for America's
Graduates, which is a national high school dropout prevention
program, and succeeded Secretary of State Colin Powell as
chairman of America's Promise.
I offer this history, Madam Chair and members of the
committee, to confirm the notion that government, for
generations, has played an entirely appropriate role in
advancing the imperative of public service. I also refer to
that history with the singular purpose of sharing what I
believe each of you have also discovered as a result of your
own unselfish service to your individual States and to our
beloved Nation.
I could lay before you an encyclopedia of statistical
information that would confirm that the public service ethic of
this country is strong and alive and well. More than 1 billion
volunteer service hours generated by Senior Corps volunteers.
Hundreds of thousands of individuals served through AmeriCorps.
Those who have worked with 1 million young high school
students, participating annually in service learning
initiatives provided under the auspices of Learn and Serve
America.
Those accomplishments are clearly worth noting and
important and impressive. They have immeasurably enriched the
public and social infrastructure of this country, and they
rightly should be praised and recognized as convincing evidence
of our responsibility to remain committed to our national and
community service efforts.
There is something larger than that to me. There is
something more that commands our attention and justifies the
involvement of our Government in our efforts to preserve and
expand national and community service opportunities. And that
is to recognize what those efforts do to refresh and inspire
the spirit and the soul of this country.
The endurance of this Nation and our freedom depend upon
the decency and humility of every single American. People
cannot be commanded nor ordered to live in freedom. They must
choose it for themselves. We are bound together and we endure
as a nation because we choose, as Americans, hundreds of times
every day to respect the rights and liberties of our fellow
citizens.
Democracy and freedom cannot exist without the voluntary
choice of every American to embrace the values of discipline,
decency, and mutual respect. It is service that provides the
glue that holds us together and preserves our way of life. It
is what separates us from tyrants and terrorists. Surely, its
enrichment is an appropriate function of our Government as it
sets about to preserve and protect and defend the United States
of America.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Racicot follows:]
Prepared Statement of Marc Racicot
I was born in a very small town in Western Montana where my father
and mother were raised, met each other and ultimately were married. I
grew up listening to my father's stories about the Civilian
Conservation Corps camp located just outside of town. It was just one
of the camps that were located in every State and several territories
from 1933 to 1942. Three million young men from those camps worked
fighting fires, building public infrastructure on public lands and
restoring the Nation's public forests by planting 3 billion trees. When
unemployment began to wane and the draft was initiated in 1940, the CCC
and its camps ceased to exist even though fond memories of those days
have inspired more than one generation over the last 70 years.
I was just starting high school when President Kennedy and Congress
created the Peace Corps and reminded all Americans of our proud legacy
of public service. Throughout all of my time growing up I watched my
parents help our friends and neighbors, our church and to serve in our
little community in a variety of ways. There were no heroes, just a
vast number of the members of our community of every faith and belief,
or perhaps no faith at all, who served the needs of others. It was just
what everyone did. After my time in the U.S. Army, I entered into
public service at the county and State level with the steadfast belief
that I could and should try to embrace a purpose larger than myself and
make a difference in the life of my community. There were millions of
other people just like me who believed and did the same thing.
I remember when President George H.W. Bush created the Commission
on National and Community Service, followed by the efforts of President
Clinton and Congress to renew and enlarge the Nation's commitment to
national and community service through the establishment of the
Corporation for National and Community Service in 1993. Thereafter,
throughout my time serving as Montana's governor and beyond, I was
engaged with the Corporation in the advancement of national and
community service and was privileged to be nominated by President
Clinton to serve a 4-year term on the Corporation's board of directors.
It is worth noting that my colleagues during that time, among them
Governor Bush of Texas, overwhelmingly manifested their clear
commitment to the work of the Corporation. It is well-known that
President Bush continued to keep faith with his commitment to national
service and to reignite the call to service throughout his presidency.
I have also served as Chairman of Jobs for America's Graduates, a
national high-school dropout prevention program, and succeeded
Secretary of State Colin Powell as chairman of America's Promise.
I offer this history to confirm the notion that government, for
generations, has played an entirely appropriate role in advancing the
imperative of public service. I also refer to that history with the
singular purpose of sharing what I believe each of you have also
discovered as a result of your own unselfish service to your individual
States and to our beloved Nation. I could lay before you an
encyclopedia of statistical information that would confirm that the
public service ethic of our country and communities remains strong:
more than 1 billion volunteer service hours generated by Senior Corps
volunteers, more than 400,000 individuals served through AmeriCorps,
and more than 1 million high school students participating annually in
service-learning initiatives provided under the auspices of Learn and
Serve America. Those accomplishments are clearly important and
impressive. They have immeasurably enriched the public and social
infrastructure of this country and rightly should be praised and
recognized as convincing evidence of our responsibility to remain
committed to our national and community service efforts.
But, there is something more that commands our attention and
justifies the involvement of government in our efforts to preserve and
expand national and community service opportunities, and that is to
recognize what those efforts do to refresh and inspire the spirit and
soul of this country. The endurance of this Nation and our freedom
depend upon the decency and humility of every American. People cannot
be commanded nor ordered to live in freedom. They must choose it for
themselves. We are bound together and we endure as a nation because we
choose as Americans, hundreds of times every day, to respect the rights
and liberties of our fellow citizens. Democracy and freedom cannot
exist without the voluntary choice of every American to embrace the
values of discipline, decency and mutual respect. And that's where
national and community service comes in: it is service that promotes
decency and mutual respect. It is service that provides the glue that
holds us together and preserves our way of life. It is what separates
us from tyrants and terrorists. And surely its enrichment is an
appropriate function of our government as it sets about to preserve,
protect and defend the United States of America.
Senator Mikulski. Thank you very much, Governor.
Ms. Sagawa, you have done a lot of thinking and research.
You were here when we started 18 years ago. What do you think
of the Serve America Act, and how do you think we can change
National Service in a way that is both fiscally sound and
socially prudent and yet stimulates service and social
entrepreneurship?
STATEMENT OF SHIRLEY SAGAWA, VISITING FELLOW, CENTER FOR
AMERICAN PROGRESS, AND COFOUNDER, SAGAWA/JOSPIN CONSULTING,
WASHINGTON, DC
Ms. Sagawa. Well, thank you so much for giving me the
opportunity to speak before the committee. It is a great honor.
I remember so fondly 20 years ago, when we started putting
the first national service bill together with your leadership,
Senator McCain's leadership, and, of course, Senator Kennedy
and Senator Hatch. It was a bold experiment. We didn't know--
would people come forward to serve? Would it make sense to tie
educational opportunity to the service? And would it really get
anything done or just become sort of a boondoggle?
I think what we have learned is that this has been a great
experiment and a successful one. And your looking at this bill
and moving forward quickly at a time when the country is in
great crisis is extremely important because our way out of the
troubles that we have now needs every citizen to come forward
and do what they can.
We know some important lessons from the last 20 years.
First, it is that service does change lives and that there are
transformative times in people's lives when service is
particularly meaningful. As Senator Hatch noted, one of those
times is when you are a young adult leaving high school or
college. And finding your purpose is really important, and
making a difference with the talents and energy that you have
is something that can be transformative.
Another really important time--and I call your attention to
the Learn and Serve America program and the Summer of Service
proposal by Senators Dodd and Cochran--is when kids are going
from middle school to high school, and they don't know what
they are going to be when they grow up. That is when kids drop
out. They get disengaged from school, and they decide that
there is no point to learning science. And why do I need to
learn to write better?
Giving them a service learning experience during that
particular period of their lives can make the difference
between those kids choosing risky behaviors and failure or
finding that school is important and they need to continue. I
hope that ends up in the final bill because it is a really
important piece.
Of course, another important time is when people reach
retirement age, and they need to find their purpose again. It
is very exciting that Serve America includes encore service
opportunities to add to the Senior Corps programs that already
exist.
We know it changes people. We also know that service can
solve problems, and that was another thing. We weren't really
sure if it was just going to be make-work, in which case it is
not worth spending Federal money on. What we found is that
there are certain things that service is really good at and
that perhaps better than regular employment.
One is when skills are unsupported by the marketplace. You
can get somebody who can really devote time to helping a young
person fill out their college applications and get into college
or to help people who need legal help and they can't afford
it--after Katrina they were having so much trouble getting the
benefits that they were due. There are so many times when the
market doesn't pay for those services and service does.
Knowing the knowledge of a local culture and community is
really important in health programs, for example. Mobilizing
large numbers of volunteers to do everything from tutoring to
planting trees, as we heard from the governor, is another area.
There are just things that service does well and that we ought
to be making better use of.
The alumni who have served, who have been trained and have
special skills, are, as we saw after Katrina, an amazingly
important force that we can mobilize in the wake of disasters,
and I am glad the bill includes that as well.
Finally, we also know that national service has been very
important in promoting the health and capacity of the nonprofit
sector, particularly promoting innovative strategies to solving
problems. The corporation has a strong track record of
supporting social entrepreneurs. I would say the best agency in
government for doing so, and that is why the Community
Solutions Fund pilot program belongs there and is going to be a
wonderful way to take some of these effective organizations to
scale. It has been the top priority of the America Forward
coalition and I am very happy to see it in the bill.
There are other pieces that are also important. The
Commission on Cross-Sector Solutions to America's Problems will
examine how government can work better with business and the
nonprofit sector to solve problems in communities. The
Volunteer Generation Fund will make it possible for
organizations--faith-based, community-based, grassroots, and
others--to engage new volunteers effectively.
Finally, we all know that public service spans a very large
range, from volunteers who will give a couple of hours to build
a playground to people like you who are giving your lives to
public service as your career. We need all these different
parts. This bill recognizes a slice of that kind of service,
and it belongs in that continuum that begins when we are the
youngest children until we can't do any more.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak to the
committee today. With your leadership, we can take the next
giant step toward solving many of our most pressing problems by
better deploying the time and talents of Americans of all ages.
Thank you so much for your leadership.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Sagawa follows:]
Prepared Statement of Shirley Sagawa
Twenty years ago, this committee put together demonstration
legislation to test a simple premise: Would young Americans serve their
communities full-time for a year, or part-time for a longer period, in
exchange for money for college?
The answer was an overwhelming ``yes.'' Building on the success of
this experiment, a few years later, AmeriCorps took this concept to the
next level, engaging more than 540,000 Americans in service over the
last 15 years.
Today you are considering legislation that would not only build on
this strong track record, but expand other types of service as well. It
could not come at a more critical time for our Nation. As unemployment
rises, particularly among young people, community needs are also
soaring. Demands on the nonprofit organizations that develop our youth,
feed the hungry, and rebuild distressed neighborhoods are staggering.
The work of groups that protect the environment, preserve our culture,
and educate our children is needed more than ever.
Fortunately, Americans are coming forward, ready to roll up their
sleeves to solve these problems. The number of applicants for
AmeriCorps programs and volunteer trainings have doubled or tripled
over previous years.
Now is the moment.
I am honored to appear before you, and urge you to move the Serve
America Act to respond to these tremendous needs and great opportunity.
I speak to you as a person who has been deeply involved in national
service policy--initially as a Labor Committee staff person for Senator
Kennedy, then as an appointee in the first Bush and Clinton
administrations, and now, as a fellow at the Center for American
Progress, and as a consultant to many organizations that run national
service programs.
Over the last two decades, we have learned that serving changes
lives. In fact, a longitudinal study of AmeriCorps members, after 8
years, clearly demonstrates that AmeriCorps members are more connected
to their communities, have a better understanding of community
problems, and are more involved in civic activities such as attending
public meetings and writing to newspapers. Former AmeriCorps members
were significantly more likely than the comparison group to enter
careers in public service such as teaching, public safety, social work
and full-time military service. AmeriCorps members experienced
significant increases in their work skills, showing their experience
better prepared them for the future. And importantly, the study shows
that AmeriCorps alumni are more satisfied with their lives in almost
every respect than the comparison group who expressed interest but
ultimately did not serve.
While it is clear that serving can change the life of the server,
we have also learned something even more important--that service can be
a key strategy to solve some of the Nation's most pressing problems.
For example, in the area of education, national service puts talented
teachers in the classroom, offers struggling students one-on-one
attention, brings supportive services and after school programs to
urban schools, and creates a culture that supports learning. This
success is documented in evaluations of individual programs and the
stories of schools, students, and those who serve. In some cases,
service may be the critical ingredient to successful school reform.
Unfortunately, these programs operate on too small a scale. They
serve dozens of schools and hundreds of students, when thousands of
schools and millions of students need them. A similar story can be told
in the areas of energy, opportunity, and health.
It's time to take the programs showing measurable outcomes to
scale. That's why we need the issue-focused corps in Serve America.
Balancing the flexible, community-determined programming of regular
AmeriCorps with these new targeted corps provides the right combination
of flexibility and focus for the next stage of national service. We
will be able, if these corps are authorized and funded, be able to
document the impact of service on these national challenges and better
understand the role that service plays in solving our most pressing
problems. We will also benefit from the engagement of Baby Boomers, a
valuable national resource, through the Encore Service Program in the
act.
Another notable and surprising success of AmeriCorps is the
contribution it has made to innovation in the social sector. When an
organization takes an out-of-the-box approach to solving a problem, it
often finds few sources available for sustainable funding. AmeriCorps,
because it doesn't specify the strategy for problem-solving or the
presumptive provider, has been a flexible source of funding and human
capital to grow some of the country's most promising organizations,
including Jumpstart, Citizen Schools, Experience Corps, and Habitat for
Humanity.
The Corporation for National and Community Service has been an
agency that appreciates social entrepreneurs and the contribution they
make to social innovation. Unlike other Federal agencies, it supports
organizations in a wide-variety of fields, and fosters cross-issue
solutions that combine, for example, education and health, or
environment and job training. For this reason, it makes sense that
Serve America includes funding to support a social innovation fund
network, called the ``Community Solutions Funds Pilot Program,'' that
will use Federal dollars to leverage other public and private sector
contributions to take our most innovative and effective organizations
to scale. It will operate like this: Existing grantmakers--like
community foundations, United Ways, or venture philanthropy funders--
may, together with State commissions or local government partners,
apply for a grant to establish a Community Solutions Fund that focuses
on a specific issue (like increasing economic opportunity or reducing
crime) or geographic area (like a neighborhood or a set of rural
counties). These grantmakers will match the Federal funds dollar for
dollar, and then make substantial, multi-year grants to enable
organizations that have strong track records to grow. These
organizations will raise additional matching funds of $1 for each
dollar they receive. In this way, Federal dollars will make it possible
for communities to attract or expand the organizations achieving the
best results against their highest priority needs. This concept,
initially proposed by the America Forward coalition, could transform
the way we address public problem solving in America to allow us to
support the highest return strategies in a wide variety of areas.
I am also excited to see the Commission on Cross-Sector Solutions
to America's Problems included in the legislation. The government has
become highly reliant on the nonprofit sector to deliver its services.
As noted in the Forward Together declaration, signed by more than 100
civic sector leaders, nonprofits are full ``partners in public service
sheltering the homeless, training the unemployed, educating our youth,
building affordable housing, counseling families, delivering health
care, giving voice to the powerless, lifting our spirits with arts and
culture, and serving uniquely as vehicles for citizen initiative in
support of the common good. In the process, they contribute powerfully
to our economy, employing 11 million paid workers--more than the
construction industry (7.2 million), finance (5.2 million),
transportation (5.1 million), real estate (2.1 million), and, with
volunteers, more than all branches of manufacturing (14.4 million).''
Indeed, today's nonprofit sector has reached record size, with the
number of organizations doubling in the last 25 years. Employing 1 out
of every 10 individuals, the sector is the Nation's fastest growing
employer, outstripping the rate of growth for government and business
alike. Nonprofits engage one in four Americans as volunteers and two
out of three families as donors, and account for more than 5 percent of
our gross domestic product.
This bipartisan Commission will take on the challenge of exploring
the relationship of the Federal Government with nonprofit and
philanthropic organizations, as well as business, to achieve better
outcomes and utilization of resources. This examination is long
overdue.
There are several other important provisions I want to highlight.
First, while AmeriCorps and the ServeAmerica corpsmembers will play an
important role in recruiting and supervising volunteers who do not
receive education awards, there is still a need to support volunteer
management in other ways. The Volunteer Generation Fund in the Serve
America Act would improve the capacity of nonprofit, faith-based, and
other civic organizations and State service commissions to engage new
volunteers. It is also designed to spur innovation in volunteer
recruitment and management practices, with a goal of increasing the
number of volunteers each year.
Second, I'm glad that service-learning is expanded in the
legislation, through the Youth Engagement Zones and Campus of Service
Programs. Over the last decades, a substantial body of evidence has
emerged to demonstrate that service-learning promotes positive youth
development like few other programs can, motivating students to achieve
and teaching personal, social, and civic responsibility. Unfortunately,
research also shows that the young people who need this the most are
also the least likely to be engaged. According to the Corporation for
National and Community Service, disadvantaged teens are far less likely
to volunteer than their peers from more advantaged backgrounds, by a 43
percent to 59 percent margin. However, those disadvantaged youth who do
serve hold more positive civic attitudes, discussing politics,
believing that they can make a difference, and planning to go to
college at higher rates than their low-income peers who do not
volunteer.
Two other important legislative changes could advance service-
learning. First, expanding and modifying the existing Learn and Serve
America legislation should be a high priority, particularly increasing
the funds available for strategic investments that would build capacity
for service-learning, especially in schools serving disadvantaged
students.
Second, Senators Dodd and Cochran have sponsored legislation to
create a ``Summer of Service'' to offer students making the transition
from middle to high school an opportunity to participate in a
structured community service program over the summer months. The summer
months between middle school and high school can be a particularly
testing time, when children are redefining themselves, and in the
process making decisions that may well determine who they will be as
adults, for better or worse. For working parents, too, summer months
are a particular challenge. Their kids are too young for paid jobs and
too old to be ``babysat.'' Economically well-off families can afford a
host of summer camps offering learning opportunities from language
immersion to lacrosse. But in too many communities, offerings for older
youth are limited and prices steep, making summer a time of particular
peril.
Middle schoolers who perform a ``summer of service'' under the bill
would earn a $500 scholarship. At a time in life when students and
their families need to begin thinking about college, this feature would
positively brand participating youth as college material--even those
who never considered the possibility--and could set these students and
their families on a course of saving and planning for college. By
making the summer service experience a ``rite of passage'' for young
people in transition to high school, whole communities could be
transformed.
Third, the alumni of AmeriCorps and other national service programs
represent a growing and capable resource that can meet the workload
surge following a disaster and provide needed service in targeted
issues of local and national concern. We saw this after Hurricane
Katrina, but alumni could be more easily engaged to respond to crises
and other priority national needs if a database, training and
deployment systems were developed and if funding were available for
living and travel expenses for Alumni volunteers ready to be called
back into service. The National Service Reserve Corps would build such
a system.
Finally, I would be remiss in not stressing to the committee the
need to reauthorize the programs authorized under the National and
Community Service Act and Domestic Volunteer Service Act. These
programs have not been revisited for 15 years and are badly in need of
updating. For example:
We need to increase and index the Segal Education Award.
For a year of full-time service, an AmeriCorps member receives an
education award worth $4,725, which may be used for higher education or
to pay back student loans. This amount, which is fully taxable, was
established in 1993 and equaled tuition, fees, and room and board at a
2-year higher education institution in 1995, the first year in which an
AmeriCorps member would have been eligible to use the award. Today
higher education costs have increased dramatically, with 2-year
institutions charging more than $7,000 annually and 4-year institutions
costing $17,447 in 2007. It is time to adjust the Segal Education Award
to ensure it remains a means of educational access for those who make a
year-long commitment to service.
We also need to move to a system of fixed price grants in
AmeriCorps to eliminate complex accounting requirements that contribute
neither to accountability nor program quality. By specifying a flat
amount per member, and requiring that grantees raise any additional
amounts they need to operate a program, the same amount of leverage can
be attained without forcing programs into a needlessly complex system.
The Senior Corps programs are also in need of updating,
particularly the stipend provided to Foster Grandparents and Senior
Companions. The low-income adults who serve in these programs receive
just $2.65 per hour of service, an amount that should be increased and
indexed.
Finally, we all know that public service spans a very
large range, from a volunteer commitment of a few hours to a lifetime
of service. Our Nation needs both--people who take a day out of their
business career to do pro bono work or build a playground, and people
who, like you, choose to make a career of serving the American people
through government. We can attract more of the best and the brightest
to Federal service by granting AmeriCorps members the same
noncompetitive eligibility for Federal service available to Peace Corps
and VISTA volunteers and supporting programs like the proposed
Roosevelt Scholars Act, which would create an ROTC-like scholarship
program to fund graduate-level education in mission-critical fields in
exchange for a Federal service commitment.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak to the committee today. With
your leadership, we can take the next giant step toward solving many of
our most pressing problems by better deploying the time and talents of
Americans of all ages to serve their communities and the country.
Senator Mikulski. Thank you, Shirley. That was great.
Now what I would like to do is turn to Mr. Lester Strong,
the CEO of Experience Corps. Then Michelle, we'll go to you and
then wrap up with Michael Brown of City Year.
We turn now to Mr. Lester Strong, the CEO of Experience
Corps. Experience Corps is one of our really very interesting
programs, which shows that whether you are young in age or
young at heart, America needs you and people have the ability
to give.
Mr. Strong.
STATEMENT OF LESTER STRONG, CEO, EXPERIENCE CORPS, WASHINGTON,
DC
Mr. Strong. Thank you, Madam Chair and Senator Enzi and to
the members of the committee. It is an honor to be here.
I also want to acknowledge Senator Kennedy. Having lived in
Massachusetts for 20 years, he will, I think, always be my
Senator. I appreciate and acknowledge his leadership, along
with Senator Hatch and Senator McCain, for what they are doing
for social engagement.
Experience Corps strongly supports both the Serve America
Act and the Encore Service Acts and applauds this committee for
taking the bold steps to promote civic engagement among the
largely untapped resource of older Americans. As the CEO of
Experience Corps, I want to highlight what I think is an
enormous value older adults, ages 50-plus, bring to the
national and community service agenda.
Experience Corps for the past 15 years has enlisted older
adults in teaching academically struggling children how to
read. It is an evidence-based program that provides rigorous
academic interventions by 2,000 members in 23 cities and
serving 20,000 children.
I would like to tell you three very quick stories that
illustrate the payoff that comes from national service by
adults in their 50s and their 60s and beyond. The first story
is mine. In the third grade, my teacher told my parents that I
was mentally retarded and to not expect much from me either
academically or in my work life.
Well, I am here today because three older adults refused to
believe that third grade teacher. A barber, a mother of six
children, and a local minister gave me the moral support that I
needed, as well as the discipline and the study habits that
helped me to become an honor student through my high school
years, then a college graduate, a broadcast journalist, a
nonprofit executive, and now the CEO of a major national
organization.
I was lucky. But, I am sure you would agree that we can't
rely on luck to rescue the millions of children struggling to
find a clear pathway to a meaningful life.
My second story is about another third grader who lives in
Baltimore, home of the largest Experience Corps project in the
country. An Experience Corps member told me about a little boy
named Sean who would always resist her help. When day after
day, he would stand on the other side of the room and just
watch her.
Until finally one day, when she was helping some other
children, Sean come over to her and said, ``I am ready. Will
you help me now?'' He needed to see first that it was OK to ask
for help, and he also needed to watch her in order to know that
he could trust her.
It was rigorous training combined with the patience and the
commitment of an older adult that got Sean to read. Study after
study, including the brand new research from Washington
University in St. Louis that is being released today, shows
that this type of intervention does work.
My third story illustrates a major point from the research,
namely that Experience Corps not only works for the children
like Sean, but also for older adults as well. My next story is
about James McDonald, who is here with me today. Mr. McDonald
and his friends in Baltimore--purely a coincidence, Senator
Mikulski----
[Laughter.]
Mr. Strong. [continuing]. Planned to retire in style with
the renovation of his basement rec room. However, a couple of
years later, all of his friends had passed on. The large
television and the pool table just weren't enough. He had to
rethink his retirement strategy.
That is when he decided to join Experience Corps. Six years
later, serving as the team leader at the Barclay Elementary
School, Mr. McDonald says that because of the impact that he is
having on his children and the relationships with his fellow
team members, he has reason to get up in the morning.
His story echoes in the research that I just mentioned a
moment ago. Studies by Johns Hopkins University and Washington
University in St. Louis show that Experience Corps members
increase their mental acuity and their physical function as
well as enjoy an expanded social network and a greater sense of
purpose in their lives by serving as tutors to at-risk
children.
The big point to these three little stories is to
illustrate that older adults are both ready and able to have
impact. When it comes to civic engagement, older adults--by
virtue of their life experiences, their workplace expertise,
and their emotional maturity--are ready to take on the toughest
challenges in this country and to deliver on them.
Passage of Serve America and Encore Service is a critical
step toward unleashing this powerful and precious asset in the
service of our children, our country, and our communities.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Strong follows:]
Prepared Statement of Lester Strong
Good afternoon. Thank you, Senator Mikulski, Senator Kennedy, who
cannot be here today, and Senator Enzi, for convening this important
hearing.
This afternoon I want to shine a light on the promise for America
of an expanded, modernized national service program that engages
Americans of all ages. I commend the Senators who have come together
across party lines to craft the proposed Serve America Act and the
Encore Service Act--those bills will take us toward this promise. My
testimony will focus on the importance of service opportunities for an
age group that, though long underrepresented within the ranks of
AmeriCorps, has enormous potential to help solve our Nation's most
pressing social problems.
Experience Corps is my point of reference and source of evidence
and examples. It is one of many innovative, high performing programs
that are partially funded by AmeriCorps, but it is one of very few that
focuses on engaging adults in their 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond. We
believe our mission to focus on this age group for providing high
impact service is an innovation that warrants expansion and
replication. I suggest that one measure of success for the new national
service legislation should be the extent to which it deploys and
leverages millions of older adults to serve in a wide variety of high-
impact volunteer and national service programs. Along with national and
local leadership for a fresh view of adults age 50 and beyond as
givers, not just receivers, this legislation can unleash unprecedented
talent, experience and commitment to strengthen America's communities.
Experience Corps was founded almost 15 years ago by John Gardner
and Marc Freedman, with demonstration funding from the Corporation for
National and Community Service. Its purpose is to mobilize adults age
55 and older to meet serious social and community needs. To date, our
primary work has been focused on academic gains, particularly in
reading, for disadvantaged children who are lagging behind in school.
Nearly 2,000 Experience Corps members are active this year serving
20,000 students in 23 cities. They spend from 5 to 15 hours per week
(most spend 11 to 15 hours weekly) working primarily with first, second
and third graders at neighborhood public schools. About a third of the
members receive stipends through AmeriCorps. We are proud that
President Obama mentioned Experience Corps as a proven model in his
Call to Service.
I am new to Experience Corps this year. In the past 2 months as the
organization's new CEO, I have visited Experience Corps members in
Boston, Baltimore and Washington, DC. I've had the privilege of seeing
the highly positive and significant impact so many older adults are
having on the lives of thousands of our most at-risk children. I hope
my comments can convey to you how encouraged I feel for the struggling
inner city children who are consistently tutored by trained Experience
Corps members and the powerful conviction I have that adults in my own
age group (I just celebrated my 60th birthday) can be the answer to
many social ills.
I'd like to share with you a bit of personal background that
explains why I feel I've found my calling in this job. In the third
grade, my parents were told that I was mentally retarded and would be
only marginally proficient both academically and in life. They were
told that menial work was the most I should aspire to. I'm only here
today because three older adults refused to believe that third grade
teacher. My barber, a mother of one of my friends, and a minister gave
me not only moral support but also taught me the discipline and study
habits that helped me become an honor student for the rest of my public
school years, then a college graduate, a broadcast journalist, a
nonprofit executive, and now CEO of a major national organization.
The scary truth is that what very nearly happened to me happens all
too frequently, even more than 40 years later. You are well aware that
our schools are failing millions of children. In our Nation's 50
largest cities, only about half are graduating from high school. The
statistics are even bleaker for African-American and Latino children
and for all poor children. One recent report suggests that one-third of
poor children enter kindergarten lagging behind their peers; and by
fourth grade half of these children will not be proficient in reading.
President Obama recently asked every American to complete high school
and a year beyond in college or job training. I submit that the job of
meeting this responsibility belongs to all generations and can be
effectively advanced through national service.
Independent research shows that well-structured programs can change
the school trajectory of at-risk students. Matching kids who are at
risk of dropping behind or dropping out (yes, even in elementary
school) with a trained Experience Corps tutor produces significant,
critical reading skills and confidence. I hope these research studies
encourage the national service community to both invest in
organizations that can prove their impact and boost the incentives to
engage more people in their fifties and beyond in critical service. We
believe that a large cadre of people in this age group will be
especially interested in the proposed ``Education Corps,'' while many
will also be attracted to the other three ``corps''--Clean Energy,
Healthy Futures and Opportunity.
Let me offer four reasons for including in the new legislation the
strongest possible provisions for attracting, recruiting, and retaining
older adults in AmeriCorps and the proposed new programs.
1. The aging of baby boomers presents unprecedented opportunity.
About 78 million people were born between 1946 and 1964. Nearly 10,000
of them turn 60 every day. Research by AARP, the Corporation for
National and Community Service, the MetLife Foundation and others all
find that more than half of those individuals retain the idealism of
their youth and want to help others. More to Give: Tapping the Talents
of the Baby Boomer, Silent and Greatest Generations, a 2008 study by
AARP of people age 44 to 79, found that most people were unimpeded by
health or caring for a relative and wanted to help their communities.
Of those not currently volunteering, 7 in 10 said they had not been
asked! We cannot afford for national service to miss the opportunity to
capture their talent. I've seen how teams of Experience Corps members
affect individual students and the culture of entire schools--in
Baltimore, Boston and Washington. The 2,000 Experience Corps members we
have recruited and trained can help 20,000 students, but there are
millions more who need the kind of in-depth, consistent help that can
be the hallmark of modernized service programs, especially those that
engage older adults.
2. Independent research has shown that Experience Corps works for
children. Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis recently
completed a rigorous, random assignment study, funded by the Atlantic
Philanthropies, on the impact of Experience Corps tutoring on young
students' reading ability. The results, which demonstrate significant,
positive gains in student learning, particularly for those who are the
farthest behind, will be released in April. They will show that this
low-cost service intervention utilizing older volunteers can produce
greater academic results for low-performance kids than many other
educational interventions.
Research can also document something we all know from personal
experience--that good relationships can transform the lives of both the
people involved. It may seem a bit magical, but these good
relationships result from a wide variety of factors--training, support,
evaluation, a deep belief in the ability of the kids to succeed,
consistency, trust, plus the time and space in which to become friends.
Older adults can draw on a wide array of life and career experiences,
plus patience and the deep desire to make a difference. It works.
Let me give you an example. An Experience Corps member in Baltimore
told me about a young boy in third grade, a ``non-reader'' who was
nervous and held himself apart from children and adults alike. He was
unable to concentrate on any lessons. After many weeks of the pair
mainly sitting at a table while the tutor chatted or read aloud to the
boy, the boy confessed that he was afraid of the other third graders.
His siblings were very rough at home, putting him down and beating him
up for no reason. He always worried about protecting himself. His tutor
began to integrate social skills with the reading program and
encouraged the boy to try them out. The teacher noticed a difference in
the boy's openness to her and was able to engage him more in classroom
activities. Change had begun for that boy. He started to learn to read
for the first time.
3. Independent research has shown that Experience Corps works for
older adults, too. Two respected universities have completed scientific
studies of the impact of Experience Corps on its members. Johns Hopkins
University School of Medicine reports in the March Journal of
Gerontology that Experience Corps members doubled their level of
physical activity as a result of participation in the program and that
that increased activity level was sustained for at least 3 years.
Washington University researchers found a significant, positive impact
on mental health, physical functioning, and the maintenance of overall
health. Members reported that they had a wider circle of friends and
were more engaged in civic and community activities.
Washington University also documented the diversity of Experience
Corps members and, by implication, of other older adults who may be
interested in providing intensive service to children. The age range is
from 50 to 87--two+ generations! About \1/2\ are African-American and
39 percent white. One-third have some higher education and all have
high school degrees. Incomes range from 20 percent who earn less than
$15,000 annually to 15 percent with more than $75,000 and the rest in
between.
We all need a reason to get up in the morning and for millions of
people in later life, national service can be a big part of that
reason. I heard a great testimonial to this aspect of service from
James McDonald of Baltimore, MD. Upon retirement, James and his buddies
pooled their funds to buy a big TV and other fun things to outfit his
rec room. When his buddies moved or died, James was left alone with the
TV, unhappy and unfulfilled. He said he blesses the day he found
Experience Corps, where he has been serving as a tutor, classroom
assistant and team leader for 3 days a week for 4 years. His health is
good, his spirits are high and he's seen as a vital part of his
Experience Corps team and school operations.
4. Engaging more people in the second half of life in national
service will be good for all of us. The mobilization of adults in their
fifties and beyond in service to their communities can be an antidote
to the current economic downturn, the pessimistic long-term projections
for the aging population, and the hidden costs of a deteriorating
safety net. For people who have finished their full-time midlife
careers, some of them prematurely due to the economy, service positions
offer purpose, dignity and modest, but for some people essential
stipends, to cover the additional costs of service activities outside
the home. For people who want to move to nonprofit or public sector
service work, the national service training and experience can be a
valuable stepping stone to a job. Over time, research indicates that
the continued activity and health benefits of engaging in public
purpose service or work will reduce the increase in demand on Medicare.
Most important, over time, the high-impact services will help prevent
the devastating social and economic consequences of children who don't
learn, families that don't have jobs or homes, gaps in health care and
wasted energy.
I have offered some reasons to recognize the importance of
emphasizing the 50 and older age group as part of the new and very
welcome Congressional initiative to encourage service by all ages, for
all ages. The term ``shovel ready'' has entered the American lexicon,
meaning ready to have significant impact immediately. I submit, when it
comes to civic engagement, America's older adults are ``shovel ready.''
Their life experiences, their workplace expertise and their maturity
have prepared the healthiest and best educated generation to take on
the toughest challenges America faces, and to deliver. Passage of the
ServeAmerica Act is a critical step in unleashing this precious asset
in service of our children, our communities and our country.
In conclusion, I thank the committee for your attention to my
testimony and to the following provisions that we believe are important
to realizing the goal of robust citizen service in America:
The Education Award under AmeriCorps may be transferred to
another person and available for up to 20 years. (The transfer could be
made through and approved educational savings account.)
The timeframe for providing service and receiving the
education award should be extended, particularly for those serving
part-time (the preference of most older adults).
The Corporation should study, report and address
additional incentives and barriers for participation by the 50+
population.
The proposed Volunteer Generation Fund should be used in
part to mobilize for service the 50+ population.
Congress should encourage the Corporation to provide a
substantial percentage of grants under Subtitles C and G to programs
targeting adults age 50+, including programs with an intergenerational
workforce.
Senator Mikulski. Before we go to Michelle, Mr. Strong, you
need to introduce my Baltimore resident.
Mr. Strong. I would be happy to introduce Mr. McDonald, who
is sitting right here.
Senator Mikulski. How do you do, Mr. McDonald?
[Applause.]
Now we are going to turn to Michelle Bouchard, president of
HealthCorps, a very interesting new organization that is really
having an impact changing health outcomes.
STATEMENT OF MICHELLE BOUCHARD, PRESIDENT, HEALTHCORPS, NEW
YORK, NY
Ms. Bouchard. Thank you so much, Madam Chair and Senator
Enzi and the committee members, for inviting me here today to
speak along with these inspiring people in support of national
service and to talk about how HealthCorps is promoting service
in the field of wellness.
A special thanks to you, Madam Chair, for reaching out to
our founder--heart surgeon, Oprah show health expert, Dr.
Mehmet Oz, who wishes he could be here today and sends his best
to all of you. As a member of the ServiceNation Leadership
Council, Dr. Oz joins many others who endorse service
throughout the United States.
HealthCorps' mandate is the promotion of integrated
wellness--eating smart, staying active, thinking positive--to
students and communities across the country at the grassroots
level. Health-
Corps is more of a movement than a program because we empower
and provide opportunities for teenagers, teachers,
administrators to devote time to changing the health of
America.
At this time more than ever, service cannot only be an
agent of change, it can be a powerful tool for mental
resilience. When I was a kid growing up and times got tough, my
mother would say to me, ``Lose yourself in a cause greater than
yourself.'' And it works, Senators. People are happier when
they focus on others.
HealthCorps' heart is its team of coordinators--recent
college grads who give 2 years of service as peer mentors to
high school students in 44 schools across 7 States. These
passionate young people are destined for careers in medicine,
nursing, and health policy. I have one sitting right behind me
today, I am proud to say. They could go straight on to their
grad degrees, but choose first to impact young lives.
Fashioned after the Peace Corps, HealthCorps deploys each
coordinator to a specific high school where he or she works 5
days a week, teaching our health curriculum. The coordinators
go far beyond the call of duty, however. They become role
models.
HealthCorps works because kids influence kids best. In
classrooms, coordinators drive home our message--``Value your
body. It is the most important thing you will ever inherit.''--
and spread the word.
HealthCorps is not just about our coordinators doing
service, it is about inspiring the students to do service
learning as well by participating in and organizing wellness
events, such as community health fairs and step contests, and
through a partnership with USA Mentoring, we will be mobilizing
volunteers of all ages to do one-on-one mentoring in our high
schools as well.
We know what we are doing is working. Our first study has
come out, and we show we significantly decrease consumption of
soda and significantly increase physical activity. We are
expanding the conversation from campuses to communities. We are
reaching 22,000 students right now and well over 70,000 when
you include the community members and the family members.
Demand for the program outstrips our supply--our ability to
supply it. In 5 short years, we have grown from 2 schools in
the Northeast to 44 schools in 7 States. Next year, we plan to
be in 65 schools in 12 States. There are hundreds of schools in
all 50 States that would like our support if we could provide
it.
Additionally, we have begun exploring how we can make a
difference in shifting the paradigm from treatment to
prevention and how the HealthCorps Advisory Board can help
establish baseline requirements for an integrative health coach
curriculum, accredited degree, and licensed profession.
If we reach our goals, and we think we will, we will
activate communities through our hundreds of local grassroots
wellness events every year. The founding principle behind this
activation is service--convincing people to give some of their
time to show others simple changes that will endure for life
and make this Nation a healthier, happier one.
The HealthCorps model is shovel ready. It can scale quickly
and make a difference on the ground immediately. We are also
positioned to serve as a hub for other community initiatives by
working with partners like the National Association of
Community Health Centers, which is here today. We plan to give
HealthCorps students the opportunity to do service learning at
clinics and encourage graduating seniors to consider applying
for AmeriCorps clinic internships as well.
We are strategically partnered with hundreds of nonprofits
and organizations across seven States, far too many to name
here. We invite all our partners to participate in our events
because we know it is going to take a village to spark a
wellness movement.
HealthCorps' mission transcends an individual approach. We
embrace a holistic community approach to health, focusing
significant work on changing the physical environment in the
school and the community as well. For example, we are working
with the CDC, and we hope to launch a Fit Town Challenge this
fall, a 12-month wellness challenge to 5 large American
communities with Health-
Corps programs to see who can actualize the greatest change to
create an environment conducive to wellness.
In schools, coordinators campaign for the removal of sodas
in vending machines, healthier choices in the cafeteria, and
access to farmer's markets. In New York City, in partnership
with Commissioner Frieden and New York City DOHMH, HealthCorps,
students have surveyed local bodegas as a way to identify
locales needing healthier choices.
It is easy for HealthCorps to be inspired by the concept of
service. We are supported by two amazing active boards of
unimaginably busy people at the very top of their professions
who still find time to give back, like Dr. Oz and Dr. Mike
Roizen from the Cleveland Clinic, as well as celebrity athletes
and performers and artists.
My great staff, which many of them sit behind me, I am
proud to say today, inspire me every day with the service they
exhibit in their own personal lives. Many of them have spent
time at Teach for America as grassroots activists and
HealthCorps coordinators. They are great. But as Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr., once said, ``Everybody can be great because
anybody can serve.''
I thank you all for your time and the recognition of
HealthCorps as well as all these programs of national service.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Bouchard follows:]
Prepared Statement of Michelle Bouchard
Thank you, Chairmen and committee members, for inviting me here
today to speak in support of national service and to talk specifically
about how HealthCorps is promoting and inspiring service in the field
of wellness. I am deeply indebted to Senator Mikulski for reaching out
to our founder, heart surgeon and Oprah Show health expert Dr. Mehmet
Oz, with her kind invitation less than 2 weeks ago to join the
conversation on integrative medicine and how it can address the rise in
chronic illnesses in at-risk communities. That conversation led to my
participation today. I have offered Dr. Oz's Senate HELP Committee
testimony as Appendix I. As a member of the ServiceNation Leadership
Council, Dr. Oz leads the health service initiative and joins many
other national and cultural leaders and celebrities who endorse
national service throughout the United States.
who we are
HealthCorps was started 5 years ago in an effort to save our
children who are destined for shorter life spans than those of their
parents if we don't take immediate action.
HealthCorps' mandate is the promotion of integrated wellness--
eating smart, staying active, thinking positive--to students and
communities across the country at the grass roots level. We view
HealthCorps as more of a movement than a program because we empower and
provide opportunities for future practitioners, teenagers, teachers and
school administrators to devote time to changing the health of America.
At this time more than ever, service can not only serve as an agent of
change, it can serve as a powerful tool for mental resilience. When I
was a kid growing up and times got tough, my East Texas Mother would
say, ``Lose yourself in a cause greater than yourself.'' And it works.
People are happier when they focus on others.
HealthCorps' heart is its team of Coordinators, recent college
graduates, who give 2 years of service as salaried health coaches and
peer-mentors to high school students in 44 schools across seven States.
These passionate, bright young people are destined for careers in
medicine, nursing and health policy. They could go straight on to their
graduate degrees--but instead choose first to cut their teeth in the
front lines of high schools--impacting young lives.
what we do
Fashioned after a Peace Corps model, HealthCorps deploys each
Coordinator to a specific school where he or she works 5 days a week
with the principal and faculty to integrate our curriculum and
afterschool activities into the traditional scholastic program. These
Coordinators go far beyond the job description and call of duty,
however. Many spend extra hours tutoring their students in academics
and helping them with college or job applications. They coach sports
teams and run after school clubs. They become an accessible and trusted
resource to the kids. HealthCorps' unique activism model works because
kids influence kids best.
In classrooms, Coordinators use personal anecdotes, fun activities
and current events to drive home our message--value your body--it's the
most important thing you'll ever inherit. And spread the word. Each
school year we reach approximately 500 students through our in-school
seminars and extracurricular activities--such as cooking clubs, expert
guest speakers, pedometer competitions and yoga classes.
HealthCorps is not just about our Coordinators doing service. It is
about inspiring the HealthCorps students to do service learning as
well--by participating in and organizing community wellness events. And
by going out and spreading the word to younger kids and senior
citizens. At Lehman High School in the Bronx, Coordinator Luke Martin
takes his HealthCorps Students to Hunts Point Middle School to teach
the younger kids stretching and cooking lessons that they have learned
through HealthCorps. We even expect them to audit their refrigerators
at home, taking the health conversation into families all over America.
Through a partnership with USA Mentoring, founded by former New
York First Lady Matilda Cuomo, we will be mobilizing volunteers of all
ages to do one-on-one health coaching in our high schools as an extra
support for our mandate.
Through community and school-wide events, the program influences
another 1,000 administrators, family members or friends. Our
Coordinators and HealthCorps students organize community health fairs,
step contests, Professional Development Nights, Parents Nights and
more. In three boroughs in New York City and at Brown Stadium in
Cleveland, OH, on Saturday, May 30, approximately 10,000 people will
participate in our ``Highway to Health'' Fairs.
what we do works
We know what we are doing is working. Our first efficacy study,
which will be presented to an international conference this June, shows
we significantly decreased students' consumption of soda and
significantly increased their physical activity. As Dr. Andrew Weil's
testimony on February 26th pointed out, soda will prove to be the
number one culprit in the childhood obesity crisis and subsequent
epidemic of Type II diabetes. Our most popular seminar shows students
the actual amount of sugar that they are drinking in one can of soda
and asks them whether they would eat it in its solid form.
We also know we are expanding the conversation from campuses to
communities. In Bryn Athyn, PA, the pedometers handed out through
HealthCorps to the high school students created a ``pedometer craze''
in the entire town.
where we want to go
Demand for the HealthCorps program outstrips our current ability to
supply it.
In 4 short years HealthCorps has grown by word of mouth among
school administrators and local governments from two schools in the
Northeast to 44 schools in seven States. Next year, we plan to be in 65
schools in 12 States. There are hundreds of schools in all 50 states
that would like our support if we could provide it.
Similarly, there is a strong spirit of service on America's college
campuses and college seniors are motivated to serve their community
before returning for graduate or medical studies. Last year, we
received 20 applications for each available Coordinator position. This
year, we expect to receive 30+ applications for each available
Coordinator position.
We anticipate a buoyant future with 1,000 schools in 50 states by
2012, where we'll reach 300,000 students and 750,000 family members and
friends.
In the not too distant future, through a potential retail alliance,
we believe HealthCorps can play a part in shaping how consumers
navigate their grocery store--analogous to a ``Consumer Reports''
recommendation.
Additionally, since our participation in the February 26th Senate
hearing on Integrative Medicine, we have begun exploring how the
members of the HealthCorps Advisory Board can help to establish
baseline requirements for an ``integrative health coach'' curriculum
and accredited degree. This licensed health professional could
communicate simple but invaluable messages that could hasten a
patient's recovery, prevent a healthy person from developing a
disorder, and assist a chronic disorder patient from developing
disease. We support the establishment of a profession based on
prevention rather than surgery or prescriptions.
why and how we should be a model for national service
If we reach our goals, and we believe we can, we'll activate
communities through hundreds of local grassroots wellness events a
year. And the founding principal behind this activation is service--
convincing people to give some of their time to show others what they
have learned--in our case how to embrace simple changes that will
endure for life and make this Nation a healthier happier one.
The HealthCorps model is a ``shovel ready'' service program. It can
scale quickly. It can adapt to the unique health concerns of individual
geographies and neighborhoods. It can start making a difference on the
ground immediately.
The HealthCorps model is also uniquely positioned to serve as a hub
or anchor for other community wellness and health initiatives. By
working with the partners like the National Association of Community
Health Centers (``NACHC''), we plan to soon give HealthCorps high
school students the opportunity to do service learning at clinics in
their communities. Also, our Coordinators will actively encourage
graduating seniors to consider applying to do service at a clinic as a
NACHC ``Community Healthcorps'' intern, funded through AmeriCorps.
We are strategically partnered with hundreds of non-profits and
other organizations across the seven States such as Donna Karan's
Initiative Urban Zen, The United Federation of Teachers, The David
Lynch Foundation, The Tiger Woods Foundation, The Kellogg Foundation,
The Children's Aid Society and The Food Bank, the fitness industry and
far too many to name here. We invite our partners to participate in all
our community and school events because we know it is going to take a
village to spark a wellness movement and fire up more people to give of
their time and effort.
HealthCorps' mission transcends an individual approach to curing
poor lifestyle habits. We embrace a holistic community approach to
health (psycho/bio/social)--
focusing significant work on changing the physical environment in the
school and community.
We are embarking upon several projects in conjunction with the
Center for Disease Control (``CDC''), and are hoping to launch a ``Fit
Town Challenge'' this fall--A wellness challenge to five large American
communities with HealthCorps programs over the next 12 months to see
who can actualize the greatest change in their towns to create an
environment conducive to wellness. We will work with media partners to
bring this challenge to a broad American audience.
In schools, many HealthCorps Coordinators campaign for the removal
of sodas in vending machines and the replacement of fried fatty foods
in the cafeteria with more whole grain products, fresh produce and
offerings of dark green lettuce and healthy seeds and nuts. Some
students have also developed school and community gardens. In New York
City, in partnership with Commissioner Frieden and New York City
Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (``DOHMH'') HealthCorps
students have surveyed offerings in local bodegas, as a way to identify
neighborhoods needing more access to healthier choices.
At HealthCorps, Senators, it is easy to be inspired by the concept
of service. We are supported by active board members who give of their
time and expertise--like Dr. Mike Roizen, Integrative Medicine
visionary and Head of Anesthesiology for the Cleveland Clinic--people
with unimaginably busy lives at the very top of their professions who
still find time to give back. Celebrity athletes and performers have
also joined HealthCorps in our national service mantra by speaking at
community events and using the media to spread our message.
I am supported by a seasoned staff of great folks who walk the talk
and inspire me with their service in their personal lives every day.
They have spent time at Teach for America, as grassroots activists and
as HealthCorps Coordinators.
But as Martin Luther King, Jr. once said ``Everybody can be great .
. . because anybody can serve.'' I hope HealthCorps may contribute in
some way to inspire more Americans to lose themselves in causes greater
than themselves. I thank you for your time, and for your recognition of
our program as well as all programs of national service.
Senator Mikulski. That was excellent. Thank you.
Now we want to turn to Michael Brown, the CEO of City Year.
City Year was one of the first programs that really reached out
to young people in a very new and contemporary way, brought
them into service. We would like to hear your views on the
current legislation proposed by Senators Kennedy and Hatch and
how you have seen City Year's participants' lives were changed.
I think what emerges from listening to these stories is
that when people volunteer, their lives are changed, and many
go on to the career in which they volunteered--health,
education, other community services. And then the lives of the
community is changed.
Well, City Year is kind of--if we are the founding mothers
and fathers, you are kind of the granddaddy of the social
entrepreneur.
STATEMENT OF MICHAEL BROWN, CEO, CITY YEAR,
BOSTON, MA
Mr. Brown. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman.
We would not be on the verge of a dramatic expansion of
national service without your tremendous leadership over the
last 15 years. We are so tremendously grateful.
Ranking Member Enzi, thank you for the bipartisan spirit
and the speed with which you are moving this forward. It is
incredibly exciting to see what is about to happen to the
national service movement.
Senator Dodd, your experience rooted in the Peace Corps has
been promoting national service now for a generation that is
moving us forward that is just at a rapid rate.
And Senator Hatch, your investment in this has been
extraordinary. As you mentioned, rooted in what was originally
a spiritual journey now translated into the civic space. Your
friendship with Senator Kennedy is a source of inspiration for
all of us.
There is a grateful field sitting behind me, and I had to
sort of go through all that because we are tremendously
grateful for this investment. Also Senator Harris Wofford is
here, who is a tremendous leader, and we wouldn't be here today
but for his leadership as well.
I am from Boston, and I have had the full measure of
Senator Kennedy's idealism and support behind City Year. City
Year would not be in 20 cities today and had 10,000 graduates
without Senator Kennedy every step of the way supporting the
young people of City Year.
I speak to you today not only as the CEO of City Year,
which I founded with Alan Khazei in 1988, but also as a co-
leader of three coalitions that strongly support the Serve
America Act--Voices for National Service, ServiceNation, and
America Forward. We are tremendously inspired by President
Obama's commitment to expanding opportunities for Americans to
serve and by the leadership of Senator Kennedy and Senator
Hatch and the bipartisan group of Senators who came together to
introduce this legislation.
In 1994, Congress created a dynamic and devolved national
service system. Innovative governors' service commissions and
nonprofit organizations, including Public Allies, the Bay Area
Community Resources, Habitat for Humanity, Youth Build, and
many others, have mobilized Americans in service through a wide
variety of successful program models that are responsive to
State and local needs.
We need to expand opportunities for Americans to serve
through these effective programs, and we also need a new
platform to engage the American people in addressing some of
the most persistent problems facing our country. The Serve
America Act, by strategically expanding national service, can
play a vital role in expanding opportunities for people at
every life stage to put their idealism and their civic skills
to work to solve specific national challenges.
It is especially important to provide opportunities for
America's youth to serve. A new study, ``The Quiet Crisis,''
reports that youth unemployment hit 21 percent. For African-
American youth, that number is now 36 percent.
At the same time, applications for national service
organizations like Teach for America and here at City Year are
at record levels. National service programs stand ready to
engage Americans, young Americans in particular, in productive
work at low cost and with no new bureaucracy.
At a time when the brave men and women of the U.S. military
are putting their lives on the line overseas to protect our
freedom and values, Americans should be asked to serve on the
home front as well, addressing the major national problems of
our time.
Consider the high school dropout crisis. Every 26 seconds,
a young person drops out of high school, producing 1 million
dropouts every single year. The resulting price tag is more
than $150 billion for each cohort of dropouts, who are three
times more likely to be unemployed and eight times more likely
to be incarcerated.
According to recent research by Johns Hopkins University,
just 15 percent of the Nation's schools produce nearly half of
the Nation's dropouts. We know where these schools are and
which students need the help most.
It is possible to identify likely dropouts as early as the
sixth grade by three off-track indicators--low attendance, poor
behavior, and course failure in math or English. We also know
how to get them back on track, by getting the right
interventions to them in the right time.
In the case of City Year, our corps members are deployed
full time in teams to work against these off-track indicators
in high-poverty schools, helping children through academic
support, school climate activities that improve attendance and
behavior, and afterschool programs that re-inforce classroom
learning and promote community service.
Our corps members are in the schools from 8 a.m. until 6
p.m., when the last afterschool program ends. That change of
having caring adults in their lives throughout the day can be a
transformative resource for a school.
This is just one of the many examples in which national
service could be scaled as part of a dedicated Education Corps
established under the Serve America Act using a set of common
metrics and data that could be aggregated nationally.
Similarly, the Opportunity Corps would enlist Americans to
address poverty by providing job training and financial
literacy and by building housing for families struggling to
make ends meet.
A new Clean Energy Corps would improve energy efficiency in
low-income homes and care for the environment, building the
green economy and mobilizing Americans as stewards of our
natural resources.
A Healthy Futures Corps could improve access to healthcare
and increase health literacy for low-income Americans.
In addressing each of these issues, national service
participants would bring a unique resource--skilled, committed,
affordable, and often full-time human capital. There are also
millions of Americans who cannot serve full time, but who can
make vital contributions to communities by volunteering their
time.
A new Volunteer Generation Fund in the Serve America Act
would expand the supply of volunteers to nonprofits and build
the capacity of organizations to manage and deploy them.
Organizations like the Points of Light Institute HandsOn
Network stand ready to deploy thousands of new volunteers to
meet pressing community needs.
The Serve America Act will also establish a Community
Solutions Fund, also known as the social innovation fund, to
invest in and scale the proven innovative solutions that are
already having an impact in communities across the country.
In addition to these new initiatives in the act, I want to
thank you and thank the committee for taking up reauthorization
of national service. We have shared a number of ideas with the
committee to simplify the AmeriCorps program, including
expanding the use of fixed-price grants, streamlining member
reporting requirements, and increasing the Segal AmeriCorps
award. Reforms will move service in America forward, stimulate
community volunteering, and increase the diversity of those who
serve.
In closing, I want to share with you three final thoughts
about the importance of passing the Serve America Act. First,
the Serve America Act funds programs on a competitive basis and
places a premium on expanding programs that show results.
Second, we know that national service leverages significant
private investment. Over the past 15 years, more than $2
billion has been invested in AmeriCorps programs by
corporations, philanthropies, and private citizens. At City
Year, we have had over $100 million invested by the private
sector, and nine companies have invested more than $1 million
in us. The Serve America Act will leverage billions more in
private support for national and community impact.
Finally, in addition to the significant benefits that
national service participants deliver to communities, an
investment in national service is also a long-term investment
in American citizenship itself. The Serve America Act at its
peak will triple the number of national service participants to
a quarter million members annually.
Every 4 years, a million more Americans will have had an
intensive service experience that will transform them into
citizen leaders for life. That is a powerful investment in the
civic skills and leadership of each new American generation.
Thank you for your leadership in advancing national and
community service.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Brown follows:]
Prepared Statement of Michael Brown
I am honored to be invited to testify before the committee today. I
want to thank committee Chairman Senator Edward Kennedy, Ranking Member
Senator Michael Enzi and Senator Mikulski for the invitation to testify
today, and for holding this important hearing on ``The Next Generation
of National Service'' and the Serve America Act.
As a Bostonian who has known and benefited from the full measure of
Senator Kennedy's tremendous idealism and public spiritedness for over
two decades, I want to begin by saying how deeply grateful I am to the
committee chairman. Since we founded City Year in 1988 Senator Kennedy
has been our greatest champion, and his dedication to public service
has been a deep source of inspiration. All of us at City Year and in
national service organizations across the country are deeply grateful
to Senator Kennedy and Senator Hatch for their visionary leadership in
crafting a bold new platform for service in our country, the Serve
America Act.
Senator Mikulski, as the ``godmother of national service,'' every
American community owes you a debt of gratitude for your steadfast
dedication to providing opportunities for the citizens of this country
to serve. Senator McCain, thank you for your leadership in championing
the growth of AmeriCorps for over a decade through the McCain-Bayh
bill, and your original co-sponsorship of the Serve America Act.
Senator Dodd, thank you for your deep commitment to growing service
opportunities for all ages, based on your own transformative experience
as a returned Peace Corps volunteer. Thank you Senator Harkin for your
deep commitment to national service programs across the country.
I also want to give a special thank you to our ``City Year
Senators'' on the committee for your strong support for City Year
programs across the country, including Senator Casey for your support
for City Year Philadelphia, Senator Gregg for your support for City
Year New Hampshire, Senator Murray for your support for City Year
Seattle, and Senator Reed for your support for City Year Rhode Island.
A special thank you to Senator Brown, not only for your support for two
City Year programs in Ohio, but especially because Senator Brown is a
City Year dad and we are proud that his daughter is a City Year alum.
Operating in 19 U.S. cities and Johannesburg, South Africa, City
Year unites young people of all backgrounds for a year of full-time
service, giving them skills and opportunities to change the world. The
name City Year reflects that idea that just like young people
participate in freshman, sophomore, junior and senior years as vital
parts of their development, we believe that young people should be
challenged to give a ``City Year'' of service to their community and
country, as a civic rite of passage to build a strong democracy. All of
City Year's more than 1,500 U.S. corps members are proud members of the
AmeriCorps national service network. To date, City Year has graduated
more than 12,000 alumni, who have dedicated nearly 20 million hours of
service in high poverty schools, neighborhoods and community centers
nationwide. Our vision is that one day the most commonly-asked question
of a young person will be, ``Where will you do your service year?''
I speak to you today not only as the CEO and co-founder of City
Year, which I founded in 1988 with Alan Khazei, but also as a co-lead
organizer of three national coalitions that represent widespread
support for and endorsement of the Serve America Act: Voices for
National Service, ServiceNation and America Forward.
The mission of Voices for National Service is to support the growth
and development of AmeriCorps and national service by mobilizing the
field to educate our Nation's leaders and the American public about the
power and impact of national service. ServiceNation, a campaign to
inspire a new era of voluntary citizen service in America, is a
coalition of more than 130 organizations representing more than 100
million Americans. It is organized by Be the Change, City Year, Civic
Enterprises, and The Points of Light Institute. ServiceNation was
honored that Senator Hatch and Caroline Kennedy, on behalf of her
uncle, Senator Kennedy, publicly announced their bi-partisan
introduction of the Serve America Act at the ServiceNation Summit on
September 12 in New York City. America Forward, organized by New
Profit, Inc., is a coalition of results-oriented entrepreneurial
nonprofits presenting the Nation's leaders and citizens with new,
innovative ideas for solving our domestic problems.
On behalf of Voices for National Service, ServiceNation and America
Forward, I am pleased to attach to this testimony a copy of a letter
endorsing the Serve America Act and signed by 412 nonprofit
organizations working nationwide to make America stronger.
We endorse the Serve America Act because national service is a
great American invention and institution--and the Serve America Act
will make it stronger. National service gives Americans of all ages and
backgrounds the opportunity to participate in the creation of ``a more
perfect union,'' and to channel their civic passion and energies to
address some of our Nation's most pressing problems.
The idea of national service has had strong bipartisan leadership
and support in the White House and the Congress, from the creation of
the Civilian Conservation Corps under President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt to the establishment of the Peace Corps under President
Kennedy, and through the administrations of President George H.W. Bush,
who founded the Commission on National and Community Service and the
Points of Light Foundation, President Clinton, who launched the
Corporation for National and Community Service and AmeriCorps, and
President George W. Bush, who founded the USA Freedom Corps and
expanded AmeriCorps. We are all tremendously inspired by President
Obama's commitment to expanding opportunities for Americans to serve.
We believe that the groundswell of bipartisan support surrounding The
Serve America Act indicates the growing desire of Americans to be part
of solving the great challenges we face as a nation.
Congress has created a dynamic and devolved system of national
service that has included a wide variety of successful program models
and approaches and has been tremendously responsive to State and local
needs. National service participants, deployed through innovative State
service commissions and nonprofit organizations, have taught, tutored
and mentored children, built affordable housing, created and
refurbished trails and parks, weatherized low-income housing, helped
low-income citizens gain access to health care and contributed to the
health and well-being of our communities in many other important ways.
We need to expand opportunities for Americans to serve through
these effective programs, and we also need a new platform to engage the
American people in addressing some of the most pressing and persistent
problems of our time. The Serve America Act, through a strategic
expansion of national service, can play a vital role in expanding
opportunities for people at every stage of life to serve and to put
their idealism and civic skills to work to solve specific national
challenges. It will augment--not replace--the impact of the
foundational Federal investment in national service through the
Corporation for National and Community Service and its programs,
including AmeriCorps. These programs are critical and enable States and
localities to direct resources to the specific needs and priorities of
their communities.
It is no secret that we face tremendous challenges as a country,
many made worse by the declining economic climate. The need for more
opportunities in national and community service is greater than ever--
both to address essential needs and engage Americans, especially young
Americans, in productive work. A new study, ``The Quiet Crisis, The
Impact of the Economic Downturn on the Nonprofit Sector,'' reports that
phone calls to the United Way for basic needs, such as securing food,
shelter and warm clothing are up by more than 10,000 calls a month
compared to 2007, while financial contributions to nonprofits are
declining. The study also reports that youth unemployment has already
hit 21 percent--and for African-American youth that number reaches 36
percent. Unemployment, even among college graduates, is at the highest
level ever. At the same time, applications for national service
organizations like Teach For America and City Year are at record
levels. National service programs stand ready to engage young Americans
in productive work at low cost, and with no new bureaucracy.
We are at a moment in our country where we must marshal every
available resource to address the mounting challenges we face. From the
economic downturn to the crisis in education, we must call on every
American to join the cause, to step forward and lend a hand. At a time
when the brave men and women of the U.S. military are putting their
lives on the line overseas to protect our freedom and values, Americans
should also be asked--and provided with the opportunities to--serve on
the homefront as well to confront the Nation's most pressing domestic
challenges and exemplify our Nation's values. And the truth is
Americans are stepping forward to serve--Teach For America has 35,000
applicants for just 4,000 positions--11 percent of the entire Ivy
League's senior class and 25 percent of Spelman College's applied this
year alone. Applications to City Year have increased 180 percent over
last year. Peace Corps applications have risen 16 percent. Millennials
and boomers are stepping forward in record numbers to serve.
We need to tap into this tremendous civic energy--and provide more
opportunities for Americans to meet America's challenges by focusing
their service on solving major national problems. That is what the
Serve America Act does.
Consider the high school dropout crisis, which retired general
Colin Powell has called a ``national catastrophe.'' Every 26 seconds,
another student gives up on school, producing 1 million American
dropouts annually. The result is a price tag of more than $150 billion
for each cohort of dropouts--who are three times more likely to be
unemployed and eight times more likely to be incarcerated. Students who
drop out of high school earn on average $1 million less over their
lifetime than their peers who complete high school and go on to
college.
According to recent research by Johns Hopkins University, just 15
percent of the Nation's schools produce nearly half of the Nation's
dropouts. We know where these schools are, and we know which middle
schools feed into them. We also know which students need help the
most--it is possible to identify likely dropouts as early as the 6th
grade by three ``off-track indicators'': low attendance, poor behavior,
and course failure in math or English. We also know how to get them
back on track to graduate--by getting the right interventions to them
at the right time. Dr. Robert Balfanz of Johns Hopkins University, the
lead researcher on the Johns Hopkins study, has stated that, in solving
the dropout crisis, ``There is a key role to be played by national
service.'' Dr. Balfanz states that ``we need to mobilize the young
adults in this Nation to work together to give their near peers--who
are half a generation younger than them--the leg up they need to stay
in school, to complete their courses, to learn how to behave well, by
being a role model, and to say it's worth it.''
Research shows that continuous support from trained and dedicated
adults working in schools as tutors and mentors works. We also know it
works because we've seen it work--at City Year and at other national
service programs across the country, including Citizen Schools, College
Summit, Communities In Schools, Jump Start, and Teach for America.
In the case of City Year, corps members are deployed full-time in
teams throughout the school year to work in high-poverty schools,
helping children through direct academic support, including literacy
and math, school climate activities that improve attendance and
behavior, and afterschool programs that re-inforce classroom learning
and promote community service. Based on this model and the results of
our work in schools, we have received requests from local school
superintendents, including New York City Department of Education
Chancellor Joel Klein and District of Columbia Public Schools
Chancellor Michelle Rhee, to scale our program significantly as a means
of ensuring school success and keeping students on track to graduate.
Our Whole School Whole Child program is just one example of the many
important national service approaches that could be scaled as part of a
dedicated Education Corps, established under the Serve America Act,
using a set of common metrics and data that can be aggregated
nationally.
Similarly, an Opportunity Corps could enlist Americans of all
backgrounds to address both urban and rural poverty through increasing
access to job training and placement resources, increasing the
financial literacy of economically disadvantaged individuals, building
or improving housing--assistance needed more than ever as our Nation
faces a significant economic recession and more and more families find
themselves unable to make ends meet.
A Clean Energy Corps would improve energy efficiency in low-income
homes and care for natural resources, building the green economy and
mobilizing Americans as stewards of the Nation's natural resources. A
Health Corps could improve access to health care and increase health
literacy for low-income Americans.
In addressing each of these issues, national service participants
would bring a unique resource: skilled, committed, affordable and often
full-time human capital. Corps members in the Education Corps, for
example, would provide a diverse workforce serving full-time in
schools--in large cohorts and in the unique role of working with
students from the first bell at 8 a.m. through the close of the
afterschool program at 6 p.m.--which increases the adult to student
ratio in schools, at the required scale and intensity. That would be a
transformative resource for high poverty schools across the country.
National service can also promote workforce readiness as corps
members receive extensive training to prepare them for their service
that can also benefit them in their future careers. National service
corps members are motivated, understand hard work, are focused and
efficient, and gain practical experience in problem solving and working
with people from diverse backgrounds. Their ``real world'' experience
at a young age will serve as a valuable asset to both themselves and
their employers for years to come.
There are also millions of Americans who cannot serve full-time,
but make vital contributions to communities by volunteering part-time
through religious organizations, mentoring or nature conservation
programs, at food banks or in homeless shelters--and many more people
who are ready to serve but opportunities for them to do so may be
limited due to lack of capacity on the part of nonprofits in recruiting
and managing volunteers. A Volunteer Generation Fund in the Service
America Act would expand the supply of volunteers to nonprofits as well
as build the capacity of nonprofits to utilize these volunteers,
resulting in an influx of many more citizens of all ages in service to
meeting the needs of their communities. Organizations like the Hands On
Network and Points of Light Institute are ready to tap the Volunteer
Generation Fund to deploy thousands of new volunteers to meet pressing
needs.
Similarly, many Americans want to apply their professional skills
and experience to address critical needs in health and education across
the globe but cannot commit to long-term assignments such as the 2
years required by the Peace Corps. A strengthening of Volunteers for
Prosperity, an initiative established in 2003 as part of the USA
Freedom Corps, would expand opportunities for short-term service to
provide assistance across the developing world in identified areas of
need, while enhancing America's international standing.
The Serve America Act will also establish a ``Community Solutions
Fund'' (or a Social Innovation Fund) to invest in and scale the proven,
innovative solutions that are having an impact in communities across
the country. The Fund will promote greater innovation in the social
sector and evaluate performance based on results. And because citizen
service so often generates new ideas and solutions, the act establishes
Innovation Fellowships to enable individuals who have completed either
a civilian national service experience or are veterans to launch a new
civic initiative. The act will also call on the Boomer generation to
use its experience to innovate for the common good with the help of
Encore Fellowships.
And just as the government regularly assesses economic progress
through standard indicators, the Service America Act would establish a
Civic Health Index--a critical new tool for taking the Nation's civic
pulse across the areas of volunteering and community service, voting
and civic engagement, and understanding of U.S. history and government,
among other categories. The resulting information would inform
policymakers and communities alike as to the Nation's civic health at
the local, State and national levels and promote progress towards
strengthening the civic habits of our democracy.
In addition to considering these new elements of national service,
I want to thank the committee for taking up the reauthorization of The
National and Community Service Trust Act and the underlying bills. It
is very important to update the architecture on which these new ideas
will be built. Nearly 16 years have passed since the enactment of the
act, the last national service bill. Since then, the field has learned
many lessons that can be drawn on to optimize the organization and
structure of the existing programs and prepare the national service
infrastructure for expansion. Through reauthorization, Congress has the
opportunity to make changes that will unleash program potential.
Reforms will allow more Americans to serve, stimulate community
volunteerism, increase the diversity of those serving, and modernize
the program to recognize new needs and resources resulting from the
changing demographics and economic circumstances.
If AmeriCorps is to achieve the scale described by President Obama,
nonprofits and State commissions must have greater flexibility to
effectively administer the program. Current requirements are
administratively burdensome and in many cases prohibitively expensive,
making AmeriCorps nearly inaccessible to small nonprofits. We have
shared a number of ideas with the committee to reduce the
administrative burden and simplify the AmeriCorps program. These ideas
include revising the formula for AmeriCorps assistance and approved
national service positions, expanding the use of Fixed Price Grants,
streamlining member management reporting requirements and increasing
the Segal AmeriCorps Education Award.
The post-service Segal AmeriCorps Education Award was established
in 1993 and because the formula for calculating it was set in statute,
its value has been frozen while the cost of higher education has
skyrocketed. As students and their families are being priced out of the
college market, the AmeriCorps Education Award has remained static at
$4,725. The Education Award should continue to be a valuable and
compelling incentive for young people to serve and we support indexing
the award to increase its purchase power.
Another challenge is that the Education Award is viewed differently
than most other forms of scholarships and fellowships--including Pell
grants and the G.I. Benefit--and is subject to Federal taxation.
According to the Congressional Research Service, the AmeriCorps
Education Award can be taxed at a rate of 15 percent or more. As a
result, AmeriCorps members see the value of their college aid drop to
$3,528 or less after taxes. Senators Dodd and Cochran have introduced
legislation that both increases the value of the award and makes it tax
deductible, ensuring that the full value can be applied to the pursuit
of higher education.
In closing, I want to share with you three final thoughts about the
importance of passing the Serve America Act.
First, the Serve America Act funds programs on a competitive basis
and places a premium on expanding programs that show results--in
helping children succeed in school, in reducing energy usage, in
providing access to healthcare, in helping people gain the skills they
need to climb out of poverty.
Second, we know that national service is highly cost effective and
leverages significant private investment. Over the past 15 years, more
than a billion dollars has been invested in AmeriCorps programs by
corporations, philanthropies and private citizens. At City Year, nine
companies--ARAMARK, Bank of America, Cisco, Comcast, CSX, Pepperidge
Farm, PepsiCo, Timberland, and T-Mobile--have each invested more than a
million dollars and engaged their employees in thousands of hours of
community service. The Serve America Act will leverage billions more in
private support for service and community impact.
Finally, in addition to the significant and immediate benefit that
national service participants deliver to communities, an investment in
national service is also a long-term investment in American
citizenship. An independent study funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies
and conducted by Policy Studies Associates found that City Year alumni,
compared to similarly situated individuals in the national population,
were 65 percent more likely to be engaged in volunteer activities and
45 percent more likely to vote, and that more than 90 percent of alumni
reported that their service experience contributed to their ability to
work as part of a team and work with people from diverse backgrounds.
Three-quarters of alumni reported that their service experience
contributed to their ability to solve problems in their communities.
The Serve America Act will, at its peak, triple the number of national
service participants to 250,000 members annually--meaning that every 4
years a million more Americans will have had an intensive service
experience that will transform them into citizen leaders for life. That
is a powerful investment in the civic skills and leadership of each new
American generation.
This landmark legislation comes at a pivotal juncture for us as a
nation. We face an economic crisis of historic and worldwide
proportions with millions of lost jobs, and millions of lives in
economic peril with profound social implications. At the same time,
there is a significant desire on the part of Americans--young and old,
from all walks of life--to help address the challenges facing the
country through serving their communities and building a stronger
future for all of us. The Serve America Act will provide a
transformational investment of resources to enable Americans to act on
their desire to serve and put their passions and skills to work to
address critical issues that will have a significant and restorative
impact on our country both in the near-term and for many years to come.
Thank you for your leadership on national and community service. I
hope you will give the Serve America Act your full consideration and
pass and fully fund it.
Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today.
Senator Mikulski. Thank you very much, Michael.
To our committee, we have been joined by Senator Dodd and
also Senator Isakson of Georgia. As you know, Senator Dodd has
been in and out because of banking responsibilities, and I
think you might have to return.
Also what is so interesting is here on the committee, many
of your Senators have served. Senator Dodd in the Peace Corps.
I have spoken often about the fact that I have a master's
degree in social work. I taught at the very first VISTA
training school in Baltimore, did my own volunteer work. Would
go into the Baltimore city jail on Monday nights to work with
women to help them do their discharge planning, all the way
through to the grassroots group I started that stopped a
highway and transformed a neighborhood.
Senator Hatch's call to service as a Mormon. Senator
Rockefeller is a VISTA volunteer. Of course, the people like
John McCain who served in our military.
We are all called to service in different ways, and I think
what you have said as a panel and what we who, ourselves, have
served in our own way, it was transformational. It changed our
lives.
Instead of leading off with questions, how about if I turn
to you, Senator Dodd? Then go to Senator Enzi, and then we will
go back and forth.
Statement of Senator Dodd
Senator Dodd. Well, thank you, Senator.
I will be very brief, and I apologize to our witnesses and
to my colleagues for not being here at the outset to hear all
of this.
I want to thank Senator Mikulski, first of all, for her
leadership here. Second--obviously it has been pointed out by
many--I'd like to thank my friend, Senator Kennedy, who cares
so deeply about these issues we've worked on together over the
years. I know many of you on the panel here already and have
worked with you at various times over the years on these
issues.
Barbara Mikulski has said it well. This joins a lot of us
together, regardless of how we come to the table. The fact is
we have journeyed through various experiences that have led us
to the conclusion that there is nothing more ennobling and
nothing that contributes more to our country than to invite
people to serve their Nation.
I don't think each generation is substantially different on
this issue. I think every generation wants to be asked. As
Harris Wofford has heard me say probably a million times over
the last 40 years, when I have been asked why did I join the
Peace Corps, the very simple answer I have given for 40 years
is someone asked me to. An American president did.
He invited a generation of us to be involved in something
larger than ourselves, and it was tremendously exciting to be
asked. Some went into the military. Some went into domestic
programs here at home. Others went into the Justice Department.
People found different ways to serve their country.
Over the years, I have felt a deep resonance with this
desire to serve. Ronald Reagan was the one American president
in the last 25 or 30 years that increased the Federal budget
for the Peace Corps every single year during his 8 years in the
presidency. This issue transcends traditional politics when it
comes to support for these efforts.
I would just mention briefly and Thad Cochran and I have
introduced a series of bills called Service for All Ages, and
Mr. Strong knows about this because the Experience Corps
program is a great example--in fact, Mozelle Vann, who is one
of your members, came and testified when Thad Cochran and I
introduced our three bills with Rosa DeLauro, congresswoman
from the New Haven area of Connecticut.
We have what we call the Summer of Service, the Semester of
Service, and the Encore Service Program, the idea being to
reach out and invite people of all ages to participate. Now, we
believe very strongly that even young children can learn the
great joys of giving at a very young age. A Summer of Service
or a Semester of Service would provide exactly that
opportunity.
We can't talk about expanding service opportunities without
talking about the AmeriCorps program. Last year alone, 75,000
AmeriCorps members gave back to their communities. They brought
reinforcements--recruiting another 1.7 million community
volunteers to work alongside them. Which is why my friend, Thad
and I also introduced a bill to raise the Segal AmeriCorps
Education Award each year as the cost of college increases.
It's an idea that has caught on and we're pleased it was
incorporated into the Serve America Act.
Obviously, the Peace Corps is something that I have a
special affection for. I was also a Big Brother, involved in
the Big Brothers program nationally a number of years ago; I
feel very strongly about these types of domestic programs.
Finally, the Peace Corps is a special program to me. We
have some ideas that I have shared with Senator Mikulski about
how we might move beyond where we have been for 40 years and
work to increase our engagement with the volunteers and return
volunteers. The great goals of the Peace Corps always focused
on engagement, which we have never done as well on as I think
the President intended when he authored the program.
Harris told me and my colleagues a wonderful story, about
that day in 1961, when the first volunteers gathered on the
South Lawn of the White House, and President Kennedy gave them
a great farewell to go off into Africa to do their work. He
went back into the Oval Office, as Harris tells the story, and
with a small group of people there said,
``This is going to be a remarkable program.''
``And just think, 45 or 50 years from now''--
basically where we are--``there will be a million
people who will have returned from serving their
country overseas, getting to know the world better,
getting the world to know us better, and coming back
and educating their neighbors and friends in
communities as a result of their experience.''
Well, about 180,000 of us, far short of the million that
President Kennedy envisioned in 1961, have come back as
volunteers. It has contributed, I think, in no small measure to
our own incredible benefit as individuals, not to mention, I
think, the country as well. How we can expand that opportunity
is something we would like to include as part of this effort.
I thank all of you for what you are doing. As well, it is
good to see all of you. Marc, it is good to see you. Alan, whom
I know so well. And others--Michael, we thank you for your
service as well.
Madam Chairman, I look forward to working with you, doing
whatever I can do in the coming days to help this become a
reality.
[The prepared statement of Senator Dodd follows:]
Prepared Statement of Senator Dodd
First, thank you to Senator Mikulski for allowing me to
come and speak quickly about the important role that national
service will play in meeting the challenges that we face.
Senator Kennedy and Senator Mikulski share my commitment to
service. I am so pleased to have the opportunity to work so
closely with both of them to expand service opportunities for
all ages.
I want to apologize for not being able to stay longer and
listen to the compelling testimony of the witnesses before us
today, but I am glad that I am able to speak for a moment about
the unique moment in which we find ourselves.
As you may know, a few weeks ago Senator Thad Cochran and I
re-introduced our ``Service for All Ages Initiative.'' We are
joined by my good friend Representative Rosa DeLauro in the
House of Representatives in introducing these bills. I would
also be remiss if I did not mention that I am a proud original
cosponsor of the Serve America Act.
When Congresswoman DeLauro and I introduced these bills, we
heard from three phenomenal women from Connecticut who all
served their communities in very different ways, but all told
the same story-that engaging in meaningful service had changed
their lives.
I heard from Mozelle Vann, from Hamden, Connecticut, who
tutors elementary school children in literacy. She's one of
more than six thousand older Americans engaging in service in
Connecticut.
She told us about the creative ways she has helped one
student, Bobby, improve his reading. She saw, one day, that his
eyes were jumping around the page, from line to line, when he
read. So she brought into school brightly colored pipe cleaners
to put beneath each line that Bobby was reading-and he became
more focused and his reading improved.
That's the kind of results we get from service. That's the
kind of change that we make in the lives of others when we give
of ourselves.
We also heard from Latoya Braham, a senior at the
University of Connecticut. She volunteers with Big Brothers Big
Sisters, as I did many years ago.
She told us that she's come so far in her life-but that she
remembers where she's from. She feels she must give back to her
community-and she wants to encourage others to do the same.
Through her service, she's engaging others in service.
I share, with these remarkable women, a commitment to
service. My service in the Peace Corps was the opportunity of a
lifetime, and it helped me realize how important it is to give
everyone the opportunity to serve.
Those of us who serve, we know that we are linked by our
common experiences.
We are tied to the communities in which we serve.
We are committed to expand service opportunities to others.
And, especially during times like these, we cannot forget
the impact service can make.
Whatever the challenge, we know that there are dedicated
Americans ready to meet it. This is our nation's most precious
resource-the resolve of its citizens.
Our responsibility, today, is to provide opportunities for
ordinary Americans to do extraordinary things. From middle
school students to retirees, we ought to give everyone the
opportunity to serve their communities.
And so, the Dodd-Cochran Service for All Ages Initiative,
and the Serve America Act, will do just that. Regardless of
age, income, or ability, if Americans have the desire to serve-
we want to give them the opportunity to do so.
I'm pleased that our President has made such a strong
commitment to national service, and I look forward to passing
legislation that will expand service opportunities to people of
all ages.
Thank you, Madam Chairman.
Senator Mikulski. Did you have a question?
Senator Dodd. Well, you know----
[Laughter.]
We will submit our questions. I have several of them,
obviously. The one thing I think is important to recognize is
that for every dollar spent on service, you receive a much
greater return--some people are not impressed with how much
good comes out of this.
I think with AmeriCorps, one of the things we have
learned--and with City Year--is how many additional people we
encourage to serve, the sort of radiation effect. In addition
to the ones who serve through AmeriCorps, we also engage a
million other volunteers. For every dollar spent, we are told
that there is about a $4 return on our investment.
Senator Mikulski. Is that a question?
Senator Dodd. That is a question. To what extent do you
feel that it is valuable to discuss these dollar numbers in
response to those who raise the issue that this effort and
initiative, may have some costs associated with it? Because, if
you are only impressed by budgetary numbers, then I think these
numbers here directly contribute to that argument. Any
particular comments you want to make on that, Michael?
Mr. Brown. Thank you, Senator.
We have engaged over a million young people--I am sorry. We
have had 10,000 people in our program, and a million volunteers
have been leveraged through it by sort of--it is hundreds of
millions of dollars of value-added.
In addition, the human capital that goes through
organizations like City Year and so many others, they get
trained up, and they are now part of Public Allies, and they
are part of Citizen Schools, and they are leading other
organizations. Essentially, there is a training element that is
happening with regards to national service.
We know that there is going to be a need for many more
leaders in the nonprofit sector, and national service is a way
of getting that leadership cohort ready.
Senator Dodd. That is great. Thank you.
Senator Mikulski. Thank you. Senator Enzi.
Then after Senator Enzi, we are going to go in the order of
arrival--Hatch, Isakson. Then I will turn to Senator Murray,
and I will be the wrap-up before the votes. Keep your seatbelts
on.
Senator Enzi.
Senator Enzi. Thank you, Madam Chairman. This has been a
very inspiring hearing.
I will get right to my questions. I have been impressed
with the faith-based initiative, but Mayor Goldsmith, you have
had more involvement with what is actually in these programs.
Has the inclusion of faith-based programs served a purpose? Has
it been useful?
Mr. Goldsmith. Thank you, Senator.
We have consciously over the last 8 years attempted to
level the playing field. There are two ways that this comes
about. The one is in terms of regulations. The other is in
terms of bureaucracy because, as you know, a small
organization, faith-based or otherwise, often doesn't have the
wherewithal to deal with the bureaucratic rules that the
Federal Government requires.
Over the last several years, we have involved more and more
faith-based organizations, and this bill will allow us to even
more simplify the process of dealing with--between the Federal
Government and those organizations.
Last, as your question suggests, Senator Enzi, the most
frequent path to service is through a religious institution. It
is the most common path of service.
The extent to which we can leverage those organizations in
their homeless work or the domestic sheltering work or their
food pantry work, we gain a lot of participation. We are making
steady progress, and I think we could do a better job.
Senator Enzi. Thank you. Very helpful.
Governor Racicot, a neighbor. I loved your comment about
not being at the end of the world. I am from Wyoming. I have
approximately the same view.
[Laughter.]
Wyoming and Montana are very rural, in fact, I think
frontier. Our largest city, of course, is Cheyenne. It is
slightly over 50,000 people, and every city that we have, you
can go outside and you can see the whole thing at once.
Of course, when I am talking about cities, we have 14
cities where their population exceeds their elevation.
[Laughter.]
Since you have served as the governor of Montana, could you
comment on the unique challenges confronting rural communities
as they seek to encourage volunteerism and civic engagement?
Mr. Racicot. Well, they are unique, unique problems, of
course, with a great many people spread out over large
distances. Of course, if you are going to utilize an equation
or a mathematical formula that is built upon a national scale,
you may not always be able to draw comparisons that are
meaningful and effective.
In addition to that, of course, as you in Wyoming, we have
a great many Native populations in the State of Montana. We
have 13 different tribes and 7 different reservations. As a
consequence of that, we have Native populations that are there,
and they obviously need to be served just like virtually every
other American community. We have unique opportunities to do
that, but it is not always contemplated or hasn't been always
contemplated that those populations may be some of the most
commanding in terms of need and necessity.
There are special challenges. To be quite honest with you,
Senator Enzi, we found those were surmountable. If we were
aggressive, if we were open, if we were persistent, we were
heard, just as others were heard. We had just as much
opportunity to take advantage of the resources that were
offered.
We utilized them for specific needs from fighting fire to
mentoring young people in our rural communities. Frankly, there
is an equality of opportunity here, even in rural States, for
those of us who believe in the program and its ultimate
capacity.
Senator Enzi. Thank you.
We have limited time. I kind of have to skip around here,
and I would like to call on Chairman Solomont.
There are a number of proposals for expanding the scope of
programs authorized in the national service statutes. Given
this expansion, what advice would you offer on how to improve
or build on these programs while strengthening the financial
accountability and respecting the fiscal limitations? As the
accountant of the Senate----
Mr. Solomont. Well, one of the unique characteristics of
the Corporation for National and Community Service is the
bipartisan board that was created when the corporation was
originally created in 1993. The board has played a very
important role in oversight, I think, as Madam Chair knows.
Because when there have been management concerns or
concerns about how we have managed our resources, I think that
that has heightened the attention of the board. We have a very
active Management, Audit, and Governance Committee that really
rolls up their sleeves and gets into the weeds on these issues
quite a bit.
We are now faced with the challenge of allocating funds
that have been entrusted to us through the stimulus package,
$200 million, which will increase AmeriCorps by about 16,000
members. We are proceeding responsibly and steadily and not
trying to manage more than our capacity allows us. I think that
will set us on the glide path to create a better capacity to
manage the kind of growth that this legislation will provide.
Senator Enzi. Thank you, and my time has expired. I will
submit questions for the others. I appreciate everybody's
participation.
Senator Mikulski. Thank you, Senator Enzi. If you are here
before the vote, we might be able to have another round then.
Senator Hatch.
Senator Hatch. Well, thank you, Madam Chairman.
I just want to compliment all of you for the work you are
doing, for what you have done all these years, for what it
means to our country, what it means to those of us up here who
are constantly trying to find ways of making our humanitarian
concerns go farther and farther and farther. And I just want to
pay respect to you.
I will submit any questions, Madam Chairman, that I have. I
am just grateful that you would chair this hearing. Again, I
will mention my friend Senator Kennedy. I know he wishes he
could be here with us today, and I was so pleased to see him
honored on his 77th birthday. It was quite a soiree there the
other night and enjoyed being there with Elaine.
I think too few Americans really know what you folks do,
and frankly, we need to get that out there more. Hopefully,
this bill will assist in many ways to get more people involved
so that we can truly continue to be the great country that we
are.
My own faith, along with the Catholic Church, they have
combined together all over the world in humanitarian concerns,
millions and millions of dollars. Food, clothing,
pharmaceuticals, you name it. Right the minute it happens, they
are ready to go.
You folks are in that same category. I mean, you really,
really do an awful lot of good, and I just want you to know how
much I love and respect and appreciate you.
Thanks, Madam Chairman. Appreciate it.
Senator Mikulski. Senator Murray.
Senator Murray. Thank you very much, Madam Chairman, for
your leadership on this and for holding this hearing.
Thank you to all of you for the tremendous work you do
throughout all of your communities.
I come from Washington State, and one of the things I am
most proud of is my constituents' willingness and energy to get
involved and help in their local communities. Even though this
economic downturn has really hurt a lot of people, there are
still an awful lot of people who are willing to get out and
help and volunteer in their neighborhoods around the State.
The problem that we are seeing is that people don't always
know where to go to get matched up with the right kind of
opportunities, and programs like AmeriCorps only serve a
percentage of those people who do want to volunteer. The
organizations that do coordinate volunteering opportunities are
often flooded with a lot of requests and don't always have
enough help to address those requests.
We have worked to try and address this in the Serve America
Act through the Volunteer Generation Fund, but I wanted an
opportunity to hear from you, Mr. Solomont and Mr. Goldsmith.
How have service organizations and the Corporation been working
to utilize so many people today who are willing to help out,
but might not be available for an intensive program like
AmeriCorps?
Mr. Solomont. Thank you, Senator.
One of the ways is by focusing on the importance of making
the leveraging of volunteer efforts through the AmeriCorps
program part of the accountability to which we hold our
grantees. We understand that we are not only providing
AmeriCorps members to assist in not-for-profit organizations,
but we are providing Ameri-
Corps members for the very purpose of engaging people at other
levels of service.
We have looked at the use of technology to try to reach
folks through both volunteer.gov and to create a platform where
people can go to find other opportunities for volunteering. We
think that the social innovation fund, by finding the next
generation of great social entrepreneurs, some of whom are at
this table, and building to scale some of the next generation
of ideas will also provide new vehicles for engaging
volunteers.
I am sure that the vice chairman would add to that.
Mr. Goldsmith. No, I think Alan said it well, Senator. I
would just emphasize that several years ago, we asked ourselves
this very question, which is every dollar we spend should help
a community organization reach out and incorporate more
community volunteers. We made it part of the peer evaluation of
the grants. We keep score in terms of how much leveraging
occurs.
Areas where we can further this work, whether it be--as
Alan mentioned, we have been very active in using Web 2.0 tools
to get more individuals involved, technologies, as you are well
aware of. We need to do a little bit better job in training
small organizations, who often need our help, but flounder a
little bit on how to do it.
It is an explicit part of our mission and, actually, we
think the very purpose of the organization.
Senator Murray. I have been talking to the Washington
Commission for National and Community Service and service
organizations across my State, and I am sure they are telling
me exactly what all of you are hearing. Right now, there is a
spirit of volunteerism despite the tough economy, but a lot of
our service organizations' budgets are being cut because of
that tough economy right now.
If some of you could comment on what impact you are seeing
as a result, I would appreciate it. Anybody?
Mr. Goldsmith. Just one--the organizations can comment on
it, but one quick response that Chairman Solomont made earlier,
which is this bill allows us to make a fixed grant. Without
going into the technicalities, it will make it much easier both
to comply with the regulations and to proceed in a tough time.
It makes it more flexible for the organizations to go forward.
There is a big change. It is a little technical, but there
is a big change in how we are allowed to operate under this
bill, which will ameliorate that situation somewhat.
Senator Murray. Right.
Mr. Solomont. I would just add a point. One of the
arguments for including national service in the stimulus
package was to try to shore up the not-for-profit sector, which
is a much larger piece of our economy than I think most people
realize and which is under extraordinary pressure and is also
providing front-line service to people who are most victimized
by this economy.
And so, we have made the argument, and I would propose that
this is an argument that we should amplify, that national and
community service is not just a nice thing to do to engage
people, but it is really an important part of tying this
economy together. I think it will be demonstrated particularly
in this time of economic crisis.
Senator Murray. Anybody else want to comment?
Mr. Brown.
Mr. Brown. Senator, it is a time of dissonance, where, on
the one hand, more Americans want to come forward to serve more
than ever. City Year applications are up 180 percent. Teach for
America has 35,000 applicants for 4,000 spots. At the same
time, because of the economy, nonprofits are cutting back, and
that includes service organizations, and there aren't as many
donations to go around.
In the new study that just came out, ``The Quiet Crisis,''
it said that Call Centers United Ways are getting 10,000 more
calls a month across the country just because of the issues of
homelessness and related issues of the economy. That is why
this legislation is critical. It is important to scale existing
organizations, as Alan said, and the stimulus bill as well.
I think what is uniquely possible right now is also working
with the Department of Education that all of these forms of
government and private sector can come together in a unique way
because of the capacity that has been built over the last 16
years. It is essential that we all work together to try to meet
those needs and especially in our communities that are hurting
around the country right now.
Ms. Sagawa. If I could say one thing about the service
infrastructure and that is, the State commissions are a really
vital piece of making sure that all the programs of the
corporation are strong and effective in States. They are going
to have a lot more work because of this bill, which is good,
because we want to push it out into the communities and into
the States.
They are going to need more support in order to do the
important work that they have been given to do. I know that
some of them are really struggling with State budgets now, and
I just want to underline that.
Senator Murray. OK, an excellent point.
Senator Mikulski. Governor Racicot, did you want to comment
on that part of it?
Mr. Racicot. I don't think that I could improve upon the
information that has been provided, Senator. Thank you very
much.
Mr. Strong. I would add one quick comment, and that is in
terms of the older adults, what we are seeing is that they are
able to step forward and offer--and really step into the gap,
where there is a need for volunteerism. Even in this tight
economic time, they still are coming forward, and we expect
that trend to continue.
Senator Murray. Well, I thank you. My time is up, but I
just am really pleased that the President has put this forward
as an initiative that he is truly behind and wants to get
signed into law.
I want to thank you, Senator Mikulski, for your leadership
on moving us to get it to the floor and get it passed. I think,
at a time when a lot of people are hurting, that we have to
take advantage of the spirit of volunteerism that is in this
country today and make sure that those people are getting the
services they need.
Thank you to all of you.
Senator Mikulski. Well, thank you, Senator Murray.
Because of the President's initiative, the compelling human
need out there, the incredible Obama effect that is generating
thousands and thousands of people who want to volunteer, and
the fact that this is actually a bipartisan framework--it is
Kennedy-Hatch--it will be the intention of this committee to
have a markup next week, and the week thereafter to be on the
floor and to have this completed before the Easter/Passover
break.
And the reason for that is to have the changes in the Serve
America Act reflected in this year's appropriations to keep the
momentum going that was provided by the stimulus. So, we can
move forward with the stimulus and then the 2010 appropriations
next October.
Before I go to my questions, many people have mentioned
that in the audience is Harris Wofford. I would like to
formally recognize our former colleague, Senator Harris
Wofford, who was the second CEO of the Corporation for National
Service.
Senator, why don't you stand up? You certainly deserve a
round of applause.
[Applause.]
The first CEO was Eli Segal, and as they say in the Jewish
tradition, a very happy and blessed memory. I believe the
education award also carries the Segal name.
I am going to ask about the education award because that
hasn't come up in this moment where there are so many people
willing to serve. When the bill was first done, we wanted to
recognize two problems of the 1990s. One was converting the
``me generation'' to the ``we generation,'' where we wanted to
inculcate what de Tocqueville called the habits of the heart in
a new generation of Americans.
But the other, an ongoing problem, was student
indebtedness. We've recognized that for many of our young
people, the cost of higher education either was a deterrent to
go or that their student loans was like their very first
mortgage. We came up with a modest grant that was equal to the
average cost of tuition at a college or a university that was a
land-grant college, essentially a State university.
That grant has not changed for more than 15 years. I turn
to the chairman and the vice chairman for comments about this
grant. No. 1, people say, and we will hear it in the markup and
we will hear it on the floor, why should we pay people to
volunteer?
And No. 2, why should we raise it? And dare you say that it
be tax free?
Mr. Solomont. Well, you have highlighted a number of things
that I think that we on the board support and have supported
for a long time, and we thank the sponsors of the bill and
folks who support the idea of raising the Segal education
award. It is long overdue. We would also like to see it tied to
the Pell Grant so that we don't have to wait for new
legislation to do that.
I also wanted to point out that there have been some other
things done in other legislation, which have helped to
recognize the value of service to this Nation and the
appropriateness of acknowledging that through helping people
with their higher education. I believe there was a bill that
was enacted that forgives some of the college loans in return
for certain types of service.
I am pleased--we actually met with the Department of
Education recently. The Department of Education approved Ameri-
Corps as one of the service experiences that would qualify for
student loan forgiveness.
We think that criticism of service as paid volunteers is
probably an old argument. When we see the bipartisan enthusiasm
today for this legislation and for expansion of service
generally and also an acknowledgment of its value and also the
collateral benefit of adding to education of young people, I
hope that we can look forward and not back at some of those
criticisms.
One of the key participants in service are college students
themselves. One of the things that we have talked about, and I
can't remember if it is in the bill now or not or in which
bill, but increasing the number--the requirement for work-study
students, for universities and colleges to focus a certain
amount of their work-study resources to encouraging students,
rather than to provide service to their libraries and
cafeterias, to actually do some work in the communities
surrounding colleges and universities.
I thank you for raising that point, Madam Chair.
Senator Mikulski. Mr. Goldsmith, you are an old hand at
this. Did you want to amplify that, or does that stand?
Mr. Goldsmith. Is ``old hand'' a term of affection, Madam
Chairman?
[Laughter.]
Senator Mikulski. It is. But we are going to come back to
2003.
Mr. Goldsmith. All right, thanks. I am sure we will.
Very quickly on both points, the latter point first. We
made a very intentional effort to look at these AmeriCorps
slots as folks who work at a very minimal level of income in
order to manage other volunteers, unpaid volunteers. We know
these 75,000 manage 4 million individuals, and it is a small
amount of money in order to accomplish that. We don't look at
this as paid volunteerism, and I think the facts support it.
Madam Chairman, I think the other question is enormously
complicated. The implication of your question is correct. The
value of the education award has diminished dramatically. In
addition to it being diminished dramatically, it is also taxed.
It presents a situation where actually some individuals
don't even take advantage of it, and it also presents an
administrative nightmare because, essentially, the education
award and the stipend are connected, and it is kind of a
hydraulic. One will limit the other. You kind of have to guess
where they come out because you make a grant, and it hits the
trust.
I think that given the chair's commitment to service as a
pathway to education, we might ask the question eventually how
we do we look at the larger issues of service? The President
has endorsed a loan forgiveness for service. Maybe over time,
this program needs to be expanded and moved to the Department
of Education. Not the service agenda, but the education award.
It is just there is much more we can do with education than
we can manage with the small amount of education dollars we
have in our trust, and I totally endorse the Senator's
implication. We would like to do a better job. It is simply a
financial issue to us.
Senator Mikulski. Well, might we invite you to do this? I
would like, as we proceed to our markup and on the floor in
discussions with the House, for you all to give us a memo, if
you will, on the flashing yellow lights that you already have
organizationally to administer it and the students' reaction to
it. In some ways, it might put them into a different income
bracket and make them ineligible for other aid. Whatever are
your lessons learned, please include them in the memo.
And then, No. 2, what would be some of those
recommendations? Because since 1993, there have been new
avenues for this, such as, the 2007 bill, the education reform
bill that we did that offers debt forgiveness if you go into
public service.
Let us take a look at it, and then let us work with you all
at the Corporation. Right now, I think we should keep what we
have got through the markup, and then we can always revisit it.
Let me then go to one other question managerially, and then
I am going to go to the service programs. Some of these
questions I am raising because while you heard today the yea-
sayers to this new bill, there are naysayers within the Senate
and within this committee. So I am raising some of the
naysayers' concerns.
One of which, goes back to 2003. In 2003--not to rehash it
in any way, but 2003, the corporation had a bureaucratic
boondoggle. They over enrolled 20,000 volunteers and didn't
have the money to pay for it and almost killed AmeriCorps and
almost killed the spirit of AmeriCorps.
Senator Bond was the chairman of the subcommittee, and I
must really salute him. When he and I had VA/HUD and we had
national service, he was an excellent partner on this. So we
had to jump in. We raised hell about the board, caused a
shakeup, etc.
Having said that, let me go to where we are now. You have
got stimulus money, but you have got all these people, as you
have said, who really want to serve. My question is, No. 1,
does the money match the number of volunteers? No. 2, do you
have the administrative structure to handle both the stimulus
money and also to handle this incredible new demand for people
who want to serve?
And No. 3, can we address the incredible community need
that is bubbling up. It is almost like a tsunami of need in our
community. Much was said about what is happening in the calls
coming in to United Way. I met with my Baltimore United Way. It
is stunning, stunning what is going on.
First, does the money match the need? And second, do you
have the infrastructure to both manage the money, bring in the
volunteers in significant volume, but then get it out in a wise
and prudent way in terms of meeting the need in the community?
Mr. Solomont. First of all, I think we should acknowledge
that the management difficulties that were encountered some
years ago were a great embarrassment to the agency and to the
board. I think the board, at your urging, got much more
involved in dealing with them, and there was a shakeup for the
corporation.
I want to compliment the previous chair, who provided a lot
of leadership during that time, absorbed a lot of criticism,
but I think Chairman Goldsmith then really helped us through
one of the most difficult times for the corporation.
Going forward, I would say that the need is probably
greater than any amount of money that we can apply to it. I
think there were folks who had hoped that there would be a
larger amount of money applied to national and community
service in the stimulus package, but I think we are all
restrained by a sense that it didn't make any sense to get more
money than we had the capacity to put to work.
Senator Mikulski. Because capacity is a big issue, and I am
going to turn to Shirley Sagawa about that. Capacity is a huge
issue, whether it is at the national level or for governors,
who are really so stressed themselves right now.
Mr. Solomont. Well, I think the watchword, as we look
forward to an expansion of service programs across the board--
not just with the stimulus, but with the 2010 budget and
beyond, and with this legislation--is to pursue growth
responsibly and gradually so that we always have the capacity
to put it to work in that way.
We are just going to have to take a slightly longer term
view of this, and we are not going to be able to grow
AmeriCorps to 250,000 members overnight. We do think there is a
great need and desire for that level of AmeriCorps membership.
So, I think we are looking at establishing a glide path of
funding in order to reach that.
I can assure you that the senior staff under acting CEO
Nicky Goren's leadership is very focused on building capacity
to put this to work in a way that I think the board will be
satisfied is prudent and so would you, Madam Chair.
If I may apologize, speaking of higher education, I am
supposed to get an award as a friend of----
Senator Mikulski. You have to go?
Mr. Solomont. Back in Boston. The one requirement is that I
showed up. And I am afraid if I don't leave the hearing, I will
miss the plane.
Senator Mikulski. Well, go ahead. That is OK.
Mr. Solomont. I apologize, but I reiterate my gratitude to
you for your leadership and for calling this hearing.
Senator Mikulski. Well, thank you. And good luck. What is
the award?
Mr. Solomont. I am fortunate enough to serve on the board
of trustees of my alma mater, Tufts University, and because of
whatever contribution they think I have made to higher
education, I am being given an award as a friend of education.
Senator Mikulski. Well, you sure are.
Mr. Solomont. Thank you.
[Laughter.]
I am going to leave the tough questions for Steve.
Mr. Goldsmith. Now I am unencumbered by his presence.
Senator Mikulski. Now he's giving--there you go.
Mr. Goldsmith. Now I will tell you what the real situation
is.
Senator Mikulski. Now I give it to the vice chairman. I
think this is what Obama is going to start to do with Biden.
That is OK.
Mr. Goldsmith. Just very quickly, let me make a couple of
points. I think your question is a serious one that deserves a
serious answer. I don't mean to suggest Alan's wasn't. I mean a
serious ongoing----
Senator Mikulski. Would you like to do this in writing?
Mr. Goldsmith. Yes, because we have a lot more to do, and
this bill will help us do many of those things. We need to be
careful on how--we have a COO, as an addition to CEO. This bill
and this year's appropriation will allow us to actually have an
IT system that supports the field. We need to have an outside
management consultant come in.
We can rethink the way this organization is managed as a
result of this bill, and we take the responsibility of doing
it. We are better off than we were before you admonished us,
and we are not yet ready to manage----
Senator Mikulski. Sure. That was 10 years ago. We really
learned that if we don't have our capacity in place and we
don't have a focused board to deal with it--but I know the
board is very focused now--it can present problems.
Why don't you do a memo for us about capacity? We
authorizers will then share that with Senator Harkin's
appropriations' staff. And while we are authorizing, we are
also looking at what we need to do with the 10 appropriations
so that we don't create hollow opportunities.
To pass an authorization that does not have the resources
behind it just makes us feel good. We want to do good, which
means we have to then do the authorizing and the
appropriations, but in a way that achieves these managerial
efficiencies and stewardship that Senator Enzi has been so
excellent in articulating and standing sentry over. Why don't
you give that to us in writing?
Let me go to some of the service aspects. I want to go to
those who are doing the service, both you, Mr. Brown and to Mr.
Strong, because you have been part of AmeriCorps. Then I will
come back to you, Michelle.
Within the Serve America bill, there is the establishment
now of separate corps. The Experience Corps stays the same.
There is the Education Corps, the Clean Energy Corps, the
HealthCorps, and so on.
Based on your experience, would you endorse that being in
the bill, and would you give commentary on whether it be
separate or part of AmeriCorps?
Mr. Brown. I think it is the perfect next step for national
service, Madam Chairwoman. The existing AmeriCorps framework is
so responsive to State and local needs and has really let 1,000
flowers bloom.
Now at the same time, we know we have major national
challenges in education, healthcare, clean energy, and poverty.
It is essential that there be a national component to national
service and that national service shows that it can actually
move the needle on something.
That is where we will get national service one day at a
major scale. We will get to that million-person level when
national service can be that focused on common metrics
throughout the country.
That is what these new corps do. They provide an
opportunity for common metrics. I think that will allow a
scaling up. I also think it is a responsible scaling up. We are
going to 250,000 members. It is a 175,000 increase over 4
years. And so, I think that those capacities can be built over
time.
I know for the high school dropout crisis, all the research
is basically saying that unless we bring a transformative new
resource, such as young people into the schools, we can't get
the job done. They need to be brought in in large enough
cohorts.
And finally, I think there is an opportunity with these new
corps to be very strategic because someone now at the
Corporation for National Service can say, ``I have got 100,000
possible new members to put into education. How can I work
strategically with local school districts around the country
that want to scale up a specific resource, and how can I work
with the Department of Education, Secretary Duncan?''
I think that is a whole new way of using national service
resources.
Senator Mikulski. The vote is starting.
Mr. Strong.
Mr. Strong. I would only add, Madam Chairman, that what I
see that it does, in addition to what Michael is saying, is
that I think it is a powerful catalyst for each one of these
categories. What it does is that it gives a framework within
which we can really draw more and more service support for each
of these critical sectors.
I concur that I think it is a valuable----
Senator Mikulski. Experience Corps, for example, in
Baltimore has been focused on education. You talked about the
work of Barclay School that has been ongoing for a while. And
really, they kind of grow up and grow old together.
In addition to education, is Experience Corps involved in
other activities as well?
Mr. Strong. Certainly the original vision for Experience
Corps was to serve multiple needs. However, at this moment in
time, we feel that we have really begun to develop best
practices in the area of education. We really have begun to
make a scalable model that we think really has significance for
the country.
Our intention certainly for the medium term is to stay
focused on education because we think we can have a major
impact in that area.
Senator Mikulski. That goes to what Mr. Brown has said.
Let us go to health, and we also want to acknowledge that
the national community HealthCorps is here, and they already
have made a very big footprint.
You know, the country and the Congress is obsessed with
outcomes. Certainly Congress is, and they talk a lot about
educational outcomes, and you have worked to help. In health,
whenever we talk about health reform, we talk about insurance
reform. That is not a bad thing to talk about, but it doesn't
get us to health reform.
Now speaking as a grassroots community organizer myself, I
wonder, Michelle, if you could tell us what you did to improve
the health outcomes of the students in the schools that you
have been in. You have worked with a tough population, which is
teen and preteen. They are used to schoolmarmish lectures,
those god-awful movies about the importance of eating fruits
and vegetables.
We won't even talk about sex education. No, no, no. Not at
this hearing. You know, health education tends to be deadly and
dull.
Ms. Bouchard. Well, our program----
Senator Mikulski. Did your work----
Ms. Bouchard. Pardon?
Senator Mikulski [continuing]. The work of the volunteers
improve health outcomes?
Ms. Bouchard. It certainly changed their behaviors. We know
that now. Actually, Dr. Oz is going to present the results of
this first study, and it has decreased their amount of soda
consumption. If you heard Dr. Weil speak on the integrative
hearing, he believes that soda will be the No. 1----
Senator Mikulski. Yes, but what you said was that when you
were here the other day, you talked about how young, energetic
people went in, and they had new, edgy ways of communicating
with teenagers.
Ms. Bouchard. Yes.
Senator Mikulski. You got them focused. Well, if you said
to a strapping young male, ``Eat your broccoli,'' you know,
they would turn green all right.
Ms. Bouchard. That is right. Especially if I said it, as a
47-year-old.
Senator Mikulski. In the 30 seconds before I have to leave,
what did you do?
Ms. Bouchard. We went in and we made the lessons
intrinsically fun. They were fun. Because kids don't want to
learn lessons, and they don't even want to do something if you
say, ``Hey, this is good for your body.'' They don't care. They
want to have fun. Our messaging to the kids from other young
people is fun.
Senator Mikulski. But, it did improve health outcomes?
Ms. Bouchard. It did, yes.
Senator Mikulski. You also said it started a pedometer
craze or a walking craze?
Ms. Bouchard. Yes. Actually, it spread out to the
community. In fact, in Pennsylvania at one school, the
coordinator gave out pedometers to the other students, and it
started a craze in the town because everyone wanted a
pedometer.
Senator Mikulski. See, I think these new corps are
identifying things. When we look at something that would go
across agencies from national service to education to health
and human services, where we looked at not programs, but
communities, this is going to make a difference.
Thank you.
Before I go, Ms. Sagawa, you are, again, experienced in
this, and we have talked about the corps. There are some very
unusual and innovative things in here. The Community Solutions
Fund pilot program, is this venture capital? Don't tell me this
is TARP meets national service.
[Laughter.]
Ms. Sagawa. With a lot more accountability.
Senator Mikulski. I knew that would wake everybody up.
Ms. Sagawa. It is like venture capital. It is based on
venture philanthropy, which focuses very much on outcomes and
focuses on scaling organizations that have achieved results.
This would be capital that would be leveraged through
funders to go to organizations that have proven they work. They
are ready to scale, and their challenge is finding growth
capital. This is a way for the Federal Government to leverage
$3 for every $1 it invests.
Senator Mikulski. Which is what we talked about earlier.
Ms. Sagawa. Yes, which we really need. It is a way of
solving problems that is kind of different for the Federal
Government but could be a great model for other areas if it is
successful. That is why we call it a pilot program.
Senator Mikulski. How much are we talking about?
Ms. Sagawa. Well, I haven't seen the final numbers in the
bill. It is a modest investment, I think, initially of around
$50 million? I think there is a lot of potential for it to
grow.
What is great about it is it would allow for both national
funds to tackle big issues that the whole country is challenged
with. One of the great things about AmeriCorps has been its
national direct fund, which allows organizations like City Year
and Experience Corps that operate in more than one State to not
have to apply to every single State to get the money they need
in order to grow.
That is one thing the fund would do, and the other would be
local communities could decide our big problem is teen
pregnancy, or it is crime in this neighborhood. Then they could
bring the best solutions to scale, whether they are homegrown
or something that they learned about that is half way across
the country that could be imported.
Senator Mikulski. Well, thank you. I think that answers the
question.
We are going to adjourn the hearing, not because we
couldn't have another round, and we certainly had some
questions for Governor Racicot.
First of all, I want to thank everybody in this room--
especially, everybody on the panel. Thank you for your service
and your dedication.
To everybody in this room, you wouldn't be here if you are
not involved in some way. To quote our President, everybody in
this room makes a difference. You do it every single day. Let
us work together and let us make change. Everyone makes a
difference when we work together. Let us make change. Time to
turn the page.
Thank you.
This committee stands in recess, subject to the call of the
Chair.
[Additional material follows.]
ADDITIONAL MATERIAL
Prepared Statement of Wendy Kopp, CEO and Founder of Teach For America
Thank you for the opportunity to submit testimony in support of S.
277, the ``Serve America Act.'' Teach For America greatly admires and
appreciates the work that you and this committee are doing to expand
national service opportunities. I applaud the leadership that Senators
Kennedy and Hatch have so ably demonstrated in moving forward with this
bill. Both Senators have led by example--their own careers are
testaments to public service. I would also like to express my sincere
admiration and respect for the presiding chair, Senator Mikulski, for
her unwavering dedication to national service throughout her career,
through personal service to VISTA, public service as an elected
official, and as the self-proclaimed ``Godmother of Community
Service.'' Of course I would also like to recognize and thank President
Obama for his leadership in renewing a national spirit of service.
Teach For America exists to address educational inequity--the
reality that in our Nation, which aspires so admirably to be a land of
equal opportunity, where one is born still largely determines one's
educational outcomes. Despite plenty of evidence that children growing
up in poverty can excel academically--when given the opportunities they
deserve--the stark reality in our Nation today is that many of the 13
million children growing up below the poverty line do not achieve at
acceptable levels for our community or our country.
Educational inequity is one of our Nation's greatest injustices,
and in these challenging economic times it is even more crucial that we
continue to invest in proven strategies that work to close this
achievement gap. Indeed, for the long-term economic strength of our
country, we must redouble our efforts in ensuring that all of our
Nation's children have access to a high-quality education.
Fortunately, the Serve America Act is being proposed at a time when
our Nation's future leaders are yearning to answer the need for
excellent educators. Over the last few months, more than 35,000
outstanding recent graduates of all academic majors and career
interests have applied to Teach For America, determined to channel
their talent and energy against educational inequity. Not only do these
numbers set a new record for us, but Teach For America is attracting a
higher quality pool of recruits than ever before. For example, over 11
percent of all seniors at the Ivy League colleges applied this year.
And continuing a trend that has been growing for several years, Teach
For America also received large numbers of applicants from exceptional
Historically Black Colleges and Universities, including a remarkable 25
percent of the graduating seniors from Spelman College and almost 9
percent from Morehouse College.
Teach For America will select around 4,000 rare leaders from among
these applicants and will train and support them to teach successfully
for 2 years in our Nation's highest poverty communities and then to
work throughout their lives, from inside and outside of schools, to
increase educational opportunity in America. With the help of this act,
we will be able to grow that number further and to increase our corps
members' immediate impact raising student achievement as well as their
long-term impact leading some of the country's most innovative
organizations working to expand educational opportunity.
Indeed, I am particularly excited that the act will help to grow
the number of great teachers in our schools through the Education Corps
Fund, which is focused on increasing student academic achievement.
Research has consistently shown that having a great teacher in the
classroom is the most important factor for students' academic success
and the Serve America Act will provide additional incentives to bring
more high-caliber leaders into the classrooms that need them most, both
by providing more AmeriCorps slots and thus increasing the number of
education awards, as well as growing the value of the education award
itself.
For the recent college graduates who become Teach For America corps
members, the ability to work as teachers directly after college puts
them on a path to a lifetime of service. Through nearly 20 years of
experience, I have seen that teaching successfully in an underserved
community is transformative for so many of our Nation's top young
people. While only 1 in 10 corps members say they were considering a
career in teaching before they joined Teach For America, two-thirds
continue to work full-time in education as alumni. This re-inforces for
me the importance of investing young people in service.
I am also excited that the act encourages innovation in the
nonprofit sector. From my vantage point I have seen many of our
talented alumni meld their dedication to service with their
entrepreneurial spirit to create some of the most innovative and
successful social enterprises in education, like the Knowledge Is Power
Program (KIPP) and The New Teacher Project. At Teach For America, we
aim to facilitate the growth of the next generation of social
innovators who will help us to realize educational equity. I believe
the Community Solutions Funds provision of this legislation will help
make that happen, while also encouraging promising social entrepreneurs
to focus on solving local problems. And I look forward to the findings
of the commission created by this legislation to study and improve how
the Federal Government, nonprofits and the private sector can work
together to meet challenges effectively.
Certainly there is no investment with a greater long-term return
than an investment in the education of our Nation's children, and I am
so pleased that this committee has taken the leadership to harness the
burgeoning desire of people across the country for public service and
direct it towards the injustice of educational inequity. We can solve
educational inequity--the only question is whether our response to the
problem will be big enough and effective enough. With the help of the
Serve America Act, we are determined to make it so.
Questions of Senator Hatch to Stephen Goldsmith and Alan Solomont
questions to stephen goldsmith
Question 1. The Serve America Act represents a significant new
investment in volunteer service programs on the part of the Federal
Government. In addition to increasing resources, this legislation will
amplify the mission and role of the Corporation for National and
Community Service. While the bill is also intended to enhance the role
of State governments in volunteer service, the Corporation will clearly
be given more responsibility under the new programs.
What action has the Corporation taken to prepare for this increase
in both its mission and its role?
Question 2. In this age of bailouts, stimulus packages, and omnibus
spending bills, I think many of our constituents are more concerned
than ever about how Congress and the Federal Government use taxpayer
funds. As a co-author of the Serve America Act, I believe that a modest
investment in volunteer service is not only justified, but necessary
under the current economic conditions. That said, I believe we'd be
shirking our responsibility if we did not act to make sure that any new
programs are undertaken in a prudent and cost-effective manner.
How, in your view, can we ensure that we generate the highest
return on this new investment in service?
questions to alan solomont
Question 1. The Serve America Act represents a significant new
investment in volunteer service programs on the part of the Federal
Government. In addition to increasing resources, this legislation will
amplify the mission and role of the Corporation for National and
Community Service. While the bill is also intended to enhance the role
of State governments in volunteer service, the Corporation will clearly
be given more responsibility under the new programs.
What action has the Corporation taken to prepare for this increase
in both its mission and its role?
Question 2. In this age of bailouts, stimulus packages, and omnibus
spending bills, I think many of our constituents are more concerned
than ever about how Congress and the Federal Government use taxpayer
funds. As a co-author of the Serve America Act, I believe that a modest
investment in volunteer service is not only justified, but necessary
under the current economic conditions. That said, I believe we'd be
shirking our responsibility if we did not act to make sure that any new
programs are undertaken in a prudent and cost-effective manner.
How, in your view, can we ensure that we generate the highest
return on this new investment in service?
Questions of Senator Hatch to Stephen Goldsmith
Question 1. As you know, many of the most effective service efforts
in the country are spearheaded by faith-based and church-sponsored
organizations. In recent years, the Federal Government has pursued
initiatives that have allowed these groups to compete with secular
organizations for funds and assistance in providing non-religious
services. It is my hope that this will continue with the passage of the
Serve America Act. While I do not believe we can accord faith-based
groups any special treatment or status in these programs, I believe we
need to make sure they are given a fair shake as they compete for
funds.
In your opinion, how can we best ensure that faith-based groups are
treated equally with their secular counterparts in terms of getting
support to provide vital human services?
Questions of Senator Hatch to the Panel
Question 1. While working on the Serve America Act, one of my top
priorities was increasing accountability in our service programs. As
with any Federal Government program, I believe that we need to be
results-oriented. After all, if we aren't focused on achieving specific
results and accomplishing specific goals, why are we creating new
programs? So, as we're discussing what the new generation of national
service will look like, I'd like to hear some of the panel's thoughts
as to how we'll measure the success of national service going forward.
Two years from now, after this legislation is enacted, what does
success in the service field look like? Will it be measured in terms of
the number of Americans serving? Or will it be a track record of
success in addressing one or two big problems?
Questions of Senator Hatch to Marc Racicot
Question 1. As we work to foster more volunteer service, I believe
that we need to harness the ingenuity and inventiveness of the American
people. Toward that end, I think we've crafted a bill that will have
enough flexibility for groups and individuals to come up with their own
ideas on how to best serve the people in their communities. As we work
to address our nation's problems, I think innovation and new ideas will
be invaluable assets.
What are some of the best examples of innovation that you've seen
in the area of volunteer service and how can we best utilize these
ideas while both limiting the investment of resources and maximizing
potential benefits?
[Editor's Note: Responses to the above questions were not available
at time of print.]
[Whereupon, at 4:30 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]