[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 85 (Tuesday, June 8, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4651-S4652]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            THE RELEVANCE AND IMPORTANCE OF NATIONAL SERVICE

  Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have the 
following statement by Patrick Corvington, chief executive officer of 
the Corporation for National and Community Service, printed in the 
Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

Patrick Corvington, CEO, Corporation for National and Community Service 
                         In School and On Track

     City Year National Leadership Summit on Service and Education

                    (Los Angeles, CA, May 18, 2010)

       Thank you, Michael for that gracious introduction. And 
     thank you for the opportunity to join with City Year as well 
     as the Entertainment Industry Foundation as we shine a 
     spotlight on the essential role of national service in 
     solving America's drop-out crisis.
       I want to begin by congratulating Michael and City Year for 
     your visionary leadership in this work. We often hear many 
     stories about young college roommates starting new companies 
     from their dorm rooms and becoming billionaires. Michael and 
     Alan had a different idea. In 1988, these two Harvard Law 
     School roommates enriched us all by acting on their belief in 
     the power of citizen service by creating City Year.
       And now as a key member of the AmeriCorps network, City 
     Year and its growing cadre of diverse and talented corps 
     members has become a model for service in America. Thank you, 
     Michael for this gift to the nation.
       I also want to thank Lisa Paulsen, President and CEO of the 
     Entertainment Industry Foundation for co-sponsoring this 
     summit and for adding the drop-out crisis to your growing 
     portfolio of service campaigns. Lisa has been a good friend 
     to me and to the Corporation. Last year, under her 
     leadership, EIF launched iParticipate. As part of that 
     effort, last October, more than 100 TV shows focused their 
     programming and storylines on service. EIF has also been a 
     supporter of City Year, ServiceNation and a number of other 
     service organizations. Thank you, Lisa, for inviting 
     Hollywood into our service family.
       As many of you know, I was confirmed as CEO of the 
     Corporation for National and Community Service on February 
     18th, so today marks my third month on the job. I've been out 
     on the road to see the impact that our programs, members and 
     partners are having across the country.
       A couple of weeks ago, I was in San Antonio delivering the 
     commencement address at the University of Texas and had the 
     pleasure of seeing the Diplomas Now collaborative in action 
     during a visit to McAuliffe Middle School. One of the most 
     illuminating aspects of that visit was when the school 
     principal told me that City Year and Communities in Schools 
     had been working in McAuliffe for some time. But it was when 
     they chose to partner and focus single-mindedly on helping 
     students that he began to see remarkable progress.
       Los Angeles is also a place where Diplomas Now is making a 
     real difference. Early results from two of LA's toughest 
     middle schools--Leicthy and Hollenbeck--show remarkable 
     progress: a 40 percent decrease in students failing math and 
     a 43 percent decrease in students failing English.
       I remember coming to this country as an immigrant and 
     hearing from my high school counselor, as he looked across 
     the table with earnest concern, that I wasn't college 
     material and that I should go to trade school--I ended up 
     going to night school and working my way through college. 
     After seeing Diplomas Now in action, I wonder how different 
     my journey would have been had I been surrounded by young 
     people in red jackets who were more interested in seeing me 
     succeed than in telling me that I couldn't.
       Your red jackets have become a symbol of hope for a whole 
     generation of young people who might otherwise be shackled 
     with the chains of low expectations.
       It is fitting that this summit has brought us here to Los 
     Angeles--a city of many community challenges but also of 
     tremendous assets and wealth. A place where diversity and 
     disparity live side by side.
       City Year is changing lives here in LA, in Chicago, 
     Philadelphia, New Orleans and throughout this nation. The 
     results you are achieving show us we have the power to beat 
     back the drop-out crisis, and that service has a central role 
     to play in this effort. Education is the engine that drives 
     our nation's progress. But more than that, it is the gateway 
     to a life of purpose and meaning.
       In this global economy, education will be the fault line 
     between success and failure, not only for our young people, 
     but for our country.
       Ben Franklin said, ``An investment in knowledge always pays 
     the best dividends.''
       There is nothing more critical to the future of this nation 
     than making sure that every school . . . in every community . 
     . . is equipped to give every young person in America the 
     knowledge and the skills . . . to build lives of meaning . . 
     . and to compete and win in the global economy.
       But make no mistake--this is an unforgiving competition--
     one in which there are no excuses for failure and few second 
     chances.
       Since our inception, education has been one of our top 
     priorities at the Corporation.

[[Page S4652]]

     We understand that closing the achievement gap and reducing 
     the drop-out rate requires not only government action, but 
     also the involvement of families and communities. In the past 
     15 years, we have supported a number of education programs 
     throughout the country.
       For example, right here in Los Angeles, through their work 
     with the National Farm Workers Service Center, AmeriCorps 
     members are achieving remarkable results. They are raising 
     reading and math scores for children of families living 60 
     percent below the poverty line. Families that are too often 
     overlooked and left behind.
       I believe one of the significant challenges we face in 
     service today is how we build communities from the inside out 
     while also ensuring that they have access to the best 
     national resource like City Year. That is where success lies. 
     We cannot continue to believe that we can change lives, 
     change communities but leave them out of the change process. 
     We need to do a better job of aligning our resources in 
     communities, engage stake holders, and demonstrate the power 
     of service.
       You know, many of us think of ourselves as organizers--
     movement builders. If we are to use the rhetoric of grass 
     roots organizing, then it should be grass roots and it should 
     be organized.
       Only by bringing together national leaders and communities 
     can we demonstrate the power of service in solving problems.
       I saw this very thing yesterday when I visited Hope for the 
     Homeless here in L.A. This program is changing the face of 
     AmeriCorps. They have recruited AmeriCorps members who have 
     lived the very lives they are trying to change.
       Sitting before me in their blue shirts, they talked about 
     leading lives of purpose, about leading lives of meaning, 
     about realizing what it means to have people depend on them, 
     believe in them.
       Some have spent the better parts of their lives in prison, 
     others on the streets, but all in the crippling prison of 
     despair. But all of them--every single one of them, has been 
     transformed by AmeriCorps, by service.
       I was struck. Not just by their stories, but also by how 
     similar those stories were to those I've heard from other 
     AmeriCorps members--from NCCC members in Colorado, from VISTA 
     Volunteers in West Virginia, and from City Year members in 
     Texas.
       No matter where they come from, no matter what their 
     experience--blue shirts or red jackets, the transformation is 
     real, it is tangible, it is profound.
       Transformation is not easy. If it were, we'd have it done 
     by now. It takes courage. The courage to cross boundaries, 
     the courage to reach out of our comfort zones, most of all 
     the courage of humility. But if the AmeriCorps members at 
     Hope for the Homeless have the courage to change their lives, 
     and the City Year Corps members have the courage to go into 
     some of the toughest schools in the toughest communities, 
     then surely we have the courage to be bold.
       That's really why all of us are here today. This is not 
     about feeling good and good intentions--it is about the kind 
     of future we are creating for ourselves, our children.
       This is an exciting time to be in what I like to call the 
     solutions business. We now have a President and a First Lady 
     who understand something we've known for a very long time--
     service is not secondary to solving the drop-out crisis and 
     other pressing problems--it is essential to solving them. 
     President Obama has issued a challenge that every American 
     become engaged in some way in their community.
       Every American, everyone, has a role, and service can 
     illuminate that path, can help people find themselves in the 
     solution.
       Last year, with the help of many of you in this room, the 
     President signed into law the Serve America Act, the most 
     sweeping expansion of national service in a generation.
       The Act challenges us to do a better job of demonstrating 
     and measuring our effectiveness in solving problems.
       Undergirding that mandate are four major goals: First, to 
     fulfill the promise to make service a solution for big 
     national problems. Second, to expand opportunities for more 
     Americans of all ages and backgrounds to serve. With new and 
     diverse voices come new and innovative ways to approach and 
     solve problems. So we need to embrace innovation by expanding 
     proven programs and seeding promising emerging ones and 
     finally we need to build the capacity of individuals, 
     organizations and communities by giving them the tools they 
     need to succeed.
       City Year, with its laser focus on solving the drop-out 
     crisis is a case-study in the fulfillment of all these goals. 
     You are making service a solution. You are expanding 
     opportunities for young people from diverse communities to 
     serve.
       And you're building the capacity of teachers, 
     administrators and communities to turnaround failing schools 
     but most of all you are giving students who need it most, the 
     help they need to succeed. The entire service community has 
     much to learn from you.
       While Congress has expanded our mandate and given us more 
     resources, the American people now expect us to use this 
     opportunity to take service to the next level.
       That means more of a focus on measuring outcomes to ensure 
     that our efforts are making a difference.
       At the end of the day, it won't mean a thing if we increase 
     the number of volunteers and a million kids are still 
     dropping out of school. It won't mean a thing if 15 million 
     people are still out of work. It won't mean a thing if our 
     communities continue to decline.
       For too long, too many of us have been satisfied with 
     saying that ``we tried.'' That's no longer good enough. We 
     must not only try, we must succeed. But the only way we will 
     be successful, the only way we will win, is if we have the 
     courage to plant a stake in the ground, draw a line in the 
     sand and say that we are willing to be measured, to be 
     judged, to be held to account.
       At a time of great need, Americans are responding to 
     President Obama's challenge.
       But, to fulfill this new vision for service, we need a 
     stronger investment from every sector. We don't only need 
     more volunteers; we need them focused, like City Year, on 
     solving specific problems. We don't just need more volunteer 
     hours; we need to make sure those hours add up to results.
       In order to do this, we need full funding of the 
     President's budget request for the Corporation and its 
     programs. The President's 2011 budget request of $1.4 billion 
     will strengthen our nation's civil society, foster innovation 
     and civic engagement, and engage more than 6 million 
     Americans in solving problems through service. If we make 
     these needed investments. If we face the future with the 
     courage to change. Then, and only then, will we fulfill our 
     commitment to the American people.
       So, let me say again, thank you to City Year for showing us 
     the way. Thank you to the young AmeriCorps and City Year 
     members who go into classrooms everyday to mentor, teach, and 
     inspire struggling students. And thank you to everyone in 
     this room who is a part of making service a solution.
       The great American educator, Mary McLeod Bethune once said, 
     ``We have a powerful potential in our youth, and we must have 
     the courage to change old ideas and practices so that we may 
     direct their power towards good ends.''
       What I've seen City Year do in classrooms throughout this 
     country is give young people the hope for a better tomorrow . 
     . . the support they need to overcome the odds . . . the 
     strength and the courage to dream big dreams. And so, I want 
     to say to Michael and the City Year corps members here today, 
     when someone asks you 20 years from now where did you stand 
     when more than half of young people in some of our largest 
     cities were not finishing high school . . . Where did you 
     stand when more than 12 million children were living in 
     poverty . . . where did you stand when we were struggling to 
     lift up students whose dreams were crumbling as fast as the 
     schools around them . . . you can proudly say, I stood with 
     City Year. I stood with AmeriCorps. I stood with service.
       Thank you.

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