[House Hearing, 110 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
STRENGTHENING COMMUNITIES: AN OVERVIEW OF SERVICE AND VOLUNTEERING IN
AMERICA
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON HEALTHY
FAMILIES AND COMMUNITIES
COMMITTEE ON
EDUCATION AND LABOR
U.S. House of Representatives
ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
HEARING HELD IN WASHINGTON, DC, FEBRUARY 27, 2007
__________
Serial No. 110-5
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Education and Labor
Available on the Internet:
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/house/education/index.html
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
33-395 PDF WASHINGTON : 2007
---------------------------------------------------------------------
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government
Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866)
512-1800; DC area (202) 512-1800 Fax: (202)512-2250 Mail: Stop SSOP,
Washington, DC 20402-0001
COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR
GEORGE MILLER, California, Chairman
Dale E. Kildee, Michigan, Vice Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon,
Chairman California,
Donald M. Payne, New Jersey Ranking Minority Member
Robert E. Andrews, New Jersey Thomas E. Petri, Wisconsin
Robert C. ``Bobby'' Scott, Virginia Peter Hoekstra, Michigan
Lynn C. Woolsey, California Michael N. Castle, Delaware
Ruben Hinojosa, Texas Mark E. Souder, Indiana
Carolyn McCarthy, New York Vernon J. Ehlers, Michigan
John F. Tierney, Massachusetts Judy Biggert, Illinois
Dennis J. Kucinich, Ohio Todd Russell Platts, Pennsylvania
David Wu, Oregon Ric Keller, Florida
Rush D. Holt, New Jersey Joe Wilson, South Carolina
Susan A. Davis, California John Kline, Minnesota
Danny K. Davis, Illinois Bob Inglis, South Carolina
Raul M. Grijalva, Arizona Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Washington
Timothy H. Bishop, New York Kenny Marchant, Texas
Linda T. Sanchez, California Tom Price, Georgia
John P. Sarbanes, Maryland Luis G. Fortuno, Puerto Rico
Joe Sestak, Pennsylvania Charles W. Boustany, Jr.,
David Loebsack, Iowa Louisiana
Mazie Hirono, Hawaii Virginia Foxx, North Carolina
Jason Altmire, Pennsylvania John R. ``Randy'' Kuhl, Jr., New
John A. Yarmuth, Kentucky York
Phil Hare, Illinois Rob Bishop, Utah
Yvette D. Clarke, New York David Davis, Tennessee
Joe Courtney, Connecticut Timothy Walberg, Michigan
Carol Shea-Porter, New Hampshire
Mark Zuckerman, Staff Director
Vic Klatt, Minority Staff Director
------
SUBCOMMITTEE ON HEALTHY FAMILIES AND COMMUNITIES
CAROLYN McCARTHY, New York, Chairwoman
Yvette D. Clarke, New York Todd Russell Platts, Pennsylvania,
Carol Shea-Porter, New Hampshire Ranking Minority Member
Dennis J. Kucinich, Ohio Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon,
Raul M. Grijalva, Arizona California
John P. Sarbanes, Maryland Bob Inglis, South Carolina
Jason Altmire, Pennsylvania Kenny Marchant, Texas
John A. Yarmuth, Kentucky Luis G. Fortuno, Puerto Rico
David Davis, Tennessee
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
Hearing held on February 27, 2007................................ 1
Statement of Members:
Altmire, Hon. Jason, a Representative in Congress from the
State of Pennsylvania, prepared statement of............... 1
McCarthy, Hon. Carolyn, Chairwoman, Subcommittee on Healthy
Families and Communities, Committee on Education and Labor. 2
Platts, Hon. Todd Russell, Senior Republican Member,
Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities, Committee
on Education and Labor..................................... 4
Sarbanes, Hon. John P., a Representative in Congress from the
State of Maryland, prepared statement of................... 2
Shays, Hon. Christopher, a Representative in Congress from
the State of Connecticut, Co-Founder and Co-Chair, National
Service Caucus, prepared statement of...................... 22
Statement of Witnesses:
Daigle, Thomas, former AmeriCorps member..................... 33
Prepared statement of.................................... 35
Edelman, David R., former AmeriCorps*NCCC member............. 29
Prepared statement of.................................... 31
Eisner, David, CEO, Corporation for National and Community
Service.................................................... 5
Prepared statement of.................................... 7
Gomperts, John S., president, Civic Ventures; CEO, Experience
Corps...................................................... 24
Prepared statement of.................................... 26
Moore, George, executive director, Community Progress Council 37
Prepared statement of.................................... 38
STRENGTHENING COMMUNITIES:
AN OVERVIEW OF SERVICE AND
VOLUNTEERING IN AMERICA
----------
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
U.S. House of Representatives
Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities
Committee on Education and Labor
Washington, DC
----------
The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 2:00 p.m., in
Room 2175, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Carolyn McCarthy
[chairwoman of the subcommittee] presiding.
Present: Representatives McCarthy, Clarke, Shea-Porter,
Grijalva, Sarbanes, Yarmuth, Platts, and McKeon.
Staff present: Tylease Alli, Hearing Clerk; Alejandra Ceja,
Senior Budget/Appropriations Analyst; Adrienne Dunbar,
Legislative Fellow, Education; Denise Forte, Director of
Education Policy; Lamont Ivey, Staff Assistant, Education;
Danielle Lee, Press/Outreach Assistant; Stephanie Moore,
General Counsel; Joe Novotny, Chief Clerk; Rachel Racusen,
Deputy Communications Director; Robert Borden, General Counsel;
Kathryn Bruns, Legislative Assistant; Taylor Hansen,
Legislative Assistant; and Brad Thomas, Professional Staff
Member; Linda Stevens, Chief Clerk; and Kim Zarish-Becknell,
Legislative Counsel.
Chairwoman McCarthy [presiding]. The hearing will come to
order. A quorum is present. The hearing of the subcommittee
will come to order.
Welcome to the first hearing of Healthy Families and
Communities Subcommittee. The purpose of today's hearing is to
provide an overview of national service programs.
Pursuant to committee rule 12(a), any member may submit an
opening statement in writing, which will be made part of the
permanent record.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Altmire follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Jason Altmire, a Representative in Congress
From the State of Pennsylvania
Thank you, Chairwoman McCarthy. It is a great honor for me to serve
on this Subcommittee in this Congress and I look forward to working
under your leadership.
I would like to extend a warm welcome to all of the witnesses. I
appreciate the time you are taking to be here and I am eager to hear
your views on volunteering in America.
Volunteers are a large part of what makes America such a great and
strong nation. Throughout this country volunteers fill in gaps where
local, state and federal governments are unable to effectively serve
people. Further, the community-minded spirit fostered by volunteer
activity benefits all people by strengthening the fabric of our nation.
The two acts we are here to discuss today, the National and
Community Service Act of 1990 (NCSA) and the Domestic Volunteer Service
Act of 1973 (DVSA), authorize a total of six community service
programs, which represent the majority of the federal government's
involvement in the volunteer world. These programs are designed to
promote currently unmet human, educational, environmental and public
safety needs and to renew a sense of civic responsibility by
encouraging citizens to participate in national service programs. These
programs both support pre-existing government agencies and non-profit
organizations and create new service organizations to meet needs that
are not currently being addressed.
Western Pennsylvania has benefited dramatically from the specific
service programs that are made possible by NCSA and DVSA. In western
Pennsylvania, these programs include tutoring children who are at risk
for falling behind academically, helping to staff and administer Adult
Education classes, providing services to the homeless, and increasing
HIV/AIDS awareness.
In 2005, nearly 500,000 people volunteered through programs
authorized under either NCSA or DVSA. I know that the Corporation for
National and Community Service has ambitious goals to increase this
number. It is my sincere hope that these goals are met and that service
programs continue to play an integral role in improving our nation.
______
[The prepared statement of Mr. Sarbanes follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. John P. Sarbanes, a Representative in
Congress From the State of Maryland
Chairwoman McCarthy, working alongside people of all backgrounds,
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. encouraged Americans to come together in
service to others because he recognized that service could be a great
equalizer in society. ``Everybody can be great,'' he said, ``because
everybody can serve.''
Service has always factored heavily in my life. Providing Americans
with the opportunity to serve and encouraging more to do so is a means
by which we can reinvest in America and rebuild the reputation of this
great democracy abroad. As Dr. King recognized, we can accomplish so
much together if Americans of every age, gender, race, and social or
economic background contribute to our democracy through service.
AmeriCorps, for example, has proven the value of service in
thousands of towns and communities across the country. Schools today
are struggling with a host of issues; among them are teacher shortages
and a lack of sustainable incentives to attract bright and talented
young adults to the teaching profession. AmeriCorps teachers leave
their service experience fueled with a sense of responsibility to
under-resourced communities and a passion to teach. Hundreds of
thousands of lives have been changed for the better because of the
dedication and hard work of our AmeriCorps volunteers. But it is not
enough--we can do much more.
Our nation desperately needs a restored sense of greatness, a sense
of purpose and a renewed sense of civic responsibility. That we have
largely neglected national service programs since 1993 when President
Clinton first created AmeriCorps is a disgrace. By reinvigorating
national and community service programs, we feed our democratic spirit
and cultivate citizenship. We bolster the best of what citizenship is
about, being engaged in democracy through service. The result will be
more vibrant communities and a stronger America, cultivated through
experiences that all people can share regardless of their background.
No young American should be deprived of these opportunities due to a
lack of commitment from Washington.
I would like to thank the Chairwoman for having this hearing. Your
commitment to service and volunteering in America is clear and I look
forward to working with you to strengthen and expand service programs.
______
Chairwoman McCarthy. I now recognize myself, followed by
the gentleman from Pennsylvania, Ranking Member Platts, for an
opening statement.
I am so pleased that the Healthy Families and Communities
Subcommittee is holding its first hearing on the issue of
national volunteer service.
And I would like to thank our very distinguished panelists
today for their testimony and for their commitment to national
service.
I would also like to say that I am looking forward to
working with Ranking Member Platts, who is the co-chair of the
National Service Caucus. On these issues, we will move ahead
together.
National service has a distinguished and strong history in
our nation. Our roots in service extend back to the first
pioneers, when colonists had to ban together to overcome the
challenges of surviving and adjusting to a new land. Since the
time of the formation of our nation, Americans have volunteered
to help each other in times of war, tragedy and need.
Benjamin Franklin started the first volunteering
firefighter company. In 1933 during the Depression, President
Roosevelt started the Civilian Conservation Corps to renew the
nation's destroyed forests. And during World War II, the Office
of Civil Defense was formed to organize support for the war
efforts.
In 1961, President Kennedy started the Peace Corps, and in
1970 President Nixon started the National Center for Voluntary
Action. More recently, President H. W. Bush started the Points
of Light Foundation, President Clinton started AmeriCorps, and
President George W. Bush created USA Freedom Corps in his 2002
State of the Union address.
Evidence shows that service and volunteering lowers dropout
rates among teens, lowers crime rates in communities with high
rates of volunteerism, lowers costs associated with the aging
population and improves the health and lowers the rates of
depression among the elderly.
Volunteering is a cost-effective way of meeting our
nation's social needs, both from the standpoint of the
volunteers and the people who benefit from the services.
Today, we will hear from witnesses about current national
service programming, including AmeriCorps, Senior Corps and
Learn and Serve America. In my home state of New York, more
than 76,000 people of all ages and backgrounds are helping to
meet local needs and strengthen communities.
There are 239 national service programs in New York alone.
In my district, we have more than 1,300 service volunteers, and
we have almost 3,000 students, age K through 12, that
participate in the Learn and Serve programs.
Our national service volunteers tutor and mentor youth,
help build houses, clean parks and streams, help communities
respond to disasters, including Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and
9/11. They provide leadership in managing community projects
and help conduct safety patrols in the neighborhoods. The
volunteers who give their time are from diverse backgrounds and
span all generations.
I truly believe that expanding national service,
particularly to disadvantaged youth, is an effective way to
combat things like youth gangs and violence, and the evidence
bears that out. And it is critical that we begin teaching about
participation and service at an early age.
I am looking forward to learning from this and other
hearings we will hold on this issue how we can mobilize more
volunteers, ensure a brighter future for all of America's
youth, engage students in communities and harness the
experience of our seniors.
With that, I now yield to the distinguished ranking member,
Mr. Platts, for an opening statement.
Mr. Platts. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. I appreciate your
holding this hearing on the importance of volunteering and
service in our great country. And I especially want to
congratulate you on your chairmanship and very much look
forward to working with you on this and many other issues, our
shared interest in and dedication to.
And I think it is so appropriate that we begin with this
topic, which really sets a great tone for the rest of this term
on the issues of healthy families and communities. So, again,
congratulations on your new chairmanship.
Chairwoman McCarthy. Thank you. I am looking forward to
working with you.
Mr. Platts. For over 13 years, the Corporation for National
and Community Service, CNCS, an independent federal agency
tasked with administering federally funded service programs,
has been coordinating community service efforts around the
country through its three main programs: Senior Corps,
AmeriCorps and Learn and Serve America. CNCS helps Americans
give back to the communities and nation.
The purpose of today's hearing is to learn more about our
nation's community service efforts and discuss ideas for
legislation to reauthorize programs administered through the
CNCS. Programs governed by CNCS receive funding through two
federal statutes: the National Community Service Act and the
Domestic Volunteer Service Act. The authorizations for both of
these programs expired in 1996; however, funding has been
continued through annual appropriations legislation.
As a co-chair of the National Service Caucus, with
Representatives Chris Shays, Doris Matsui and David Price, I am
especially pleased that we are holding this hearing today. It
is important to learn about the most productive ways that we
can target and leverage federal resources to expand service
programs.
I look forward to hearing the testimony regarding
innovative ways which service programs have provided assistance
to needy individuals and their families. I also look forward to
discussing improvements that we can make to these vitally
important programs.
As the subcommittee considers a reauthorization of these
programs this year, we must focus on crafting legislation which
strengthens service programs, while focusing also on
accountability.
Finally, I want to thank again our witnesses that Madam
Chair referenced. We appreciate your efforts in being here
today, the written testimonies, which gives us some great
insights to your various perspectives on these programs and
look forward to the opportunity to give and take with you once
we get into the questions.
So with that, Madam Chairwoman, I yield back.
Chairwoman McCarthy. I thank you, Mr. Platts, and I hope
you will allow me to join your caucus. I would love to be a
part of the membership.
Mr. Platts. We would be honored to have you.
Chairwoman McCarthy. Thank you.
I see that a number of members have joined us: Ms. Clarke
from New York, my great city. I see that Mr. Sarbanes from
Maryland is here, and John Yarmuth from Kentucky has joined us.
And I thank you for joining us, gentlemen.
Today we will be hearing from two panels. On the first
panel, we hear from Mr. David Eisner. On the second panel, we
will hear from four witnesses: John Gomperts, David Edelman,
Thomas Daigle and George Moore.
At this time, I would like to introduce our very
distinguished first witness, Mr. David Eisner. Since 2003, Mr.
Eisner has been the chief executive officer of the Corporation
for National Community Service.
He is a nationally recognized leader in organization
effectiveness and has focused his efforts on making the
corporation's programs more effective and accountable. He has
vast experience in the volunteering and nonprofit world and
brings a great deal of consistency, predictability and value to
the corporation's programs.
Prior to coming to the corporation, Mr. Eisner was vice
president at AOL-Time Warner, where he directed the company's
charitable foundation. He is no stranger to the Hill, having
served as a press secretary for three members of Congress.
Welcome, sir, and we are looking forward to your testimony.
Mr. Eisner. Thank you, Madam Chairman.
Chairwoman McCarthy. Before you start, I need to explain,
this is my first time up here, so if you hear me make some
mistakes, I am just nervous. [Laughter.]
So before you begin, let me explain our lighting system and
the 5-minute rule.
Everyone, including members, is limited to 5 minutes of
presentation or questioning. The green light is illuminated
when you begin to speak. When you see the yellow light, it
means you have 1 minute remaining. When you see the red light,
it means your time has expired and you need to conclude your
testimony.
Please be certain as you testify to turn on and speak into
the microphone in front of you.
We will now hear from the first witness.
STATEMENT OF DAVID EISNER, CEO, CORPORATION FOR NATIONAL AND
COMMUNITY SERVICE
Mr. Eisner. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman, Congressman
Platts, members of the committee. I appreciate the opportunity
to testify here today about the role of service and
volunteering in America.
What I want to do today is spend some time talking about
the corporation and our programs, talk about how service is an
effective intervention and some of the key areas we need to
focus on and why we are at a moment of opportunity today.
As the chairwoman did, the corporation starts from the
premise that our communities are at their best, healthiest and
most effective when citizens partner to tackle the toughest
problems that we are facing: gangs, crime illiteracy, teen
pregnancy, high school dropouts and the divide between haves
and have-nots.
The corporation exists to bolster and strengthen what the
president calls the armies of compassion. We do this through
five powerful programs.
Senior Corps: Through foster grandparents, senior
companions and RSVP, our Senior Corps programs engage 500,000
older Americans in meeting pressing needs in their communities.
AmeriCorps: 75,000 Americans are engaged in this program to
do intense service through the network of nonprofits that
supports our country, and in return they receive and education
award of $4,725.
VISTA is AmeriCorps' anti-poverty and capacity-building
arm. NCCC is AmeriCorps' high-intensity, residential, team-
based program for 18-to 24-year-olds. And Learn and Serve
America brings service together in a contextual learning
environment for 1.3 million students in K-12 through college.
Now, service can change people's lives in a dramatic way.
And if we look at some examples, look at children of prisoners.
These are youth and children living often in tough
circumstances, and they themselves have a 70 percent likelihood
of ending up following their parents into jail or prison. And
yet we know that having a mentor can cut that likelihood in
half.
Look at children in foster care and the ones who are aging
out--20,000 a year. Again, we see extremely high likelihood
that these children could end up homeless, potentially going to
prison or having other kinds of behavior that is not likely to
lead to success in their future lives.
And yet the citizen, by reaching out, can dramatically
change the chances that this young child can succeed. We have
VISTAs who deliver citizens to mentor foster care kids as they
get out of foster care.
But we think that the real important is to focus on youth,
not as recipients of service or as clients but as assets. Mrs.
Bush and the Helping America's Youth initiative reminds us that
when people participate in service they get confidence, they
feel empowered, they are able to focus on what they need to do
to turn their own lives around, because they have already been
focusing on how to be effective in their community and how to
turn lives around in their communities.
So we have seen all of this power on display in the Gulf
after Katrina. Thirty-five thousand participants of our
national service programs have been down in the Gulf, changing
lives, rebuilding communities and re-fostering the civic ethic
that is there in the Gulf coast. And partly as a result of
their efforts, we have seen 500,000 other citizens
participating.
But what I hope to leave you with is that we are currently
at a moment of extraordinary opportunity. Our research shows us
that volunteering in America is around a 30-year high over
multiple years. Over the next decade we are going to see
boomers driving our demographics so that we will see 86 million
Americans over 65 compared to 35 million today.
But most important, and the last that I will leave you
with, we see today 16- to 19-year-olds 100 percent more likely
to volunteer than they were in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
These young Americans want to be asked how they can help solve
some of the challenges in our country and in our communities.
We need to fan that spark and find ways to ask them.
Thank you.
[The statement of Mr. Eisner follows:]
Prepared Statement of David Eisner, CEO, Corporation for National and
Community Service
Chairwoman McCarthy, Congressman Platts, members of the
Subcommittee, I appreciate the opportunity to testify before you today
about the role of service and volunteering in America.
Service is a strong and powerful point of leverage for America
because it taps into America's greatest strength--her citizens. Across
America, our communities are at their best, healthiest and most
effective when citizens partner to tackle our toughest problems: gangs,
crime, drugs, homelessness, illiteracy, children aging out of foster
care, elder care, drop outs, teen pregnancy and the divide between
haves and have-nots. In fact, the power of American citizens in
service--and in partnership with our social service delivery
mechanisms--gets at the heart of nearly every issue under this
committee's jurisdiction.
The Corporation for National and Community Service exists to
bolster and strengthen these armies of compassion and through them the
health of America's communities. Our mission is to improve people's
lives, strengthen communities and foster civic engagement through
service and volunteering.
Today, we are witnessing an extraordinary convergence that makes
this mission more powerful than it has ever been before. On the one
hand, the need for our armies of compassion, of citizens armed with
idealism and determination, has never been greater to improve the
trajectory of the lives of young people and families struggling to
reconnect to the American dream. On the other hand, we are at the same
time experiencing the birth of a once in a lifetime kind of shift
toward service, volunteering and civic engagement. Coming out of the
smoke and ashes of 9/11 we saw Americans engaged in extraordinary acts
of compassion. In his 2002 State of the Union address, the President
issued a call to service in which he asked all Americans to devote
4,000 hours of their lives, or two years, to service. He has worked
hard to rally our armies of compassion and to engage citizens in moving
away from the role of spectator, toward an embrace of service as a
strategy for addressing some of our most intractable problems.
And millions of Americans have answered that call. Today, our
research shows that overall volunteering in America is at a 30-year
high. More than 2 million more Americans are volunteering than in the
year following 9/11. Led by older teens, Baby Boomers, and Americans
over 65, our citizens are reinventing America's entrepreneurial spirit
at the community level and they are rolling up their sleeves to tackle
the hard work. We at the Corporation are dedicated to doing everything
we can to grow this surge of civic engagement and to ensure that these
dedicated Americans have every tool at their disposal to make their
service meaningful and effective, so that together we can solve
problems and restore hope in our communities.
There is one trend in particular to which we must pay careful
attention: older teens today are more than twice as likely to serve and
volunteer as older teens in the proceeding three decades. Teens today
are twice as likely to volunteer than teens in the '70s, '80s and '90s.
We also know that the strongest predictor of whether a person
volunteers as an adult is whether he or she has volunteered in their
youth. More than anything, this is the trend that is worthy of all of
our consideration and as much effort as we can collectively expend,
because, if we get it right, our communities and our nation could
become the beneficiaries of an entire generation that is as dedicated
to engagement and problem solving as what we now think of as the
Greatest Generation, that reached about the same age at the onset of
World War II.
Much of the power of this vision has been on display since we
confronted the worst natural disaster in our history in 2005. Hurricane
Katrina revealed nature at its worst. But it also showed America at its
best. Thousands of volunteers came from across the United States in an
unprecedented outpouring to help the residents of the Gulf coast. More
than 35,000 national service participants contributed nearly 2 million
hours of service to the hurricane relief and recovery efforts--clearing
tons of debris, serving hundreds of meals, mucking and sanitizing
thousands of homes, and most importantly renewing the hope of families
and communities struggling to rebuild. And they have been a significant
contributor to the more than 500,000 community volunteers who have
served in the Gulf. Hurricane Katrina was a defining moment for
national service. Disaster hit and we responded immediately.
But the compassion we see in the Gulf was not an isolated event; it
happens every day in cities and towns across America.
We see our powerful national service programs and idealistic
members and program participants as an important part of the
scaffolding upon which our communities build some of their most
effective citizen engagements and community volunteer activities. The
five major national service programs that the Corporation supports are
all dedicated to supporting serious problem solving through citizen
engagement.
For 40 years, Senior Corps programs have been at the forefront of
engaging older Americans in meeting pressing needs. Through the Foster
Grandparent program, older Americans spend an average of 20 hours a
week inside the schools and youth centers of some of America's most
poverty stricken communities, supporting and mentoring children who
need to know that a caring adult is on their side. And Senior
Companions come into the homes to maintain the dignity and independence
of those who are otherwise too frail or elderly to live on their own.
RSVP connects older Americans with a plethora of service opportunities
through more than 70,000 nonprofit and faith-based groups across the
country. In total, more than 500,000 older Americans serve their
communities through one of these Senior Corps programs.
The basic deal of AmeriCorps is simple: idealistic Americans spend
a year of service helping meet critical needs in education, public
safety, health and the environment. And at the end of their year of
service AmeriCorps members receive a scholarship of $4,725 to pay for
their future education--or to repay their student loans. The AmeriCorps
network of local, state, and national service programs engages more
than 75,000 Americans in intensive service each year. AmeriCorps
members serve through thousands of nonprofits, public agencies, and
faith-based and community organizations.
Later this year, AmeriCorps will reach a milestone when more than
500,000 Americans have taken the pledge to ``Get Things Done.'' And I'm
proud to note than most of those members will have taken that pledge
since President Bush took office.
VISTA is the anti-poverty and capacity building arm of AmeriCorps,
born out of the War on Poverty and 6,600 strong. These VISTAs are
America's domestic equivalent to Peace Corps volunteers, living,
serving, and bringing meaningful change to America's most poverty-
stricken communities by engaging their citizens in the arduous work of
lifting themselves out of poverty.
Under AmeriCorps' NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps),
dedicated 18-24 year-olds receive special training and work in full-
time team-based residential programs and travel across the country to
tackle one urgent problem after another; their rapid ability to deploy
and expertise were on particular display during the aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina, where they were among the first on the ground and
remain a strong force multiplier today.
Learn and Serve America is the on-ramp to a lifetime of service.
Through educational grants to K-12 schools, universities, and community
organizations, Learn and Serve America fosters service-learning
programs nationwide. Service-learning is a teaching method that
combines service with classroom learning. All of our research shows
that service-learning reduces risky behavior, improves academic
achievement, and is the best predictor of a child's civic engagement as
an adult.
Part of the power of the national service network is that in every
state and territory we have governor-appointed state service
commissions. Commissions oversee most of the national service
activities in each state, especially AmeriCorps programs and the
Commission is also usually the organization charged by the Governor
with encouraging volunteering and civic engagement statewide and
driving key statewide social priorities like literacy and mentoring.
The Corporation also has field offices representing and providing
additional resources to every state and territory.
Another ingredient of the success of national service is that it is
a public-private partnership. Each year the Corporation's grantees
collectively raise $375 million in non-Corporation funds--and the vast
majority of these funds are private. This partnership helps to leverage
federal dollars and ensures local buy-in for the programs we fund.
A growing body of research demonstrates that volunteers not only
improve reading scores when they tutor, or make it more likely that
youth will be successful in life by mentoring, but the thousands of
things volunteers do represent the social glue that translates into the
health of our communities. Just as one can build financial capital,
individuals who volunteer build a community's ``social capital.''
Americans who volunteer are also likely to vote, know their neighbors,
and be engaged in local affairs. Indeed, you will find that communities
with higher levels of volunteering are also places where people have
greater trust and knowledge of their neighbors. This means that
communities with a higher level of volunteering and other forms of
community life exhibit such attributes as strong parental engagement in
schools, low crime rates, and even economic prosperity.
As the Subcommittee considers the opportunities that service
provides to create healthier families and communities, I'd like to
quickly hit on some of the challenges where the upside of citizen
engagement is the most compelling, where American citizens have the
best opportunities to make a difference in the lives of those who are
hurting and to solve some of the key issues that plague America today.
The President has often spoken of the challenge of supporting the 7
million children who have one or more parent in prison. Without
effective intervention, 70 percent of these children are likely to
follow their parents' path, ending up in prison themselves. Corporation
programs are engaging citizens across the country to make inroads in
combating this generational despair.
One of the projects we support is a program, Amachi, which was
started in Philadelphia by the former mayor, the Reverend Wilson Goode.
Amachi engages, trains and supports Americans, mostly from the faith
community, who take on the challenge and reward of mentoring children
of prisoners. We know that one volunteer mentoring a child of a
prisoner can cut the likelihood of that child going to prison in half.
With our VISTA members, AmeriCorps grants, and Senior Corps
participants supporting a rapid scaling strategy, Amachi has grown.
Another great challenge facing us is the 20,000 young people who
age out of the foster care system each year. At a crucial age when so
many Americans are being shepherded by their parents, many of these
kids have no one to help them get a job or continue their education.
We have AmeriCorps VISTA members helping bridge that gap for this
vulnerable population in many different states. In California, for
example, the Foster Youth Empowerment Service Center serves at-risk
children and youth in the high desert region of San Bernadino County.
The program concentrates on foster youth who have become or are in
danger of becoming homeless when they age out of foster care. The
center brings together crucial resources to foster youth ages 16 to 21.
VISTAs set up a database to establish each youth's needs and goals and
they coordinate with community partners to develop programs to assist
young people in designing an individual transition plan based on the
youth's needs assessment.
And in Washington state, we are about to launch a crucial VISTA
program that provides mentors for children aging out of care. Without
these key interventions, many of these young people would fall into
lives of crime and despair.
Too often people think of disadvantaged youth as clients to be
served instead of leaders and problem solvers. As the First Lady has
made clear with her Helping America's Youth initiative, society is
better served when we understand that children are our best assets.
When you connect disadvantaged youth to service, you build their
confidence, give them a sense of personal responsibility, lower their
sense of victim hood, and give them a tangible sense that they can make
a difference in their life and the lives of others.
While the problems are great, we can work towards solutions.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 15 percent of
America's teens use illicit drugs and the abuse of prescription drugs
is on the rise: Oxycontin use among eighth graders has doubled since
2002 and one in ten high school seniors abuse Vicodin. The Office of
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention reported in 2003 that 23
out of every 1000 teenage girls aged 15-17 became teen mothers and 18
percent of America's youth live at or below the poverty level. An
estimated 760,000 youth are involved in gangs. The FBI reports that in
2005 law enforcement agencies arrested 1.5 million young people under
the age of 18; therefore youth account for 15 percent of all arrests.
We can prevent more young people from becoming part of these crime
statistics not only by providing services to them, but by engaging them
in supporting their own communities.
We have research showing when we engage disadvantaged youth in
service, we greatly enhance their chances for success. Kids engaged in
serving their own troubled communities are less likely to engage in
risky behavior, are more likely to graduate and go to college. In fact,
service is one of the best and most effective interventions for youth
in disadvantaged circumstances, one of the most compelling reasons that
service is no longer simply a nice thing to do; it is necessary to the
health of our nation.
Let me give you an example of how this works. In Nassau County,
Queens and Brooklyn, New York, a network of schools, colleges, and
community and faith-based organizations called the Schools Partnership
Collaboration or SPARC, foster service-learning for more than 1600
students in public and private schools. Minneola High School is the
lead school and partners closely with Holy Cross High School in Queens.
Each of the schools conducts multiple service projects in the local
community. Projects include outreach to veterans and working on
literacy and enrichment activities with elementary schools and the
Hispanic Counseling Center School Age Child Care program. By engaging
young people in service, this program greatly increases their self
esteem and reinforces classroom learning.
Think of the power of engaging our young people who are not
contending with disadvantaged circumstances. Imagine if on every
college campus we engaged students in solving some of the problems of
their local communities. We know from a study we published last fall
that college student volunteering is up--by 20 percent. But still only
one-third of students on campus volunteer; that's not enough. We have
more work to do to engage the other two-thirds to make a powerful
difference in the lives of young people in communities across America.
And the opportunity to use service as an intervention that can
change the course of the life of the person serving is not only
applicable to youth. Some of our most powerful work is going on in
connecting citizen service with the field of prisoner re-entry. Never
before in our society have we had more people coming out of prison than
going in. Nearly 650,000 people are released from state and federal
prison yearly and arrive on the doorsteps of communities nationwide. A
far greater number re-enter communities from local jails, and for many
offenders and defendants, this may occur multiple times in a year.
According to the Department of Justice, over 50 percent of those
released from incarceration will be in some form of legal trouble
within 3 years. Among some populations recidivism can reach as high as
80 percent.
Those coming out of prison need a job, a place to live, and
connection to society. It's the connection to society that can serve as
a gateway to all of the elements of success, supporting them in getting
a job and a place to live, connecting them to faith-based and community
groups that give them a sense of purpose and creating a gateway for
them to thrive.
In fact, we are particularly excited about service work in the
realm of re-entry because we are building powerful models of
collaboration with other federal agencies. In 30 cities we have 140
VISTAs who are participating with community based organizations
collaborating with Department of Justice Weed and Seed sites to build
re-entry programs.
One of these great re-entry projects is the Potter's House in the
Dallas area which sponsors a VISTA program that works with local
Department of Justice Weed and Seed sites. The VISTAs serve in five
cities with the highest number of prisoners being released into the
state of Texas. The VISTAs recruit and create volunteer curricula for
training mentors and volunteers on how to best meet the needs of this
population. The VISTAs also link resources to ex-offenders so they have
the opportunity to succeed and not recidivate back to the prison
system.
In Bend, Oregon, one of our AmeriCorps grantees--a group called
Civic Justice Corps--engages prison inmates in meaningful service.
Sadly, the director Dennis Maloney, passed away earlier this month. But
before his passing, he built an incredible program.
Dennis gave up a promising NFL career to become a VISTA member.
After VISTA, he started work in the field of corrections and eventually
became a prison warden. Knowing the power of service from his VISTA
days, Dennis encouraged the prison staff to create service projects to
engage the inmates rather than impose harsh penalties from the top
down. Inmates didn't serve in punitive ways--such as in chain gangs,
but in constructive ways. The community loved the idea. The inmates
built the Bend Child Abuse Advocacy Center, Habitat for Humanity homes,
and a local homeless shelter. They served their community and they also
received great job skills. Because of Dennis' work, 30 states have
rewritten the purpose clause of their juvenile code to include service
as part of their juvenile justice systems.
As we look at all of these pressing issues, we must remember to
view them as part of the large demographic shift that is taking place
in America. We are moving into a time where our traditional workforce
will be half of what it is today as a percentage of our population. The
fastest growing age group in America is aged 85 and older, and they are
a major driver of health care costs. In 2020, approximately 1 in 6
Americans will be aged 65 or older. By 2050, when the Baby Boomers will
be age 85 and older, there will be over 86 million people older than 65
living in the United States, compared to 35 million today.
Last year with the passage of the Older Americans Act, you
considered some of these issues. We would urge you, as a Subcommittee,
as you continue to consider what it means to have healthy families and
communities, to view this demographic shift as the largest opportunity
of all. Imagine if retiring Baby Boomer teachers were willing to tutor
and mentor disadvantaged youth. Or older business people could provide
business advice and career counseling. Or retired doctors, nurses, and
trained medical personnel could provide health care services to low-
income and elderly neighbors.
Last year Corporation programs delivered independent living
services to over 100,000 frail or elderly Americans. In Pima County,
Arizona for example, Senior Companions help older or disabled clients
at a family services program live with more independence and dignity.
In 2006 alone Senior Companions served nearly 1000 clients. More often
than not, friendships and long lasting bonds of trust develop between
Senior Companions and clients, thus lessening the isolation and
depression that can afflict so many older Americans.
Despite these great successes, we still have a lot of work to do.
With our board of directors, the Corporation, has developed a bold
strategic plan (I have copies here for you today) that is harnessing
America's volunteers to tackle key problems in this country.
First, we plan to grow the numbers of Americans
volunteering to 75 million by 2010. To move towards this goal, we have
made volunteer leveraging a priority in our grants, promoted online
volunteer matching, are working to enhance volunteer infrastructure,
management and retention, and we have published half a dozen reports on
trends in volunteering to serve as a roadmap to best recruit
volunteers.
Second, by 2010 we hope to increase the numbers of Boomers
in service by 3.2 million to 29 million. At the White House Conference
on Aging, we launched a national campaign, called ``Get Involved,'' to
tap the vast experience of the a highly educated, healthy, and skilled
cohort of 77 million Baby Boomers to serve and give back.
Third, we will motivate the enthusiasm of college students
and plan to increase the number of college students engaged in
community service by 2.7 million to 5 million by 2010. Things are
moving in the right direction. In a survey of college freshman, the
Higher Education Research Institute reported that two out of every
three entering college students believe it is essential or very
important to help others who are in difficulty, which is the highest
level it has been in the last 25 years. We were overwhelmed by the
response to the first-ever President's Higher Education Community
Service Honor Roll--a program that recognizes outstanding community
service on college campuses. Over 500 colleges applied in its first
year.
And finally, we know that service instilled at a young age
can lead to service habits that last a lifetime and help youth take
ownership of their problems, rather than feeling like victims.
Therefore our plan calls to engage 3 million youth and children from
disadvantaged circumstances in service and provide mentoring to 5.5
children and youth, since we know that 15 million at risk youth do not
have a mentor. Last year we launched a Federal Mentoring Council and a
National Mentoring Working Group, comprised of leading nonprofit and
private sector groups who work with disadvantaged youth.
As our Board Chairman Steve Goldsmith, the former mayor of
Indianapolis, said when the strategic plan was launched, ``We believe
that a better future for all Americans will include a more widespread
culture of service, more opportunities for all young people to succeed,
more schools that encourage citizenship, and more older Americans using
their lifetime of skills to give back to their communities.''
We are excited about where we are going as an agency. To help us
move towards our goals, the President has submitted another strong
budget request--of $828.7 million--for the Corporation in fiscal year
2008. This budget, which will support 75,000 AmeriCorps members, over
500,000 Senior Corps members, and 1.3 million Learn and Serve America
participants, is an important sign of this nation's commitment to
service. It also provides key resources, leveraging the work of a
national network of partners that engage volunteers, from state and
local government to businesses to nonprofit, faith-based, and community
groups.
The challenges our nation faces are daunting. But since the early
days of this republic, volunteers and an engaged citizenry have made
America great. Again, we must focus on what we owe today's 16-19 year
olds, who are twice as likely as the generation before them to
volunteer.
Our job is to fan that spark because our nation can't hope to
achieve its potential unless we all do our part.
The Corporation's mission--to improve lives, strengthen
communities, and foster civic engagement through service and
volunteering--has never been more important or more connected to the
most pressing social challenges of our day. We look forward to working
with this committee to meet the challenges of our time.
______
Chairwoman McCarthy. Thank you for your testimony.
I see that Carol Shea-Porter from New Hampshire has joined
us, and I appreciate that.
I want to thank you for your testimony.
I now recognize myself for 5 minutes.
Reading your testimony in the last couple of days, you
mentioned that the President's Higher Education Community
Service Honor Roll is one way of motivating college students to
serve. Are you thinking at all about possibly bringing a
program like that to our high schools?
Mr. Eisner. Yes. We actually had for a while a presidential
freedom scholarship where we were honoring service, and it was
a useful tool to help recognize some levels of service, but we
weren't seeing that we were driving in any sort of sustainable
way the kinds of service that was the most effective in the
community or connecting the school institution.
The reason that it is important to do in higher ed is
because we need the institutions to pay attention to their--
usually they have a double motto: ``We are building citizens
and we are preparing people with skills.''
In high school, we find that Learn and Serve America, which
is our service learning program, is a more effective way to try
to build institutions that connect service to the contextual
learning environment so that our kids get on to the onramp of
service.
Chairwoman McCarthy. My time is up already. Wow. No? Okay.
Mr. Platts. Your time is never up, Madam Chair. [Laughter.]
Chairwoman McCarthy. Do you have any suggestions for the
committee on K-12 or higher ed policies that we should consider
as we look at these laws, as we go toward reauthorization?
Mr. Eisner. I think there are a lot of things we should be
thinking about. Don't have specific proposals at this point for
the committee, but I will tell you some areas you may want to
look at. Certainly look at federal work study, which originally
was conceived to support service activities, and yet that has
become a smallish portion of the federal work study.
I also think that we should be doing a better job of
informing students that when they are getting federal work
study they are allowed by law to ask their institutions to be
placed in doing service rather than, for example, cafeteria
work. So the federal work study is one place.
I think another place to focus on is in the area of
professional--teaching our teachers and education certification
and making sure that service learning is something that our new
generations of teachers, as they come out of their professional
education that they know how to do service learning and how to
engage our kids.
Chairwoman McCarthy. That is great.
Mr. Platts, would you like to ask some questions?
Mr. Platts. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman.
Again, Mr. Eisner, I appreciate your testimony and your
leadership for this very important program. I wish I had known
that about the federal work study when I was in college. I cut
a lot of grass, raked a lot of leaves on the campus. I would
rather have been out in the community probably doing service,
so I am glad to know that and shared that with my institutions
to encourage their students today.
There are a host of issues that you touched on that I think
are so important as we go forward, but the one that in your
testimony kind of correlates to a subsequent witness, Mr.
Daigle, in his written statement he says, ``Service sticks.''
In other words, if you get started young, it stays with you
through your lifetime. You touched on that.
And the impact, the positive impact, such as those children
of prisoners and getting them engaged, they are less likely to
be in prison. We try to follow that at home ourselves, my wife
and I, with our children, 7 and 10, getting them--we ring the
bell for the Salvation Army each holiday season. We go to help
serve meals and things.
Is there any consideration of trying to mesh the work you
are doing with foster children who are aging out? And is that
at 18 when they typically age out of foster care?
Mr. Eisner. They age out at 18. We are trying to work with
them before that.
Mr. Platts. Right. Is there any consideration to give them
additional consideration for going into the NCCC program as a
way to help them, as instead of being homeless, getting them
into a residential program of service to try to mesh those two
areas?
Mr. Eisner. Yes. In general, we are working within the NCCC
program to try to make the program more welcoming overall of
youth from disadvantaged backgrounds. And that is certainly an
area that within NCCC they would be extremely sensitive to.
I want to quickly note that Merlene Mazyck, the director of
NCCC, is here, and that is an area she is attentive to.
Mr. Platts. Right. It seems it would be a natural match,
and the evidence and your statistics or the benefits to that
individual, that foster child, as they are aging out, and to
the community, again, at large would be significant. Appreciate
that that is something you are looking at.
In your testimony, you talk about the various areas, and in
my own experiences, I have worked with AmeriCorps workers,
partnered with Habitat, building homes in my district with
Senior Companions, helping other seniors stay in their home
settings.
But you touched on education, public safety, public health,
environment. What guidelines or what process is involved from
the national level of deciding we are going to commit this
amount of grant money to education related or to health care,
public safety, the environment? Or is that left to really the
state and local partners more so than a national formula in
each of those areas?
Mr. Eisner. It is really right now a combination. A huge
amount of the consideration starts when we see what the
application pool looks like in any given year, which helps us
understand what the demand is.
But assuming an equal or an unchanging pool, currently the
board has set four priorities. We particularly want to be
making sure that we are supporting disadvantaged youth. We want
to be making sure that we are getting ready for the tsunami of
the boomers and that we are welcoming them. We want to be
better engaging students in higher ed to support in their
communities. And, overall, we want to grow American
volunteering to 75 million.
So those are loose guidelines that we use as we construct
our portfolio. But, again, the two things that are the most
important is the demand that we are seeing across the portfolio
and the quality of the individual programs. If an environmental
service program is doing things that are outstanding with
volunteers, that is going to be something that we are really
interested in focusing on, because we want to support social
entrepreneurship and we want to support excellence through our
portfolio.
Mr. Platts. One final question before my time is up, the
way you break it out there is an annual review of the partners,
but if they are in the process, they are likely to be renewed
unless there is some reason not to. Is that a fair statement?
Mr. Eisner. Every AmeriCorps grant is on a 3-year cycle, so
their renewal for years 2 and 3 depends on whether they are
hitting their basic benchmarks, but it is not really an open
competition. And then for year 4 and for year 7 and so on, they
engage in an open and pretty rigorous competition.
Mr. Platts. And those benchmarks are something agreed to
between the corporation and the partner upfront?
Mr. Eisner. We put out regulations, and we have moved all
of our components of the grant-making consideration process
really into regulations so that our grantees have a really
solid and reliable understanding of what we are going to use to
measure them.
Mr. Platts. Pretty standard across the board?
Mr. Eisner. Yes.
Mr. Platts. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Chairwoman.
Chairwoman McCarthy. I thank you for your questions.
Generally, the chair will recognize members for questions
in order of appearance but will additionally take into
consideration members who stay during the testimony.
Having said that, the gentlelady from New York, Ms. Clarke,
is recognized for 5 minutes.
Ms. Clarke. Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and
congratulations on this very important hearing, being our first
hearing and being your first time at the gavel, I understand.
Mr. Eisner, welcome.
Mr. Eisner. Thank you.
Ms. Clarke. I think that it is clear that the answer or
answers to the issues facing the volunteer community in certain
programs have a common thread, and your testimony really
touched on that. And that volunteer work both strengthens
community bonds and individual members of the community almost
simultaneously.
The question that we may not be able to answer right now
is, where will we find the citizens interested in participating
in the service programs available to them?
You talked about the baby boomers, and across the nation we
know that there is this group that we call the baby boomers.
Developing the desire to want to give and understand how these
programs have worked I think is a very importance piece that we
cannot underestimate, just sort of marketing and getting it out
there on the ground. And the community, I think in anticipation
of that, I think will help drive the success of what we are
talking about.
I will give you an example. In the mid-1990s, I was the
director of the Bronx portion of the Empowerment Zone in New
York City, and there I really believe some great work took
place. And having access to VISTA in particular where we talk
about capacity building and really enabling people to empower
themselves was a great gift that those who participated
received and those who were the recipients of the work
received. And what it did too was promote the program and have
people inquire, ``Well, how do I get into VISTA, how do I
become a member of AmeriCorps?''
I just wanted to get a sense of what the growth and
expansion rate has been for these programs, because, again, I
think there is nothing that promotes a program more than
actually hitting the ground and working in communities and
using that as part of a marketing tool that sort of draws
people into the program.
Mr. Eisner. Thank you.
As far as how the programs have been growing, we are pretty
close to a high watermark on all of our programs. AmeriCorps
has 75,000 members as a result of President Bush in 2004
increasing that by about 50 percent and then maintaining that
level. And we are seeing since 1993 when it began we have been
seeing steady growth of almost all the programs. There are some
exceptions.
I think one of the amazing things, though, is that we are
seeing really rapid growth in the number of Americans that want
to do service. And I want to note that most service--of the 65
million Americans that served in 2005, next to them the
national service participants is relatively miniscule.
The role of national service, I think, we are never going
to be able to provide opportunities for everyone to serve, but
we can provide a scaffolding, community by community, that
allows lots of service to take place.
Ms. Clarke. In your testimony, you pointed out four main
goals to advance service participation across all demographics.
It seems clear that an important facet of these goals is for
the AmeriCorps education programs, which were originally
allotted $10,000 per participant in the 1994 budget.
Do you believe that increasing funding for these programs
from the current $4,725 would allow for the growth you are
aiming for? And, furthermore, would that increase allow you to
afford the original intent under the Clinton administration
that the program provide greater assistance for low-and middle-
income families pay for college and for the AmeriCorps to
increase participation by $500,000 per year?
Mr. Eisner. Well, as you are aware, we have submitted a
budget that, again, calls for 75,000 AmeriCorps members with
the ed award at $4,725. I think that there is a real tough
tradeoff that we have to understand: Do we want to raise the ed
award potentially at the risk of--within a budget that may not
grow that much--having fewer members in the program?
Currently, we are finding that we are able to enroll
members and even those programs, for example, the Youth Corps,
that are reaching down into the toughest communities to enroll
youth that are using AmeriCorps as a wrung up toward a better,
more successful life, those programs are able to mostly fully
enroll with the ed award where it is.
Chairwoman McCarthy. The gentlelady's time has expired.
Thank you.
I notice that Mr. Grijalva has joined us. Thank you.
The next member to speak will be Mr. Yarmuth. The gentleman
is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. Yarmuth. I thank the chairwoman. Congratulations on
your first hearing as well.
Mr. Eisner, thank you for your testimony.
This committee, the full Committee of Education and Labor
is going to be reauthorizing No Child Left Behind this year,
attempting to anyway. Is there a role for national service
programs in helping to deal with low-performing schools? And if
so, how do you see that being done?
Mr. Eisner. Well, across the board we are seeing national
service programs already doing really strong jobs in low-
performing schools. Our foster grandparents, we are spending,
on average, 20 hours a week mentoring and tutoring in some of
the hardest public schools.
You are also going to hear a little bit later from an
AmeriCorps program that likewise has older Americans, as
Experience Corps, making changes. And we are seeing that as we
get better at measuring results, this kind of citizen
engagement in the schools actually improves the performance of
the kids.
Likewise, across the board we see VISTAs working within
communities to make schools better, we have huge AmeriCorps
mentoring programs, and we are also experimenting with programs
that have college students work with high school students
almost as mentors or more peer-like counselors to try to lower
dropout rates and improve academic achievement.
I think across the board there are enormous opportunities
for citizens and service to help provide a needed boost in our
public schools.
Mr. Yarmuth. Thank you.
This question may be a little bit off the subject, and if
the chair thinks it is out of order, please, I invite you to
rule it out of order. And you may not want to answer, but I am
curious as to what your opinion might be about the role of
faith-based initiatives and from a federal government
perspective how that plays into the type of activity that you
are involved in and whether there is a role for the federal
government in supporting faith-based initiatives as well?
Mr. Eisner. From my perspective, and our agency supports
many faith-based organizations, the challenge is really simple:
Where do we best engage citizens to solve problems?
We draw a couple of lines. No organization is allowed to
discriminate based on faith or religion or anything else that
would be objectionable, and we are certainly not providing
federal dollars in order for any organization to prostyletize.
Once those are off the table, we find, for example,
mentoring children of prisoners, it is enormously effective to
engage a faith-based organization that go into congregations
and churches and say, ``We need you to help mentor our kids.''
And a group like Amachi, which is a faith-based organization,
has grown from doing this from mentoring 200 kids in
Philadelphia to now I think 500,000 mentors that they get
mostly from churches.
Mr. Yarmuth. Thank you. That is very helpful.
I yield back.
Chairwoman McCarthy. The gentleman yields back his time.
I would like to recognize Mr. Sarbanes from Maryland for 5
minutes.
Mr. Sarbanes. Thank you, Madam Chair.
I have to say, I think this is one of the most exciting
committees to serve on, and this is one of the most exciting
topics that we can examine, which is national service. There is
a great quote from Martin Luther King, which I favor, where he
said that anybody can be great because everybody can serve. And
you are describing today the various opportunities that people
have to do that.
I have had the opportunity over many years to work with
organizations that benefit from AmeriCorps volunteers,
nonprofits. I worked with the Baltimore city school system for
8 years, it has one of the largest Teach for America programs
in the country, I think upwards of 150 teachers there now, and
worked very closely with retirement communities and senior
living organizations.
And I was interested in your description of how the baby
boomer wave that is hitting us often is viewed as a burden that
is coming, and there are aspects of that, but it is also a
tremendous resource if we figure out a way to capture it.
Also, I think City Year is the group from Boston, is it
not?
Mr. Eisner. They actually have 16----
Mr. Sarbanes. Sixteen now? Did they originate in Boston?
Mr. Eisner. Their headquarters is in Boston.
Mr. Sarbanes. Yes. Al Khazei and Michael Brown were law
school classmates of mine. I believe they founded that program.
I just had a couple of questions. The first is, a moment
ago you said that we will never be able to meet fully the
demand that is out there on the part of people who want to
volunteer, which the goal is to build a scaffolding that allows
that energy to be captured and distributed. Can you explain
that a little bit more?
Is it because you don't think the resources will ever be
there at the level that they need to build a structure that can
offer the opportunity to everybody or is it something else? Is
it sort of like structural unemployment, there is always going
to be a little piece that you can't capture?
Mr. Eisner. I think there is sort of a few levels of that
discussion. The first one has to do with resources, the second
has to do with from a policy point of view, whether it is wise
to take volunteering and say that in every instance
volunteering should be federally supported. And then the third
element is need.
We have volunteering in America at a 30-year high. It seems
to me that the job isn't now for government to figure out how
to make all of those opportunities part of a federal program
but the challenge is, how do we make sure that America benefits
the most from that capacity to give, and how do we ensure that
we give as many people the kinds of experiences that are
required to within the community bolster that service.
Just as a quick example, you are going to hear from Habitat
a little bit later, last year they had about 500 members of
AmeriCorps, and those 500 members of AmeriCorps recruited,
trained and supervised 150,000 non-stipended community
volunteers who were not part of a federal organization. And
that is the kind of leverage that we would like to try to
expand on.
Mr. Sarbanes. That is a good answer.
The second part of my question, which you have kind of
begun to address, I guess, is, when you look at the various
incentives that do require funding, which are the ones that you
think are the most critical?
And it would probably vary depending on the population that
is seeking to serve, whether they are young, sort of, post-
college-age students versus seniors in terms of what their
needs are and so forth.
But is the resource most important for, sort of, the
stipend that goes to the individual volunteers and most
important for the training and oversight of, sort of,
infrastructure that is brought to bear? What are the critical
pieces that you can't do without?
Mr. Eisner. I think that different kinds of programs have
different needs, and I wish there was one answer to that.
But it has to do, first of all, with the kind of program.
We definitely need more resources across America in
infrastructure for nonprofits to be able to manage volunteers.
We really do need that. And AmeriCorps tried to help provide
that, and so does VISTA.
We also find that when we are trying to engage particularly
kids from disadvantaged circumstances and change their lives
through the intervention of service, that is when the education
award and the stipend is at its most crucial, because these are
youth that otherwise would simply not be able, under their own
resources, under their own steam, to be able to participate in
those programs.
And then sometimes, for example, in our Learn and Serve
programs, the real important stuff is getting the curriculum
right, getting the distribution right and figuring out how to
communicate policy priorities so that leaders of our K-12
schools and leaders of colleges make it a priority that their
kids become citizens as well as educated.
Mr. Sarbanes. Thank you.
Chairwoman McCarthy. The gentleman's time has expired.
I recognize now Ms. Shea-Porter for 5 minutes.
Ms. Shea-Porter. Thank you.
I am looking at this list of the kinds of services that you
provide in my district in New Hampshire, and I know what a
difference it makes because I was a social worker and I saw
working in senior programs a lot of people who came with RSVP
and others, and it is very impressive and very, very necessary.
But what I wanted to talk to you specifically about was
Katrina and those from your program who were sent down after
Katrina hit. I went there twice, and I have to tell you that I
don't know what we would have done without AmeriCorps. I don't
know what we would have done without the energy and the
commitment of the youth down there. They were incredible. They
were the ones who had the physical strength so often to lift
all the very, very heavy food packages, they never complained,
they suffered the hardship everybody else did.
It was the most moving experience watching them, and I
always had faith in our youth, but it really reignited that,
realizing that for some of them I do believe it was the first
time they actually felt like they were so critical to a mission
in this country and so connected with our own people. It was a
great experience.
And the best part of it for me was sitting next to this
young man all day long, chatting about this, chatting about
that, and finally it got down to the stuff kids you don't like
you to ask, ``Where did you go to high school?'' And he said he
was from Massachusetts. And I said, ``Where did you go to high
school?'' He said, ``I actually went in New Hampshire.'' And I
said, ``Where?'' And sure enough, it was my daughter's school.
So I took a message back to the principal that he turned out
okay after all. And if he is listening, he was great. And I was
very inspired by these kids.
I have to tell you about the teamwork and the compassion
that they showed one another, and you could see the leadership
skills emerging in a place and a time that everybody was able
to step up to the plate. They no longer had to wait for
something to come down and be prompted; they were working on
their own and had sense of purpose.
And so what I wanted to ask you about, first of all, to
thank you that they were there and to thank everybody who heads
that program, and then I was surprised to find out that the
funding was in jeopardy shortly thereafter, which astounded me
thinking how fortunate we were that they were there.
But what I wanted to ask you about was, I watched, and
there were wonderful volunteers there, but there were obviously
problems in Katrina. And I looked at some who were making quite
a bit of money for being down there, and then I looked at these
kids of AmeriCorps who were not and I wondered, did you ever
figure out exactly what they were actually worth to the
community and to the country.
Because they don't work for a lot of money, as we know, and
I have heard a lot of complaints about, ``Well, we pay health
care, we pay this and we pay that,'' but the reality is, when I
looked at the contractors--I sat on a plane next to a man when
I was taking my second trip down there and he was telling me
how the kitchen was open all night long, he could have a steak
any time, he hadn't bought a bar of soap or anything in so
long, and he was with a company that I won't name but they were
doing fine.
And then I went back and looked at the AmeriCorps crowd and
they were sleeping on cots in the gym with everybody else and
it was less than glamorous, I can assure you that. And we were
eating the same food that we were serving people, but we were
eating it hours later. So they sacrificed a lot.
What was the economic value? I know what the emotional
value was, and I know how much they helped the people of
Louisiana where I was, but do you have any sense of what they
are actually worth when we put them in a position doing the
same job as if they had been provided for by a corporation?
Mr. Eisner. No, we don't. That is a terrific question and
something that we should look into.
I can tell you that part of the reason it is difficult is
because we tried very hard not to have our members and our
participants simply saving costs, either from private or from
other government agencies, local, state or federal. We tried to
have our participants doing things that no one else would have
paid to do and to have our participants helping people that
otherwise would not have gotten that support.
But I think the question is terrific.
Ms. Shea-Porter. Yes. I think it does matter. I mean, it
gives a claim to why this is so important for us to have. And
when you stand there in a cold shower for the 15th day and you
wait to stand in for the cold shower for the 15th day, there
are lots of jobs like that that you don't have people who want
to come and do that. So they did fill a need.
So I just wanted to thank them if they hear this. I don't
know if anybody is here. Thank you for your service because it
was remarkable. And I know that long term the kinds of
management skills and the kinds of compassion that you
discovered in yourselves is a gift to America.
I yield back my time.
Chairwoman McCarthy. I thank the gentlelady.
I would like to recognize Ranking Member McKeon for being
here for either questioning or a statement. Thank you.
I am sorry, I am messing your name up. Mr. Grijalva for 5
minutes.
Mr. Grijalva. Madam Chair, I just want to thank you and
congratulate you on this hearing and your chairmanship. It is
going to be a pleasure and an honor to work with you on this
committee.
One question for submission of data, first, Mr. Eisner, and
then a couple of quick questions.
To satisfy maybe my personal curiosity or the curiosity of
other members of the committee, down the road if you could
provide us some statistical information relative to the
diversity of the volunteerism programs that are under your
jurisdiction, whether it be AmeriCorps, Senior, RSVP, et
cetera.
Not to belittle or question the effort of the volunteerism
of the people that are there but just to kind of give us a mile
post of what we need to be looking for in the future in terms
of expanding the breadth of who could--not who could but who
should be volunteering in this nation. I would appreciate that.
Mr. Eisner. Thank you. We have that information, we collect
it, and we are actually working against it. We would be
delighted to share it.
Mr. Grijalva. Thank you so much.
I am going to go to one quick question. I have questions
about the programmatic cuts in the budget. And thank you very
much, your testimony provided us with a good picture of the
state of volunteerism in America today, and the statistics you
cite are absolutely positive. And thank you for that and your
effort, and the corporation has done that.
But the president's effort to support a call to community
service seems to fall a little short in terms of the budget.
And there are cuts in Learn and Serve, Foster Parents,
AmeriCorps, the NCCC budget is cut in half, losing over $15
million. And at some point, as this committee looks at either
restoration of funding to support those very critical areas for
civic engagement in America, I probably will want to some more
reaction to that.
And I won't belabor the point right now, it is just that I
think those cuts, if we are asking this nation, whether baby
boomers like me or others, what is going to be the support
structure under our call for volunteerism, and I think these
problematic cuts affect that structure underneath the footing
for volunteerism in America.
But let me ask you, the agency's March 2006 report on
service learning talked about high school students are much
more likely to participate in those efforts than middle school
students. In fact, 50 percent of the participants are more
likely coming from private schools and not public schools. So I
have a personal issue--not issue but a personal interest in the
fact that I think that the personal development aspect of
middle schools is critical, critical to success later on.
And I was just curious of what you think we can do with the
service grants in our nation's middle schools to promote middle
school participation and engaging more public school children
in school-based service. Particularly when we are talking about
No Child Left Behind and how that integrates with the civic
volunteer involvement that you are promoting.
With that, Madam Chair, that is my question. Thank you.
Mr. Eisner. It is a critical question around what we need
to do to get more middle school students engaged in service
learning. I was just at a 2-day conference that brought all of
our youth providers together under the Collaboration for Youth
and the Alliance for Youth. And they focused on this particular
issue as a very important one.
We are trying to do it through dissemination of best
practices, through better training of teachers, through trying
to get our VISTAs, AmeriCorps members, Foster Grandparents more
effective in those areas.
We do think that there are some connections that can be
made against No Child Left Behind, and there are things that
can happen at the state level as well. We are seeing more and
more governors become interested in service learning as a
central element to their education policy. So we think there
are a lot of ways to go.
And I appreciate your raising the budget issues and look
forward to sending some information to you. I just want to note
that we do believe that we will be able to hit the goals that
we have set with the budget that we have requested.
Mr. Grijalva. Thank you.
I yield back, Madam Chair.
Chairwoman McCarthy. I thank you. I thank the gentleman.
I want to thank Mr. Eisner for your testimony, and as we go
forward on working on a markup down the road, I hope that we
can use your input.
With that, I would like to thank you again in your
appearance today.
We can now bring forward the second panel for testimony.
Mr. Eisner. Thank you.
Chairwoman McCarthy. Mr. Platts?
Mr. Platts. Thank you, Madam Chair.
While the second group of witnesses is coming up, if I
could ask unanimous consent, Chris Shays, who is co-founder and
co-chair of the National Service Caucus, has submitted a
statement, and I would like to offer that for the record.
Chairwoman McCarthy. Any objections? Accepted.
[The statement of Mr. Shays follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Christopher Shays, a Representative in
Congress From the State of Connecticut; Co-Founder and Co-Chair,
National Service Caucus
I applaud Chairwoman McCarthy and Ranking Member Platts for holding
this hearing and for their leadership on and commitment to National
Service. I appreciate the opportunity to offer my observations on
National Service.
Low-Cost, High-Impact Investment
I believe National Service is one of the wisest and least costly
investments our government can make.
For example, in Fiscal Year 2006, two million people serving
through Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) programs
provided 216 million hours of service, and recruited or managed another
1.8 million volunteers. The market value of the CNCS volunteer programs
in 2006 alone is estimated to be between $1.8 billion ad $3.9 billion.
In response to the destruction of the Gulf Coast by Hurricane
Katrina, more than 35,000 AmeriCorps, VISTA, NCCC, Senior Corps and
Learn and Serve America program participants have contributed more than
1.7 million hours to the hurricane relief and recovery efforts,
recruiting and supporting another 120,000 volunteers who have cleared
tons of debris, served hundreds of thousands of meals, put tarps on
thousands of roofs, and sanitized thousands of homes.
In the Fourth Congressional District of Connecticut alone this
year, the Corporation for National and Community Service is supporting
over 1,000 Senior Corps and AmeriCorps participants.
Sense of Community
Through service, Americans of all ages gain a sense of commitment
to their community and their country which will prove valuable for
their entire lives. According to the CNCS, 72 percent of AmeriCorps
members continue to volunteer in their communities after their term of
service ends and 87 percent of former AmeriCorps members accept public
service employment.
National service benefits both the recipient and the volunteer.
Volunteers not only address an immediate need, they lead and teach
through example, and through that example they learn the value of
serving and helping others.
I still remember how I felt as a 14 year-old watching the 1960
Presidential election between Vice President Richard Nixon and Senator
John Kennedy. I felt energized listening to Senator Kennedy when he
spoke of the Peace Corps and making the world a better and safer place.
I wanted to be part of his vision. Years later, that dream was
fulfilled when my wife Betsi and I served two years in the Peace Corps.
The same powerful emotion, the same sense of energy, eagerness and
anticipation we felt in the sixties, is alive today.
A recent study by the Higher Education Research Institute found
that more than two-third of the 2005 college freshman class expressed a
desire to serve others--the highest rate in a generation.
President Bush spoke to our country's finest traditions of civic
duty when he called on all Americans to volunteer 4,000 hours in their
communities during their lifetimes. In a little more than a month after
the President made his call for Americans to serve, applications to
AmeriCorps programs at the Corporation increased by more than 50
percent and interest in Senior Corps programs at the Corporation rose
dramatically. The best antidote to terror and hate in society are acts
of kindness and service.
______
Mr. Platts. Okay. Thank you.
Chairwoman McCarthy. At this time, I will be yielding to my
colleague from Arizona, Mr. Grijalva, to introduce Mr.
Gomperts.
Mr. Grijalva. Thank you, Madam Chair.
And I am pleased to welcome to the committee Mr. John
Gomperts, president of Civic Ventures and CEO of Experience
Corps, an AmeriCorps competitive grant recipient whose members
tutor and mentor elementary school students that are struggling
to learn and read and succeed.
Throughout his career, Mr. Gomperts has been deeply
involved in promoting civic engagement, serving in leadership
positions both in government and nonprofit sector for over 20
years.
As CEO of Experience Corps since 2003, he has led a major
expansion of the program with much success.
Last December, having minimal or rudimentary knowledge of
what Experience Corps was, I had the chance to visit Experience
Corps' site in my district. I was very impressed by the work I
saw Experience Corps doing at Walter Douglas School in Tucson
where the program is sponsored by the Volunteer Center of
Southern Arizona.
Experience Corps' tutors, aged 60 to 90, were clearly
valued. They were part of the staff, they worked with 2nd and
3rd graders, volunteering 4 to 15 hours weekly to help these
children be excited about reading, learning and expanding, in
many cases, their limited horizons.
In the next few years, people my age--and it is kind of an
interesting notation, baby boomers, I am still looking for what
the definition is--will move into their second careers--
hopefully voluntarily for me, but let's see how that works--
with a goal of giving back to our communities everything our
communities have given us.
I know there is a huge potential in America, certainly in
my home state, for this population to make a difference. And I
look forward to hearing the remarks of Mr. Gomperts.
Thank you.
Chairwoman McCarthy. Thank you, Mr. Grijalva.
Now, we would like to introduce David Edelman, who is from
Merrick, my district, in New York. David is currently a student
at Hofstra University, studying to become a teacher. David is a
former AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps member who
provided a variety of services, including building houses,
organizing summer programs for people with special needs and
teaching summer youth programs.
I am looking forward to hearing your testimony.
Next, we will hear from Tommy Daigle. Mr. Daigle is a
former AmeriCorps member who helped with the aftermath of
Katrina and participated in the building of over 80 houses in
North Carolina, Florida, Mississippi and Texas. He is currently
a bike and build trip leader, and his responsibility is
planning logistics and support for 30 college students on a
3,700-mile ride from Providence, Rhode Island to Seattle,
Washington.
Mr. Daigle currently leads riders on Habitat for Humanity,
builds sites and conducts interviews with local press. He is
also a NOLA service week coordinator and is planning for a week
of service building with New Orleans Habitat for Humanity.
Gentlemen, thank you for joining us.
Now, I would like to yield to the Ranking Member Platts to
introduce Mr. Moore.
Mr. Platts. Thank you, Madam Chair.
I am very honored and proud to introduce George Moore,
executive director of the Community Progress Council in York,
in my hometown of York. George is one of our most distinguished
citizens, leading this very important agency. In his work as
executive director, he oversees a countywide, multipurpose
community action agency with a budget of over $5 million. It
encompasses over nine different community programs with over
200 staff members.
One of the programs he oversees is York County Foster
Grandparent Program, made up of more than 60 foster
grandparents. This is the largest community service program
administered through the Corporation for National Community
Service in my congressional district, and foster grandparents
tutor and mentor students as well as assist organizations that
serve abandoned or abused babies, and we are going to hear more
about that program from George.
Before his current position at Community Progress Council,
he served as child development director at Head Start of York
County.
So we are grateful to have you here as well and to join our
other witnesses.
Chairwoman McCarthy. Thank you, Mr. Platts.
I am just going to go over the lighting system one more
time. Each of you will have 5 minutes. When the green light is
on, you start; when you see it going to yellow, wind up; when
it is red, finish up. Thank you very much.
Our first testimony will come from Mr. Gomperts.
STATEMENT OF JOHN GOMPERTS, CEO, EXPERIENCE CORPS
Mr. Gomperts. Thank you, Representative Grijalva, for that
introduction. And I have to say I am so delighted that you were
able to come and visit our program and see it in action.
Madam Chair, members of the committee, as you heard, I am
John Gomperts, president of Civic Ventures and the CEO of
Experience Corps, and I really appreciate your inviting me here
to join you today.
Washington Post reporter Abigail Trafford recently called
the emergence of an older, more vigorous population the most
significant social story of our time.
Now, that is good news for all of us individually, we can
expect to live older and healthier, but in 5 years when 20
percent of the U.S. population will be over 60, will it be good
news for America?
Many pundits and analysts predict fiscal and social
disorder, but I believe we can transform this potential crisis
into an historic opportunity to solve problems and strengthen
communities.
My optimism is based, in part, in our success with
Experience Corps, a national service program that engages
Americans over 55 as tutors and mentors in public schools in 21
communities around the country.
In Experience Corps, we have learned that all kinds of
people over 55 can be mobilized to do the work that we need
done in our communities. We have Experience Corps members who
have argued cases before the Supreme Court and members who
never finished high school. We have retired cops and file
clerks. We have rich and poor and everything in between, and we
have people of all races.
But what Experience Corps members share is a desire for
challenging assignments that produce real results on the
biggest problems in our community--and it works. Experience
Corps members are raising reading scores and improving academic
performance in some of the neediest communities in the country.
So if you take just one though away from our conversation
today, I hope it is this: that the people who have finished
their mid-life careers can be a workforce for good in the 21st
century.
Now, I am not naive. Turning the aging of America into a
positive story is more than just spin. It is going to take
creativity and experimentation and bold action, risk taking and
looking to the future more than the past.
We have seen some positive developments recently. This
committee and Congress reauthorized the Older Americans Act
last fall and included civic engagement language for the first
time. We look forward to working with you and with the
Administration on Aging and turning that language into action
and innovation.
David Eisner's agency, with the president's help, proposed
a new Boomer Corps, which we regard as a very promising
development, and we hope that that can get adopted and funded.
And in states around the country, governors and state
legislators are starting to look at ways to continue to engage
older adults in service and work. Just today, in New York, this
morning, a package of bills was introduced in the legislature
that we think is very, very promising.
These are good developments, but with a phenomenon the size
and the magnitude of the aging of America and problems so
significant and persistent dogging our communities, there is no
advantage to thinking small today.
To meet the challenge, let me offer the beginnings of four
ideas to engage more boomers in high-intensity, high-impact
service.
First, we should create an Experience Fellows Program,
modeled on the White House Fellows Program and other successful
fellowship programs. The fellows would be placed in nonprofits
and the fellowship would provide a pathway for people to bridge
from their midlife careers into new opportunities to work for
the greater good.
Second, let's consider a reverse G.I. Bill to help midlife
individuals get the education and training they need to take on
new work in high-needs fields. People would repay the cost of
the education and training in years of service after they got
the training.
Third, some of you may be familiar with the Troops to
Teachers Program. This is a hugely successful program. Let's
figure out how to expand it and extend it beyond military
personnel and beyond just teaching.
Fourth, going to something that was asked by a couple of
the members, we need a new innovation fund to support
nonprofits, like Experience Corps and others, that want to test
new ways to engage boomers in service and in work.
So let me be clear in wrapping up, we don't believe that
engaging people is an end in itself. This committee and the
Congress have a big, big agenda shared by the American people:
Who is going to do all this work? Those in the second half of
their adult lives are up to the task. They are ready to take
the responsibility to tackle big problems. National service is
a way to help them get there.
Let me just close by quoting management guru Peter Drucker,
who famously said that, ``The best way to predict the future is
to create it.''
So I thank you for the opportunity to be here today, and I
look forward to working with the committee and all of you
individually to create a story about the aging of America that
is good for individuals, communities and the country.
Thank you.
[The statement of Mr. Gomperts follows:]
Prepared Statement of John S. Gomperts, President, Civic Ventures; CEO,
Experience Corps
Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee, thank you for the
opportunity to testify. I am here today as the President of Civic
Ventures, a think tank and program incubator dedicated to helping
America gain the greatest return on the experience of our citizens. I
am also CEO of Experience Corps, one of Civic Ventures' signature
programs, which engages Americans over 55 in intense tutoring and
mentoring in public schools in 21 communities around the country.
For 10 years now, we've seen the impact of thousands of Experience
Corps members on children struggling to learn to read. Rigorous
independent research has proven that Experience Corps boosts student
academic performance and reduces negative behavior in school, helps
schools and youth-serving organizations become more successful, and
enhances the well-being of Experience Corps members. Notably, 70
percent of Experience Corps members come from the immediate community
of the schools in which they serve, so beyond bolstering the students
and the schools, these members are building stronger communities in
some of our most needy neighborhoods.
This hearing takes place at an opportune moment, as 78 million baby
boomers, the oldest of whom are just now crossing into their 60s, begin
to think about what's next. As children leave home and midlife careers
run their course, most in their 50s and 60s today are not, contrary to
popular images, thinking about full-time leisure. There is abundant
evidence that boomers today are thinking about meaning, purpose,
community service, and jobs that benefit the greater good. They are
thinking about the world their children will inherit and how they can
make it a better place. It is an opportune moment--and we have an
extraordinary opportunity. With federal support, we can transform the
aging of the baby boom generation from a crisis into an opportunity.
Working together, we can engage millions of talented, experienced
Americans as a new and powerful workforce for social good, mobilized to
solve problems and strengthen communities.
Backdrop
The aging of America is likely to be the biggest demographic story
of our times. Though the statistics about the changes in the make-up of
the American population have become familiar, they are nonetheless
breathtaking. The largest generation ever to pass through its 40s and
50s is now moving into its 60s. In five years, 20 percent of the
population will be over 60. This will bring profound changes to schools
and universities, to health care and housing, to transportation and the
workplace, to virtually every institution in our lives.
We are already having a debate about some of the consequences of an
aging America. But so far that debate has been almost exclusively
focused on the costs an aging society will add to programs such as
Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. The importance of these issues
is undeniable, both for the financial and health security of
individuals and for the fiscal solvency of the country. But the changes
that the demographic wave will bring to the country go much deeper than
these fiscal realities.
A debate that focuses only on the burdens of aging will bring costs
of its own--negativity, brewing generational resentments, an unhealthy
sense of separation and isolation. We need to balance the scales by
also exploring and debating proposals to capture the energy, idealism,
and talent of millions of Americans who want to make a major
contribution to the public good.
But this goes much further and deeper than balancing the political
scales; it goes to the question of how we will meet our nation's
biggest challenges. We all want to see more children succeed, which
means better education, better afterschool programs, more mentors. We
all want to see a healthier society, which means more health
professionals, particularly nurses and aides. We all rely on the
nonprofit sector to meet community needs, but the nonprofit sector is
facing an enormous workforce shortage over the next decade. Who will
step in and do the work?
The greatest source of new workers in these vital areas may, in
fact, be those who have finished their midlife careers but who still
want to work and need to work, those who are searching for both
individual and social renewal. That's why in a nation filled with such
profound needs in education, health care, and the social sector, and at
a time when the nation yearns for a greater feeling of connectedness
and community, to look away from the potential of engaging older adults
would be as irresponsible as ignoring the costs of an aging society.
So how do we move millions of boomers into the social sector? In
the past, those who had finished working became volunteers. We have a
proud history and tradition of volunteer service by older Americans,
and we need to continue to engage people in the second half of life as
volunteers. But as we look ahead, we can expect that many more people
are going to stay in the workforce, or return to the workforce. Survey
after survey shows that 75% percent of people expect to ``work in
retirement.''
What jobs will they do? In 2005, the MetLife Foundation/Civic
Ventures New Face of Work Survey found that aging boomers have a strong
desire to launch a new chapter in their working lives that involves
significant social contribution. Individuals over 50, especially adults
between 50 and 55, showed a surprisingly high level of interest in
making shifts from their intense midlife careers to new pursuits that
improve life in their communities.
This desire for meaning in the post-midlife years has the potential
to meet widening human resource shortages in sectors like education,
health care, and social services. However, only 12% of these 50+ adults
think it will be very easy to find jobs where they can make a
difference. Therein lies the opportunity--and the challenge. Volunteer
service can open the door to meaning and contribution. It can provide
training. And it can be a pathway to paid employment in service of the
greater good.
Principles for new policies
A one-size-fits-all federal program for older Americans is unlikely
to be affordable or to meet the diverse needs of members of the baby
boom generation. But we do need new policies to spark innovations and
capture the opportunity of an aging society. So I'd like to suggest
several key principles to guide the development of new policies.
Support innovation and experimentation by individuals and
organizations. We simply do not know yet what type of programs will
attract members of the baby boom generation into significant service
and volunteering. We also do not know what type of approach will work
best for the organizations and institutions that engage volunteers.
Under the circumstances, a period of intense innovation and
experimentation is most appropriate. Even with plenty of innovation and
experimentation, it is not realistic to believe that any single program
will appeal to everyone or to every organization. If nothing else, the
boomer generation is known for wanting choice, so policies must avoid
the search for the silver bullet program to engage everyone and,
instead, work to develop a menu of appealing opportunities for
individuals and organizations to connect.
Build on what we've learned. While seeking innovation, should not
not leave behind what we have learned through the successes of existing
programs. For instance, through Experience Corps, we have learned much
about the importance of producing measurable outcomes for students and
Experience Corps members, we have seen the value of a team-based
approach, we know that continuous learning and leadership opportunities
are vital. We know that when you have all of these components, you
produce real results in the community and real satisfaction for
participants.
Make it possible for new organizations to come into existence and
for existing organizations to innovate. One of the successes of
AmeriCorps is that it helped brilliant new organizations like CityYear,
Public Allies, Citizen Schools, Teach for America and others to come
into existence and flourish. It also brought new energy and resources
to more established organizations like the Boys and Girls Clubs, Big
Brothers Big Sisters, and the American Red Cross. An effort to engage
people who finished their midlife careers in service and volunteering
should have the same type of impact--to fire the imagination of social
entrepreneurs who will start new programs and organizations, and to
reinvigorate existing organizations that will be looking for new
talent.
Attract the broadest possible range of participants. Like
AmeriCorps, new civic engagement endeavors should be open to all
participants--no limitations based on income, education, health status,
or ability. The focus should be meeting community needs and solving
community problems--not on keeping older adults engaged.
Look for pathways to work, not just service opportunities. One of
the great successes of AmeriCorps is that it has become a training
ground for new staff and leaders in non-profit organizations. The same
is true for Experience Corps members. It's not unusual for people to
start as Experience Corps members--tutoring and mentoring young
people--and then to move into staff jobs running the program. Service
opportunities for people who have finished their midlife careers should
include the possibility of opening doors to paying jobs.
Draw champions and support from leaders in both parties. In a time
of division, people have a hunger for ideas that bring people together
to solve problems. Civic engagement has that potential. Each recent
President (Bush, Clinton, and Bush) has advanced a major civic
engagement agenda (Points of Light, AmeriCorps, and USA Freedom Corps).
As significant, each has actively supported the civic engagement
proposals of the others. A major proposal focused on older adult civic
engagement should seek to extend that bipartisan enthusiasm.
Two recent developments are notable and heartening.
Last fall a bipartisan group of House and Senate members came
together to reauthorize the Older Americans Act. For the first time,
that legislation contained significant civic engagement language. We
look forward to working with the Administration on Aging and this
Committee to see that language lead to new action and innovation.
And the budget the President sent to Congress earlier this month
contained a proposal for a Boomer Corps, which would develop a new menu
of flexible opportunities for individuals to choose one time, periodic,
or intensive volunteer activities, an idea and innovation that holds
real promise.
Four ideas
With needs of society and the principles outlined above in mind,
here are the broad outlines of four policy proposals to significantly
advance the civic engagement options for people who have finished their
midlife work and who want a chance to make a major commitment and
contribution to the public good.
Experience Fellows. People who are seeking to make a major
commitment to service and good work often suffer from a lack of access
to and knowledge of opportunities. People are not certain what they
want, and organizations are not certain that they can make a long-term
commitment. For many young people, we have eased this transition with
internships and fellowships that provide an entry point and structure
for gaining experience, while also giving organizations an inexpensive
labor pool and a concrete way to engage young people.
An Experience Fellows program would create a similar pathway and
structure for people who have completed their midlife careers but seek
a way to enter into a period of work for the public good. The program
would be modeled on the best aspects of the White House Fellows
Program, VISTA, and the Coro Fellows. People would apply for and be
accepted as Experience Fellows. Each Fellow selected would receive a
voucher that enables him or her to go to any nonprofit organization or
public agency and seek an assignment. The voucher would cover a stipend
for the Experience Fellow and also provide funds to support training
for the organization where the Fellow works. Organizations would
compete to attract Experienced Fellows.
The Experience Fellows program would start as a federal pilot
program, moving up to as many as 1,000 Fellows per year. However, the
fellowship model could be replicated on a state and local level, and
could even be replicated by private sector employers who want to help
employees nearing retirement transition to nonprofit or public sector
jobs.
Reverse GI Bill. The GI Bill established the basic concept of
rewarding service with educational opportunity. It was one of the great
successes of the 20th century. For people who have finished their
midlife careers and who want to move into work or service in the
nonprofit sector, a reverse GI Bill can provide similar benefits.
Many people who want to move into high-need professions like
education or health care will need a period of training or education.
In some instances, people might need to gain a credential or
certificate. The student loan approach may not be practical for people
in their middle years. The Reverse GI Bill, modeled on the ROTC and
Public Health Service Corps approach, would support midlife individuals
in getting education and training; the people would then repay the
educational support by a period of service in a high-need profession.
One year of education or training would be repaid through two or three
years of service or work.
Expand Troops to Teachers. The federal government already has a
highly successful transition program called Troops to Teachers. In the
past dozen years, some 9,500 veterans have received support to gain
teaching credentials and then been recruited into teaching and
administration jobs in high-need areas. The program has been a great
success, winning plaudits from principals, educators, and independent
evaluators.
Recognizing the success of Troops to Teachers, Congress directed a
study of a proposal to create a Troops to Nurse Teachers program that
would recruit Army and Navy medical corpsmen and women to become nurse
educators, a profession that is suffering from a severe workforce
shortage.
Further extensions of the Troops to Teachers idea also hold
promise. Why not extend the idea beyond military personnel? Other
federal employees, for example, are eligible for an excellent
retirement program after 30 years of federal service, allowing many to
retire from the federal government in their mid-50s with many
productive years left. They could benefit from a program that allowed
them to transition to education or other high need fields.
Organizational Innovation Fund. In the fall of 2005 the Corporation
for National & Community Service put out a call for proposals for
existing organizations to make special efforts to engage baby boomers.
The Corporation required a stiff (2 to 1) private matching requirement
to apply for these funds. After Hurricane Katrina, the Corporation
narrowed the call for proposals to efforts responding to the disaster
in the Gulf region. Even with these limitations and the challenging
match requirement, the Corporation received a large number of
proposals.
The Corporation's experience with this one-time competition
demonstrates that a comparatively small investment of federal dollars
can stimulate nonprofit organizations to adopt new practices to engage
older Americans in service and volunteering. Building on the
Corporation's experience, an Organizational Innovation Fund would
provide federal grants to nonprofit organizations that adopt new and
creative ways to engage older Americans in service and volunteer work.
The focus of the grants would be to create new opportunities for high-
commitment, high-impact service.
Through the operation of a matching grant requirement, these funds
would bring additional private investment in older adult civic
engagement. And by lodging the response in nonprofit organizations
(either existing organizations or potentially new organizations), the
fund provides the greatest chance for creative, risk-taking responses
from the non-governmental sector.
In closing, I'd hope we can work together to act on the tremendous
potential of people who have finished their midlife careers to be the
workforce for good in the 21st century. With federal support and the
mobilization of millions of boomers, we can improve education,
healthcare, and the social sector. Service and volunteering cannot be
the whole answer, but well-designed programs and investments can lay a
foundation for the big, bold changes that are needed to meet new
societal needs and the needs and desires of members of the baby boom
generation. Now is the time to start.
______
Chairwoman McCarthy. I thank you for your testimony.
Mr. Edelman?
STATEMENT OF DAVID EDELMAN, NCCC VOLUNTEER
Mr. Edelman. I want to thank you for inviting me to speak
today and granting me the opportunity to tell you about my
experience in AmeriCorps NCCC.
When I first entered the program in January 2005, one of
our first tasks was to write a letter to ourselves addressing
our aspirations for the year. Like most people, my letter
focused largely on service work I wanted to do during the
course of the program. I mentioned I wanted to provide relief
during natural disaster, build a house for a family in need and
teach children.
Looking back at my experience in AmeriCorps, it is accurate
to say that although I had the opportunity to engage in these
activities, this is not the main reason for my feeling the
program was a success. Just as important as the impact of my
service work was the tremendous effect AmeriCorps NCCC had upon
me.
The National Civilian Community Corps experience is unique
to the AmeriCorps family because it exposes you to a wide range
of national and community service options.
NCCC was a life-changing event for me. Since completing the
program, I have enrolled in a master's program to become a high
school social studies teacher. I have made good use of my
AmeriCorps educational award, which has now been converted into
college tuition.
I currently student-teach a 12th grade economics class in a
public school on Long Island. I strive to create coursework
that promotes civic responsibility, and I believe my personal
experiences will inspire many of my students to engage in
community service and even join AmeriCorps themselves.
Growing up, I was not regularly exposed to the challenges
most Americans face on a daily basis. I participated in various
community service organizations in high school and college but
often became disillusioned with the work since it centered just
on fundraising. In AmeriCorps, I got to do hands-on work that
directly helps people.
It wasn't until AmeriCorps that I became aware of the term,
``service learning,'' the idea of learning by doing. During
AmeriCorps, I had the incredible opportunity to work with an
organization called Common Bond, Minnesota's largest provider
of affordable housing. My team was chosen to run educational
youth programs for teenagers, and many of the residents were
recent immigrants from east Africa who sought political asylum
in the United States.
This experience not only provided me with the knowledge
that comes with teaching a diverse group of children, it also
showed me the need for safe, affordable housing.
In addition to learning about the need for housing, I had
the opportunity to physically build eight houses with Habitat
for Humanity in Liberty City, Miami. I will never forget one
recipient of the Habitat house telling me how he developed a
renewed faith in the government and the youth of America. As
you said, it is easy to go about your life thinking no one
cares, but then a group of motivated individuals come and you
find your spirits raised.
In a time when disaster recovery and homeland security top
our nation's priorities, a strong and well-trained AmeriCorps
NCCC is vital. From day one, we trained in disaster relief
services and were ready to deploy at a moment's notice. After
Hurricanes Rita and Katrina, every team from our campus, except
for my team and one other, deployed to the Gulf coast. I was
very disappointed to be left behind, but I knew I had another
important service project to complete.
In the Gulf, my fellow corps members were working
tirelessly to field calls, remove debris, staff supply
warehouses and coordinate relief efforts.
National and community service is one of the most important
missions a government can pursue, especially considering we
live in a country that funds so many programs to help the rest
of the world. The fact that an organization like AmeriCorps
even exists makes me proud of my country.
I think I speak for all my fellow teammates when I say,
``AmeriCorps NCCC leads to a lifetime of service.'' Many of my
friends are now America's fire fighters, Red Cross staff,
social workers, counselors, volunteers and teachers like me
because of their experience in AmeriCorps. AmeriCorps NCCC
creates a new breed of young and passionate leaders that are in
tune with the needs of the country and intensely dedicated to
national and community service.
Again, thank you very much for your invitation to speak. If
you have any questions, I would be more than happy to answer
them.
[The statement of Mr. Edelman follows:]
Prepared Statement of David R. Edelman, Former AmeriCorps*NCCC Member
I want to thank you for inviting me to speak today and granting me
the opportunity to tell you about my experience in AmeriCorps*NCCC.
When I first entered the AmeriCorps*NCCC program in January 2005, one
of our first tasks was to write a letter to ourselves addressing our
aspirations for the year. Like most people on my team, my letter
focused largely on the service work I hoped to partake in during the
course of the program. I mentioned that I hoped to have the opportunity
to provide relief during a natural disaster, build a house for a family
in need, work with children in an educational setting and participate
in an effort to improve the environment.
Looking back at my experience in AmeriCorps, it is accurate to say
that although I had the opportunity to engage in these activities, this
is not the main reason for my feeling that the program was a success.
Just as important as the impact of my service work was the tremendous
effect AmeriCorps*NCCC had upon me. It helped me to recognize the
incredible power inherent in a group of determined individuals and my
service ultimately gave me the confidence to pursue my passions in
life.
The National Civilian Community Corps experience is unique to the
AmeriCorps family because it is a residential program for 18-24 year
olds, which exposes you to a diverse group of people and a whole
spectrum of national and community service options. Before entering the
program, I only had vague ideas where my talents and interests lay.
NCCC helped me realize my passion for education. Since completing the
program, I have enrolled in a master's program to become a high school
social studies teacher. I have made good use of my AmeriCorps
educational award, which has now been converted into college tuition. I
currently student teach in a twelfth grade economics class in a public
school on Long Island. I strive to create course work that promotes
civic responsibility and I believe my personal experiences will inspire
many of my students to engage in community service and even join
AmeriCorps themselves.
Although my experience in the NCCC has been life changing, the
decision to accept an invitation to the program was not easy. When I
applied, I was a college graduate for a little over a year and was
working at a marketing research company in New York City. At the time,
the corporate world seemed like the logical next step after college. I
was keenly aware that entering AmeriCorps*NCCC would require me to step
outside my comfort zone and relinquish a large amount of control over
my life. I ultimately decided to leave my job and join the program out
of the desire to discover a path that was more in line with my ideals
and aspirations. I also believed that the program would expose me to
many of the unpleasant but important hardships of life.
Growing up in a fairly affluent middle class community on Long
Island, NY, I was not regularly exposed to the challenges many
Americans face on a daily basis. I participated in various community
service organizations in high school and college, but often became
disillusioned with community service because much of the work centered
on fundraising activities and not directly serving those in need. I
desired service work that was focused on a specific community and
centered on making individuals more aware of societal needs.
I didn't know that what I was looking for in a service experience
had a name until I arrived in the Denver campus for my training. There,
I was made aware of service learning. Service learning is a foreign
concept to most people. As an educator, I am well aware that the two
goals of community service and education are often approached
independently. But in AmeriCorps*NCCC this is quite the opposite. Each
service project offers a unique, multifaceted learning experience.
During AmeriCorps, I had the incredible opportunity to work with an
organization called CommonBond, Minnesota's largest provider of
affordable housing. My team was chosen to run educational youth
programs for the children of residents that lived in the various
CommonBond buildings. The experience not only provided me with all the
lessons and knowledge that come with teaching a diverse group of
children, but it also awakened me to the commitment government has to
its citizens to ensure safe, affordable housing options are available
to all members of society. I saw first hand that when a family has
proper housing, they can begin to care for their other needs, including
securing a job, going to school and becoming an active member in the
community. A large proportion of the residents that lived at my housing
site were recent immigrants from East Africa who were seeking political
asylum. I heard first hand the horrors many of the families experienced
in their homelands and the struggles they uncounted in making the
transition to life here in America.
I am now attempting to instill this same concept of service
learning into my classroom. Just last week, when I introduced the
concept of scarcity as the basis of all economic decisions, I provided
my class with a global IQ test which required students to think about
poverty, disease and other unmet human needs from a worldwide
perspective. As I continue to grow as an educator, I aspire to
introduce the concept of civics and service learning into Social
Studies curriculum. Instead of merely discussing issues like poverty
and homelessness with my class, I hope to have my students' experience
these realities first hand by taking their learning into the community
and serving as volunteers in soup kitchens and public housing sites.
One of the strange things about being in AmeriCorps*NCCC, is it
creates a sense of national community and identity that you cannot
fully appreciate until you graduate from the program. When you are away
from your campus on a project, it is often easy to become consumed with
your specific mission and forget that you are part of this large
movement dedicated to national service. Although I experienced this
feeling of detachment, it often coincided with a memorable event. That
memory instantly jogged my senses and reminded me that that I was part
of something bigger than myself, my team or even a regional campus.
This first happened to me during the middle of my first round
project with Habitat for Humanity in Miami, Florida. Members of my team
were at the airport awaiting flights to visit their families when a man
walked up to me, shook my hand and thanked me for doing the work I do
in AmeriCorps. He later told me that he was the recent recipient of a
Habitat for Humanity home built by an AmeriCorps*NCCC team the prior
year. With tears in his eyes, he told me that he developed a renewed
faith in the government and the youth of America. As he said, ``It's
easy to go about your life thinking no one cares, but then a group of
motivated individuals come and you find your spirits raised. You kids
don't just work; you elevate a person's faith in society. You will
always be welcome in my house.''
When I flew home that day, I had never felt as proud of my
involvement in a program. AmeriCorps*NCCC remains a distinct piece of
my identity and how I choose to define myself.
This summer I was astounded when my mother, a New York City
teacher, told me that an NCCC team from the Perry Point, Maryland
campus was working in her school. She told the Corps members that only
a few months prior, her son was traveling around the country doing the
same good work that they were doing. I can only hope that her words
provided a similar awakening and a deep understanding--that they are
not alone, but a part of something greater than themselves, a national
organization of people dedicated to making positive changes in the
world.
In a time when disaster recovery and homeland security top our
nation's priorities, a strong and well-trained AmeriCorps*NCCC is vital
to victims' immediate and long-term needs. From day one at NCCC, we
trained in disaster relief services and were ready to deploy at a
moment's notice. After hurricanes Rita and Katrina, every team from our
campus except my team and one other deployed to the Gulf Coast.
Although this decision was completely out of my hands, it was hard to
accept that we were left behind. We knew that we had important service
work to complete in other parts of the country, but the Gulf Coast work
was where the real excitement and hands-on opportunities were. In the
Gulf, my fellow Corps Members were working tirelessly around the clock
to field calls, remove debris, staff supply warehouses and coordinate
relief efforts. I will never forget my friend, Elijah Washburn's story
about how he single-handedly coordinated a team of medical volunteers
for a residential doctor who established a clinic on his front lawn, in
Pascagoula, Mississippi, to treat local residents. During and after any
disaster, NCCC members are prepared to play a vital role in managing
relief efforts.
National and community service is one of the most important
missions a government can pursue, especially for a country that funds
so many programs to help the rest of the world. The fact that an
organization like AmeriCorps exists renews my faith in our national
agenda and elected officials. Although the program is only 10 months in
length, I believe that my experience will stay with me for a lifetime.
AmeriCorps*NCCC establishes national and community service as a way
of life. I speak for all my fellow teammates when I say that
AmeriCorps*NCCC leads to a lifetime of service. My friends from the
National Civilian Community Corps are now America's firefighters, Red
Cross staff, medical students, counselors, volunteers, teachers and
yes, AmeriCorps members engaged in another year of service.
AmeriCorps*NCCC creates a new breed of young and passionate leaders
that are in tune with the needs of the country and intensely dedicated
to national and community service.
Thank you again for your invitation to speak. If you have any
questions, I would be very happy to answer them.
______
Chairwoman McCarthy. Thank you for your enthusiasm.
Mr. Daigle, 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF THOMAS DAIGLE, FORMER AMERICORPS MEMBER
Mr. Daigle. Madam Chairperson and members of the committee,
thank you for having me. It is an honor to be able to sit here,
especially next to a fellow AmeriCorps.
So, hello, my name is Tommy Daigle. I was an AmeriCorps
member with Habitat for Humanity in Charlotte, North Carolina,
from August of 2004 until July of 2006. I served two 1-year
terms immediately following my graduation from George Mason
University.
It is a fantastic life-changing and humbling experience
that developed my leadership skills through day-to-day physical
labor, confronting new and different life experiences, helping
others, interacting with people of all ages from all over the
world, serving in a leadership capacity for people many decades
my senior and feeling the exhausted satisfaction at the end of
every day that I had done something for someone else.
Why don't I take a moment to tell you how I came to service
and what it has done for me. Both my parents are teachers, and
they, from a very young age, instilled in me ideas and
principles of social justice. I learned from them that when
something is wrong you do have the power to change it, and you
do owe it to your community, and even more so to the world, to
put your ideals in motion and provide for its betterment. They
never told me that I had to serve, but they raised me to be
responsible and to know that I could make a difference.
Mary Kay Turner taught my 11th grade world religions class
and my 12th grade ethics class. She taught us to look at things
in this world, good or bad, and make an informed opinion about
them. She taught us not to sit and watch things happen but to
use the knowledge and our opinions to get involved.
We studied human rights leaders and activists throughout
history, we studied movements of major non-violent social
change. We studied and mourned those who were killed because of
hatred, notably Mathew Shepard and James Byrd; both who were
murdered in my senior year of high school.
Mrs. Turner taught us that a broken system could be fixed,
but it would never be fixed with complacency. If there were
going to be changes, we would have to make them ourselves.
The first time I ever heard about AmeriCorps was from a
high school acquaintance who had joined AmeriCorps NCCC
straight out of high school. I ran into him randomly a couple
years later, and I barely noticed him, he changed so much. In
high school, he had gotten into a whole lot of trouble. He
barely graduated, he almost dropped out, and he had maybe a
little more than experimented with drugs. After AmeriCorps, he
was drug-free, attending college, and was continuing to
volunteer, very enthusiastically, I will add. It left me with a
very strong first impression of AmeriCorps.
When I started researching how I could work with Habitat, I
found out Habitat was an AmeriCorps grantee, and it seemed like
a great fit. I decided to commit a year's service to Habitat
AmeriCorps in North Carolina, and after that first year, as I
had made my plan, I would return to Virginia and teach in the
public schools. Needless to say, that 1 year ended up turning
into 2.
I had a good 2 years down there. We worked in 10-and 11-
person teams based in Charlotte. We served as crew leaders for
groups of people made up of bankers, lawyers, World War II
vets, carpenters and home owners. They came to us, asked us
what to do and expected us to be their leaders. We became a
very tight-knit group.
Over the 2 years, we built in the range of 100 homes in
Charlotte, we led and worked with roughly 5,000 volunteers, and
we grew into mature citizens. In addition to the work in
Charlotte, we worked on houses in Fort Myers, Florida, Dallas,
Texas and after Hurricane Katrina, in Jackson County,
Mississippi.
Serving in AmeriCorps prompts a growth in maturity in
almost all members. Your job becomes a lifestyle that
recognizes that you are working for things that are greater
than yourself. There is a change in persona that occurs when
you realize that you are making a concrete difference in
another person's life. There is also a sense of civic duty and
civic pride when you realize a change to the community that you
are apart of.
I want to tell a quick story that reinforces my belief in
the importance of service and the jobs which we do. In the
early summer of 2006, all Habitat AmeriCorps members met in
Dallas, Texas, to build several houses. My teammates worked on
a house along side the homeowners and AmeriCorps members from
Fort Collins, Colorado; College Station, Texas; and Seattle,
Washington.
The house we were building, and the one next door, were
both for former residents of the Lower Ninth Ward of New
Orleans. We quickly became close friends with the other
AmeriCorps members working on the house and got to know the
family who, in a few weeks, would be moving in. The family was
made up of a married couple in their late 50s and their young
granddaughter. They had been separated in the storm and were
reunited months later in Dallas.
Over a work week of 12-hour days we laughed, became close,
worked hard and built a beautiful house. We were very proud of
the results.
At the dedication ceremony, we crowded together on the
front porch and listened as the Dallas Habitat staff member
presented a Bible, a loaf of bread, and a bottle of grape
juice.
The family was given an opportunity to give their thoughts.
As they had explained how they were happy to be in New Orleans
only to lose everything, the emotion overtook them. They held
onto each other, crying, unable to do anything other than thank
us and thank God for a new beginning. We could only
congratulate them on the new start and thank them for what they
had given us.
We left Dallas convinced of the importance of our service
and of the impact that it not only had on the families and
communities but upon each of us. The big question that many of
the teammates and friends would later share with me was this:
Whose life was changed more by our service; did the work do
more for the family or more for us? It is a question that
outsiders laugh at but everyone who has served understands.
I have met hundreds of AmeriCorps members through Habitat.
Of the members that I have actually served with, more than half
are currently serving with other nonprofits or in a public
service capacity. Every person I served with continues to
volunteer. Service sticks, and my teammates are proof of that.
Thank you for your time, and I would be happy to answer any
of your questions.
[The statement of Mr. Daigle follows:]
Prepared Statement of Thomas Daigle, Former AmeriCorps Member
Hello. My name is Tommy Daigle. I was an AmeriCorps member with
Habitat for Humanity in Charlotte, North Carolina from August, 2004 to
July ,2006. I served two one-year terms immediately following my
graduation, cum laude, from George Mason University. It was a
fantastic, life-changing, and humbling experience that developed my
leadership and life skills through day to day physical labor,
confronting new and different life experiences, helping others,
interacting with people of all ages from all over the world, serving in
a leadership capacity for people many decades my senior, and feeling
that exhausted satisfaction at the end of every day--that I had done
something for someone else.
Right now I am working as a bike messenger because I am dedicated
to service and I need a flexible job until I finish work as a lead
organizer for the Bike and Build team that will ride across the country
this summer. This project will raise money for affordable housing
organizations and will work at Habitat builds along the way. Once I
finish that project, I will either attend law school, where I will
study civil rights law, or I will go back into teaching. In the
meantime, bike messengering gives me flexibility to dwell on service
projects that a typical 9-5 job would not.
I want to tell you how I decided to focus my life on service, and
what that has done for me.
I have three teachers to thank for my love of service: my Father,
Donald Daigle, a teacher in Catholic schools and at Northern Virginia
Community College; my Mother, Margaret Daigle, a special-ed teacher in
the Fairfax County, Virginia public schools; and my high school
teacher, Mary Kay Turner, who is now retired from Bishop O'Connell High
School in Arlington, Virginia.
My parents instilled in me social justice principles. I learned
from them that when something is wrong, you have the power to change it
and you owe it to your community, and the world, to put your ideas in
motion and provide for its betterment. They taught me that I truly am
my brother's keeper and I always will be. They never told me that I had
to serve but they raised me to be responsible and to know that I could
make a difference. Service is my path to change.
Mrs. Turner taught my high school World Religions class when I was
a junior and my Ethics class when I was a senior. She structured the
class like a philosophy class, with strong ideals of Catholic social
justice woven throughout. While she taught about broad concepts she
taught us to look at things in this world, good or bad, and to form an
educated opinion about them. She taught us not to sit and watch things
happen but to use the knowledge and our opinions to get involved. We
studied human rights leaders and activists throughout history. We
studied movements of major non-violent social change. We also studied
and mourned those who were killed because of hatred, notably Mathew
Shepard and James Byrd; both were murdered in my senior year. Mrs.
Turner taught us that a broken system could be fixed, but it would
never be fixed with complacency. If there were going to be changes, we
would have to make the changes ourselves. Mrs. Turner gave us the
opportunity to put our fledgling ideals into action thru many service
and activist possibilities she provided.
In college, I focused on my studies so that I would be a strong
teacher. While this was a good thing, it took me away from my ideas of
direct service as a means of change. In my last year I took a class
entitled ``Art as Social Action.'' The professors, Lynn Constantine and
Suzanne Scott, were both brilliant educators and their class was the
boost that I needed. On the first day of class they presented us with a
quote from Bertolt Brecht, ``Art is not a mirror to reflect society but
a hammer with which to shape it''. The quote fit perfectly and I
decided instead of going directly into public school teaching I would
serve for a year with Habitat for Humanity. I only had to find the
means to do it.
The first time I ever heard about AmeriCorps was from a high school
acquaintance who joined AmeriCorps*NCCC when he was 18. I barely
recognized him a few years later. While in high school he had gotten in
trouble, experimented with drugs, and almost dropped out. After serving
with AmeriCorps he was drug-free, attending college, and continuing to
volunteer. It left me with a strong first impression of AmeriCorps. I
researched how I could work with Habitat for Humanity and found that
Habitat for Humanity was an AmeriCorps grantee. I realized I could help
people who needed homes and serve in AmeriCorps. It seemed like a great
fit.
Another friend put me in contact with her cousin who served in
AmeriCorps Habitat. I called her, thinking we would have a five minute
conversation. She spent an hour of her time telling me all about her
experiences and what to expect if I joined. I was taken aback that a
stranger would spend so much time advising me. One of the things I now
know is that that is so typical of people who serve in AmeriCorps. They
want to tell others about their experience because they want them to
have the same life-change opportunity to serve.
Weeks later, I decided to commit a year of service to Habitat
AmeriCorps in Charlotte, North Carolina. After the year, I would return
to Virginia to teach in the public schools. Needless to say, one year
turned into two.
I had a fantastic two years. We worked in 10 and 11-person teams
based in Charlotte. We served as crew leaders for groups of people made
up of bankers, lawyers, World War II vets, carpenters, and homeowners.
They came to us, asked us what to do and expected us to be their
leaders. We all grew up a lot in the first few weeks, and we became a
very tight-knit group. Over the two years we built close to 100 houses
in Charlotte, led and worked with over 5,000 volunteers, and grew into
mature citizens. In addition to the work in Charlotte, we worked on
houses in Ft. Myers, FL, Jackson County, MS, and Dallas, TX.
The structure of the Habitat Charlotte program incorporated
AmeriCorps in everything we did--all the staff and volunteers
understood what AmeriCorps was about and certainly had a great
appreciation for the support AmeriCorps brought to the program. The
training we received was very good. The supervisors were quick to give
us responsibility and to put us in leadership situations but would only
do so once they were confident that we would were up to the task.
Within a few months all members were routinely running crews unassisted
by staff members. For most of us this was our first experience in a
managerial role.
Serving in AmeriCorps prompts a growth of maturity in almost all
members. Your job becomes a lifestyle that recognizes that you are
working for things that are greater than yourself. There is a change in
persona that occurs when you realize that you are making a concrete
difference is another person's life. There is a sense of civic duty and
civic pride when you realize the change in the community that you are a
part of.
I want to tell a quick story that reinforced my belief in the
importance of our job. In the early summer of 2006, all Habitat
AmeriCorps members met in Dallas, Texas, to build several houses. My
teammates worked on a house along side the homeowners and AmeriCorp
teams from Ft. Collins, Colorado, College Station, Texas, and Seattle,
Washington. The house we were building, and the one next door, was for
former residents of the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans who had lost
everything in Hurricane Katrina. We quickly became close friends with
the other AmeriCorps members working on the house and got to know the
family who, in a few weeks, would be moving in. The family was a
married couple in their late 50's and their young granddaughter. They
had been separated in the storm and were reunited months later in
Dallas. Over a work week of twelve hour days we laughed, became close,
worked hard, and built a beautiful house. We were proud of the results.
At the dedication ceremony, we crowded together on the front porch
and listened as the Dallas Habitat staff member presented a Bible, a
loaf of bread, and a bottle of grape juice. The family was given an
opportunity to give their thoughts. As they started to explain how they
had been happy in New Orleans and then lost everything, were separated
in the evacuation of the Superdome and convention center, and had not
known if the other had even survived, emotion overtook them. They held
onto each other, crying, unable to do anything other than thank us and
thank God for the new beginning. We could do nothing other than
congratulate them on the new start and thank them for what they had
given us.
We left Dallas convinced of the importance of our service and of
the impact that it had not only on the families and communities, but
upon each of us. The big question that many of my teammates and friends
would later share with me was this: ``Whose life was changed more by
our service; did the work do more for the family or for us?'' It's a
question that outsiders laugh at but those who have served understand.
I've met hundreds of AmeriCorps members through Habitat. Of the
members I actually served with, more than half are currently serving
with other nonprofits or in a public service capacity. Every person I
served with continues to volunteer. Service sticks. My team members are
proof of that.
The message I want to leave you with is that AmeriCorps members are
working to make our country greater. We're proud of our work to improve
our country and our communities. We hope that more opportunities will
be made available to younger and older Americans. We have a lot of work
to do and there's an opportunity for every passion.
Thank you for this opportunity to tell you about my experience in
AmeriCorps. I would be happy to answer any questions you have.
______
Chairwoman McCarthy. Thank you for your testimony.
Mr. Moore, 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF GEORGE H. MOORE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, COMMUNITY
PROGRESS COUNCIL
Mr. Moore. Good afternoon. Thank you, Chairwoman McCarthy,
for inviting me to testify at the subcommittee.
Thank you, Representative Platts, for your caring and
committed representation of York County, Pennsylvania.
My name is George Moore. I am the executive director of
Community Progress Council, Incorporated, the federally
designated community action agency for York County,
Pennsylvania.
I am going to just avert from what I have in my prepared
remarks, only to say that I am very, very comfortable here
today, certainly surrounded by Mr. Platts, a very diverse
committee that I recognize and appreciate, and a picture of
Congressman Goodling, who for a long time provided service in
our community, preceding Mr. Platts.
And, certainly, I am honored to be here with the other
presenters today. Particularly impressed with the AmeriCorps
workers themselves and their stories.
Mr. Sarbanes has left but I need to recognize him also. I
had to make an unexpected diversion through his city of
Baltimore today, as 695 was closed in both directions on my
trip down here. It made for quite an adventure.
Thank you.
For 8 years, we have had the privilege of administering the
Foster Grandparent Program through a grant from the Corporation
for National Community Services. The program has been very well
received by our board of directors, the agency staff, clients
and the community. With the Foster Grandparent volunteers, I
frequently hear from them, ``The program and the children that
we serve give me a reason to get up every morning.''
The mutual benefits that the at-risk youth and foster
grandparents receive from each other are beyond measure.
Children get compassionate one-on-one attention from a caring
foster grandparent volunteer. The volunteers have a new purpose
and meaning in their lives.
In addition, there are physical benefits to the volunteers.
By being busy and physically active, they are helped by having
lower blood pressure and lessened effect of diabetes.
Some of the background of our York County program I would
like to share with you. Since the Foster Grandparent program
started 8 years ago in York County, 132 volunteer foster
grandparents have served approximately 375,000 hours. Forty-two
of our volunteers have met and well exceeded the president's
challenge by serving over 4,000 hours, earning them the
lifetime presidential volunteer service award. Over the past 12
months, 63 volunteers have served over 58,000 hours, serving
well over 350 children needing individual attention at 15 sites
in York city and county. Five of them are faith-based
institutions.
At the end of the 2005-2006 school year, elementary
teachers reported that children assigned to the Foster
Grandparents, 91 percent of the children demonstrated
improvements in reading, 92 percent improved their math skills,
and 94 percent showed improvement in spelling skills. At the
end of the 2006 school year, Head Start teachers reported that
the children assigned to Foster Grandparents, 82 percent of the
children were at age level of cognitive development and
demonstrating a 7 percent increase since mid-school year, 86
percent were at level for social skills with an increase 26
percent since mid-year.
I think one of the best ways to put a face on some of the
programs is just to share letters that I have received from
some of the groups that we have partnered with.
This one is about a Grandma Sue who is a wonderful person.
``We are lucky to have her as an assistant in our classroom.
She brings instant energy to the class the second she walks in.
Her responsibilities involve many areas. She supplies one-on-
one instruction with individual students, she gives guidance
and helps to develop self-confidence in our students, she
discusses decision making to help the students understand the
consequences of the choices that they make.''
Another letter, I think, addresses one of the other
questions. This is a letter that was written to the
superintendent of the York city school district at the time.
The letter is dated 2002, and it is from a Jim Sheffer, the
Division of Federal Programs for the Department of Education in
the state of Pennsylvania.
``No Child Left Behind law is new and emphasizes the
importance of paraprofessionals. Everyone has a sharp interest
in paraprofessionals. One of these persons who has an interest
is my wife, Sam Sheffer, who teaches kindergarten at McKinley
Elementary School in York, Pennsylvania.
This program is important because of grandparents like
Geraldine Buchanan. From the day the law was passed, Sam
continually reminds me of the importance of Community Progress
Council's Foster Grandparent Program. Ms. Buchanan is on time,
works hard and helps the kindergarten children.
Thank you.
[The statement of Mr. Moore follows:]
Prepared Statement of George Moore, Executive Director, Community
Progress Council
Thank you, Chairwoman McCarthy for inviting me to testify at the
subcommittee.
Thank you, Representative Platts, for your caring and committed
representation of York County, Pennsylvania.
My name is George Moore. I am the executive director of Community
Progress Council, Incorporated, the federally designated community
action agency for York County, Pennsylvania.
I'm excited to testify in front of this committee, surrounded by
Mr. Platts, and in front of a picture of Congressman Goodling who for a
long time provided service in our community preceding Mr. Platts. And,
certainly, I'm honored to testify with the other presenters.
For eight years, we've had the privilege of administering the
Foster Grandparent Program through a grant from the Corporation for
National Community Services. The program has been very well received by
our board of directors, the agency staff, clients and the community.
With the Foster Grandparent volunteers, I frequently hear from them,
``The program and the children that we serve give me a reason to get up
every morning.''
The mutual benefits that the at-risk youth and foster grandparents
receive from each other are beyond measure. Children get compassionate
one-on-one attention from a caring foster grandparent volunteer. The
volunteers have a new purpose and meaning in their lives.
In addition, there are physical benefits to the volunteers. By
being busy and physically active, they are helped by having lower blood
pressure and lessened effect of diabetes.
Some of the background of our York County program I would like to
share with you. Since the Foster Grandparent program started eight
years ago in York County, 132 volunteer foster grandparents have served
approximately 375,000 hours. Forty-two of our volunteers have met and
well exceeded the president's challenge by serving over 4,000 hours,
earning them the lifetime presidential volunteer service award. Over
the past 12 months, 63 volunteers have served over 58,000 hours,
serving well over 350 children needing individual attention at 15 sites
in York city and county. Five of them are faith-based institutions.
At the end of the 2005-2006 school year, elementary teachers
reported that children assigned to the Foster Grandparents, 91 percent
of the children demonstrated improvements in reading, 92 percent
improved their math skills, and 94 percent showed improvement in
spelling skills. At the end of the 2006 school year, Head Start
teachers reported that the children assigned to Foster Grandparents, 82
percent of the children were at age level of cognitive development and
demonstrating a 7 percent increase since mid-school year, 86 percent
were at level for social skills with an increase 26 percent since mid-
year.
I think one of the best ways to put a face on some of the programs
is just to share letters that I've received from some of the groups
that we've partnered with.
The one is about a Grandma Sue who is a wonderful person. ``We are
lucky to have her as an assistant in our classroom. She brings instant
energy to the class the second she walks in. Her responsibilities
involve many areas. She supplies one-on-one instruction with individual
students, she gives guidance and helps to develop self-confidence in
our students, she discusses decision making to help the students
understand the consequences of the choices that they make.''
Another letter, I think, addresses one of the other questions. This
is a letter that was written to the superintendent of the York city
school district at the time. The letter is dated 2002, and it's from a
Jim Sheffer, the Division of Federal Programs for the Department of
Education in the state of Pennsylvania.
``No Child Left Behind law is new and emphasizes the importance of
paraprofessionals. Everyone has a sharp interest in paraprofessionals.
One of these persons who has an interest is my wife, Sam Sheffer, who
teaches kindergarten at McKinley Elementary School in York,
Pennsylvania.
This program is important because of grandparents like Geraldine
Buchanan. From the day the law was passed, Sam continually reminds me
of the importance of Community Progress Council's Foster Grandparent
Program. Ms. Buchanan is on time, works hard and helps the kindergarten
children.
Thank you.
______
Chairwoman McCarthy. Thank you, Mr. Moore. Appreciate it.
There are so many questions, and I have a few questions in
front of me, but as each of you spoke, I am going, ``Okay, I
want to ask each and every one of you a question.'' So I am
probably going to have to follow up with you after the hearing
so I can get your input.
Now, Mr. Edelman, when you started, as you got into the
program--actually, both of you, but also hearing on both sides
talking about the Grandparents Program, how do we bring more
people into the program and what can this committee do to help
you reach out so on each segment of all the different programs
that we can have the volunteers come in?
Because, obviously, we need to constantly replace--I guess,
certainly, the area that I am most interested in is that in my
district we have a lot of underserved schools, we have a lot of
gangs, and I certainly have been doing everything I possibly
can to reach out on how to solve this problem. I know a number
of times we have been talking about how do we get involved with
children in middle school?
Because we all are on the Education Committee, and with all
the programs that are going on, we always seem to miss out on
the middle school kids, and by the time they get to high
school, a lot of times they have dropped out and we can't find
them.
So if anyone would--Mr. Edelman?
Mr. Edelman. In relation to AmeriCorps NCCC, I think, first
and foremost, the best thing that you could do is reauthorize
funding for the program. Not doing so and not having secure
funding greatly it sends the wrong message to anybody that is
interested in the program. You don't know how disheartening it
is to be accepted to a program and show up for training, yet
you know that at any time funding could be cut and you could be
sent home.
I think there are a lot of people out there that are
interested in the program and would consider joining the
program but are uncertain because they are unaware of where the
direction of the program is going, and they don't feel secure
whether or not the program is going to be there to support
them.
So I think that is the first thing that you can do.
Secondly, I think it is very, very important to in addition
to continuing to give corps members the opportunity to promote
the program through--in AmeriCorps, everybody has a specific
team job. So one of them is specifically to promote the program
and to go to community service organizations and speak at
schools about AmeriCorps for recruitment purposes, which is
wonderful, because you get people that are directly in the
program that are advocating for the program, and they do,
myself and the rest of our corps members, a wonderful job
recruiting.
Yet, I think a lot more can be done. I know firsthand that
the program operates with very limited resources and,
basically, they expect us to do a large part of the work. We
need funds in order to maintain the work that we do but also to
give our staff the opportunity to produce materials and to
advertise to the larger community and to the country.
And then, thirdly, I think another important thing is to
maintain relations with AmeriCorps alumni. I think as an
alumni, you are an incredible resource to the organization. You
can become an advocate, and you also have the opportunity to,
regardless of where your profession goes, to speak about the
program, to involve people in the program and to educate people
to that program.
So I know that there are many organizations in the process
of doing that with AmeriCorps alumni, and I strongly suggest
that other organizations continue and put more effort into
maintaining relationships with their alumni so they could build
a base from the bottom up.
Mr. Gomperts. I think one of the big, open questions is,
how are we going to attract members of the baby boom
generation--and I think many of us sitting around here are that
generation--into service and volunteering in the future. We
know a lot about programs that have operated in the past and
very, very successfully, but when you look at those programs
and you look at the demographics and education levels and so
forth of baby boomers, it is not a perfect match. And that is
why I say, I think we really need to use our imaginations to
try to figure out what would attract us.
We did a survey last year with the MetLife Foundation and
found that in fact members of the baby boom generation are
very, very interested in working for the greater good. More
than 50 percent of boomers say they would like to be involved
in education or health care or social services. Only 12 percent
of them think that there are opportunities for them to do that.
There is a mismatch that people are there but the opportunities
aren't there.
And if we think about ourselves, put ourselves into the
picture, this is something we try to do at Experience Corps,
our little motto to ourselves is, real problems, real work,
real results. This boomer generation is one that has heard a
lot about accountability and I think believes in
accountability. I don't think people want their time wasted or
used frivolously. They want to do things that really matter on
the hardest problems.
So as we think forward how to shape the kind of activities
that engage people, let's not try to candy coat it or make it
easy. Let's focus on big things that need to be done and giving
people real responsibilities for getting them done.
Chairwoman McCarthy. Thank you. Unfortunately, my time is
up.
Mr. Platts?
Mr. Platts. Thank you, Madam Chair. I, again, appreciate
all of your testimonies and the different insights you bring to
this important issue.
I may have attributed the statement earlier to the wrong
witness, but, Mr. Daigle, I think you, in your written
testimony, talked about service sticks and then also you said
earlier in your testimony, ``Service is my path to change.''
Both of those statements are probably good, kind of, mottos
or slogans for what we are talking about here and the
importance of getting young people involved and how that will
continue to benefit the community and also that true individual
effort we can make a difference. And I certainly commend your
parents that you reference in your testimony for their service
as teachers and also the example they set for you, as you
shared.
I do want to get, Mr. Moore, George, to your testimony and
expand on--you referenced the 15 programs. I thought it might
be helpful if you give an example of the different types of
settings in which your foster grandparents are working. I know
some is with the York city school district but some are faith-
based.
If you can give, kind of, not all of the settings but an
example of the different types of settings that you are
partnered with.
Mr. Moore. Certainly. Some of the sites are--a number of
them are with public school settings, York city schools, with
the elementary and middle school children. We have foster
grandparents assigned to Head Start classrooms throughout York
County. We have foster grandparents assigned to York Day
Nursery, which is a private, nonprofit daycare program.
Manitou, which is a middle school and high school program for
troubled youth, has worked very well with our foster
grandparents. I am trying to think of some of the other
locations.
Mr. Platts. Well, maybe a follow up of those different
types. How did they come to you or you partner with them? How
does that interrelationship occur and are there others who you
are reaching out to or that are soliciting you to partner
further with them?
Mr. Moore. Yes, it really works both ways. Some folks we
have met almost serendipitously in another meeting or setting
and talked about what we had and they expressed some interest.
We have also done outreach and kind of approached sites that we
thought would work well.
The Manitou site was one that we found really challenging
and weren't sure whether the foster grandparents would be
comfortable in that setting, and it takes the right match with
the right grandparent to do that. And from the very onset of
the program there were two that just were enthused beyond
understanding to work with them, wanted to continue and spent a
number of years involved with them, and that involvement
continues.
One of the other sites too is called the River Rock
Academy, which is an alternative secondary school, so it is a
very broad group of organizations that partner with us.
Mr. Platts. In your testimony, you said that mutual benefit
to the grandparents and the students, the children, is not
measurable because it is, a common term now, priceless because
there is such a significant gain to both. But you did share
some examples on the academic side, both in the school setting
and the Head Start academic.
With the Manitou program, where it is youth that have
gotten into some trouble, are there any outcomes that you have
been able to identify that those who have participated in the
Foster Grandparent Program that have kind of turned themselves
around in the disciplinary area?
Mr. Moore. I don't have any statistical information with
me. I would be glad to try to get some, but I think part of the
answer to that would be the highlight of one of our annual
dinners at Community Progress Council. We were awarding a
volunteer of the year award and it went to one of the foster
grandparents who had worked with Manitou.
The student from Manitou insisted on coming and speaking
about how she had really reached out and really changed his
life. It is that personal involvement and contact that really
makes a difference. They are not there as an authority figure,
per se, they truly come across as the caring grandparent.
Mr. Platts. That personal testimony by that student might
be better than any statistic that you actually could offer.
So thank you, Madam Chair, and, again, my thanks to all the
witnesses for being here today.
Chairwoman McCarthy. Thank you, Mr. Platts.
Mr. Yarmuth for 5 minutes.
Mr. Yarmuth. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. I appreciate all
your testimony.
I am particularly interested, Mr. Edelman and Mr. Daigle,
talking about and your discussing maybe your assessment of the
types of people who get involved in AmeriCorps. You seem to
come from fairly similar backgrounds, and I am interested in
the extent of diversity in these programs and whether there
might be things that the program could do or the way the
program could be constructed that would help encourage more
diversity if in fact that is a problem. You may disabuse me of
that notion and say it isn't a problem.
Mr. Edelman. In regards to AmeriCorps NCCC, I would say the
program is diverse on so many levels. First off, one of the
things inherently about the true, which is truly remarkable, it
is specifically for 18-to 24-year-olds.
The reason why that is so incredible is you have in the
short year of ages the whole spectrum of people that have just
graduated from high school, you have people that have some
college experience underneath their belt and took a leave of
absence in order to do a program like this, and you also have
people that have recently graduated from college and then also
people like myself who were involved in the business world for
a year, didn't know exactly what they wanted to do and then
used the program as a way of figuring out or beginning on a new
path more in line with service work and their aspirations in
life.
So from that respect, it is wonderful because everybody
mentors one another in terms of you have students that are just
out of high school, this will be their first experience living
on their own. And in addition to learning the life skills that
you might learn in a college environment, you are getting an
incredible sense of work experience and a wide range of
different service options that you would never be exposed to in
college.
In addition to just being in the classroom, you are
learning by doing, and you are learning about the numerous
different ways that you can change America.
And then in addition to that, you have people from all
across the country, in all parts of the country. There were
people from Puerto Rico, there were people from Hawaii. Every
50 states is covered. So, again, it is an incredible learning
opportunity, because in addition to traveling around the
country, and for many youngsters this is the first time they
have had the opportunity to do that, to actually develop an
appreciation for their country. They are living with such a
diverse group of students in terms of age, in terms of where
they live and also in terms of ethnicity.
Personally, I am Jewish and for many of the people that
were in my program I was the first Jewish person that they have
ever met. And it meant a lot to me, and it led to, in addition
to the type of service work that we were doing, learning from
one another in regards to our religion, our ethnicities and our
belief systems.
Mr. Daigle. If I may?
Mr. Yarmuth. Oh, please.
Mr. Daigle. Yes. I am glad that Mr. Edelman found that. In
my program, in Habitat, a lot of us noticed that we felt like
it was not very diverse at all.
I say that because at orientation, and we came every
August, we would be in an auditorium, I think it was maybe 350
AmeriCorps, and it was mainly a post-college graduate crowd,
and it was very few minorities, very few people who were not
college educated. There were smaller age brackets. There were
some older people, and there weren't that many exceptions.
I know on my two teams, the first year, which was 10
AmeriCorps, and the second year, which was 11, every person on
there came from similar social backgrounds, every person on
there was Caucasian, and it was something which we noticed and
we weren't especially happy about.
As for ways to recruit around that, I am not sure I have
that many answers, other than the fact I think that a lot of--
when I look at the people I went to high school with, pretty
much everyone, they did not know about the educational award,
which AmeriCorps was providing. And that is a great thing to
persuade many people to look to serve for a year. A year of
service is going to be very doable, and you are given an
education award at the end of it. It makes it a very good
thing, something most people would like to do.
And so I feel like if all the benefits are shown, it would
open up a very wide range. Because I know in my circumstance
and from the people I served with, most of us have gone through
college and then decided to go and serve. It was a very
straight path for most of us.
Mr. Yarmuth. Thank you for your answers.
Chairwoman McCarthy. The gentleman's time has expired.
Mr. Sarbanes, 5 minutes.
Mr. Sarbanes. Yes, Mr. Gomperts, I had a question about--I
mean, I suffer from not being able to see how we shouldn't be
doing everything we possibly can, every minute of the day to
promote these programs. Because as Mr. Daigle said, it is hard
really even to discern who is the greater beneficiary, whether
it is the one who is providing the service or the one who is
receiving the service. And, frankly, you can't even tell which
party is which in the equation if you really step back and
think about it.
So I would like you to speak to what you see as any areas
or constituencies of resistance to this volunteer army. For
example, I know coming into the Teach for America Program in
its early years, for example, encountered resistance from the
establishment, however you want to describe that, when it came
into some schools. I wonder if there are other examples of
that, what you take from it, what we learned from that, what
the implications are for where the limits on volunteer service
may be, et cetera. If you could speak to that.
Mr. Gomperts. It is a good and important question. I heard
what David Eisner said about not federalizing everything, and I
certainly agree with that. I am one--I think David is probably
one too--who would love to see a much more universal kind of
service in the United States.
And service, as demonstrated by Representative Platts'
engagement and others, engagement on the National Service
Coalition, is service and volunteering enjoy really a lot of
bipartisan support. That is a great thing. But it is very rare
that it is the absolute passion of anybody in politics. Service
is nice, volunteering is nice, but it is not at the heart of
what we are doing; it is on the periphery, at the edges. That,
I think, is the problem.
There is not somebody who is against this or there are very
few people who are against this in any passionate way. The
problem is that those of us who are for it have not been able
to rally the forces and the constituencies and the people in
the country to think that this is really central.
So you can't go through a presidential inaugural address
without hearing about service and volunteering from Kennedy,
Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush. It is always there. People love to
talk about it, but when it gets to the hard business of
creating programs, making the investments and backing them,
that is where we have not yet found the steel in our spine.
And I was saying to somebody back here, I am so encouraged
by this hearing because there is so much interest, curiosity,
willingness to question and be creative, and I hope that we can
all work together to make this world for boomers, for kids, for
communities much larger over the next few years.
Mr. Sarbanes. One last question, and I am right in sync
with you here, and I think you are sort of describing there are
hard things and there are soft things, and this kind of service
stuff tends to get pushed into the category of soft when if you
did the economic analysis, for starters, leave aside the impact
on people's lives and individuals, just straight economic
analysis, it would compare favorably against anything else that
gets attention and is, sort of, really the hard stuff.
Speak, if you will, just briefly to the whole issue of
voluntary versus mandatory service obligations. My sense of it
is that we haven't fully tested the proposition of whether if
we created voluntary service opportunities for people, they
would take full advantage of it. So to talk about mandatory
service is premature, but maybe it takes that kind of a
structure to encourage the involvement. Can you speak to that?
Mr. Gomperts. Absolutely. I think that is a great question
again. Back to the thing about soft, we always used--we talk
about trying to move from nice to necessary. Nice is great but
it doesn't really cut it, ultimately.
And one of the problems, I think, is that the term,
``volunteer,'' covers everything from people who do nice things
to people who do the most essential kind of work in our
communities. For us, at Experience Corps, the key is really to
focus on the most important problems in the neediest
communities. That is the work that really needs to get done.
As to universal service and mandatory, Maryland has moved
toward mandatory service learning, I think with a lot of
success. But I don't think we are a country that loves
mandatory anything, and I think that the whole venture would be
much more successful if people rose to it, if there were a
call, a universal call, and universal opportunity for
everybody, from little kids to these guys' age, to my dad's age
and all of us in between, to engage in things that really make
a difference in the community, things that are nice but
necessary as well.
Chairwoman McCarthy. The gentleman's time has expired.
Mr. Grijalva, 5 minutes.
Mr. Grijalva. Thank you, Madam Chair.
My colleague Mr. Sarbanes' questions were excellent, and
your responses provoke a lot of thought and discussion.
I was going to ask you something else but following up on
the questions of my colleague, American people don't like
mandatory. They don't like mandatory drafts, they don't like a
lot of other stuff.
But let's go back to talking about this budget and what is
going on with it. In terms of how do we incentivize because
that is the other word now that is going around here,
investment and incentives seems to be the catchphrases right
now, how do we incentivize volunteerism in this country?
And before you answer, let me--I don't have questions for
Mr. Edelman or Mr. Daigle, just a thank you. My appreciation
for the work. In a very narrow scope in my district were
refugees, senior citizens, schools that are underserved,
neighborhoods that need attention, young people that need our
comfort. Thank you very much to you and countless colleagues
that are not here today. I appreciate that very much.
Mr. Gomperts?
Mr. Gomperts. Well, on the point about mandatory, I think
we are probably in agreement that a mandatory system is not in
the cards right now. It might spark a good debate if somebody
really seriously proposed a mandatory system in which all
people when they graduate from high school or between the ages
of 18 and 25----
Mr. Grijalva. What would be the incentive?
Mr. Gomperts. What would be the incentive for people to do
that? Well, I think if you have a mandatory system, you don't
need incentives, but I think we won't have a mandatory system
and we will need incentives.
I think there are certain financial incentives that are
important. The AmeriCorps education award is important. The
fact that AmeriCorps members get a stipend is important. I will
tell you that for Experience Corps we get asked all the time,
``Why are volunteers paid?'' And I will tell you that it
creates a mutual accountability in which if you are paying
somebody, even a small amount, I mean, these are part-time
AmeriCorps members, they are getting a very modest amount, like
$200 a month.
It means, though, that they are being asked to do something
serious and we expect them to do something serious. It goes the
other way also. It means that they can hold us accountable for
running a quality program, doing a serious job with what we are
doing.
So incentives for individuals, I think, are important. I
think that there is a place for that global call to service,
for leaders in government, in the private sector, in the
nonprofit sector to be calling people out, that the problems
that exist in this country are not those people's problems or
those people's problems, the other guy's problems. They are all
of our problems, and we all have a piece in solving those
problems.
And the last thing I would say is, I think that we need
some incentives for organizations to seek out people. The most
interesting things that are created, the most interesting ways
of solving problems are generally not created in Washington.
They are probably not even created in state capitals. They are
not created in government. They are created by people like Alan
Khazei and Michael Brown who Representative Sarbanes alluded
to, or Wendy Kopp who created Teach for America.
I think there are things that this committee, this Congress
and the government can do to make those kind of social
entrepreneurs, to give more support to those kinds of social
entrepreneurs to create the new, exciting programs that will--
and they, in turn--you know, Wendy Kopp should ask somebody to
join Teach for America than some government official.
Mr. Grijalva. Thank you.
I am very interested in Mr. Moore's testimony. You
mentioned the documents that you provided the committee
included a letter from the Department of Education,
Pennsylvania, praising Foster Grandparent's work in his wife's
classroom. And I was going to ask the same question to Mr.
Gomperts, but it kind of ties together.
As we look at reauthorizing No Child Left Behind, what is
the role for the program you spoke of, even for Experience
Corps and others, to play in this issue? In my state, out of 27
service groups that are working with No Child Left Behind, four
are community-based. The others are for-profit organizations. I
mean, we are talking about incentives. Here is an opportunity.
And I would just like your reaction where the program you
spoke to would fit into that and how do you see it fitting in?
Mr. Gomperts. Well, I see the Foster Grandparent Program
and the foster grandparents themselves continuing to contribute
to that effort. What we find is that the foster grandparents,
by working in their community schools, know many of the
children. They are from their neighborhoods, they are from
their community. Even the ones they don't know they find a
connection with. They may know other family members and they do
wind up having a real caring personal interest in those
children and in their community schools.
In the rural areas, it is a little bit more of a challenge.
One of the things that we find as a real disincentive is just
the cost of travel for those foster grandparents to get to
their sites. For the last 3 years, we have been working with
the same level of funding, and it has made it very challenging.
We have not been able, as the cost of travel or gasoline
reimbursement has gone up, we have had very, very limited
resources to be able to reimburse those folks. In the more
urban or city areas, we have been able to provide
transportation using mass transit.
Mr. Grijalva. My time is up, but I want to follow up with
both of you, Mr. Gomperts and yourself, Mr. Moore, about how
the organizations that you spoke of today will fit into that
process of No Child Left Behind and making sure the kids being
tested have attainment levels but beyond that that they have
the service learning that is going to help them reach those
attainment levels and that way supporting community-based
organizations.
I will follow up with that.
Madam Chair, with that, I yield back.
Chairwoman McCarthy. I thank the gentleman. If any member
who wishes to submit follow-up questions in writing to the
witness should coordinate with the majority staff within the
requisite time--I just want to finish this hearing.
I think that you will find this a very unique subcommittee,
because everyone on this committee actually asked to be on the
committee. It wasn't a matter of an open spot or anything else
like that. People wanted to be on this committee.
And I know that many members of Congress probably do not
really understand a lot of the programs that are out there, and
that, again, is up to us on the committee to spread the
message, talk to other members on why this is a good program,
and by the way, which is very cost-effective, if you really
look at. Because for each group that you reach out to, whether
it is our young people, whether it is the foster children, it
doesn't matter. In the end, we are going to end up saving
money, in my opinion, on social services for the future and,
certainly, hopefully, reaching out to our young people where we
can prevent them from going to jail and become citizens for
this country.
So I think you will find that a lot of us do have
differences of opinions on many issues, but I think that we
will be working together.
I also want to say that, as previously ordered, members
will have 7 days to submit additional materials for the hearing
record, and, again, I thank you for your testimony, and without
objection----
Mr. Platts. Madam Chair, may I just add, I know for the
record that Mr. Moore is going to submit additional testimony
or a very different form of his testimony for the record in the
following days.
Chairwoman McCarthy. Without objection.
Mr. Platts. Thank you. And, again, I want to commend you
for your leadership in starting this new session of this
subcommittee with such an important issue as national and
community service and look forward to working with you as we
move forward.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Chairwoman McCarthy. As I do with you.
Thank you, Mr. Platts.
By the way, this is a brand new gavel. I have never had one
before. [Laughter.]
So with the gavel, I adjourn the hearing. Thank you.
[Whereupon, at 3:50 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]