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来源类型 | REPORT |
规范类型 | 报告 |
Serving America: A National Service Agenda for the Next Decade | |
Shirley Sagawa | |
发表日期 | 2007-09-18 |
出版年 | 2007 |
语种 | 英语 |
概述 | Senior Fellow Shirley Sagawa outlines a plan for transforming national service into large-scale efforts to solve America’s most pressing problems. |
摘要 | ![]() Read the full report (pdf) There is strong evidence over the past eight decades that national service plays an effective role in solving specific problems in every sector of our society. In the 1930s, the Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps started by President Franklin Roosevelt engaged 3 million unemployed young men to fight soil erosion by planting trees, building structures in national parks, and otherwise protecting America’s natural resources. VISTA volunteers working to alleviate poverty in the 1960s paved the way for national service programs dedicated to helping our senior citizens in the 1970s. Youth service in the 1980s led to the creation and a full range of national service programs that engaged American youth and adults, including the Points of Light Foundation, in the early 1990s. Then, in 1993, President Clinton proposed the AmeriCorps program, building on the national service demonstration program enacted by Congress three years earlier, and extending and expanding other service programs already in operation. Unfortunately, America’s progressive experiment with national service legislation ran into concerted conservative opposition. Some conservatives derided these programs, arguing that they simply paid people to volunteer. Authorizing legislation enacted in 1993 expired in 1997, the victim of calculated neglect by the Congressional opponents. And yet individual members of Congress, recognizing the important role of national service in our public life, came together in an informal bipartisan coalition to continue funding these programs, enabling millions of Americans—including half a million AmeriCorps members—to demonstrate the effectiveness of national service. AmeriCorps members served their communities through programs supported in whole or in part by this legislation, with additional funding from private funders, as well as state and local governments. The flexible and community-driven nature of these service programs resulted in a diversity of innovative initiatives, continuing this great experiment in national service despite the absence of authorizing legislation from Congress. Organizations ranging from local schools and afterschool programs to large national youth corps and brand-name nonprofits took part. Social entrepreneurs, in particular, looked to national service to provide the human and financial resources they needed to grow their new and creative social service organizations. In some cases, the availability of federal funds inspired issue-focused organizations to incorporate service into their delivery mechanisms. In other cases, funded nonprofit organizations considered national service as their primary mission. In still other cases, organizations looked to AmeriCorps members to create an infrastructure for engaging volunteers. While not every program met its objectives, many did. Numerous evaluations and studies have documented the results of service programs, and experience has provided insights into what works for different situations. Today, national service programs that tackle a range of pressing issues—from global warming and economic self-sufficiency to community health and quality education—provide a unique support system for communities and have a proven track record of improving society as a whole.
The success of these and other national service programs is precisely why congressional reauthorization of these programs is long overdue. Partisan and ideological conflict over the past decade has prevented a constructive reexamination of national service’s even greater economic and societal potential. Cases in point:
It is time to make use of the experience gained over the past decades to sharpen the role of national service and transform these programs into large-scale efforts to solve some of America’s most pressing problems. Today we as a nation are unable to realize the full potential of national service programs. We need to maximize the impact of national service through strategic investments in existing non-profit organizations and by funding social entrepreneurs. Specifically, to give national service the attention it so clearly deserves, the Center for American Progress offers a comprehensive set of recommendations, among them:
In these many ways, national service can be used as an innovative platform for change, improving quality of life for all citizens. As this paper will demonstrate, the Center’s policy proposals for national service would dovetail effectively and efficiently with the experience of national service gained over the past 80 years. Read the full report: |
主题 | Education, K-12 |
URL | https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education-k-12/reports/2007/09/18/3472/serving-america-a-national-service-agenda-for-the-next-decade/ |
来源智库 | Center for American Progress (United States) |
资源类型 | 智库出版物 |
条目标识符 | http://119.78.100.153/handle/2XGU8XDN/434378 |
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714 | Shirley Sagawa. Serving America: A National Service Agenda for the Next Decade. 2007. |
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