The Next Generation of National Service

Many years ago, on the fifth anniversary of the Peace Corps, I asked one of those young Americans why they had volunteered, and I will never forget the answer: "It was the first time someone asked me to do something for my country."

Now it's time to ask again. Americans young and old are looking for new ways to serve their communities and give back to their country. Today's hearing on national service will enable us to learn of new and better ways to provide those opportunities to serve.

Service has always been a bipartisan goal, and the legislation we'll hear about today continues that tradition. From President Kennedy's creation of the Peace Corps to President George H.W. Bush's Points of Light to President Clinton's AmeriCorps, presidents of both parties have contributed their own ideas about how best to ask the American people to serve their own communities. I commend President Obama for making it an early priority of his administration to expand service opportunities across the country to involve many more Americans in meeting our most pressing challenges.

In 1990, working with the first President Bush, our Committee approved the original National and Community Service Act. Many of those who worked on that legislation are leading the way again today. Senator Hatch has committed so much of his life to the causes he believes in. Senator Mikulski planted the seed for AmeriCorps and has never stopped fighting.

I'm proud to work with both of them again on the bipartisan Serve America Act. And I commend Senator Enzi for his support as we guide this bill and the reauthorizations of the National and Community Service Act and the Domestic Volunteer Service Act through our Committee. As always, he's an excellent partner.

The Serve America Act draws on some of the lessons of the past two decades of service programs:

• Service can make a greater difference in tackling problems if we focus on specific challenges;
• Service opportunities early in life can put young people on a path to a lifetime of service;
• More and more older Americans are interested in putting their skills and experience to work for their communities; and
• Forward-thinking social entrepreneurs are coming up with their own effective ways of tackling some of our greatest challenges.

Now is the time to act on what we've learned. The Serve America Act will create new volunteer corps with specific missions. For example, as the major national debate about climate change goes on, a Clean Energy Service Corps will take steps to conserve our resources. As the dropout crisis continues to plague so many of low-income schools, an Education Corps will tutor, teach, and mentor students.

The legislation will also increase service opportunities for senior citizens, to draw on the many skills that older Americans have to offer. It will support part-time volunteering through a Volunteer Generation Fund to increase volunteer management and capacity. It will also increase the Eli Segal Education Award, the value of which has remained stagnant while college costs have skyrocketed.

National service has been a cause of mine for many years, and the time is right today to do much more. I look forward to working closely with my colleagues on the Committee and the president to strengthen service opportunities for all Americans.

A summary of the legislation is below:

THE SERVE AMERICA ACT
A Legislative Initiative to Expand and Improve
Domestic and International Service Opportunities for All Americans
Senator Edward M. Kennedy and Senator Orrin Hatch

Themes

• Expand opportunities for people to serve at every stage of life.
• Use service to meet specific national challenges. Put service to work to solve our most pressing challenges, such as tackling the dropout crisis and strengthening our schools; improving energy efficiency; safeguarding the environment; improving health care in low-income communities; expanding economic opportunities for low-income individuals; and preparing for and responding to disasters and emergencies.

I. Ask Many More Americans to Give a Year to Solve Specific Challenges: Building on the success of AmeriCorps, the legislation will create new, effective "Corps" focused on areas of national need. It will ask 175,000 Americans to give a year of service through these corps as part of a new national commitment to solve these challenges, expanding the number of national service participants to 250,000.

II. Increase Opportunities to Serve by People of All Ages:

• For Students, Increase Service Early in Life: Service early in life will put more and more youth on a path to a lifetime of service. The legislation will improve opportunities for young people in low income, high-need communities to engage in service to improve their own communities.
• For Retirees, Value Their Skills and Make Service Work for Them. Many retiring citizens are ready, willing, and able to be involved in service and have skills the public needs, as evidenced by those who already serve through the current Senior Corps Programs. The legislation will build upon the existing framework and enhance incentives for retirees to give a year of service through the new Corps, and will establish "Encore Fellowships" that help retirees transition to longer-term public service.
• For Americans of All Ages, Increase Volunteering. Not all Americans can make a significant time commitment to service, but many volunteer in other ways. The legislation will expand the volunteer pool by establishing a "Volunteer Generation Fund" to help nonprofit organizations recruit and manage more volunteers.

III. Support Innovation in the Nonprofit Sector: Social entrepreneurs who have launched innovative nonprofit organizations such as Teach for America and Citizen Schools in Boston are experimenting with new solutions to pressing problems. The legislation will recognize and support the role of effective social entrepreneurs in solving our national challenges:

• Establish a Commission to study and improve how the federal government, nonprofits, and the private sector work together to meet national challenges effectively.
• Apply Effective Business Strategies to the Nonprofit Sector, by establishing a network of "Community Solution Funds" that are basically venture capital funds to help the nonprofit sector seek talent and put it to work.

IV. Improve and Expand International Service and America's Respect in the World

• Support for Short-Term International Service Opportunities: We must expand the Peace Corps so more Americans can provide critical assistance to people across the globe while promoting America's international standing. But many skilled Americans are unable to give two years. The legislation will strengthen the current "Volunteers for Prosperity" program, which coordinates and supports short-term international service opportunities for skilled professionals to serve in developing nations.

Comments

[Kindheart]

Senator Kennedy,
I was 10 years old when I shook your brother's hand out in California. He was a wonderful president who inspired thousands to give of themselves for the good of the country and the world. I applaud your efforts to want to get a program going for volunteers to help this country. I wish you health and I thank you for all you have done for this country.

[AdvocateWeb]

Con't -

It is time for a NEW PARADIGM OF UNDERSTANDING of this form of abuse. Successful PREVENTION EDUCATION FOR PROFESSIONALS HAS BEEN CREATED. Bringing this to the attention of the administration is difficult. It is time to explore the ton of spending that is done by state licensing agencies investigating and prosecuting offending professionals that received NO education in their training, residency, or through continuing education addressing professional “Boundaries.”


We stand ready to volunteer our expertise in this area. Only one lawmaker needs to spend 5 minutes examining the education developed to protect the public, professionals, and professions.

Such an easy solution to rebuilding the integrity and trust the public deserves to have in our leaders and trusted helping professionals.

[AdvocateWeb]

Dear Senator Kennedy,

I hope that your staff is monitoring these comments, suggestions, and in some cases, deficiencies in what small, but worthy non-profits face in staying afloat in these tough times.

I will share this non-profit's plight and the important work we do with zero funding, and solutions we can provide to a form of abuse that few in the public know much about.

AdvocateWeb has for 11 years provided support and resources to VICTIMS OF ABUSE BY TRUTED HELPING PROFESSIONALS. We are the only resource of its kind and as such, do not fit in any grant opportunity. Our work extends not only to the victims of professionals that violate professional boundaries with their patients, clients, students, staffers, and congregants, but we also participate in the rehabilitation of offenders.

This area of abuse has affected our government, healthcare system, schools, and churches. Research reveals that 10 to 15% of licensed professionals violate sexual and non-sexual boundaries and commit exploitation of the most vulnerable among us.

This area of abuse has been studied by HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL and MENNINGERS for the past 35 years.

This egregious betrayal of trust is widespread and has affected even our POLITICIANS. Professional Sexual Misconduct (PSM) is a BETRAYAL OF TRUST and EXPLOITATION OF POWER AND AUTHORITY. It is among the most egregious of human offenses when it involves a professional preying on a vulnerable patient, student, staffer, or congregant.

See www.advocateweb.org and www.professionalboundaries.com

[sbvpav]

more and more we are reading heartbreaking stories of families living in relative's garages, campgrounds, motels and cars. these families are struggling to survive while their children struggle to remain in school, do their homework and stay up with their class.

why then, at the very least, where these children have nowhere to do their homework or study, can not schools remain open after hours, where volunteers come in to help and tutor and give these children a quiet, safe and secure place to do their homework and receive encouragement?

[MissKaren]

Sounds like a great idea. One of the reasons Barack Obama is now President of the USA is that he mobilized the energy of young (and older) Americans who had been on the sidelines bemoaning the disastrous Bush years and wanted to find some way to make things right again. They watched as our values were trashed and not by a hostile foreign power but by our own government. It's time they took the helm and made a difference. We need their energy.

[JulieSA]

If those people were sulking on the sidelines because of who was living in the white house, there is no help for them. Voluntarism transcends politics. I have no use for whiners who refuse to volunteer because their guy isn't office.

[AbrahamSadegh]

Dear Senator Kennedy,

I was serving as a VISTA volunteer on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 1968 when I met Senator Robert Kennedy who was campaigning for a position he unfortunately never had the opportunity to serve in. I also served as an Americorps volunteer nearly a decade ago. And now I am more than ready to be of service again.

But I also want to ask you to be of service to our country and the rest of humanity beyond all that you have already done and are doing.

I sincerely believe that the freedom of choice is God Almighty's greatest gift to humanity and that religious leaders' ultimate responsibility, regardless their faith, is to advise their followers as to the best paths to follow in life and none have the right to expect "obedience" in any matter. Each human being is made in the image of God and should not be dictated to as to how to exercise its legitimate freedom of choice.

If you agree with what am saying, make that public and you may become instrumental in freeing hundreds of millions of human being all across the globe from the spiritual and physical straightjacket of "obedience" they are subjected as in the such as the Shiite sect to which I myself was born.

[tailgateshirts]

Too bad breaking the religious stranglehold would create another war.

If there was a way to achieve what you speak of there would be much less wars

[AbrahamSadegh]

I am not asking Senator Kennedy to do something as a public official but as a human being entitled to his opinion. Also, I was not talking about starting a war but rather speaking the truth about those who knowingly or unknowingly are using God for their own purposes and exercising undue authority over the lives of others.

By the way, I assure you that if we do not start a war, no one would dare starting one against us. In saying this, I am not promoting our military-i­ndustrial-­complex whose tentacles have unfortunately engulfed the globe in a manner detrimental to our long term national interest and that of the rest of humanity.

[JulieSA]

Read the first amendment. You can worship as you please, or not worship, and the government cannot infringe on that right.

[AbrahamSadegh]

Julie,

You have misunderstood me. The ultimate meaning of the statement "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion ..." is that our government cannot shove one particular faith or ideology down the people’s throat as the present government in my native land of Persia and some other so called Islamic countries have unfortunately done.

All I have been asking our nation’s prominent Catholics, not as public officials, but as Catholics has been to help alter the undue power of the Church’s hierarchy to dictate to hundreds of millions of Catholics and indirectly to the remainder of humanity as to how to live their lives. All I have been asking has been for them to promote the idea that the most honorable task of any religious leader is to provide counseling and guidance in a manner compatible with each human being’s “unalienable Rights” of “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

The ungodly and self-serving chain of “obedience” religious leaders impose on their followers and the ungodly effects it has on human spirit need done away with if humanity is to reach the highest potential it is capable of and entitled to.

If God Almighty had wanted humanity to be obedient without understanding, it would not have given the metaphorical Adam and Eve the freedom to choose and we would have been the same as the rest of the instinct driven animal kingdom.

[BillMcKay]

Your family has given so much to this country. Thank you so much Senator Kennedy for keeping the dream alive. You are an inspiration to all. God Bless you.

[truthynesslover]

Sounds like a wonderful program.I know there are many people who will love to serve.

We love you Ted and God bless!

[Eres]

Sending you many warm wishes, Senator Kennedy.

[Katzencats]

This looks to be a splendid blueprint for the newest phase of government volunteerism. I will be happy to contribute what limited skills I have, if they are of use to anyone.

Thank you Senator for your life-long service to our country. Your brother Robert & all he stood for are the reason I became a Democrat at the ripe old age of 12. Your continuing service has been an inspiration & is one of the reasons I'm still a Democrat at the age of 53.

May God bless you & keep you.

[sshaler]

With huge respect for you and everything you say, Senator Kennedy, I'm a little baffled at the moment about volunteerism. I devote my whole self to service and have for many years so it's not a question of doubting the value of service. At this time, when the resources of the earth have been distributed in such a lopsided fashion and the self-interest of a few has been massively rewarded materially, the most crucial community challenge seems to be for us 'servers' to learn to assert our individual authority to take our share of the material pie and stop handing it to people who have little or no community spirit. It seems to me that there would never be a 'Wall Street' type crisis again if we each learn to uphold our civic responsibility to say "no" to exploitation. No matter how much love and sweat we pour into planting and building and caring for others, we'll never create a just and harmonious society if we give our power away to people who take more than they need, let alone a lot more than they need. We seem to be locked into perennially going around picking up the shards of society broken by those who somehow feel good about partying up a storm without regard to the effects it's having on the planet and other beings. Can this be healthy?

[LesHamilton]

Happy birthday and many more, Senator Kennedy.

Wise governments recognize that they can leverage a lot of valuable community work with small funding through volunteerism. These community groups often are the forefront of social policy development as they fill the new niches of need that government later takes up.

I agree with you, sshaler.

You're saying (and I’m extrapolating from your letter) that free market capitalism allows too much of America’s resources to be siphoned off for personal gain; that it's a waste and morally wrong. If you can find a way to set up an economic system differently, I'm right behind you.

If we wanted, economic activity would be better if filtered through a lens of social responsibility. For instance, we have legislation to prevent the degradation of the environment, although with limited success because of the easy workarounds left in the legislation for the worst polluters.

We could stop the excesses in financial speculation. What we could say is that you can't market a financial derivative because its sole purpose is to engender speculation. As well, we could use capital gains taxes to stop overheated stocks where the P/E or the market value to net equity value per share is too great.

We could also say that the risks and social costs of leaving major sectors of the economy such as energy, water, and health care in the hands of companies whose main responsibility is to provide profits to shareholders is too great.

[StillIRise]

Thank you Senator Kennedy.

The Kennedy family has been an extraordinary example to us of what service means and the positive difference it can make for our nation. We would not be the America we are today without the Kennedy family and its enduring legacy. My purpose since my retirement has been to find as many ways I can to volunteer, and doing so has enriched my life in ways I can never express. My only regret is that I did not or could not find the time to do it sooner. Giving back is essential to our journey, as Americans and as human beings, and there is a way for all of us to give back if we simply take the time to look for it. With your shining example and President Obama's strong leadership, I believe that we will all look for a way to rise to both yours and his expectations and to our potential.

[divatalk]

I've created a unique way to feed 1 million children this year. Join me in my challenge
go to www.peoplemakingadifference.blogspot.com

[guajiro]

As always Senator Kennedy, good to hear from you again. As one of two sons born to illegal immigrants in California I was raised to give back to the community by a father who revered all Kennedy brothers. We long ago left the grape fields of Sanger, Fresno, Bakersfield, and assorted fields, and now live middle class lives. However, since pre-teen age I have been involved in the Knights of Columbus, Jaycees, church activities (although agnostic), and owe the true gratitude I find in helping others to the nationwide movement your brother John started and Bobby kept alive through his fiery compassionate resolve. This togetherness is what I remember most about the 60's (though I was 10 at the time) and is why I suspect my parents and many others respect your family name so much. While my dad has passed on he used to give me advice even in a disabled state where he could hardly whisper the words. You remind me of him. In hard times you still think of others. Me and my dad could not be more gratified or honored to have known you and your brothers. We will carry on your vision Mr. Kennedy and praise to you for all you've done for us.

[piglet19704]

As someone who works in a small non profit I applaud the idea of more volunteers, but right now we cannot handle any more. We are all on "emergency overload". I specifically assist victims of domestic violence. In a time when the need is increasing exponentially, our funds are decreasing.

We receive very little money to pay someone to supervise and train these volunteers. We have tried having a "volunteer" volunteer coordinator, but that has been disastrous.

I also have an issue with "hiring" someone from the AmeriCorp program. These "volunteers" receive VERY little money to even live on. In our community, we have a very high level of homelessness and feel that bringing someone into our organization who will eventually fail due to an inability to pay rent in order to "volunteer" is irresponsible as a community member. I would love to see an increase in funding to hire (at a decent living wage) a volunteer coordinator to handle the influx of volunteers.