Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Im john allen, the president of brookings and on behalf of the institution and our partners at Service Year Alliance, i want to welcome you all to this important event today. I want to welcome those coming in over the webcast and of course we always welcome the media. This morning youll be hearing from a distinguished group of leaders and volunteers on the matter of National Service. Let me make a few brief comments to begin with. In such divided and turbulent times, we must look for ways to bridge society, to bridge the divides and to restore a sense of community. In recent years, much has been done, sadly, to burn rather than to build the bridges in our civic nation leading to a growing culture of fear and distrust, incivility, and a reflex to retreat into the safety of tribalism. Our trusted institutions and our trust in each other has taken a beating and has in fact declined and that decline makes it harder for us to solve some of the key problems we face as a country and as a people. From my personal experience i know that when individuals from different walks of life have an opportunity to serve together and to serve their country and to do something bigger than themselves, they almost always live up to the challenge. In fact, they almost always perform magnificently, emerging from the experience better young women and men. And in the process, they learn a crucial lesson, that when you serve side by side with another person, it really doesnt matter who they are or where theyre from, bonds of trust will form and endure and often last a lifetime. Its time to consider whether we should be providing more opportunities for service, not just in the military, but importantly in the civilian sector as well. Research by our scholar Isabel Sawhill shows that americans are enthusiastic about National Service. What she calls an American Exchange program that would ask American Families across the country to voluntarily host a young person from another community for as much as a year while they perform their service, thats groundbreaking. If provided with the right opportunities, americans can Work Together across so many areas to prepare for and to respond for emergencies and disasters, to improve public spaces, to help our elderly americans to stay in their homes and provide training or Career Opportunities to lowincome youths. And that doesnt begin to scratch the long list of opportunities and possibilities that lie before us. This event this morning by virtue of those who are participating and certainly those in the audience, this event this morning importantly lies at the intersection of where policy meets action. And the people that youll hear from this morning, the conversations that youll listen to this morning will be all about translating policy into action and thats so important. So we welcome our panelists. We welcome our guests. We welcome the conversation this morning and most importantly, we welcome you. Were going out over webcast and were very much on the record. With that bell, may i offer you the floor with your comments. First panel should probably come right on up. Dont think theyre a shy group. Good morning, everyone. Its great to see this group and i am so thrilled to be on the stage with so many leaders in the National Service area. Let me start by saying just a few words about National Service itself. Ill be echoing to some extent what president john allen has just said, but im not sure it can be said too many times. We are a very divided nation. You all know that. Its a cultural problem, its a political problem, its an economic problem. So i do want us not to forget about that. One writer recently said we are texting and tweeting ourselves into disunion. I thought that was an interesting way of putting it. So we really need to have a good conversation about the potential of National Service to bring us together again and to get us off of our phones and into our communities. So there are many benefits to National Service in addition to the role it can play in bringing us together. It has benefits for the participants, the young people who serve, it has benefits for the communities they serve, and youre going to hear much more about that through the rest of the morning. But the basic point i think is that democracy cannot flourish when we do not trust each other and do not trust our institutions. And i think National Service can play a role, this is no easy task, but we should do everything we can to repair some of the these divisions. There is considerable evidence, im putting on for a second my hat as a researcher, because ive delved into this a bit, lots of evidence that when people Work Together on a common task across divisions that would normally keep them apart, they learn as john allen said to trust and respect each other and to form bonds. And the military is the classic example of where we have seen that happen as he said. Now, i personally got interested in this issue when i was working on a book last year called the forgotten americans and i got interested in all the usual policy solutions to the problem of people who have been left behind in our society or our economy. But i came to the conclusion at the end that Public Policy alone are the usual kinds of policies that we talk about here at places like brookings, arent sufficient. Theyre necessary, but we also have to really Start Talking a lot more about relationships and about respect. And in some work were going to be doing in the future, well be saying a lot more about that. After i finish my book, i decided i needed to field test the ideas and take them on the road. So i went out and did focus groups in three cities in america with middle and workingclass americans. And one of the things that really surprised me was the degree of concern about these divisions and the degree of enthusiasm amongst the public, and im not talking about a sophisticated public here, im talking about ordinary, every day, working americans for doing something about those divisions and National Service appealed to them a lot. So i then came back and realized that at this point i didnt know nearly enough. In fact i knew very little about the work that was going on by all the people who are sitting up here on this stage. And i think its just remarkable that theyre all here today. I couldnt be more thankful to the fact that they made time to be here. I want to particularly call out our partnership with Service Year Alliance. This meeting would not have happened without their participation. And we got lots of help from the other groups on this stage as well. Im not going to do long introductions, but before i turn it over to them, because i know you want to hear from them now, i think ill just say a brief word about each person. Dr. Joe heck is the chairman of the commission on military, national and Public Service. Did i get that right . And that commission is going to be reporting back to congress in march and youll be hearing more about their work. But i think its very important. Barbara stewart is the ceo of the corporation for national and Community Service. The Major Federal Agency that has responsibility for Service Programs in the government. She has a wonderful background in nonprofit management and from everything ive been told, barbara, you are fulfilling that role very well in your current post. And next we have deval patrick, former governor of massachusetts. I just finished reading your book about how you began on the south side of chicago, went to milton academy, ended up at harvard and harvard law school, if i remember correctly, and have now served in some of the highest positions in the land. Its an inspiring story. Thank you, governor, for being here. And last but definitely not least is jesse colvin, the ceo of Service Year Alliance who also has one of these multifaceted backgrounds thats equally impressive to everyone elses. Without further adieu, im going to turn this over to dr. Heck. Good morning and my thanks to brookings and service year for putting this together and hosting us this morning as well as my thanks to all of you either in the audience or watching over the web who have served, will serve after hearing this mornings conversations or are currently serving. Its an important time in our nations history as people talked already this morning about how do we heal the rifts that we see in our society and how National Service is one of the potential solutions to healing these divides. Its my honor to serve as chairman to the National Commission on military, national and Public Service. For those who have not heard about the commission previously, we were charted by congress in 17 National Defense authorization act. It originally started as a commission to review whether or not women should have to register for selected service. Senators saw an opportunity to do much more with the commission than just answer that single question. They expanded the scope of the commissions mandate to look at how can we actually encourage more americans to participate across all service lines, whether it be in the military, a National Service program, which we also include local community similar programs, or in Public Service, which is finding a job in state, local, federal government or running for elected office. There are 11 bipartisan members appointed by leadership from congress. I am blessed to have a very Incredible Group of thought leaders across the Service Spectrum representing diverse ideas and we have worked over the last two years in listening to the American Public about their views on service. As belle mentioned, our goal is to issue a final report in 2020 about how we can actually encourage more americans to serve. I also want to thank john bridgeland who is in the audience who recently released their report because it segueways perfectly into our commissions vision, which is every american inspired and eager to serve. What have we been doing over the last two years . Our first year was a factfinding tour. We traveled around the country, 15 states, 24 cities and met 300 organizations received thousands of Public Comments either at our Public Meetings or via the internet. We looked at what encourages people to serve, why arent people serving, what are the obstacles they are facing for those who desire to serve but arent. And so after we went around the nation on this listening tour, we came back and issued our report which for those of you who have not yet had an opportunity to read is available at our website. Inspire2serve. Gov and in that report we talk about who we are, where weve been and where were heading. So based on that years worth of research and public listening, we came up with some potential recommendations on how to encourage more americans to serve. In the second year, we traveled to another 10 states, held public hearings where we listened to 68 policy experts, received 40 statements for the record, issued eight staff memorandum and started to vet some of the potential policy recommendations that we have under consideration. Upon completion of those public hearings, the commission is now in its dlibtive phase. Were complying our report that will lay out the recommendations that our Commission Wants to put forward. I want to state the 30,000 foot level, speak generally about where were headed in the interest of time, brevity and public speaking is not one of my strong suits. Ill stay general and leave specifics to questions and answers. What are some of the common themes that weve heard . What themes that weve heard . What we first heard and i guess isnt too surpriseding, is that we have an incredible culture of service in this nation today. We heard from americans who currently serve and we heard from americans who want to serve. They just want to know how. We look at this culture of service that we actually have now. What was described as one of the exceptional pieces of being an american and wanting to help our neighbors and how can we nurture that culture of service into an ethos of service to where service is not just encouraged but expected. At a certain point in time, its the individual who doesnt serve that is the odd person out and not the person who does serve. That it becomes automatic as a right of growing up, the conversation goes to, what are you going to do for your Service Project and how do we change that mind set and culture . It begins, we believe, with a strong Civic Education program. We feel that over time, as academics get more pressed, that Civic Education programs have fallen away. How can you expect to encourage someone to serve their community, state, nation, when they dont truly understand the rights and responsibilities that go along with being a citizen of this democratic republic. Its not just a high school u. S. History class. Its how do we weave common themes of scientific education throughout the curriculum so our youth are exposed to these principles throughout their academic life. It builds into experiential and Service Learning where perhaps in middle school there is a Service Project that a middle school class has to do. A project with a specific goal done over a specific period of time to introduce them to the concept of serving. Youre waiting to start your job and go to school, what if that was spent in completing a Service Project over the course of a semester. Perhaps there should be Service Fellowships where at Post High School or post college you have the opportunity to serve in a Service Program of your choice. Have the money follow the service individual. It begins with that piece. It then grows into how do we get more individuals aware of Service Opportunities, how do we make them aspire to serve, and then how do we grant access, the three buckets that we are looking at. You cant be or do what you dont know doesnt exist. When i was growing up i saw peace corps commercials. I havent seen one in twenty years. We spoke top students and none of them knew about the opportunity of a four year scholarship when they were in high school. No one talked about it. How do we increase awareness, number one. Once we make them aware, how do we inspire them . What are the initiatives, whether its appealing to their sense of patriotism or some characteristic that they want to follow, but we then have to have them be inspired to want to serve. And then we have to have access, right . What we hope is beyond our wildest dreams, the commission is successful and all 329 million americans want to serve. We know we wont have 329 million Service Opportunities. For those who are aware and inspired they have a path to service and that Service Opportunity has to be meaningful and worthwhile to that individual. Because we know that once you have someone serve one time in a meaningful way, they are hooked for life. They will come back and serve again. It may not be right after the first Service Opportunity. May go out and start their career, start a family, at mid career say, i have the time, i want to go back and serve again. Post retirement they may start to serve again as a senior. As a physician, i bring things back to a medical analogy. I believe every american has a service gene. My job is to figure out how to activate that gene. We want every american so serve. And so with that, i call for your help not only do we value your input, but we need your input as we consider our final recommendations and continue to draft our final report. Our Public Comment period remains open until december 31st of this year so i encourage anybody whos listening who has a comment on these important issues, to read our report see where we might be headed and to provide your comments on where you think we are headed and whether its right or wrong. Please do so via our website because it is only through your help that we will achieve our vision of every american inspired and eager to serve. Thank you. applause that was inspiring hearing about inspiring. Barbara stewart. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me here this morning. I appreciate brookings and Service Year Alliance for putting this on and its wonderful to be in a room full of people who know about service, are supporters of service. I am interested very much in the first two panels. For those of you who thought you might slip out and not hear the last panel, youre making a big mistake. The last panel is going to be fantastic. Its an opportunity to hear from our alumni about how service impacted their life. I encourage you all to stay for what will be the best panel. No offense to all of you. Its a pleasure to be here with you this morning. As belle said, i lead the corporation for national and Community Service and for those of you who may not be aware, were the federal agency for service and volunteering. We promote service and volunteering and we administer the multiple programs as well as the senior core programs. We also work to inspire all americans to volunteer outside of National Service and im pleased to report that the percentage of americans who are volunteering in this country is slightly on the rise which is terrific. 77 million americans volunteered in their communities last year. But today, our focus is in National Service and the impact that that will have on our community at large. So a couple of things, we are actually celebrating the 25th anniversary this year of the first swearing in of the first class of americorp americans. More than a million americans have served as part of americorp programs. Its a huge alumni network. But we continue to struggle with awareness of our programs. If you dont know about your opportunity to serve, then youre not going to serve. We need to be broadening that and ill touch on that further. Its exciting to think about the impact that these over million americans have had in our community. I feel like im in a room of friends, but im going to take a brief moment to touch on some of our Community Impact again that youre probably well aware of. More than half our resources support National Service programs that support education. Education which could be mentoring, it could be working with underprivileged children to make sure they are grade ready. Education in various forms. We also have the ability to work on a broader array of programming and so many of our american members are engaged with workforce development, helping veterans and military families achieve their potential, working to improve the environment, helping after disasters, and i am forgetting some of the other fantastic things that we do that our americorp members do. But the kind of impact that theyre having in communities is demonstrative and really meaningful. Something that we maybe havent talked about as much historically is the impact that service has on the member. We do an alumni Member Survey and this wont surprise you if you have interacted with our alumni, but there are so many significant benefits to service for the individual who serves. One particularly for older volunteers is a health benefit. But when we see the developmental benefits of younger people who serve, its really awesome. We see that they are better at problemsolving. We see that they are better at working with individuals who are from backgrounds that are different from their theirs. Theyre better at time management, better at final management, theyre more confident and selfassured. In short, theyre developing into the kind of individuals that any employer would seek to hire and frankly anyone would want to be a neighbor with. Service is really a developmental experience that is significantly meaningful for the individual that participates. Its been touched on a little bit so far this morning and i anticipate well continue to discuss the impact that service has on society. A challenging time of divisions within our country, serving shoulder to shoulder with someone who may be from a different socioeconomic, geographic, philosophical different background from yourself is the best way to learn understanding about other people and i see this time and again. Ive had the pleasure in the 20 months that ive been in this current role to see an awful lot of amazing members and senior corps volunteers. Im going to speak briefly about an opportunity that i had to see a team of members serving in florida after hurricane michael. And to see individuals from such very different backgrounds, i had a chance to chat with the teams and to speak with a young woman who had a masters degree who was serving right next to a young man who told me that he had been in a gang in l. A. Working with a gentleman who is taking a gap year before he went to columbia, and i could go on and on. Just a really interesting mix of committed individuals who were serving in a community that wasnt even their own. They had traveled to florida to help people that they will never see again but whose lives theyve changed. This is one little anecdote. There are hundreds and hundreds of thousands of similar anecdotes going on every year with members. I share that as an example of the bridgebuilding that occurs when people are working shoulder to shoulder with individuals very different from them and how that serves to bring us together as a country. Do we need more National Service . I think thats going to be a topic of the day and i would argue absolutely. We absolutely need more National Service. As the individual leading the organization that implements our National Service programs, though, i would throw out a couple of cautionary comments. One, if were to grow National Service significantly, we need to be investing in our nonprofit infrastructure. The way our National Service programs currently are funded through the corporation for national and Community Service is a combination of a variety of programs but our Biggest Program is both a Formula Program where money is given to states to fund National Service programs in their communities and a Competitive Program and while there are certainly theres a demand for more National Service opportunities, theres certainly more capacity out there now to provide a highquality National Service opportunity for americans, its not unlimited. If we were to double the amount of resources in a year, we would really need to be committing to strengthening our partners in the field. We would need to be building the nonprofit capacity. We also need to be building the capacity of the corporation for national and Community Service and thats something that i have been very focused on in the time that i have been with cncs. We need to strengthen our infrastructure so we are well positioned for the longterm growth of National Service and thats something im very committed to doing. The last point i would want to make piggybacks on what dr. Heck says, and that is we need to broaden awareness of these programs. Im going to make the assumption that the folks in this room are familiar with the importance of volunteerism, but there are hundredsa hundred million let me be more specific. Our research indicate that is only half of americans have ever heard of americorps and thats unfair to the other half who never have. You cannot serve in these programs if you dont know about them. Service is a lifechanging opportunity. Again, youre going to hear that throughout the morning and youll see that in living color when you see our members and alums speak to you. If you dont know about the opportunity, you cant take advantage of it. And i hope well all focus on and working on is how do we broaden the number of americans who are aware of Service Opportunities so they can take advantage of them. Again, i really appreciate this opportunity to be with all of you this morning and i look forward to hearing from my fellow panelists. applause barbara, thank you, and thank you for your service. Governor. Thank you, belle. My thanks to brookings and the Service Year Alliance for convening us all here today. I am not surprised that theres a through line quite common from general alan through belle and my fellow panelists. Im sorry that i have to come near the end because youve all heard it before and i think most of you are here because you believe it. Jesse, im sorry for you. I too very strongly believe in the importance of National Service. I want to make a point of the urgency of moving toward service and tell you why. As belle said at the outset, i grew up on the south side of chicago in the50s and60s. Some of that time on public assistance. Not thought of as the garden spot. Its usually thought of and described as a place of depravation and often about things we didnt have. But one of the things we did have was a very strong sense of community. That was a time when every child was under the jurisdiction of every single adult on the block. And i think what those adults were trying to get across to us was that membership in a community is understanding that you have a stake in your neighborsdreams and struggles as well as your own. That we are about common cause and common destiny. Fast forward a few decades to a meeting i attended a summer ago, this is 2018 in aspen, of a smallish group on a bipartisan basis of former secretaries of state, nsa leaders and other senior diplomats and security officials. And we had a briefing in that meeting about what the russian interference in the 2016 election was really about, much of this has been reported on since, the pattern and campaign of misinformation and disinformation, the ways in which, you know, conspiracy theories were fomented, even to the point of organizing rallies by invisible and unheard of and in fact unreal candidates and causes to which people came and made and made their presence felt. The charges of voter fraud and interference that were so often repeated that it became for some accepted fact and evidence of a rigged election. And now were learning that much of that effort was organized around race. It struck me then as i listened to all of that chilling detail, not just how brazen it was to undertake, to undermine our democracy, not just how insidious it was to do so essentially by turning us on ourselves, but how easy it was. How easy. It was easy because we dont know each other. Its harder to call someone a name to marginalize someone you know. Its harder to dismiss a different point of view if it comes from someone you know and have learned to respect. I remember the morning after i was nominated to head the Civil Rights Division in the justice department, the very next morning i was asked by senator kennedy, my senator, to come up to the hill and to stand just outside the doors of the senate and shake hands with senators as they came off the floor for a vote. And this nervous, 30somethingyearold nominee coming in after quite a lot of trouble in filling the position and all the controversy that went around this, remember this, bill . And there i was, and i must have shaken hands with 70 senators. And i remember afterwards asking the senator why did we do that . And he said because its a lot harder to attack someone whos hand youve shaken. I support National Service because we dont know each other, because our sense of National Community is frayed and in some ways is unraveling and because unless that is repaired, all hope for lasting and meaningful change, change that meets our generational responsibility to leave things better for those who come behind us, all hope of that is in jeopardy. And i know it works. Ten years ago this coming january as part of the second inauguration of our administration in massachusetts, we launched an initiative called project 351 which brought together eighth graders from each of the 351 cities and towns in the commonwealth around service and we gathered in boston, we had a Service Project we did together, we talked about service, we celebrated service, and then we charged these eighth graders to go back to their communities and be ambassadors, evangelists for service, and we focused on that because the athletes, the scholars, they get their recognition. Sometimes the good citizens dont. And this was about elevating that. Ten years in this initiative is still under way as a functioning nonprofit and the estimates are that those young people have touched 650,000plus lives in our commonwealth and made each other understand that service is not just about what you do, but who you are. Its about learning and modeling the importance of turning to each other rather than on each other and that is how community is built in small ways or nationally. And we are hungry for and needful of this today, right now. And so im so glad youre here, but im so hopeful that we will go from here and advocate for universal National Service for our own sake and the future of our democracy. Im delighted to be with you. Thank you. applause governor, thank you. And i love what you pioneered in massachusetts with lifting up citizenship and not just athletic and academic achievement. We really need that. Jesse, so wonderful to have you here and sorry you had to be last because you were the key person in helping you and your organization, helping to put this together. Thank you again for that. Im jesse. Im the ceo of Service Year Alliance. Its great to be here. The first thing i want to say, we take at Service Year Alliance, the Alliance Part of our organizations name very seriously. I just want to convey to belle, the brookings team, and everyone here, thank you for your partnership and for making this event happen and for being allies. As the youngest person on stage who was hired to be a next generation leader, i want to share two things with you this morning. The first is, i want to share the perspective of a leader of a team who aspires to stand on the shoulder of the giants who built the movement and take the movement into its next phases. And second, im excited to tell everybody about our serve america together campaign. I am an elder millennial which many plain english means, when the 9 11 attacks occurred, i was 17 years old, and my initial reaction was to get the military recruiters on the phone. I decided to root and ground my pursuit of service in education. So i went to college and i studied arabic and the middle east and afterwards i went to syria and i taught english to iraqi refugees. This was 2006. The war in iraq was nearing its lowest points. I could see from damascus that we got it wrong in baghdad, the violence would spread across the rest of the region. I served in the army, i served as a ranger, an intelligence officer, served four combat deployments to afghanistan. Its in my military experience where i learned the power of what happens when americans from all walks of life join together to tackle shared problems. Its the powerful connective tissue that occurs when you share a fox hole with your fellow americans. If youve been to a habitat for humanity worksite or a classroom, youre seeing that same connective tissue. Different type of fox hole, but same connective tissue. My National Service experience transformed my personal relationship with my community, country, the sense of my own citizenship. When i met my wife on a blind date, my wife served in a Police Uniform here in washington, d. C. And had worked for members of congress. What got us to date number two was not my wit or charm, it was the common experience around our service. Fast forward to 2017, my wife and i heard that the first year of marriage is easy, so we went ahead and had a baby and ran for congress. On the campaign we built a coalition that extended from a Bernie Sanders chapter over here all the way to members of the president george h. W. Bush and george w. Bush administrations. But to be a candidate on a campaign trail in 2018 was to have a front row ticket to the divides of our civic fabrics along socioeconomic, political, religious divides. And it was a glimpse into a very dystopian future which will be our country if we dont invest in solutions that unite us. Thats why im so excited about National Service, especially Service Years because i believe they have power and we at Service Year Alliance believe they have the power to bring people together in common cause. At Service Year Alliance we see the best antidote to the divides as Service Years and thats why im excited to talk about our serving america together campaign. The purpose of the campaign is to make National Service a part of growing up in this country. We have it has three goals, first, we want to elevate and make National Service a key issue in the 2020 president ial campaign. We want candidates to be asked about and be expected to have plans the same way you would expect for health care or trade or foreign policy. Thats number one. Number two, we want to advance and elevate and push forward legislation at the federal level around National Service and, number three, we want to advance an ecosystem of partnership, ideas and policies thats going to make National Service is going to be a common expectation that they have. Its a first of its kind colation and were drawing upon leaders from different spheres, we have a Phenomenal Group of leaders leading it, general mccrystal, we have secretary bob gates, secretary condoleezza rice, governor patrick as one of our cochairs. Were honored to have your voice and to be in our corner. When we launched the campaign in june, we launched a president ial challenge. The challenge is to the 2020 candidates to make National Service a priority in the first 100 days of their administration and roll out big plans to scale and make National Service a priority. Three candidates have accepted the challenge. Mayor pete is the highest profile of those. Many other candidates have rolled out theyve not expected the challenge but rolled out big bold plans around National Service. The same way you would have them to have a plan for health care. We at Service Year Alliance think National Service is inevitable. We think its inevitable because were talking about the civic divides. We are about to enter a political phase where those divides are only going to deeping. We think at some point as these divides get deeper and deeper that were going to have leaders grasping for solutions to bring us back together, to unify us and we think National Service is the best antidote. For us, our message is, rather than start, five, ten, 15 years from now, its an urgent moment and lets get started right now. If we if we are going to get there, were going to need leaders from both sides of the aisle who are thinking about the day after tomorrow or the day after the day after tomorrow looking for ways to unify the country. And if were going to make National Service part of growing up in american, we need to grow and strengthen our alliance. If you have a child or grandchild at home who is over the age of 18, come talk to us, we can help. If youre a hill staffer, go back to your boss and tell them that this is an issue that they should sink their teeth into. If youre connect today a president ial campaign, go talk to your candidate, tell them to answer the challenge. Tell them to make National Service a big part of their plan. And to everyone else, come and join our alliance and help make a year of paid, fulltime service, a service year, part of growing up in america and a common expectation and opportunity for all americans. You can tell i ran for office but didnt win because i left some time on the clock. What im going to do is im going to ask my members of my team here to raise their hand. We have a good chunk of our team here. If you have questions about Service Year Alliance, how you can get involved, theres some great americans raising their hands right now. I want to echo, once again, thank you very much and thanks for the panel, thanks for being here and cant wait. Thank you, jesse. And if any of you have questions you would like to ask each other or further comments you would like to make in response, now is the time to do it. I have a few questions if you dont. And then in a few minutes well turn to the audience itself. Those of you who are out there, be thinking what you might want to ask when we get to that point. While everybody is thinking, ill start out by throwing a question back to dr. Heck. You talked a lot about getting out around the country and listening to people which i think is so commendable and it sounded like the reaction was very positive. I just want to push a little bit on where were the divides in the divide . In other words, where were people saying, yeah, its a good idea to have National Service, but what about x . What were some of the pushbacks as well as the enthusiasm. Where there was some debate that we encountered was over whether or not it should be mandatory, universal versus remain a voluntary program. Certainly those that want to keep National Service as a volunteer program is one of the most important underlying premises of service in this country, the willingness for somebody to actually volunteer. As we define National Service for the commission, its, you know, the personal commitment of time, energy, and talent to a mission that contributes to the common good by protecting the nation and the citizens, strengthening communities, or promoting the general welfare. Folks feel that the most benefit comes from volunteering. We met with High School Students all around the country. We talked to them about this idea of a semester of service or perhaps a gap year where it would be a year of service. Universally, they were all for it. But they said, just dont make me have to do it. Right. They want to do it, but they want it to be their idea. So thats the one side. The other side, as weve heard, is, you know, it should be a kind of rite of passage, as in many Foreign Countries. And we actually spoke with many Foreign Countries that have some type of requirement for national or military service. So i think that was the biggest divide. But encouraging to us was the fact that no one really said i dont think National Service is a good idea. Okay. Barbara stewart and also government patrick, i think that this is a very complicated issue when you think about whats the role of the federal government and whats the role of states and communities and the nonprofit sector. Im sure as a management challenge in your current position, you had to struggle with that, as has someone whos served as governor. Would you all like to say anything more about this difficulty of making these very complicated partnerships work and managing a federal agency like the one youre in right now . Id be happy to take a stab at that. Then the governor may have some ideas as well. But our programs really are all about partnership. For example, the federal government is the largest funder, but all of the resources that we deploy against National Service are matched. So the billiondollar investment that the federal government makes in National Service actually translates into over 2 billion of investment. States, local governments, and nonprofits are a big piece of that. A significant amount of our funding flows through State Government, so we have partnerships with state commissions. It does create some complication. It also creates a big web of partnerships and alliance, as jesse was saying, which i think is one of the strengths of the National Service ecosystem, but it also creates some real complications. When you want to make change, some people embrace that change, and others dont embrace it as quickly. So as we try and improve the National Service ecosystem, you really have to get the buyin of a whole lot of folks. I also was frustrated in my early years or early months at cncs to learn that many governors dont know about this wonderful resource that they have. So the expectation when americorps was first founded was that the governors themselves would be deeply involved, and that hasnt fully occurred over the years. So i think one of our continuing challenges is to make sure that State Government recognizes what a wonderful asset National Service is in governorsability to promote their own policy agendas because of the nimbleness and the local nature of National Service. Anything you want to add to that . No. I guess i would just say this because i want to be respectful of your question. I think barbara really did nail it. But i think we should be careful not to let the complexity of of broadening a program of National Service, and in my view it should be everybody, dissuade us from the importance of doing so. It may have something to do with the pace at which we get to everybody. But the notion that service would be available only to those who could afford to take the time and not everybody, including those who need an income in order to be able to do it, the notion that there isnt profound unmet need all over the country, that is met in part by people taking responsibility for that dimension of their community and indeed the Development Opportunities that have been talked about over and over again here today in doing so. And i think in a way, you know, sooner or later were going to have to decide whether were a country or not. Do we really to be one nation . This is not the federal government as if it is some thing out there. This is us. You and i. This is our democracy, our National Community. I think that the point thats been made a couple times about the importance of collaborating through other agencies, local organizations and leaders to make service real across all of our differences, is the strategy that worked for us in massachusetts and i think has worked nationally and can and needs to be scaled. Thank you. Jesse, im sitting here wishing i was an elder millennial when im actually an elder elder. But i think its great that your new energy is being added to all the efforts under way here. You mentioned a lot about the Democratic Political candidates who are or are not jumping on board with this. Do you want to say a little bit more about the politics of this . I think what youre hearing from most of the people up here is wed like this to be a bipartisan effort and hope it can be. And i dont want to, you know, put you on the spot, but is that going to be a challenge . Im an army ranger, which means im trained to be on the spot, so thats okay. I appreciate the question. This is a bipartisan issue. There are challenges were going to have to deal with navigating capitol hill. So lets just start with real ordinary people. If you look at polling across the country, theres polls at 75 , 80 among republicans across the country. Its higher among democrats and independents. Its higher among young people. Every moment in the National Service movement where weve had significant progress, it has been a bipartisan effort, whether regardless of which party was in the white house at the time. In a second, the vice chair of Service Year Alliance, who coauthored this paper were talking about, he led the Domestic Policy Council for president george w. Bush. So thats part one. Part two is theres some things were working on to help make the case. So we recognize that we conso we convened a summit a few weeks ago. Its from boston to austin, texas. The coasts are represented. The heartland is represented, the south. Its big cities, its rural appalachia, kentucky. Service looks different in each of those communities, and thats fine. We want it to be locally driven. In some of those committees, the Service Years are being used to tackle opioids. Elsewhere, its how do we give people what we call opportunity youth, people who have been out of school a year or two, and open up Service Years to people who frankly dont look like me. The more we do that, the more tangible if i can take somebody, hypothetically, to toledo, ohio, or austin, texas, or east boston three years from now and show them this is what a community with universal National Service looks like, thats going to make our case easier on capitol hill. The last thing ill say is the teenagers in your life that probably frustrate you because they can be frustrating and they have very little trust and patience for their parents and grandparents. Theyre out on the streets marching. The other side of that coin is they feel the urgencies and have no patience and they want this. So what might be frustrating in personal lives is may be one of the main movements this gets across the finish line. And if i could put an exclamation point on that. For my experience, National Service is one of the few truly bipartisan issues that are being discussed in this town, in washington, d. C. Which makes it a pleasure to be part of. Weve seen increases in our appropriation the last two years at a time under Republican House and senate. Theres a lot of bipartisan support for National Service, and we should be capitalizing on that. We need to be taking advantage of the breadth of support because its one of the great assets of National Service. Thank you. Those were really important comment, i think. I want to reinforce something that jesse said about two of the people who are sitting in the audience and that are going to be on the next panel. Theyre sitting next to each other. Im looking right at them. One is bill galston, who was Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council in the clinton administration. I was there as well. We worked hard on this, but then there is john bridgeland, who played a very Important Role as director of the was it also called the Domestic Policy Council . In the bush administration. So i think we have that represented here today, and im so glad you all spoke to that. All right. Unless anybody up here has anything more theyd like to say, im going to open this up to the audience. Wait for someone to bring you a mic. Please introduce yourself and your affiliation. Try to keep it relatively short. I may collect a few different questions and then let the panel here decide which ones they want to tackle. All right. Start right here in the front row. Im mitzi, i was the first person to join the Peace Corps Task Force the day that kennedy announced he was making it a program. So i went from the peace corps to the war corps. I believe in Public Service. I just have a recommendation. I think the most important thing in life is relationships. And i think thats a phrase that would be really useful to incorporate in what youre talking about. When we live in a city where the president just destroys relationships, we really need to have other voices saying, this really matters. Thank you. Back there, yes, you. Good morning. Question. Lets hold and get a couple more. Hi. Good morning. Im bob reed with peace for action usa. We aspire to implement National Service. My question any of you could answer it, if you choose is about income disparity between the service lines. Im working on budgeting for some privately funded positions right now, and boy, am i having an awareness check about what it costs to actually afford housing in different communities in the country. And an americorps living allowance at its highest level doesnt cut it. So i just think as we move forward, growing National Service, we need to Pay Attention to are we properly compensating the people serving and also looking at the differentials like a Public Service federal employee is getting a lot more than an americorps member, and of course military pays all over the place. I just would be interested in that. Thank you. Right here. Great, thank you. First of all, a huge thank you to this panel. My name is terry babcock. Im the executive secretary of the harry s. Truman scholarship foundation. I share with you this business of Public Service, and i love your sentiments as far as this genuinely being an alliance. First of all, what i would say is im keen to work with you. For those of you not familiar with us, we are the president ial memorial to president truman. He didnt go to college. So rather than having a brick and mortar monument on the mall, i love those, theyre beautiful, but unlike the Washington Monument and lincoln memorial, we provide a 30,000 scholarship for each statebystate competitive process for the most outstanding pull the microphone closer. My apologies. Basically, were a scholarship for young people making commitments to career in Public Service. Dovetailing on the economic question, i agree wholeheartedly with the sentiments here. But for so many of our scholars, its an economic question. So its not that theyre not interested. Its not that theyre not keen. But with college debt being what it is, with Affordable Housing being questioned in so many cities, we want to make sure we can support them. So its a way of saying, i hope this is the start of an ongoing conversation. Wed love to work with you. But i really think, as a former government economist, we need to be thinking about how we make this sustainable and sustained because the sentiment, the interest, the appetite is there. Its just hard when it comes to dollars and cents. Okay. Thank you. Im going to take one more, bob. Then well come back to the panel to see if you all have comments on issues that have been raised. Thank you. Bob stein is my name. Like bell, im an elder elder. I consider myself refocused. The panel emphasized the arguments and evidence that people would want to serve and would benefit from it. But how do you get the institutions who you want them to work with and barbara, you briefly mentioned that. Because it take time to mentor, train, and advise people. If you dont spend the time, their experience isnt that good. So what incentives can you provide for institutions to take on these volunteers . These are all Great Questions and really do need to be grappled with. Anybody want to tackle one or more of them . Ill kind of give the perspective of where the commission has gone on these issues because we have looked at all of them. Certainly the idea of when i say everyone who wants to serve should have a clear and supported path to service means that they should have the opportunity to serve and be paid a wage or a stipend that allows them to serve without suffering any economic detriment, right . We want all americans inspired and eager to serve regardless of socioeconomic class. We are a lot about the gap year. Well, it shouldnt just be about the affluent who can afford to take a year off between high school and college. If we truly want to heal the divides in this nation, it goes to putting people from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds together in service to a common cause. So that means we have to be able to provide the resources necessary for all individuals to have that opportunity. So long story short, how do we better define or reestablish or change the benefits packages that are associated with various forms of service so that all those who want to serve actually have that clear and supported path . I would not i do not plan to reveal any of the recommendations that will be coming out. I would say i would not be surprised to see a portion of the final report that addresses this area in great detail. Terrific. Yeah, jesse . Im going to try to answer four questions at once quickly. Were very clear at Service Year Alliance. Were advocating for voluntary universal National Service. We think the way to get there is through peer pressure. Thats why we talk about common expectation and opportunity. We think well hit a Tipping Point when young people meet and say, where did you serve . And if you havent served, generally we like to talk about when people start looking at their shoes because theyre embarrassed they didnt serve that is how you get to universal cost, i mentioned the alliance. Theres a great member of our Broader Community called silver nest. I encourage you to check them out. In san jose, for example, where housing costs are through the roof, theyre one of our impact communities. We recognize that folks doing service here cannot afford the rent based off their living stooi stipend. Its a nonprofit weve brought in and theyre helping match refocused elder elders with perhaps an empty room in their home with a young person doing a service year. Theres all sorts of wonderful byproducts that come out of those relationships. Costs and who does Service Years. The reason we do advocate our mission is a year of paid fulltime service. When i joined the military in 2006, the word privilege wasnt really in the lexicon. Had i wanted go in a different direction and done a service year, i would have had the economic privilege. My parents could have supplemented me. If we want to get to the number of people doing Service Years, were going to have to unlock communities who dont have that privilege, which means some of these Service Years are going to be around work force development. Rather than sign up on perhaps a recruiting message around service for service sake because you dont have the privilege to think about it that way, you have to help a Family Member put food on the table, its about giving you a job opportunity and a career trajectory you wouldnt have if not for the service year. The last thing is cost in general. You hire an army ranger, you get a blind answer. So im going to be blunt. Service years are expensive. Average is about 22,000 a year per person. Big, bold ideas often cost a lot of money. What you probably dont know and if youre a hill staffer, i encourage you to take this back to your boss, the federal government gets 2 back for every dollar it invests in Service Years. So it gets 1 back in terms of taxes. If you look at the data, people who do Service Years tend to earn more over their lifetime. That comes back in the form of taxes. Thats a really good thing. The second thing is if the federal government gets a dollar back in terms of federal social safety net programs, so in plain english, that means people who do Service Years tend to have to rely upon federal social safety net programs. This might sound counterintuitive, but if you work for a member of congress that is interested in reducing the size of federal programs, service year programs are a great place to invest. So trying to answer four questions quickly. Thank you, bill. Terrific. Any other comments from up here . I love what jesse had to say, and i love your examples. I think that was terrific. I would only elaborate to say partnerships is the way we make Service Years more available to a greater population and some creativity. In some of the communities where we operate the local Transportation Authority has offered free transportation. In other places, we have additional benefits offered by local partners. We need to be continuing to develop those partnerships. Our partners at the state and local level need to continue to develop them, but we need to make these Service Years available to all americans regardless of their background, and those kind of partnerships are how were going to do it. Okay. Well, i think its time to thank all of you for being here and taking the time to do this. Its been a terrific discussion. And were going to take a tenminute break now. No more, please. Come back because the next panel is going to be very interesting, and the final panel, as we said earlier, is going to be dynamite. So many thanks to all of you. Reconvening soon
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