To the City Year community of corps members, staff, board members and champions,
As the nation prepares for the celebration of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday and the historic inauguration of Barack Obama as its 44th president, Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), along with a bipartisan group of 20 senators introduced landmark national service legislation yesterday in the U.S. Senate, The Serve America Act.
Building on the success of AmeriCorps, The Serve America Act would dramatically expand service and volunteer opportunities in the country and overseas, invest in a series of new social innovation funds, and establish a new set of service corps opportunities to focus the civic energies of the nation’s citizens on solving pressing national problems, including the alarming number of children across the country who are falling off-track on the path to high school graduation.
City Year is a co-lead organizer of Voices for National Service, ServiceNation and America Forward, three national coalitions which have called for increased federal and private sector investment in service and social innovation to tap the civic power of Americans of all ages to meet the nation’s needs and develop citizen leaders.
It is especially meaningful that the Serve America Act was re-introduced on the eve of this most historic celebration of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday and the inauguration of Barack Obama.
Martin Luther King, Jr. said that “Everybody can be great because everyone can serve.” As a common meeting ground that can unite Americans for a common public purpose, and as a civic rite of passage for America’s diverse youth, service helps our nation realize Dr. King’s dream of a more unified nation and a ‘beloved community’.
Both President-elect Obama and Michelle Obama have a deep commitment to service, with President-elect Obama serving as a community organizer in low income Chicago neighborhoods and Michelle Obama serving as the founding executive director of Public Allies Chicago.
During the presidential election campaign, President-elect Barack Obama called for a bold increase in national service opportunities and the Serve America Act incorporates a comprehensive set of initiatives he has proposed. I was fortunate to be among those who attended his speech on national service in Colorado Springs this summer when he said: "This won't be a call issued in one speech or one program -- I want this to be a central cause of my presidency. We will ask Americans to serve. We will create new opportunities for Americans to serve. And we will direct that service to our most pressing national challenges. When you choose to serve -- whether it's your nation, your community or simply your neighborhood -- you are connected to that fundamental American ideal that we want life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness not just for ourselves, but for all Americans. That's why it's called the American dream."
For twenty years, we at City Year have witnessed the transformative power that young people in service have to change lives, improve communities, gain leadership skills and inspire thousands to join them in acting on their idealism through service. The passage of the Serve America Act would begin a new era of service in America, and tap the talents and energies of hundreds of thousands of Americans at a time of economic decline when their service is especially needed.
That need is especially evident in many of our nation’s urban schools. Nearly one million students drop out of high school every year – creating what General Colin Powell, the founder of America’s Promise, has rightfully called “a national catastrophe” – and their path to dropping out begins well before their high school years. We have been asked by leading superintendents and mayors across the country to scale up our Whole School Whole Child program, which places teams of fulltime City Year corps members in high poverty schools across the country to build a positive school climate that is conducive to learning and help students get back on track to graduate.
The Serve America Act would, among other important investments, establish a national Education Corps, to bring new national service resources into public schools in high need communities, and make it possible for City Year and other national service organizations to address this need at scale.
Most heartening is the fact that we know that young people want to serve – City Year always has many more applications than funded service opportunities, and this year applications to City Year have already tripled.
City Year’s vision is that one day the most commonly asked question of a young person will be ‘where will you do your service year?’ The Serve America Act would bring us closer to that day, and help build a stronger America by utilizing the nation’s voluntary spirit, and its nearly limitless resources of civic energy to meet pressing needs and build a more just society.
In 2006, at the invitation of City Year Chicago Founding Board Chair Michael Alter and executive director Lisa Morrison Butler, then Senator Barack Obama addressed City Year Chicago’s Ripple of Hope dinner where he said:
“Who's the next generation that is going to lead us and inspire us and build an America we can all be proud of? When I look out at all of the City Year corps members in this audience who have been giving so much of themselves for a cause that is so much larger than themselves I think I have an answer to that question.”
Across the country, City Year programs will be holding annual ceremonies on Monday to swear in the 2009 City Year Young Heroes and City Heroes youth corps. This year more than 2500 middle and high school students will take their pledge to serve and their journey of service and leadership development, inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream, will begin.
As I prepare to participate in these amazing moments of the American experience, and reflect on City Year’s 20th anniversary year, I am filled with gratitude for the investment that you and so many people and institutions have made and continue to make in City Year and the national service movement.
Yours in service,
Michael Brown
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