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WASHINGTON OF EDUCATION
The Fund for the Improvement of
Postsecondary Education
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
INNOVATIVE PROJECTS FOR
COMMUNITY SERVICE:
Office of
Guidelines for Applicants
Postsecondary
Education
Deadline: June 15, 1993
Objectives
The Higher Education Amendments of 1992 substantially revised the community
service program of the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education
(FIPSE). The new program, entitled "Innovative Projects for Community
Service", is intended to support innovative projects that encourage college
student participation in community service activities.
FIPSE provides support in the form of two or three year grants. It is estimated
that $1,000,000 will be available for approximately 20 new grants this year,
but this is only an estimate and does not bind the Department of Education to a
specific number of grants. The range of grants is expected to be from $25,000
to $75,000 annually. Projects may begin on October 1, 1993.
Eligibility
Under this program grants may be awarded to institutions of higher education
(including combinations of such institutions) and to other public agencies and
non-profit private organizations.
Definitions
Community service means planned, supervised service designed to improve the
quality of life for community residents particularly community residents with
low incomes, or to assist in the solution of particular problems related to the
needs of such residents. This term does not include partisan or non-partisan
political activity, lobbying, direct solicitation of donations, religious
proselytizing, conduct of religious services or instruction, pro-union or
anti-union activity, or activities that result in the displacement of employed
workers or impair existing contracts for service.
Background of Programs
The program was orginally designed to combat a documented drop in student
commitment to public and community service. One reason for this decline was
thought to be student concern over the increasing burden of student loans. For
the past six years FIPSE has been supporting projects that examined whether
the number of students involved in community service could be increased if
participating student were offered an alternative source of financial assistance
that would reduce their debt burden.
The newly authorized program does not require a connection between student
services and financial aid. College students are participating in volunteer
activities in steadily increasing numbers. In fact, secondary students are
becoming much more active in their communities and are arriving on college
campuses seeking to continue that involvement. The issue now is not how to
interest students in community service but rather how to structure and focus
their interest on opportunities that will benefit both the student and the
community.
Plan
to
Use Nat/Service to
aid literacy
echoing green
September 22, 1993
Mr. Terry K. Peterson
Counselor to the Secretary
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20502
Dear Mr. Peterson,
Enclosed you will find a strategic plan for utilizing national service resources to increase
literacy in the United States. I wrote this report while working as an Associate at the
Echoing Green Foundation, a nonprofit foundation in New York which supports and
develops social entrepreneurs working in the U.S. and around the world.
As you probably know, the results of the recently released, U.S. Department of
Education sponsored National Adult Literacy Survey indicate that approximately 90
million adults are functionally illiterate! With staggering statistics such as this one, I am
hopeful that the Department will include adult and family literacy as one of its priority
recommendations for how to utilize national service. My strategic plan is designed to
help you and the Corporation for National Service inform and define the work that is
done in literacy, should literacy be the focus of some national service models.
I have worked periodically with your colleague, Paul Jamison. He has a copy of the
strategic plan and has been very helpful in my work. In addition, I have consulted the
Office of National Service, the National Institute for Literacy, and various nonprofit
organizations in my efforts. I look forward to hearing the recommendations that you
make to the Corporation in the coming weeks. I hope that my comments are helpful. If
you have any questions for me, feel free to call at (617) 623-6378.
Sincerely,
Clay B. Horp
Clay B. Thorp
CC:
Ed Cohen
Eli J. Segal
Susan Stroud
Lilian Dorka
Ron Pugsley
Catherine Milton
Enclosure
125 EAST 56 STREET NEW YORK 10022
TEL 212-756-4700 FAX 212-319-4253
A Catalyst for Literacy's Future:
A Strategic Plan for Utilizing National Service to
Increase Literacy in the United States
Clay B. Thorp
Echoing Green Foundation
August 16, 1993
Executive Summary
The literacy field is uniquely positioned to place and support thousands of national
service participants. Currently, almost 33% or 1,000 of the approximately 3,000
VISTA Volunteers are placed in literacy. In addition, thousands of college students
work part-time in literacy through campus components of national service. With
this experience base, the literacy field stands ready to substantively inform the
regulations and implementations process for the Clinton National Service Program.
In addition, literacy has the capacity to place and train many new national service
participants either through an enhanced VISTA program or through the
Investment Fund of the Corporation for National Service.
This strategic plan identifies lessons learned from the literacy field based upon
existing evaluations of the VISTA Literacy Corps program as well as from informal
discussions with over a dozen national, local, and regional literacy organizations
and advocates. The Corporation for National Service should do more work to gain
feedback from the literacy field on how to structure national service, but initial
feedback is as follows:
Organizations that train participants need more resources
Service participants need to come together for group reflection
Adult new readers and other participants who are educationally
disadvantaged need extensive training and development
The bureaucracy for receiving participants needs to be simplified
There need to be less restrictions on participant activities so that direct
service can be provided
Initial training must be viewed as a trial period for both programs and
participants so that either party can choose to terminate their
arrangement if it is not beneficial to communities
National service resources need to get to community organizations and not
be absorbed by state agencies and bureaucracies.
On the whole, literacy should not try to repeat what VISTA already does with new
service models. Instead, new models funded by the Investment Fund or adapted
from the existing program should target the following strategic needs in literacy:
Leadership and professional development for literacy
Family literacy
Immigrant education
Adult literacy for the most disadvantaged
Literacy in Correctional Facilities.
Finally, this report makes recommendations on who to get feedback from and how
to structure models and support at the local, state, and federal level. Utilizing
national service to address critical needs in literacy can create a win-win-win
situation - for participants, for communities, and for the nation as a whole.
A Catalyst for Literacy's Future:
A Strategic Plan for Utilizing National Service to
Increase Literacy in the United States
The National Service Program presents a tremendous opportunity for the federal
government to partner with community organizations to meet pressing needs.
25,000 participants could be placed in communities of need in the first year alone -
150,000 by 1997. Whether national service participants work on health, the
environment, public safety, education, or any combination of these issues; they can
make meaningful contributions to local communities and to the nation at-large.
Illiteracy affects individuals of all ages and backgrounds. As a social problem, it cuts
across almost all issues - including employment, health, family development, and
public safety. As a result, literacy education is an essential tool for individual and
community empowerment. It affords new perspectives in family life and greater
flexibility and opportunities in the workplace. Employing national service
participants in literacy will allow this nation to address a multiplicity of social
issues, while affording service participants a broader perspective on the individuals
and communities they work with.
In addition to providing a wealth of placements for national service participants, the
literacy field can give meaningful support and input to the Corporation for National
Service on the development of service participants who are educationally
disadvantaged. The service experience, regardless of the issue, provides a rich
learning environment for semi-literate and linguistic minority participants to gain
new skills and new meaning in their lives.
Through meetings with over a dozen literacy advocates and organizations, I have
attempted to lay the foundation for an integrated and coordinated plan to leverage
national service resources to create strong placements for participants and to
transform the way that literacy services are delivered in the United States. This
policy paper charts out a plan with specific recommendations for how national
service can most effectively increase literacy in the United States.
Background - Literacy's Experience with National Service
VISTA Literacy Volunteers
Literacy has made incredible use of the current national service program. In 1986,
Congress authorized a special set aside of almost 400 VISTA Literacy Corps
Volunteers. Coupled with approximately 600 Volunteers working in literacy from
the general pool of VISTA's, that means that literacy is responsible for placing
almost 33% or 1,000 of the 3,000 VISTA positions. These VISTA's have worked
predominantly in capacity-building roles - helping to recruit and train volunteers,
setting up literacy programs in difficult to reach areas, and implementing cutting-
edge additions to programs. As a result of this experience, the literacy field has
developed a knowledge-base on developing and supporting VISTA volunteers. It
1
will be significant to tap this experience for the implementation of the Clinton
Service Plan.
The Student Literacy Corps and Other Student Efforts
In 1988, Congress enacted the Student Literacy Corps, a service-learning grants
programs for institutions of higher education to involve student volunteers and
educate them about literacy. Since its inception, the SLC has provided grants to over
300 colleges and universities, involving thousands of students in weekly tutoring
and direct service.
Around the same time as the development of the SLC, the Student Coalition for
Action in Literacy Education (SCALE) was formed. This organization networks with
over 650 college campuses who operate campus literacy volunteer programs of all
kinds. SCALE and campuses in its network are grant recipients of the Commission
on National and Community Service (CNCS) under Subtitle B for Higher
Education. With this growing movement of campuses involved in literacy, there is
a great deal of energy and momentum among young people to work in national
service to increase literacy in the United States. In addition, the experience-base of
these programs in terms of training, reflection, community placement, and
campus/community partnerships will be extremely valuable to the Corporation for
National Service as it implements the National Service Plan.
How is literacy positioned to participate in the National Service Program?
In general, most people representing community literacy programs know very little
about the new national service program. Since many of them have worked with
VISTA, they know that program well and think of national service in terms of
VISTA. Only SCALE and some of the other campus programs have been funded by
the CNCS or have experience with programs funded by this agency. In general,
service corps don't partner with literacy programs, and no literacy program to date
has taken it upon itself to develop a professional corps under Subtitle D in the
CNCS. Nonetheless, literacy programs, since they are often privately operated and
have less bureaucracy, are logical placement sites for national service participants.
With this as a background, two questions remain:
What has the literacy field learned from VISTA and other experiences that
will be helpful to the Corporation for National Service?
In what way can the literacy field learn from the national service arena in
utilizing the Investment Fund of the Corporation in addition to the
Program Arm and VISTA?
Lessons Learned in Literacy
Overall, the impact of VISTA on literacy has been significant. Because of VISTA,
many programs exist where they did not before, and the quality of services in many
cases is enhanced due to new additions. With such a broad experience with VISTA,
2
the literacy field has many lessons to offer the Corporation for National Service,
including:
Organizations that train and support service participants need more
resources for those functions
Service participants need to be able to come together periodically for group
reflection
Participants, particularly adult new readers and others who are
educationally disadvantaged, need extensive training and
development
The bureaucracy for receiving participants needs to be simplified
There need to be less restrictions on participant activities. Specifically,
participants need to be able to provide direct service in addition to
capacity-building
Initial training must be viewed as a trial period for both programs and
participants so that either party can choose to terminate their
arrangement if it is not beneficial to communities
National service resources need to get to community organizations and not
be absorbed by state agencies and bureaucracies.
These lessons have been pulled from existing data on the VISTA Literacy Corps as
well as from meetings with the staffs of all of the major national literacy
organizations who have affiliates that place VISTA Literacy Corps participants. The
Corporation for National Service, along with the National Institute for Literacy and
the U.S. Department of Education, should put together more discussion groups
over the next few months to get formalized feedback from the literacy field. If more
VISTA's and other national service participants are going to be placed in literacy, it
will be critical that we gain this formalized input. In addition, if we are going to
have educationally disadvantaged participants, we need to incorporate the feedback
and technical assistance from the literacy field to train and support them effectively.
Literacy and the Investment Fund
The concept of the Investment Fund of the Corporation is new to the literacy field.
The idea of implementing self-contained models of professional placement in
literacy seems like a stretch at first to many organizations. Over the past six weeks, I
have engaged in over a dozen brainstorming discussions about ideas for service
placements that would play a distinct role from that of VISTA. Literacy practitioners
are enthusiastic about the Investment Fund because of the opportunity to define the
service context and to develop specific training for a corps of literacy participants.
From these discussions, I have concluded that if literacy can implement a series of
targeted models, it can achieve significant gains beyond that of VISTA. These
models could be designed to meet specific, high-priority needs in literacy such as
family literacy, second-language literacy, or leadership development in literacy.
It will be important that literacy learn meaningful lessons from service corps like
City Year and professional corps like Public Allies in developing these models. In
particular, methods of participant development, including ongoing reflection, career
3
development, and community partnerships, should be utilized. Through
developing teams of participants placed in individual settings, we can encourage
collaboration among participants. This collaboration can increase the quality of
participants' work and develop the skills of Volunteers. What follows is an outline
of how we might structure a coordinated plan in literacy.
What would a coordinated national service program in literacy look like?
A coordinated national service program in literacy should combine programs that
have worked in the past for literacy with new types of models that can be
demonstrated and replicated over time. This plan should encompass all types of
participants, including college students, adult new readers, retirees from teaching
and other professions, recent graduates of four-year and two-year colleges as well as
high school, and members of low or semi-literate communities. What follows is an
outline of the types of placements that could be developed in a coordinated plan,
along with possible organizations to take the lead in or assist in implementing
placements:
General Support for Literacy
Many general roles can be filled by service participants. These roles include
expansion of programming, recruitment of volunteers and learners, and
improvement of the quality of services. The Service Program fills or can fill these
general roles through the following:
VISTA. The VISTA program has done a tremendous job in the past of
increasing capacity in the literacy field. The work of VISTA's have
included the implementation of efficient methods of learner
monitoring, expanded services through new learning centers, and
recruitment and training of new volunteers. VISTA's have not been
used as direct service providers because the statute that authorizes
direct service in the Domestic Volunteer Service Act Amendments of
1986 has not be funded. Overall, the capacity-building role of VISTA
has been well-received by the literacy field and should be continued.
New Models Funded by the Investment Fund. Some new models could be
devoted to general support of literacy, especially capacity-building. On
the whole, however, it would not be wise to create new models to do
what VISTA already does. Since ACTION already has the
infrastructure for general capacity-building in literacy, VISTA should
be improved upon but not supplanted by new models. Guidance from
the literacy field through the 1991 Evaluation of the VISTA Literacy
Corps and through policy discussions with key literacy stakeholders can
guide the process of improving and expanding VISTA. Suggestions in
the "Issues to Consider
"
Section of this report are applicable for
VISTA as well as for private models.
+
Targeted Service Models for Strategic Literacy Needs
In order to leverage National Service resources for their greatest impact in literacy,
models should be developed that address targeted needs, in addition to the general
support provided by VISTA. The National Institute for Literacy and other
stakeholders in the future of the literacy field have spent the past two years defining
specific needs in literacy as a part of the implementation of the National Literacy Act
of 1991. New models to address these specific needs could be supported by the
Investment Fund of the Corporation for National Service. What follows is a listing
of targeted needs that national service can help meet, with sketches of potential
models, and descriptions of organizations that have expertise in these issues and
have expressed interest in participating in model development or technical
assistance:
Leadership and professional development for literacy. There is no present
career track in literacy. Currently, newcomers to the field of literacy
enter in fairly haphazard ways, often through the VISTA Literacy
Corps. The national service plan should support groups that target
participants from various populations that are currently not involved
in leadership in literacy. These could include: adult new readers,
individuals from disenfranchised communities, and young people.
Models could be implemented to develop the talents of these
individuals and provide them with the training and support to gain
leadership skills in literacy.
These types of models could address various types of literacy needs but
would have an emphasis on developing the skills and knowledge-base
of service participants. These participants could work as members of
teams in training and serve individually or in small groups in
placement sites. Programs would have the goal of mentoring
participants by utilizing Team Leaders who would support groups of 10
to 15 participants. In addition to supporting the service experience
through reflection and ongoing training, these Team Leaders could
help participants look at possible career opportunities in literacy or
related fields.
There are several groups that have the expertise to develop these
models:
1. There is a growing movement of new readers who have been
working together through the Biannual Adult New Reader
Congress, through Gather, and through local new reader support
groups like Adult United Voices. This latter group has been
planning a local service model for New York City that would
place 10 to 20 new readers in literacy programs with the goal of
increasing retention and quality of services while developing
leadership skills in new readers.
5
2. The Student Coalition for Action in Literacy Education
(SCALE) is planning a part-time national service model that
would employ current college students for 850 per year through
a full-time Summer of Literacy Action and year-round, part-time
service for 12 hours per week. SCALE hopes to implement the
model in North Carolina and then replicate it nationally.
Although this model fits most logically into the leadership
development category, it could have some application to other
targeted needs as well.
3. Several organizations could be tapped to place other full-time
service participants. Groups like the Commonwealth Literacy
Campaign in Massachusetts have run extensive VISTA Literacy
Corps programs and could be involved in developing a special
leadership model. In addition, Laubach Literacy Action, Literacy
Volunteers of America, the Association for Community Based
Education (ACBE), and the United Way of America all have the
infrastructure to develop and replicate a leadership model for
participants of all types.
Family literacy. Family literacy is exploding as an approach to holistically
addressing the literacy problem. Targeted national service participants
could make a difference in this arena. The National Center for Family
Literacy has close relationships with the 15 Toyota Families for
Learning sites as well as 27 sites through the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
They have expressed an interest in developing models that would
employ parents who are graduates of programs in assisting full-time
with the education of other parents and children. In addition to this
Center, ACBE and Wider Opportunities for Women have relevant
experience either for training or program implementation in family
literacy.
Immigrant education. English literacy for linguistic minorities is a
significant priority need in this country. Particularly in urban areas,
non-native English speakers wait on lists for over 2 years for English
classes. Targeted national service participants could shorten these
waiting periods. The Center for Applied Linguistics has considerable
expertise in developing training modules and working with local
communities that are addressing English needs of immigrants. Models
could conceivably be developed in Texas, Florida, or Massachusetts in
the near future. In addition, the New School for Social Research in
New York City has developed an ESL teacher training program that
might be applicable to this area.
Adult literacy for the most disadvantaged. Many local literacy groups tout
the successes of students who get their GED's in record speed. Often
times, these types of "success stories" start ahead of the game in the first
place. They may already have a solid threshold of skills, and the
6
literacy program merely takes them to the point of formally obtaining
their GED. It's important to remember that learning basic skills takes a
long time for everyone, and those who for whatever reason need to
start from scratch later in life will take a longer time than those who
start ahead. As a result, programs that target these types of learners
need extra staffing. Teams of national service participants could be
employed to meet the needs of programs that are reaching the most
educationally disadvantaged. Laubach Literacy Action, Literacy
Volunteers of America, and the Association for Community Based
Education have consistently tried to reach these groups. In addition,
programs like Bronx Educational Services in Bronx, NY are local
models that are reaching the most educationally disadvantaged.
Literacy in Correctional Facilities. Of the 4 million people in correctional
facilities or on probation or parole, many have dropped out of school
and/or are functionally illiterate. A model for these learners provides
a perfect way to develop a nexus between the Education and Public
Safety components of the National Service Program. The Correctional
Education Association has experience in developing training modules
and programs for incarcerated adults. They could assist in this effort.
In addition, the American Bar Association could also provide support.
Each of these models should be developed in a localized format first. Should
models prove to be successful in achieving stated goals, they can then be replicated
nationwide as the National Service Program grows. As models are replicated, the
literacy field at-large would develop capacity both through local VISTA placements
and through models targeted at specific needs.
Issues to Consider Within Literacy Models
Outreach over the next few months can help ensure that literacy organizations
think through all of the issues involved in participating in the national service
plan. Overall, questions need to be asked about everything from daily placement
and training issues to broader questions about how the literacy community can best
utilize national service as a new resource and how each organization can contribute
to a larger strategy for national service in literacy. What follows is a breakdown of
different components of National Service in Literacy with ideas for how issues can
be resolved within each category. Some of these are issues for local models or
ACTION agencies to address, others are items that the Corporation needs to address
either on its own or through technical assistance contracts:
Recruitment.
Much of the recruitment for these programs can be done locally,
through word of mouth or through special outreach programs.
In particular, these local methods can identify educationally
disadvantaged participants who can contribute to literacy
organizations while utilizing the service experience to redirect
and reprioritize their lives. Recruitment of college students and
recent college graduates can be done through existing campus
7
networks like the Campus Outreach Opportunity League
(COOL), SCALE, or the United States Student Association
(USSA). The problem with these methods is that while they
might yield bright and energetic participants, these participants
are not always from the communities in which they serve. A
premium should be placed on recruiting graduates who want to
come home for service; however, the diversity gained by
involving those from other parts of the country is important so
long as most of the participants aren't imported.
Training.
The VISTA Literacy Corps evaluation indicates that the training
for that program needs to be restructured. Complaints revealed
that service participants did not gain concrete skills and that
some of the skills that were gained were not useful. I would
propose a two-tiered training system in which an umbrella
placement agency (in the case of VISTA, it would be ACTION or
a subcontractor) provides front-end and ongoing training for
participants around general issues of literacy, reflection on
participants' experiences, developing an understanding of
literacy and its social context as it relates to other issues, and the
development of specific job skills. With this broader training as
a foundation, host organizations could provide method- and
organization-specific training for participants. This two-tiered
process would allow consistent, ongoing support for participants
without overburdening host organizations. In addition to
providing participant training, umbrella training groups should
provide host organizations with some orientation, ongoing
feedback, and support.
Placement.
The power relationships between host organizations,
participants, and umbrella training groups could get sticky. In
every case, these relationships should be clearly spelled out from
the beginning. Supervisory relationships, in particular, should
be understood so that participants know who to report to.
In order to address the literacy issue systemically, placements
will need to be implemented, not only in volunteer
organizations, but in other social service agencies like homeless
shelters, welfare offices, Head Start centers, or prisons. This
process of integrating literacy into other services is difficult but
fruitful. Finally, there needs to be some way to ensure quality on
the part of participants and host organizations. There should be
implicit understanding that learners' needs come first and a
process for terminating relationships if those needs are not being
met.
Monitoring/TA.
Monitoring on the part of the Corporation seems fairly simple in
that resources will be provided to service models or through
8
VISTA with specific requirements. The technical assistance role
could be as large or small as resources allow. In particular,
demonstration models will probably incorporate technical
assistance by replicating organizations or by others with
expertise. In addition, there seems to be room for specific
conferences for literacy in addition to on site support for new
models. That technical assistance can be provided by the
Corporation directly or by a subcontractor.
Additional technical assistance will be needed by the
Corporation for developing training and support for
educationally disadvantaged participants. The National Institute
for Literacy can assist in identifying the appropriate
organizations for this function.
Evaluation.
Since VISTA Literacy Corps and other models would be focused
on literacy, there should be ways to assess the aggregate impact
on communities, in addition to results for service participants.
This kind of assessment would need to accompany a larger
evaluation for the Corporation as a whole. If the literacy part of
National Service is strategically coordinated, this impact will be
easier to gauge.
Coordination.
The National Institute for Literacy and the State Literacy
Resource Centers can help with coordination on the state and
federal level. This will be important so that lessons learned
from VISTA and from newly developed models can be
incorporated into all models. I would suggest that a working
group come together periodically to share ideas and resources,
particularly on the replication and implementation of new
models.
Groups to Bring to the Table through Outreach and Implementation
There are lots of stakeholders to bring to the table in implementing a service plan in
literacy. Representatives from national, regional, and local stakeholder groups
should be organized at first, with options for ongoing feedback and involvement as
the national service plan develops. The logical group to pull these organizations
together is the National Institute for Literacy. They have been working with the
Office of National Service and the U.S. Department of Education to structure a
process of feedback from the field on national service. This feedback will help
improve VISTA and develop overall structures for national service. In addition, I
would suggest that the National Institute for Literacy continue its coordinating role
in national service so that literacy organizations can receive the support and
networking they need to participate effectively. The following is a general list of
organizations and types of people who should be involved in the initial and
ongoing phases of implementation of the national service plan in literacy:
9
Local directors of VISTA Literacy Corps programs
New readers from the VLC and other literacy corps programs
VISTA Literacy Volunteers and college literacy volunteers
Corporate executives from companies with track records in supporting
literacy like Time Warner, Inc., Capital Cities/ABC, and Simon and
Schuster
Representatives from the National Coalition for Literacy
Representatives from national literacy organizations like SCALE, Literacy
Volunteers of America, and Laubach Literacy Action
Representatives from ACTION who have experience with VISTA Literacy
Corps
Representatives from the Office of Postsecondary Education who have
experience with the Student Literacy Corps
State adult education directors
Representatives of community-based literacy organizations.
Conclusion
The literacy field is uniquely positioned to place and support thousands of national
service participants. With a background of experience with the VISTA and
flexibility at the local level to innovate, literacy and related organizations should be
able to provide substantive feedback for the Corporation for National Service, along
with models for placement that address strategic needs in literacy. In a nation with
limited resources, it is critical that we leverage the resources that are available for
their greatest gain. Utilizing national service to address literacy in ways that meet
critical needs can create a win-win-win situation - for participants, for communities,
and for the nation as a whole.
10
OF
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY
MEMORANDUM
September 30, 1993
TO:
Eli Segal
Susan Stroud
Shirley Sagawa
FR:
Terry Peterson
22106
Paul Jamieson
RE:
More thoughts on priorities
Thank you for including us in the discussion on priorities. Here are some more thoughts on
Wednesday's discussion.
As a compromise on a very sticky substantive and political issue, we would like to propose that
the discussion be shifted away from issue areas to populations served. These areas represent
critical transition points in the lives of children and youth and the day to day areas where
traditional institutions (schools, day care) may leave off. If a theme of national service is one
of supplementing existing efforts and building partnerships with existing institutions, then
a focus on populations served represents a better way to think about the issue of priorities.
A focus on populations does not solve all of the political or substantive problems; for example,
we would generally favor excluding terminally-ill senior citizens from the population served
category, which could alienate some very large and powerful constituencies, in favor of tutoring
a pregnant teen or first grader with reading difficulty. However, founding the discussion on
populations served provides a new paradigm for combining a number of different issue areas
that frequently mentioned by the working groups and the constituencies with whom we have met.
We would suggest the following populations and some of the corresponding issue areas (which
fit the "middle tier" category):
Early childhood/Family Education
Education:
Family literacy (combination of early childhood initiatives
and tutoring for parents)
Health:
Immunization
Safety:
Domestic violence reduction
Environment:
Lead paint elimination in schools
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400 MARYLAND AVE., S.W. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20202
Our mission is to ensure equal access to education and to promote educational excellence throughout the Nation.
At risk children (elementary school level)
Education:
Tutoring and after school enrichment, including at-risk and
disabled children.
Health:
School-linked health
Drug and alcohol prevention
Safety:
School violence mediation, anti-drug and alcohol efforts
Environment:
Environmental education
At risk and disconnected youth (high school)
Education:
Mentoring and school to work (eg job counseling) and
school to college
Health:
HIV prevention, Runaway youth services
Safety:
Reducing gun violence, anti recidivism programs
Environment:
Park cleanup
There are varying ranges of specificity for populations served approach that can limit or
broaden the kinds of programs applying while still allowing for initiatives in each of the four
areas. For example, a more specific level of populations could be:
First-time parents
Education: Family literacy
Health: Pre and post natal care, crisis prevention, home visitation
Safety: Anti victimization
Environment: Safe Housing and clean neighborhoods
First-time offenders
Education: Literacy
Health: HIV prevention
Safety: Counseling, conflict resolution techniques
Environment: Organizing recent offenders who are paroled or on probation to
perform environmental clean up as a condition of their parole.
On the process and public relations aspect of priorities, our opinion is that the timing of the
release of the priorities is critical. Polling now might be the best answer. A way to give
Governors a stake in the process would be to ask them to organize town meetings on the issue
for the national priorities. We agree with you that whatever happens, some percentage of the
funding (at least 1/3) should be left at the discretion of the States to fund their own projects.
For the rest of the money, we would be in favor of the "projects serving these populations will
be preferred" language.
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On the career pathways issue, we think national service should be viewed primarily as a
introduction for young people to areas in which they might later become professionals rather
than the forum for professionals to serve. The Corporation might decide to fund a small pilot
program of a Teacher Corps (or jointly fund one with Teach for America), for example, but
more emphasis could be placed on providing training opportunities for national service
participants to obtain professional or qualifying credentials or pre-college experience while they
are in national service. Perhaps State commissions and the Corporation could give extra points
to programs that would offer their national service participants courses to work toward their
teaching credential or community policing training during their one or two years of service.
cc: Deputy Secretary Kunin
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