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FOIA Number: 2013-0661-F (2)
FOIA
MARKER
This is not a textual record. This is used as an
administrative marker by the William J. Clinton
Presidential Library Staff.
Collection/Record Group:
Clinton Presidential Records
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National Service
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Jim Kreidler
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OA/ID Number:
1284
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Folder Title:
[Proposal - Employ America: Using Volunteers to Deal with America's Chronic Unemployment
Problem] [loose]
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66
2
5
1
EMPLOY AMERICA:
Using Volunteers to Deal With America's Chronic Unemployment Problem
Developed by:
Michael L. Frey
71 Roxbury Road
Garden City, New York 11530
(516) 747-8596; (212) 727-7114
Michael L. Frey
71 Roxbury Road
Garden City, NY 11530
(516) 747-8596
Eli Siegal
Office of National Service
The White House
Washington, D.C.
May 25, 1993
Dear Mr Siegal:
On President's Day, my thirteen year old son Christofer handed Dee Dee Myers
a proposal for an "Employ America" corps while we were visiting the White House
grounds. Subsequently, on April 1st, I wrote Ms. Myers with a revised version
of this proposal. Ms. Myer's kind response to this letter indicates that this document
has been forwarded to your office.
As someone who spent six fruitful years as a Peace Corps Volunteer and staff
member, I conceive EMPLOY AMERICA to be a domestic "Peace Corps" for
the 90s. Its volunteer corps would staff specially designed programs to help
unemployed Americans obtain and maintain employment. These volunteers could
range from: a) college grads needing to perform national service to pay off their
student loans to b) retired executives wanting to contribute their valuable expertise
to dealing with this country's chronic unemployment problem. A national service
program with an employment focus such as this could serve as a significant rallying
point for many of the Clinton Administration's jobs-related strategies.
Attached is a Program Summary for EMPLOY AMERICA including annual
goals and estimated costs. For your information, I have also enclosed a resume
and articles about STRIVE, an employment program which I developed in New
York, Chicago and Pittsburgh and on which aspects of EMPLOY AMERICA
are based. I would greatly appreciate the opportunity to discuss this concept and
how it might be implemented with you and your staff.
Sincerely yours,
Mike Michael L. 7eey Frey
OVERVIEW
EMPLOY AMERICA is a proposed "Peace Corps" for the 1990s which will use volunteers drawn
from various segments of our society to staff "grass roots" programs strategically designed to
help chronically unemployed Americans obtain and maintain gainful employment.
Volunteers
This diverse volunteer corps will most likely include: Retired Executives looking for a way to
contribute, Disadvantaged Youth looking for a way out, Dislocated Workers looking for a
way back to work and Recent College Grads looking for meaningful community services.
EMPLOY AMERICA volunteers will be recruited, selected and trained for two year tours of
duty. After completion of an intense two month training, they will be assigned to fill the
employment programs' positions of Trainer, Peer Counselor, Job Developer or Business Analyst.
They will receive stipends to cover essential living costs during their service as well as educational
allowances at the end based on need.
Employment Programs
EMPLOY AMERICA programs would be established in the cities with the highest levels of
chronic unemployment across the country. These programs would be: run by individual community
based organizations, form a network in each city which would be coordinated by a consortium
of industry, labor and education appropriate for that city and adhere to the same basic program
design.
Annual Goals and Cost
400 Programs. Ten employment programs in each of forty cities.
4,000 Volunteers. Ten volunteers assigned to each of these programs.
80,000 Unemployed People Employed. 200 people helped by each program.
48,000 Unemployed People Off Public Assistance. About 60% of those employed.
$150,000,000 Budget. A per capita cost of $1,875 for each employed individual.
$354,000,000 Net Savings. Reduced welfare, increased taxes minus program costs.
EMPLOY AMERICA
EMPLOY AMERICA'S CLIENTS
EMPLOY AMERICA will target its volunteers and program resources on the urban unemployed
between the ages of 18 to 30 years of age who are on a merry-go-round moving from one dead-end
job to public assistance or dependency on the street economy and back again. These young
adults are usually minorities, often single parents as well as high school drop-outs and represent
about 75% of today's jobless population.
Client Profile
This group is characterized by the following quotes from New York Times articles on February
29, and March 1, 1989 by William Julius Wilson from the University of Chicago and Roger
W. Wilkins of the Institute for Policies Studies.
"They lead lives filled with violence and frustration. They know few working people,
homeowners or professionals to give them inspiration or hope and they have little access
to the world of most Americans. It is not surprising that they feel undeserving of a better
life.
These youth suffer from the concentrated effects of poverty. They don't develop habits
associated with regular work because their lives are not organized around work. They
have rejected the values like discipline and study needed to get ahead in American life.
They are crippled in inner city schools. They don't express themselves easily. And they
are isolated from the job network so important in finding employment.
These young people are disillusioned with the system, have no notion that education
is the key to long-term employment, have no confidence that they can make it in mainstream
society and, in many instances, have opted for instant gratification and acceptance of
the street world."
Traditional Programs Unresponsive
One of the reasons this crisis continues to grow is that most government-funded employment
programs concentrate on expensive, long-term training of these young people for jobs that do
not exist. People become social problems or statistics, not individuals. Inappropriate attitudes
and poor communication skills are not dealt with in the course of these programs. And by not
implementing long term follow-up, the central issue - job stability is lost.
2
EMPLOY AMERICA
WHY EMPLOY AMERICA PROGRAMS WILL WORK
The EMPLOY AMERICA programs will be built around five key elements which are critical
for dealing with the real problems of young people in our cities who cannot find or keep jobs:
(1) Program Sites located in Inner City Neighborhoods
EMPLOY AMERICA programs will be situated - often in public housing complexes - so as
to be accessible to people who need them and sensitive to local community issues. Centralized
employment programs tend to become bureaucratic and removed.
(2) One month of Pre-Employment Training
This is intense training in a real work setting. It is geared to help chronically unemployed
individuals make the adjustments necessary for their getting a job in today's high performance
work place. The emphasis is on: correcting self-defeating attitudes, developing communication
skills and an understanding of the work environment.
(3) Rapid Placement
The objective is to move those who successfully complete training quickly into a job as a first
step on path to self-sufficiency based on the belief that work is the best training for work.
Every attempt is made to identify suitable jobs which afford skill training opportunities and a
chance for advancement.
(4) Two years of Post Placement Support and Career Counselling
Programs provide a case-managed continuum of work-skill building to help participants progress
to stable, full-time employment with a livable wage, fringe benefits and opportunities for growth.
This is in contrast to most government funded employment programs which presently focus on
training individuals for entry level jobs but ignore the problems of long-term job stability and
self-sufficiency.
(5) Job Creation Capacity
This capacity will include a business development fund to guarantee low interest loans so businesses
can acquire the space and technology as well as marketing capability necessary for business
expansion and for increasing the number of jobs suitable for EMPLOY AMERICA clients.
3
EMPLOY AMERICA
ANTICIPATED OUTCOMES AND COSTS
Number of Cities
40
Number of Programs (10 per city)
400
Number of Volunteers (10 per program)
4,000
Goals
Goals
One Year
Four Years
Number of Unemployed People Employed
80,000
320,000
(average of 200 per program)
Number of New Jobs Created
5,000
20,000
(average of 125 per city)
Number of Unemployed People Stably Employed
48,000
192,000
and Moved Off Public Assistance
(conservatively, 60% of those Employed)
Cost
Cost
One Year
Four Years
Volunteers Living and Educational Allowances
$60,000,000
$240,000,000
(an average of $15,000 per volunteer per year)
Business Development Fund
$60,000,000
$240,000,000
(an average of $12,000 per job created)
Volunteer Training and Program Support
$10,000,000
$40,000,000
Program and Fund Administration
$20,000,000
$80,000,000
TOTAL
$150,000,000
$600,000,000
4
EMPLOY AMERICA
PROJECTED IMPACT
One Year
Four Years
Savings in Welfare Payments for stabilized workers
($8,000 x 48,000 stabilized workers per year)
$384,000,000
$1,536,000,000
Tax Collected from stabilized workers
($2,500 X 48,000 stabilized workers per year)
$120,000,000
$480,000,000
Minus Total Cost of Program
($150,000,000)
($600,000,000)
NET SAVINGS
$354,000,000
$1,416,000,000
5
Michael L. Frey
71 Roxbury Road
Garden City, NY 11530
(516) 747-8596
Summary: Extensive project management and strategic planning experience as an executive and management
consultant in complex human services, arts, education and employment organizations. Specializing in problem
solving and financial planning, program design and fund-raising, human resource and organizational
development.
Accomplishments:
Developed and served as founding president of STRIVE, a nationally-recognized employment program for
disadvantaged youth with twelve sites in NYC, Chicago and Pittsburgh.
Developed and administered JOBS 10,000, a six year, $12M project to help 10,000 chronically unemployed
New Yorkers obtain permanent employment.
Designed and organized the service delivery and financial systems of a comprehensive workforce education
program serving labor and industry throughout NYC.
Designed and implemented a deficit reduction plan which saved one of the nation's most prestigious cultural
institutions just under $1M a year.
Developed a manual for states and cities on the creative leverage of Federal dollars to provide disabled
persons the housing and services needed for independent living.
Developed and conducted "Team Building" workshops for project managers and maintenance
superintendents in public housing complexes.
Developed a country-wide, professional in-service training program for West African educators.
Experience:
1992 - PROJECT MANAGER, NYC CONSORTIUM FOR WORKER EDUCATION
1986 -91 PRESIDENT, EAST HARLEM EMPLOYMENT SER VICE
1982 -85 EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, HENR Y STREET SETTLEMENT
1979 -81 MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT, PUBLIC POLICY AND ADMINISTRATION
1975 -78 ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER, NYC AGENCY FOR CHILD DEVELOPMENT
1972 -74 PERSONNEL MANAGER, NYC HUMAN RESOURCES ADMINISTRATION
1969 -71 ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, PEACE CORPS SIERRA LEONE
Education: Peace Corps Fellow, Washington, D.C. , 1968
Peace Corps Volunteer, Liberia, 1965 - 1967
B.A., Stanford University, Stanford, California 1965
CITY LIMITS
PROFILE
STRIVE: Job Training for the Long Haul
BY MARY KEEFE
IT LOOKED LIKE ONE OF A THOU-
sand corporate meetings: a large room
filled with standard-issue office
chairs, men wearing starched shirts
and ties, women in dresses and blaz-
ers. not a hair out of place. Yet in-
stead of taking place in Wall Street or
midtown. this meeting occurred in
the basement of a community center
in East Harlem. The 27 participants
were enrolled in STRIVE, a three-
week employment training program
designed to help people find perma-
nent jobs and keep them.
It was the third day of the program
and each member of the group gave a
five-minute speech that was recorded
on video. For many, the experience
was nerve-wracking. Nahir Gon-
azalez, a lively 20-year-old, panicked
during her speech but eventually
completed it and later called five
minutes "the longest time ever."
Confidence builder:
Donna Valdes, who came to STRIVE
Frank Horton leading a STRIVE session.
because she has trouble staying at
jobs, says she nearly didn't come to
rible." he says. "My job is to deal
branch located in a public housing
the class because of her fear of public
with their attitudes. They have gone
project in the Bronx. The program is
speaking.
to job after job and not been success-
poised to take another leap because
"You were nervous and you didn't
ful." At STRIVE. he says. "before
the New York-based Clark Founda-
want to get up here today. But you
they know it they have 20 or 30
tion recently awarded it a $4 million
did it," announces Frank Horton, 29,
positive experiences since they
challenge grant. Over the next five
a STRIVE graduate who now leads
walked in."
years, the STRIVE staffers have to
the program in East Harlem with
These positive experiences appear
raise another $8 million to fund
equal measures of patience and
to pay off-since opening in 1985.
expansion into eight new locations
toughness. "There's places you want
the program has placed 79 percent of
and to place 10,000 young New
to be in your life, but you are
its 853 graduates in jobs. And fol-
Yorkers in permanent jobs. The grant
afraid You expect people to under-
low-up calls four times a year show
is a "particularly large one" for the
stand that fear. We can understand it
that 80 percent remain employed.
Clark Foundation, and what sold the
all day long. but until you cross that
"We don't think our training is
board was STRIVE's five-year record
bridge and take on the responsibil-
complete until someone is stably
of job retention rates, according to
ity, it won't change."
employed," says Michael Frey,
Joseph Cruickshank. secretary of the
STRIVE, which stands for Sup-
founder and president of STRIVE.
foundation.
port and Training Resulting in Valu-
To him. that means two years in a job
Rob Carmona. executive director
able Employment. focuses on people
that's not a dead end.
of STRIVE, says that the key to
who are often labeled "hard-to-
Frev started STRIVE five years ago
STRIVE's job retention rates is ex-
employ." Of the 516 East Harlem
to replicate a program he was im-
tensive personal contact and indi-
STRIVE graduates between 1985 and
pressed with while serving as direc-
vidual calls to graduates at regular
1988, 49 percent were high school
tor of the Henry Street Settlement.
three-month intervals. The program
drop-outs, 75 percent were on public
The job training effort is privately
is short and intensive. and once it is
assistance, 45 percent were parents
funded and meets needs that are
over. graduates have lifetime access
and 97 percent were black or Latino.
ignored by government-funded pro-
for extra help with personal prob-
The average age was 23.
grams under the federal Job Training
lems. assistance moving up the job
and Partnership Act (JTPA). Many
ladder or into higher education.
Low Self-Esteem
advocates criticize JTPA because the
Job developers at each STRIVE
According to Horton. many of the
emphasis is job placement rather than
location work with New York em-
people in the program are struggling
job retention.
ployers to help find slots that gradu-
with low self-esteem and language
Since its inception. STRIVE has
ates can apply for. although many
barriers. "Their confidence is ter-
expanded and now has a second
people find their own jobs. Carmona
says. Most of the jobs are in back
friendly" computer training is avail-
around. she says, "Being on public
office operations, in areas like build-
able to everyone and day care is
assistance is not exactly an ego build-
ing operations and hospitals. The
provided at one of the two branches.
ing experience so you don't always
police department runs recruiting
Ten days after Gaston graduated
come in with the best attitude." At
workshops at the Bronx location.
from STRIVE. she landed a job as an
STRIVE. she says, "there's always a
administrative secretary at the gradu-
sense of pride and respect."
Program Meets Needs
ate film department of New York
Last October. Miriam Gaston read
University. Summing up why
Mary Keefe is a freelance writer fo-
an ad for STRIVE in a newspaper
STRIVE has helped turn her life
cusing on community issues.
after she'd been out of work for a