[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 127 (Tuesday, September 13, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[Congressional Record: September 13, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
NATIONAL AND COMMUNITY SERVICE
Mr. DURENBERGER. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to this
week's formal launching of the AmeriCorps program--the largest of
several youth and community service initiatives that we in the Congress
authorized 1 year ago this month.
As its chief Republican cosponsor in the Senate, I'm pleased that
this important initiative is now recruiting and placing eager and
enthusiastic young volunteers in community organizations and agencies
all over America. And, I'm especially proud that one of the satellite-
linked locations for yesterday's swearing-in of new volunteers by
President Clinton was the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
It is appropriate that Minnesota played an important role in
officially launching AmeriCorps, Mr. President, because of my State's
long history of leadership in service learning and youth community
service.
One of the reasons I was an enthusiastic supporter of the national
service legislation we approved the last year was the degree of
flexibility it offers States and local communities to identify and
target their own highest priority needs.
Over the past year, Minnesota has made a special effort to integrate
the funding authorized by the Federal AmeriCorps program with its own
YouthWorks program--creating an even larger number of service
opportunities for my State's young people.
In this first round of AmeriCorps grants, Minnesota has received $2
million in funding which will fund six exciting projects:
The city of St. Paul's Future Force--a 76 member corps to be based at
Concordia College.
Pillsbury Neighborhood Service's Community Works--a 24-person crew
address urban issues.
Neighborhood House Association's Multicultural Communities in
Action--a 26-person crew serving St. Paul's West Side and parts of
South Minneapolis.
Twin Cities Youth and Housing Initiative--operated by Two or More,
Inc., a group of 25 youths who will build and refurbish Minneapolis
homes.
The Southeast Minnesota Initiative Fund--which will work in
cooperating with Mankato and Winona State universities.
The Red Lake Tribal Council--which has already sponsored two highly
successful Summer of Service programs also funded by the Corporation
for National and Community Service.
program needs clear focus and purpose
As one of those who strongly supported the passage of national
service legislation, I am also among those who believes this program
will need to clarify its focus and purpose. That is especially
important in light of the smaller scale at which the new program is
being launched.
During the 1992 campaign, then-candidate Clinton drew loud cheers
whenever he promised to use national service to ease the financial
burdens of college for ``millions of American young people and their
families.''
And, after his election, the new President used the same
justification to propose a program that would have cost more than $10
billion over 4 years.
But, recognizing today's fiscal realities, Congress was willing to
commit less than 15 percent of the President's earlier $10 billion
proposal and only a tiny fraction of his even larger campaign pledge.
not a college education
That means those of us who strongly support national service must
acknowledge that it will never play a major role in financing higher
education.
At a minimum annual cost of $15,000 to $20,000 per participant, we
can't depend on this new program to help meet the rising cost of going
to college. Our first priority must be to increase our commitment to
currently underfunded Pell grants, and to carefully implement the
student loan reforms enacted in last year's budget bill.
not the ccc
Second, it is important to distinguish the new AmeriCorps program
from previous national service programs like FDR's Civilian
Conservation Corps and the Peace Corps and VISTA programs launched in
the 1960's.
Those previous initiatives were Federal programs, totally funded and
run from Washington. What this newest initiative does is authorize a
decentralized infrastructure for States to use in stimulating community
service by young people. It is intended to serve as a broad framework
for thousands of different programs tailored to meet the diversity of
America's young people and the communities they will serve.
The new AmeriCorps program should also leverage State, local, and
private sector support for programs that respond to this diversity and
that enjoy strong local ownership. If that happens, the impact of this
new initiative will reach far beyond what's possible with the limited
Federal funding that today's fiscal realities will allow.
service learning
Finally, as we launch the AmeriCorps program, much greater
recognition must be given to the value of other new programs also
authorized last year that encourage nonstipended service learning.
In States all around the country, young Americans from kindergarten
through college are demonstrating the value of community service that's
creatively integrated into the school curriculum.
In Minnesota, for example, more than 100,000 young people are now
participating in school-based service learning programs. These programs
are improving educational outcomes and benefiting local communities.
And, they're achieving these goals at a fraction of the cost of
AmeriCorps and other stipended service programs that dominated last
year's national service debate.
wayne meisel, my youth service mentor
Mr. President, a driving force behind my own interest in national and
community service has been the leadership of Minnesotans. Wayne
Meisel--who grew up alongside my own four sons in South Minneapolis--is
one of those individuals I have looked to as a mentor on this issue.
That's why I am pleased to report that Wayne was recently recognized
for his leadership by the American Institute for Public Service through
its Jefferson Award. This prestigious award is used annually to
recognize outstanding public service by an individual under age 36.
Wayne Meisel is the founder of COOL--the Campus Outreach Opportunity
League, an internationally known platform for students and graduates to
lead, sustain, and challenge their peers to service others and to bring
about positive change.
In 1983, after graduating from Harvard University, Wayne traveled
from campus to campus, effectively using his vision and enthusiasm to
start local youth service chapters. COOL now works with 700 colleges
and universities nationwide and with international students groups
throughout the world.
Working with COOL from 1983 to 1989, Wayne set the tone for
organizations run by and for young people. He brought about coalitions
between and among individuals, campuses, local communities, and all
levels of government. As COOL's director, he conceived and developed
``A Day in the Life of Youth Service,'' an event designed to recognize
and support young people in their efforts to serve their communities.
Wayne is now serving as president of New Jersey's Bonner Foundation,
where he has created and generated funding for the Bonner Scholars
program. This 2,000 member corps of college students requires at least
600 hours of service per year in exchange for college scholarships.
Overall, the program provides over 1 million hours of service each year
to communities throughout the country.
After passage of 1990 National and Community Service Act, Wayne was
appointed by President Bush to the first board of the then-Commission
on National and Community Service. From that platform, Wayne argued
forcefully for greater involvement of young people themselves in the
design and management of youth service programs.
I agree with Wayne's premise that youth involvement is one of the key
elements that will determine the long-range success of these programs
in local communities all over America. And, in accepting the Jefferson
Award, Wayne again made this point in his usual quiet but forceful way.
There is a great deal to be learned from the perspectives that
individuals like Wayne Meisel have to offer, Mr. President. And,
because of the particular insights Wayne has on the role of young
people in national service, I would ask that the full text of his
remarks accepting the Jefferson Award be printed at this point in the
Record.
There being no objection, the statement was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Aug. 9, 1994]
To Serve the Nation, Youth Must Be Heard
(By Wayne Meisel)
National service is now a top theme on the American agenda.
Large national organizations are gearing up to receive
federal money through the new AmeriCorps program, which has
its official kick-off next month. But in all the planning for
the new service corps, one voice has been conspicuously
absent: that of the young people who played a key role in
promoting the national-service movement. It is impossible to
have a successful service corps without youth leadership.
The Corporation for National Service--which is in charge of
overseeing AmeriCorps and other volunteerism efforts--has yet
to give young people a serious role in policy making. Just as
one can be a friend of agriculture without being a friend of
farmers, so to can the corporation be a friend of youth
service without being a friend of young people.
Youth leadership is not just a nice idea. It is a critical
element to assuring not only that national service will be a
success, but that its participants are motivated by a vibrant
and powerful vision of social change and justice. Our ability
to make youth leadership a key element of all types of
service programs will determine whether the new-found
interest in national service will be an inspiration and
source of support for young people everywhere--or whether it
will end up crushing the spirit and creativity of a young
people's movement.
Though well-intentioned, the Corporation for National
Service has not given young people the opportunity to lead
the movement they created. The federal Commission on National
and Community Service--the body that led to the formation of
the corporation--had recommended unanimously that applicants
be required to demonstrate that young people were involved in
creating, operating, and evaluating service programs. Yet
when the grantmaking regulations were published and sent out,
no mention was made of that requirement. A year and a half
later, the requirement has yet to work its way into any of
the corporation's regulations or guidelines.
In a move that further limited youth involvement, the
corporation dissolved the Youth Voice Committee, which the
commission had created to make sure that young people had an
opportunity to be involved in the policy-making process.
Although corporation officials promised to setup some kind of
structure to perform the same tasks as the youth committee,
they have not yet done so.
Before it was dismantled, the committee oversaw the
creation of ``From the Hip,'' a photojournalistic effort to
get young people to define and express what youth service was
and what it meant. Hundreds of young people teamed up with
adult mentors to take photographs and write stories about
youth service. The stories that came back were not just about
traditional kinds of service like tutoring kids and serving
the elderly; they were also about race, sexuality, politics,
and religion.
To create a national-service corps that is relevant to
young people, we need to know what they think. But the
corporation has not taken any action to figure out what young
people value.
Federal officials have done further damage to the youth
movement by taking over projects that were designed and run
by young people. Case in point: the Road Scholars program run
by the Campus Outreach Opportunity League.
For the past decade, cool has sent staff members out to
towns and cities across the country that wanted help
developing and strengthening campus-based community-service
efforts. Initially, the Commission on National and Community
Service made a grant to the Road Scholars program that would
have allowed many more communities to be served by cool. But
instead of continuing the league's tradition of getting young
people to advise and inspire their peers, the Corporation for
National Service withdrew federal support and established its
own program to provide the same services as cool.
You cannot hire someone else to implement another person's
or group's vision. Through cool, Road Scholars were able to
lead with authority. They were all recent college graduates
with experience building successful service efforts. They
were accountable not to a large institution or a government
entity but to an idea, a common vision, and a shared value.
Perhaps that was threatening to federal leaders. The real
question is whether in its new training program, which
borrows the techniques developed by cool, the Corporation for
National Service will give young people adequate authority.
Officials of the Corporation for National Service have
emphatically denied that they are trying to discourage the
youth voice.
But they must realize that the corporation, through its
influence and sheer size, controls the youth-service
movement. The greatest tragedy in all this is that after
working so hard to get to the place we are now, the movement
finds itself at its most vulnerable point. The corporation's
takeover could leave us with uninspired leadership that fails
to articulate a clear and powerful message while creating a
bureaucracy that becomes an expression of institutionalized
mediocrity.
Although I am critical of what has happened so far, there
is much that the Corporation for National Service and the
foundation world can do to make national service flourish.
Among the steps they can take to bring life, vision, and
youth back to what can be the most powerful movement of this
decade:
The corporation must put into its regulations a requirement
that all its grantees have young people involved in the
creation, implementation, operation, and evaluation of their
programs.
The corporation and foundations need to realize that for
community service to have meaning to a broad range of young
people, it has to deal openly with issues of race, gender,
class, sexual orientation, politics, justice, and power.
Foundations should take a close look at projects the
corporation does not support. Private grant makers should
consider giving money to efforts that have the potential to
break new ground in the way youth-service efforts are run.
The corporation should be encouraged to identify, develop,
and support programs that educate non-profit organizations
about the importance of youth involvement in policy making
and that train them in ways to win youth participation.
Foundations should be inspired to follow the lead of the
Lyndhurst and Echoing Green Foundations, which provide
fellowships to young people who want to pursue careers in
community service and activism.
Many people have worked hard for national service to become
a reality. National service is a call to all Americans--
regardless of their age--to serve in their communities and to
build the country we all dream about. But for youth service
to work, young people must have opportunities to be heard.
Youth is the leadership of tomorrow only if we procrastinate.
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