To learn more about Service Year Alliance’s policy and advocacy work, please contact Melissa Bender, Director of Government Relations.
Service Year Alliance advances policy proposals that help make service years an opportunity for all young Americans. Service years bring young Americans together to support local communities and are a cost effective tool for addressing many challenges confronting our country, including learning loss, food insecurity, public health, and climate change while helping to build a 21st century workforce.
To reach our vision of making national service part of growing up in America, we must prioritize equity so that every young person is able to serve. Our equity agenda lays out recommendations for making this a reality. Learn more.
To learn more about Service Year Alliance’s policy and advocacy work, please contact Melissa Bender, Director of Government Relations.
Imagine a future in which young people earn college tuition by addressing our communities’ greatest challenges — where they are empowered to shape their own destinies and those of their communities, regardless of zip code. Imagine a future in which empathy trumps apathy and participation and problem-solving outmatch indifference. Imagine a shared experience far stronger than anything that may seek to divide us.
This future is entirely achievable if a year of service is part of growing up in America. The White House, Congress, state and local leaders, business, community and philanthropic leaders, and every American should be working to make this future a reality. Service Year Alliance is organizing the stakeholders, the strategy, and the movement we need to bring this vision to life.
Exist at scale, engaging at least one million young Americans in civilian national service annually
Address America’s unmet needs
Bridge divides and fuel civic renewal
Be an opportunity for all
Build pathways to long-term success for individuals who serve through benefits and connectivity to future education and career.
Last summer, President Biden proposed the creation of a new, modern-era Civilian Climate Corps (CCC) as part of his American Jobs Plan to make communities more resilient to disasters and to “mobilize the next generation of conservation and resilience workers and maximize the creation of accessible training opportunities and good jobs.” The CCC is envisioned as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to expand national service, put young people to work fighting climate change and build a pathway toward good-paying green jobs.
The House endorsed this piece of the President’s agenda, including a major $30 billion investment in the CCC in their reconciliation package in November 2021, which would have built a bold, dynamic CCC that fights fires and hurricanes, supports conservation efforts, reduces home energy costs, and improves community resilience. It would also have lifted the living stipend for all AmeriCorps programs, making national service an accessible opportunity for more young people. The Senate, in their slimmed-down legislation, unfortunately, left the CCC out of this summer’s Inflation Reduction Act. Service Year Alliance’s statement on that legislation is available here.
While the CCC funding we’ve been advocating for is not included in the Inflation Reduction Act, the package does include funding for an energy efficiency training program, environmental justice block grants, and additional investments in public lands, forests, and other conservation and mitigation projects that could potentially be used to support climate-related national service efforts. Service Year Alliance will continue to advocate for the expansion of climate resilience national service –and improvements to corps member benefits– through the Partnership for the Civilian Climate Corps, a national network of close to 100 multi-sector organizations pushing for robust investment in climate national service.