Service Year Alliance’s testimony in support of Maryland’s Serving Every Region Through Vocational Exploration (SERVE) Act:
Service Year Alliance is pleased to support House Bill 546, the SERVE Act, which would create a service year option for Maryland high school graduates. Service Year Alliance is a national nonprofit which seeks to make a service year — a paid opportunity to develop real-world skills through hands-on service — an expectation and opportunity for all young Americans. Our organization supports service year programs across the country with tools and resources to help elevate and expand the service year field. Service years transform lives, offering young people postsecondary pathways into college and career and building talent pipelines into the public and nonprofit sectors. Service years also meet urgent community needs in areas like education, conservation, clean energy, public health, re-entry services, and much more. As Governor Moore expressed in his State of the State address, service years can help to rebuild our country’s social fabric, bringing individuals together across lines of difference as the “antidote to loneliness and otherness.”
Governor Moore’s proposed Service Year Option will make Maryland a model for the country in offering service year opportunities specifically targeted for high school graduates and those who have earned their GED. As outlined, the Service Year Option will offer a host of high-quality benefits and wraparound support services, including compensating participants at $15 per hour, a post-service stipend, mentoring and networking opportunities with fellow participants across the state, and a flexible schedule to make service an accessible and financially feasible option for those with caregiving and other commitments. This high-quality program design adopts many of the best practices laid out in Service Year Alliance’s recent Equity Agenda for National Service and is necessary in order to equitably expand service years in Maryland and across the country.
Service Year Alliance’s testimony in support of Maryland’s Serving Every Region Through Vocational Exploration (SERVE) Act
Service Year Alliance’s testimony in support of Maryland’s Serving Every Region Through Vocational Exploration (SERVE) Act