Service Year Alliance Statement for the Record for the House Armed Services Committee Hearing on: 

Recommendations and Report of the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service

Thursday, May 19, 2021

Chairman Smith, Ranking Member Rogers and members of the Armed Services Committee,

Service Year Alliance is pleased to submit this testimony for the record for the hearing on the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service.

Service Year Alliance is an organization working to make a year of paid, full-time national service — a service year — a common expectation and opportunity for all young Americans. We do that through our Serve America Together campaign, which brings together a coalition of military and civilian service organizations, among others, to advocate to make civilian national service part of growing up in America. We also support service year programs and help stand up new innovative models, and maintain the only online portal — ServiceYear.org — that connects young people to all different types of available service year opportunities, including AmeriCorps, Peace Corps, YouthBuild and non-federally funded programs. 

American presidents have long vied to echo John Kennedy’s “Ask not what your country can do for you.”

The spirit of service, declared Ronald Reagan, “flows like a deep and mighty river through the history of our nation.” Bill Clinton created AmeriCorps. George H.W. Bush likened volunteer organizations to “a thousand points of light.” George W. Bush created the USA Freedom Corps. Barack Obama called on Americans to “ground our politics in the notion of a common good.”

Their arguments are all the more compelling today, in a bitterly divided America struggling with a pandemic...

...Mr. Biden has an opportunity to make some version of this a reality. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, a former commander of international forces in Afghanistan and head of the “Serve America. Together” campaign, recently called on the president to invest in universal national service for one million young Americans annually as “the most important strategy we can implement to ensure the strength and security of our nation.”

Read the full New York Times editorial board endorsement of national service.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Service Year Alliance Releases New Report that Reimagines National Service and Calls on President Biden to be the “Service President”

The new report, “Reimagining National Service: A Roadmap to a Service Presidency” outlines six recommendations for the Biden-Harris Administration to utilize national service to meet our nation’s top priorities 

WASHINGTON, DC (April 26, 2021) – Service Year Alliance, a national nonprofit organization that is working to make national service a common expectation and opportunity for all young Americans, released a new report on national service entitled: “Reimagining National Service: A Roadmap to a Service Presidency.” The report provides a recommended roadmap for how the Biden Administration can reimagine national service to meet the nation’s top priorities and make national service a cornerstone issue of his presidency.

“This new report aims to reimagine what it means to serve our country and serves as a roadmap to make national service a central part of the Biden Administration. As a lifelong public servant and advocate for service in all its forms, President Biden has an opportunity to become the Service President and make a bold investment in national service as a solution to today’s convergent crises,” said Jesse Colvin, CEO of Service Year Alliance. 

Service Year Alliance released the following statement in response to the verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial: 

"Yesterday, our nation saw accountability for the murder of George Floyd. It is our hope at Service Year Alliance that his family can begin to find a measure of peace in the face of this preventable tragedy. George Floyd’s death, along with many others, is an outcome and a symptom of the systemic racism crisis that is deeply rooted in America. The work to break down structural inequities and stop violence against people based on racial identity and difference is just beginning. We are committed to acting with love and humanity in our work to address inequities. We continue to believe that until black lives matter, our mission to make national service a common expectation and opportunity for all young Americans cannot be realized."

Service Year Alliance praises President Biden’s nominations for the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service

Shirley Sagawa, founding CEO of Service Year Alliance, in particular, is a visionary for the national service movement

WASHINGTON, DC - Service Year Alliance released the following statement today praising President Biden’s nominations for the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service:

“Investing in and empowering the board of the Corporation for National and Community Service has the power to greatly improve the impact and equity of national service in America. Today’s nominations from President Biden of Cynthia Hogan, Catherine McLaughlin and Shirley Sagawa is an important sign that this Administration is dedicated to prioritizing national service,” said Jesse Colvin, CEO of Service Year Alliance. “In particular, we are thrilled to have Shirley Sagawa, the founding CEO of Service Year Alliance, nominated to the Board. Shirley has devoted her own career to service and has been an architect and visionary for national service as an opportunity and expectation for all young people. She will bring expertise and an innovative spirit to the Agency as it fulfills the President’s mission of building America back better. National service has the potential to transform our nation, our young people, and our democracy. We hope that this is a signal that the President will invest in transforming national service as the Service President — he will be very well-served by Shirley’s leadership if he does.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Service Year Alliance Praises Reintroduction of Bipartisan CORPS Act to Expand National Service and Support COVID Recovery 

The bill takes takes critical steps towards making national service more equitable and inclusive 

WASHINGTON, DC (April 15, 2021) – Today, Senators Coons and Wicker were joined by eight Democrats and seven Republicans in reintroducing the Cultivating Opportunity and Recovery to the Pandemic through Service (CORPS) Act, which would grow national service positions for the next three years to support recovery from the COVID pandemic. Service Year Alliance released the following statement in support of the CORPS Act: 

“National service continues to play a critical role in our nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and it has the power to help America recover and rebuild. Service Year Alliance is proud to support the bipartisan CORPS Act which will allow existing programs to expand their impact and will jumpstart the creation of new national service programs to boost our recovery efforts,” said Jesse Colvin, CEO of Service Year Alliance...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

New Report Details Power of National Service and Public-Private Partnership to Respond to Community Needs
Resulting from COVID-19 Crisis

Schultz Family Foundation, Service Year Alliance and Serve Washington release report on innovative program that combines federal and state government resources with philanthropic support to respond quickly to the pandemic, offers recommendations to scale public-private service model to additional states as officials deploy $1 billion in new funding for national service

Partnership announces Request for Proposals to extend program for a second year of service focused on widespread effects of COVID-19 on the most impacted communities

SEATTLE, WA (March 29, 2021) – The Schultz Family Foundation, Service Year Alliance and Serve Washington, released a report today detailing learnings from the first six months of the Washington COVID Response Corps, a first-of-its-kind youth service program created to quickly respond to record levels of community need resulting from the COVID-19 crisis. The report, which follows $1 billion in investment from the federal government for AmeriCorps in the new stimulus package, describes the program, details preliminary findings from the initial implementation period and offers recommendations with the hope of expanding the innovative public-private model to additional states.

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that people need other people. Membership in community helps us see our stake in our neighbors’ dreams and struggles, as well as our own. It deepens our understanding of others. We could use that in America right now. And that healing can begin with a robust investment in national service.

The American Rescue Plan, signed into law by President Biden this month, includes $1 billion for national service, the largest amount in decades. This funding will help provide living wages to young Americans and create additional positions that are accessible to Americans regardless of their financial means. Now we need to find the best ways to put that money to work in communities. And no one knows how to do that better than local leaders who are on the ground. That’s why everyone from the leaders in the statehouse to those in the schoolhouse should be at the forefront of deciding where to direct national service resources.

Service Year Alliance wholeheartedly denounces the tragic hate attacks and racist violence against the Asian American and Pacific Islander community in Atlanta this week. We stand in solidarity with the families who lost loved ones and everyone who is feeling heartbroken, fearful, and outraged at this moment. As an organization, we are committed to racial justice and equity — in national service, within our own organization, and across America — and this includes condemning white supremacy and anti-Asian hate. We have a responsibility to not only denounce and condemn but to stand up to racist policies and rhetoric while understanding the long history in America of violence against the AAPI community, and specifically Asian women. We stand in solidarity with the AAPI community and encourage every member of society to act with love for humanity by accepting, respecting, and valuing our differences — our nation will be stronger as a result. We must Stop Asian Hate.