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Do You Agree or Disagree?
Posted by Agit8r • 5/05/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: americorps, national service, volunteerism
The following excerps come from an essay on National Service...
"I believe AmeriCorps needs to be expanded and changed, in ways that do not alter those aspects of the program that make it effective, but that build greater espirit de corps among members and encourage a sense of national unity and mission.
There is no doubt that this can be done because some smaller programs within AmeriCorps are already doing it. One example is City Year, an AmeriCorps effort that began in Boston and is now operating in 13 American cities. City Year members wear uniforms, work in teams, learn public speaking skills, and gather together for daily calisthenics, often in highly public places such as in front of city hall. They also provide vital services, such as organizing after-school activities and helping the elderly in assisted-living facilities.
Another example is AmeriCorps' National Civilian Community Corps, a service program consciously structured along military lines. NCCC members not only wear uniforms and work in teams, as City Year members do, but actually live together in barracks on former military bases, and are deployed to service projects far from their home base. This "24/7" experience fosters group cohesion and a sense of mission. AmeriCorps' NCCC members know they are part of a national effort to serve their country. The communities they serve know that, too..."
"Only about 1,000 of AmeriCorps' 50,000 members are a part of NCCC. City Year accounts for another 1,200. Congress should expand these two programs dramatically, and spread their group-cohesion techniques to other AmeriCorps programs. Indeed, the whole national service enterprise should be expanded, with the ultimate goal of ensuring that every young person who wants to serve can serve. Though this will require significantly more funding, the benefits to our nation will be well worth the investment. At the same time, we must encourage the corporate sector and the philanthropic community to provide funding for national service, with federal challenge grants and other incentives."
Do you agree agree or disagree with this sentiment?
User Comments
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I'm an educator, and one of the biggest problems I see for my students is their ability to get a job without experience, and yet get experience without a job. If AmeriCorps aim is to remedy this, and at the same time do something beneficial for the country, and instil an ethos of public service, I'm all for it.-
i do have to wonder if it is a National issue, rather than state or even school district. Some states already have volunteering programs. The school district where I went to high school had one. i also wonder if the "group cohesion"... the daily calisthenics and whatnot isn't rather Singaporish... idk.
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not trying to be an a-hole. Just doesn't fit my notion of Grassroots Democracy
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Whose essay on National Service?
No we don't need to have people wearing uniforms, or structured. Americorps is also not just for teenagers and I can't see my grandmother wearing a uniform and marching to that tune. I can see that their might be some for which wearing a uniform and pretending to be military is a large turn on but no, this is a no brainer, no.-
so... disagree
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I'll give you a hint... he's spent a couple decades in congress
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Disagree -
a particular bit that threw ya?
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Disagree
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any input, why?
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Gnome comment.
(I keep it stupid and steer clear of the political stuff).-
not even on calisthenics?
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Nope. Calisthenics or Protestants, I don't really discuss religion, either.
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free exercise of religion is important
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I get that by walking by dogma.
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I did the other day, when my karma broke down
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So no pics of Gnome Work Camp to throw up there?
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I'm saving my Gnomunition now for the most egregious threads.
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this Work Camp stuff sounds like Gnommunism to me
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Did you ever see the Communist propaganda gnome posters on the Epic Gnome Love Story thread?
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no... i think it calls for a necro post.
*thinks that gnomes have now killed another otherwise viable thread*
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It's all good until they set William James's "Moral Equivalence of War" to cadence.
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Anyone else want to weigh in?
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I strongly agree that it needs to be expanded. As a former City Year corps member there are so many things that I learned about myself and others because of it. I joined City Year on purely selfish reasons, a college scholarship. Once I spent half a year it became so much more than that. I worked with a lady who had mental retardation who couldn't even hold a paint brush. After a year with her she could paint. I worked in a class with kids who have developmental disorders and then I learned they don't have disorders they have learn different. I've worked in a domestic violence shelter, elderly home, worked with Habitat for Humanity, tutored children, worked with greenpeace, the Cleveland Museum of Art, The Cleveland Public Theatre, Cleveland Caveliers (I met Shawn Kemp), met Colin Powell, Mayor Micheal White, and Shook hands with President Bill Clinton. It gave me confidence in myself. It also gave me the idea for my blog Proof Positivity. I woke up and did jumping jacks in clothes from City Years sponsor Timberland in the freezing rain and I loved it. I recommend it for anyone who is 17-24 which is the age restriction.-
It's great so long as it's voluntary
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I think the basic idea of Americorp was okay but the direction that it recently has taken is a bit concerning. Uniforms, boot camps, marching, military-type training etc. is all too much.-
Cindy, Uniforms were a part of all this long before now. The uniforms are a unity thing and some of the places these organizations are in are gang infested. The uniforms hide the gang symbols and people have left gangs because of organizations like this. We are talking 100- 200 corps members per region. There are no boot camps but you are given boots to work in mud and dirt. You are also given dress shoes for occasions like meeting the President or some other official. I would not call it "Military training." I was overweight through the whole thing. I do believe the military does more than 30 minutes of jumping jacks and dance steps.
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I deliberately took the most outlandish excerpts for this post, in order to get a lively discussion (yeah that went well) here is the full article
www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0110.mccain.html-
This is a post from October 2001 about Americorp, right? I'm more concerned about the new direction that they are suggesting for Americorp. I have no doubt that the Americorp program that Shiley participated in several years back was very good and provided an excellent experience for the volunteers. It's the new bill that was signed in April 2009 that has many concerned about the new Americorp program.
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Again, only City Year wears uniforms. Mind you City Year is only a small fraction of Americorps. Americorps is nothing more than a way to provide funding to City Year, Habitat for Humanity, The grandparents program, and hundreds others. Aside from City Year most of them wear Americorps t-shirts and their own jeans. Americorp is a job you have a job interview to go to. I continue to keep in contact with City Year officials. City Year is based on the ideas of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Most of the stuff going on is a scare tactic.
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what about Public Allies? What are they doing by lobbying for a Draft bill (HR 393)
www.fecwatch.org/lobby/billsum.php?id=16746&lname=H.R.393
thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:H.R.393: -
Hahahahahahaha oh, God! you make me laugh. " To require all persons in the United States between the ages of 18 and 42 to perform national service, either as a member of the uniformed services or in civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security, to authorize the induction of persons in the uniformed services during wartime to meet end-strength requirements of the uniformed services, to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to make permanent the favorable treatment afforded combat pay under the earned income tax credit, and for other purposes."
1.) City Year is not and never was a uniformed service. Army, Navy, Marines etc are.
2.) Your first link has some sort of security warning.
3.) Last major action on Feb 26th, 2007 no action has been made on this since.
The fact that you are pushing something to induce fear is wrong. -
And yet Americorps subsidiary Public Allies was lobbying for it LAST YEAR! ...because it's just sitting in commitee, not dead, just waiting. The cosponsor Jim McDermott of WA's 7th district reintroduced the inflamitory language that was taken out The Serve America Act--as a separate act--HR 1444. Not trying to scare people. Just informing
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@recyclecindy,
The Progressive Policy Institute et al base their "patriotic" arguement on John McCain's essay. They also laud the lofty goals of the Bayh-McCain "Call to Service" act, which if successful would have quintupled (whereas the "Serve America Act" merely tripled) the size of Americorps. As far as I can tell the Serve America Act still operates by issuing block grants to the states, rather than relying on a centalized, militarily organized operation such as the recent Republican nominee recommended.
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thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.1444.IH:
(5) The effect on the Nation, on those who serve, and on the families of those who serve, if all individuals in the United States were expected to perform national service or were REQUIRED* to perform a certain amount of national service.
(6) Whether a workable, fair, and reasonable MANDATORY* service requirement for all able young people could be developed, and how such a requirement could be implemented in a manner that would strengthen the social fabric of the Nation and overcome civic challenges by bringing together people from diverse economic, ethnic, and educational backgrounds.
*my caps
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