A Second Step for Americorps
Americorps has an exciting new opportunity to expand its impact very substantially. By increasing its emphasis on Americorps as a gateway to long-term careers in service and bringing about real change, it could convert young people’s enormous interest in service and civic engagement into a permanent resource for the nation. By preparing motivated people for careers of service, the Corporation could provide them with skills and knowledge which are very much in demand, even in this weakened economy, while it would also greatly benefit nonprofit organizations, especially those working in lower-income communities.
America's nonprofits face an enormous crisis of talent. They have difficulty attracting and training talented people, and there is no effective pipeline to prepare people for long-term careers in nonprofits. This situation is especially crippling for organizations which tackle issues of poverty, discrimination and opportunity.
An Americorps Second Step Initiative could dramatically alleviate this crisis, more systematically producing a new
generation of people to work on America’s most challenging issues. Responding to this talent shortage, Americorps could provide outstanding graduates of
Public Allies, VISTA, Youthbuild and its other programs with opportunities to receive an extensive education and further experience in community organizing and development, nonprofit management, and effective strategies for addressing key
community issues. Second Step could develop the new generation of leaders and managers which nonprofits and the
public sector so desperately need.
This would be particularly valuable if it included special educational pathways into
leadership and service careers for people whose opportunities are now limited. Stronger recruitment and support for people from low-income
backgrounds and African-Americans, Latinos, and other people of color would add
an extraordinarily important dimension to Americorps, as their leadership and
knowledge are desperately needed in poor and blue collar communities.
There is broad recognition among people who work on issues of poverty, race and
community-building that we face a frightening talent shortage. Neighborhood organizations and community-based
institutions have great difficulty finding staff and leaders with the full
range of knowledge, skills and experience which are needed to tackle the
immense challenges facing low-income people in an era of growing unemployment,
foreclosures, and cutbacks in essential services. This situation is worsening as people from the Sixties
generation retire from nonprofit leadership.
While the shortage of knowledgeable, skilled, and strategic people for work in low income communities is particularly
crippling for community groups, it also frustrates public and nonprofit agencies and philanthropy which want to apply what they have learned from experience — they are increasingly aware that they cannot successfully address the most serious issues our cities and rural communities face without widespread community involvement and strong local leaders and organizations.
Second Step: A Major Opportunity for Americorps:
Americorps attracts volunteers with great talent and social commitment. While these volunteers provide
invaluable service during their one or two years in Americorps programs, the
vast majority of alumni then go on to other careers.
Many more graduates of Americorps could be guided into long-term careers in service if they were given incentives and
opportunities to enter college-based programs which prepared them for lifetimes of service. At the same time Americorps could provide leadership within the Administration for joint efforts to stimulate and support the creation of new academic programs which are designed specifically to prepare Americorps graduates and others for careers on issues related to community service, community development and the building of grassroots self-help organizations. Finally, coupling these initiatives with special efforts to attract people of color and from backgrounds of limited means could add greatly to Americorps' contribution to the communities which most need help.
An Americorps Second Step initiative could provide its graduates who are interested in preparing for careers in bringing about community change with a
package of benefits, including:
- expanded, longer term educational benefits
- continuing income during their further education, by assuring them work-study funds or continuing stipends for part-time volunteer service;
- employment counseling and placement assistance in internships, apprenticeships and jobs in the nonprofit and governmental sectors.
Community Change Studies: Another Opportunity for Expanding Americorps' Impact:
- In addition, Americorps could fund the creation and expansion of new degree and
certificate programs in community colleges, HBCUs and public universities which
are geared specifically to preparing people for careers in community service,
organizing, development, and related fields. It could do
this alone or in collaboration with the Department of Education’s Community College initiatives and FIPSE
program, the White Office of Faith-based /Neighborhood Initiatives and other federal
agencies.
- In five cities, nonprofits are working with Community Colleges, HBCUs
and four-year state colleges to launch new educational programs in Community
Change Studies. These programs
offer students a combination of classes and field work which prepare them for
careers in community service – helping neighbors come together to work
for better schools, improved services, and opportunities for advancement. In
this way they offer a “double social benefit”: they prepare low-income and
working class students for promising careers, and their graduates develop the
commitment, skills and knowledge needed to improve disadvantaged communities.
- The Community Learning Partnership acts as the catalyst and support
system for these new Community College programs. With support from several
foundations, the Partnership is developing Community Change Studies programs in
five cities (Los Angeles, New York, Detroit, Baltimore and Hartford) while
exploring expansion to several others. Its staff-members are well-prepared for this work as they all are
nationally known for their experience with every aspect of community change
work, from building youth groups and community organizations to neighborhood
development and service delivery, from school reform to job creation. They also have extensive experience in
training, education, and staff and leadership development.
- In each city the Partnership has brought community leaders, organizers and trainers together with academics from
different disciplines to create local partnerships. Together they are designing new one- and two-year programs
geared specifically to prepare people to work in disadvantaged communities. The graduates of these Community Change Studies programs have strong backgrounds for careers helping people bring about substantial change on issues of poverty, race and community-building.
- The curricula combine experiential education, reading, classroom study,
and reflective practice to create ambitious programs of practitioner education.
These programs include courses in community outreach and motivation, group
facilitation and working with groups, leadership education and organizational
development. Through study and application, students also gain skills in participatory action research and
popular education, developing a thorough understanding of a community, its
broader economic, social and governmental context, and alternative ways of
bringing about change.
- The courses are academic rather than vocational: they develop students’ skills in analysis, critical thinking,
strategy and reflective practice as well as their practical skills. Students
thus develop the knowledge, skills, and sophistication to help people bring
about substantial positive change. The Community Change programs are articulated so their graduates may
pursue more advanced education if and when they wish.
- These programs directly address the talent crisis which is afflicting nonprofits throughout the country, especially in lower income communities. They thus have the potential to strengthen the nonprofit sector so that it, in turn, can help alleviate poverty and expand opportunities.
- Americorps is ideally placed for taking the leadership in tackling the pipeline crisis through this dual strategy of First Step and Community Change Studies, creating a continuing stream of the leaders and talented staff-people which the nonprofit sector and public institutions desperately need. This would provide Americorps with an exciting opportunity to increase its impact in three highly significant ways:
- Expanding the number of Americorps alumni who move from their initial volunteer experience into long-term careers of service;
- Reaching, recruiting, and preparing many more
people from low-income and blue collar backgrounds, especially people of
color, for Americorps service and then long-term careers in addressing
issues of poverty and lack of opportunity;
- Greatly strengthening the nonprofit sector's capacity to organize and bring about positive change in lower-income
communities which desperately need a new generation of skilled, experienced staff and leaders.
Andrew Mott, Community Learning Partnership, andymott@communitylearningpartnership.org, 202/822-6006
