Last week I was listening to National Public Radio and I heard an interesting commentary about national service programs by the Millennial wunderkind Ben Casnocha. He suggested that proposals to expand national service programs, such as AmeriCorps VISTA and NCCC, may do more to hurt local communities than help them by offering short term solutions and undermining long term community change. He also suggested that the programs seem designed more to help the service participants than the service recipients.

It’s an interesting perspective and I’ve been noodling about it for a few days now.

If memory serves me, talk of expanding national service has come up during every presidential election since the first Clinton administration. There is lots of talk about greatly expanding AmeriCorps and other programs. Some people even suggest making a year of national service – either as a civilian or a member of the military – compulsory. (Think of it as a kinder, gentler draft.) However, a few short months after the next President is elected, that talk goes silent and the country moves on to more urgent matters.

Generation X, The Millenials, and Civic Engagement
Everyone “knows” that Generation X has low levels of civic engagement. In fact, a new report by Circle: The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement shows that Millenial college students are much more engaged than Gen Xers were in 1993. What really interested me in this report (which is worth a read), was the finding that Millenials are very active on a local, individual level but are not attracted to the current political system.

According to the report, where the Xers may have been “cynical” the Millenials are “ambivalent.” What both have in common is the willingness to help others in a face-to-face context.

This is just the type of opportunity that national service offers.

AmeriCorps & Me
I was a member of Class V of the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps. The program was not the best fit for me, and I ended up leaving early, but it planted a little seed in my brain that eventually led me to a career in nonprofits.

The NCCC is modeled after the Civilian Conservation Corps from the Great Depression. During their service, Corps members work together in small groups of 12-15 and travel within their geographic area performing many different kinds of projects. In the course of 6 months, I lived in 3 different states and performed tasks as varied as tutoring children in urban public schools, putting a roof on a senior apartment building, and handing out disaster relief supplies in a small town in North Carolina.

I was exposed to a LOT of different types of nonprofit and public sector organizations. Some were fabulously run, efficient, and a pleasure to work with. Some were thrown together in the face of great need and never had a chance to breath long enough to get systematized. Some were just outright terrible at what they do. It was a fantastic education that serves me well to this day.

After six months of this, I knew that I had to find a way to work in the nonprofit sector and help people in some capacity.

Indulgence, Or Leadership Development
This brings me back to Mr. Casnocha’s arguments. I can sympathize with how national service might look like an indulgence designed to give the participants an “experience.” In some cases, that may be true. However, I know that I’m not the only person from my team of 13 Corps Members to end up working in the nonprofit sector. Some of my teammates have done truly extraordinary things in this sector – things they probably would not have done without their AmeriCorps experience.

During the NP2020 conference, it was striking to me how many participants were AmeriCorps alums. I guess that whole “Getting Things Done” stuff is more than a slogan. When I think about who will be leading nonprofits in the next 10 years, I have no doubt that many of them will be drawn from “our” ranks.

Of course I have to point out that volunteerism is up, up, up across the entire Millenial demographic. This is due not only to national service programs, but also because of service learning, mandatory student volunteer hours, and family oriented volunteering opportunities. It doesn’t really seem to matter how people volunteer in the end. Getting young people up close and personal with service – through whatever means – is a great way to keep filling the pipeline with prospective leaders.

Maria Gajewski, AmeriCorps hoodie-sportin’ Xer