Our Service Year Challenge to the Presidential Candidates
In June 2016, Service Year Alliance joined together with Voices for National Service to propose a Service Year Challenge to our country’s presidential nominees and future policymakers to make a year of service a common expectation and opportunity for all.
Today, there are approximately 65,000 full-time service year opportunities, including national service positions that receive federal funding through AmeriCorps, the Peace Corps, and YouthBuild — programs where corps members help struggling students succeed, preserve the environment, fight poverty, improve health, and rebuild neighborhoods in the wake of natural disasters.
Through their service, many service year corps members gain a pathway to college or a first job, and develop essential workplace and leadership skills that will strengthen our nation for decades to come.
To help realize the potential of young Americans and unleash a powerful force for good, the Challenge specifically calls on policymakers to:
- Restore national service as a national priority by putting America on the path to making a service year a common opportunity and cultural expectation, starting by dramatically increasing the number of full-time service positions through the three successful federal civilian national service programs—AmeriCorps, Peace Corps, and YouthBuild—and asking every federal agency to create a service year corps to tackle important challenges cost-effectively.
- Establish service year opportunities as a pathway to higher education and careers by increasing education awards and loan forgiveness for those who serve, making those education awards tax-free, creating incentives for higher education institutions to recognize and reward service years, and recruiting service year alumni into federal jobs.
- Encourage states, communities, and nonprofit organizations to create service year positions to solve locally identified problems by partnering with the Service Year Exchange, a new private sector technology platform designed to connect individuals who want to serve with certified publicly and privately funded service year positions.
The Challenge is signed by:
General Stanley McChrystal (Ret.)
Board Chairman, Service Year Alliance
Governor Jennifer Granholm
Former Governor of Michigan
Michael J. Ward
Chairman and CEO, CSX Corporation
Stacey Snider
Co-Chairman, 20th Century Fox Studios
General Ann Dunwoody (Ret.)
President, First 2 Four, LLC
Wendy Kopp
Founder of Teach For America and CEO of Teach For All
Wes Moore
Founder and CEO, BridgeEdU
Octavia Spencer
Academy Award Winner
David L. Cohen
Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer, Comcast Corporation
General Wesley K. Clark (Ret.)
John Bridgeland
Former Director, White House Domestic Policy Council, President George W. Bush
Michael Walsh
Managing Director, Merrill Lynch Private Banking & Investment Group
Sandy Edgerley
Trustee, Edgerley Family Foundation
Stephen Hadley
Former Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, President George W. Bush
Mark Rohr
Chairman and CEO, Celanese Corporation
John Dilulio
Former Assistant to the President and Director, Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, President George W. Bush
Governor Jon Huntsman
Former Governor of Utah
Joe Gebbia
Co-founder and Chief Product Officer, Airbnb
Major General Sharon K.G. Dunbar (Ret.)
Michele Flournoy
Former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy; Co-founder and CEO, Center for a New American Security
Barbara Bush
CEO and Co-founder, Global Health Corps
Andrew Hauptman
Chairman, Andell Inc.
Dr. Vanessa Kerry
CEO, Seed Global Health
Sebastian Junger
Journalist and Documentarian
Bill Shore
Founder and CEO, Share Our Strength
Walter Isaacson
CEO, The Aspen Institute
Brad Meltzer
Author
Arn Tellem
Vice Chair, Palace Sports & Entertainment
Interested in adding your name? Contact Emily Bouck, Director, Policy & Advocacy, [email protected].
Take Action
We are building a movement to expand opportunities for young people to do a service year. Join us and take action!
The Service Year Policy Council
The Service Year Policy Council is a group of organizations working together to expand service year opportunities.
Current members include:
National Service Caucus
The National Service Caucus is a bipartisan group of members of Congress who support expanding service year opportunities.
Current National Service Caucus members in the 114th Congress include:
United States Senate
Co-Chairs
Sen. Thad Cochran (MS)
Sen. Barbara Mikulski (MD)
Members (Alphabetical)
Sen. Kelly Ayotte (NH)
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (WI)
Sen. Michael Bennet (CO)
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (CT)
Sen. John Boozman (AR)
Sen. Sherrod Brown (OH)
Sen. Robert Casey (PA)
Sen. Chris Coons (DE)
Sen. Al Franken (MN)
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (NY)
Sen. Martin Heinrich (NM)
Sen. Dean Heller (NV)
Sen. Ed Markey (MA)
Sen. John McCain (AZ)
Sen. Jeff Merkley (OR)
Sen. Patty Murray (WA)
Sen. Bernard Sanders (VT)
Sen. Charles Schumer (NY)
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (NH)
Sen. Debbie Stabenow (MI)
Sen. Jon Tester (MT)
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (RI)
Sen. Roger Wicker (MS)
U.S. House of Representatives
Co-Chairs
Rep. David Price (NC)
Rep. Doris Matsui (CA)
Members (Alphabetical)
Rep. Karen Bass (CA)
Rep. Don Beyer (VA)
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (OR)
Rep. Cheri Bustos (IL)
Rep. Michael Capuano (MA)
Rep. André Carson (IN)
Rep. John Carney (DE)
Rep. Matt Cartwright (PA)
Rep. David Cicilline (RI)
Rep. Tom Cole (OK)
Rep. John Conyers (MI)
Rep. Joe Courtney (CT)
Rep. Joseph Crowley (NY)
Rep. Danny Davis (IL)
Rep. Peter DeFazio (OR)
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (CT)
Rep. Suzan DelBene (WA)
Rep. Lloyd Doggett (TX)
Rep. Robert Dold (IL)
Rep. Mike Doyle (PA)
Rep. Tammy Duckworth (IL)
Rep. Gene Green (TX)
Rep. Denny Heck (WA)
Rep. Brian Higgins (NY)
Rep. Mike Honda (CA)
Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX)
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (NY)
Rep. Hank Johnson (GA)
Rep. David Joyce (OH)
Rep. Marcy Kaptur (OH)
Rep. Joe Kennedy III (MA)
Rep. Dan Kildee (MI)
Rep. Derek Kilmer (WA)
Rep. Ron Kind (WI)
Rep. Peter King (NY)
Rep. John Larson (CT)
Rep. Brenda Lawrence (MI)
Rep. Barbara Lee (CA)
Rep. Sander Levin (MI)
Rep. John Lewis (GA)
Rep. Dave Loebsack (IA)
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (CA)
Rep. Billy Long (MO)
Rep. Stephen Lynch (MA)
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (NY)
Rep. Betty McCollum (MN)
Rep. Jim McDermott (WA)
Rep. James McGovern (MA)
Rep. Luke Messer (IN)
Rep. Gwen Moore (WI)
Rep. Seth Moulton (MA)
Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC)
Rep. Ed Perlmutter (CO)
Rep. Mark Pocan (WI)
Rep. Jared Polis (CO)
Rep. Charles Rangel (NY)
Rep. Dave Reichert (WA)
Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA)
Rep. Tim Ryan (OH)
Rep. Loretta Sánchez (CA)
Rep. John Sarbanes (MD)
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (IL)
Rep. Adam Schiff (CA)
Rep. Robert “Bobby” Scott (VA)
Rep. José Serrano (NY)
Rep. Louise Slaughter (NY)
Rep. Adam Smith (WA)
Rep. Steve Stivers (OH)
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (MD)
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL)
Rep. Frederica Wilson (FL)
Rep. John Yarmuth (KY)
Check out the latest posts related to Service Year + Policymakers
For more information about expanding service year opportunities through policy, contact Emily Bouck, Director, Policy & Advocacy, [email protected].
