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The National Council of Young Leaders: Ramean Clowney on the Need to Increase Mentoring

National Council of Young Leaders banner, painted by council member Francisco Garcia

Created in July 2012 in response to a recommendation from the White House Council on Community Solutions, the National Council of Young Leaders is tasked with informing policymakers, business leaders and funders about the issues faced by America’s young people. The 14 founding council members, ranging in age from 18 to 34, come from diverse upbringings in urban and rural low-income communities across the nation. They represent our country’s Opportunity Youth: the 6.7 million young Americans who are neither in school nor working, but who pose enormous potential for our economy and our future if they are provided the opportunity to get on track and get ahead. Though each council member has overcome different kinds of obstacles, they all share in common their participation in transformative youth programs that helped them become the successful young adults they are today.

In the fall of 2012, the Council released its first publication – Recommendations to Increase Opportunity and Decrease Poverty in America. The report outlines specific actions that could help Opportunity Youth and their communities. One of highlights of the publication is the Council’s Six Recommendations for Immediate Public Action: 1) Expand effective comprehensive programs; 2) Expand National Service; 3)Expand Private Internships; 4) Increase All Forms of Mentoring; 5) Protect and Expand Pathways to Higher Education; and 6) Reform the Criminal Justice System.

We wanted to hear the Council Members describe in their own words why these specific Recommendations are important to them and important to the success of America’s young people. Below, find out why council member Ramean Clowney is passionate about Recommendation #4…

Increase All forms of Mentoring:
End the pipeline to prison for children and youth, make sure punishments actually fit crimes, eliminate disparities in sentencing that correlate with race, and end the various forms of lifetime punishments for all offenders that destroy lives, families, and communities. Expand second chance and re-entry programs for all offenders. Expand mentoring programs and elevate both formal and informal mentoring as a core component for all programs serving opportunity youth. Young people need caring individual mentors to give us confidence, respect, and support in planning and working toward a productive future. We need mentors both from a similar background who have overcome familiar obstacles, and mentors from different backgrounds who can open whole new horizons.
[Recommendations to Increase Opportunity and Decrease Poverty in America, p. 8]

(Parts of Ramean’s bio and his photo were taken from the YouthBuild website)

“I consider myself to be someone whose been dealt a misfortunate hand in life, but I appreciate the hand that I was dealt because I worked through it and I’m happy with where I’m at now in my life. I was in DHS, I was in and out of high school. I was a dropout at one point. At one point I thought my life was pretty much over. I thought I’d failed myself. Then I started working with people and I found a better path. I made my way out and I got back into school and I graduated with honors. Now I’m in the Community College of Philadelphia. With my story I’m able to sit on the Council and speak for young people that are in my shoes. I really consider myself a voice and an advocate for young people.”

Ramean Clowney, 20, is from Philadelphia, PA. As a child, Ramean experienced the Pennsylvania foster care system and was exposed to violence, drugs and abuse. However, he overcame these hardships and eventually graduated from high school with honors.

Ramean is currently Chief Youth Ambassador for the Philadelphia Youth Network, one of the city’s leading youth programs, in this role, he is one of several advocates for local youth.

Currently a student at the Community College of Philadelphia, Ramean hopes to transfer to Howard University to pursue a bachelor’s degree (and eventually a master’s degree) in political science. He has also considered getting a doctoral degree. Ramean aspires to be on the Philadelphia City Council and maybe even run for mayor.

Why is this Recommendation important to you? Important to youth in general?

I believe that mentoring is important to not only young people, but to our elder’s as well because having somebody there for support is really moving. For people that don’t have nobody – that are in the world on their own, maybe an orphan who lost their parents to some incident – maybe they can find a mentor that can help and guide them if a family member can’t. A mentor is more than just someone who can be there; a mentor is somebody that steers you to the right path. If one person is a little lost, a mentor is someone that can somehow make sure they get on the right path.

Do you have any personal experience with mentors?

Yes I do. I met my mentor when I was about 16, being involved with the Philadelphia Youth Network. Kemal Nance. I didn’t recognize that he was a mentor to me until later on in my life when I realized I was seeing change in myself. He wasn’t pushing me to change, he was already doing change with me. It wasn’t like he was telling me, “you have to change this.” He was actually doing things to make me more professional – giving me work ethic, giving me skills that I can use in the work world to better my life.

I met another mentor basically around my senior year and when I entered college – Derrick Perkins. He started moving me up to the next level. He started helping me recognize what I needed to do, what goals I needed to set, what barriers might come my way. He was just there to actually support me.

What do you feel are the most important ways you were helped by your own mentors? What are the most important things you were able to gain from your mentors?

I can’t really figure out the right words to explain it now, but mainly it revolves around myself. I really found who I am and recognized the person that I am. I was able to narrow down to that person that is myself. A lot of time, young people have a tendency to get lost along the way. Sometimes it’s really hard for them to navigate themselves and pinpoint that true self because they’re lost, they don’t know who they are and they want to find themselves. I had the opportunity to be able to recognize who I am and use the skills that I had to better myself. So I guess you could say ‘recognition.’

What do you think is the role of a mentor? What should a good mentor do or be able to do?

A good mentor should at least be able to give good criticism. I think that’s the most crucial thing. I don’t think anyone should have a bougie mentor, as in they would be really nonchalant about everything their mentee does. I think a mentor should be someone that’s really straightforward – who’s not nice or mean, but really exemplifies the right emotion towards you to help you better yourself. I think a mentor’s main goal should be to support the young person, or whoever they’re mentoring, and be a guidance to them. Give them that support that they normally couldn’t find in a family member or somebody else that they’re close to at the time. To have the title of “mentor” to someone, they should be that inspiration so that a young person like me would be able to say, “That’s my mentor. He changed my life. He supported me when I didn’t support myself. He helped me recognize what I wanted to do. He helped me realize that anything in life is attainable with a little bit of work.”

Have you personally done any mentoring?

I believe that I’ve mentored with a lot of my peers. When I was just a really young teenager, around 14 or 15, I normally was in a group of people and I was always really friendly with a lot of people, but I never really led. I somewhat led, but I never really, fully led. Then I eventually started working with different programs and being trained by my mentor. At the time, I really didn’t know I was being trained and groomed into becoming a professional. A lot of my friends really looked to me for advice, really looked to me for support. I guided them to help them better themselves and find the right path.

Looking at the Recommendation, it says “we need mentors both from similar backgrounds who have overcome familiar obstacles, and mentors from different backgrounds…” What is the significance of this aspect of the Recommendation? Why is it important to have a diversity of mentors?

Well, I believe there’s nothing better than getting advice from someone with experience. I think that’s most effective. Like for a young person who just graduated from high school – normally they’d have their parents to guide them. Then they go away to college and they fail their entire first semester or entire first year. They weren’t used to being out on their own, they were used to being woken up on time, they were used to having somebody be there to guide them every step of the way. As far as someone to give advice, you don’t want someone who’s just going to say “I don’t think you should do this,” but someone who can say ‘I believe you should set your schedule this way, or work this way because that’s what would be best for you. You still want to be able to have fun, but you need to recognize that you’re not here to do A, B, C, and D. You’re here to get your education, and if you want to have fun then get your education first.” Hearing that would sound better from someone whose been there, because hearing advice sometimes, a person will ask “well, how would you know?” And the best support you can get is, “I’ve been there. I know. I’ve overcome that obstacle.”

As far as someone that comes from a different background, that can be good, too. Because you can’t find one mentor to fit your exact background, but you can find people that have some knowledge of it. [Having a mentorship with people] from different backgrounds can also work because it’s a relationship that can grow. It’s a bond that can grow. You can learn things from each other, but you’ll still have that person there with that experience. I could be a peer mentor to someone that I’ve just met and whether we either come from similar or dissimilar backgrounds, there’s still a possibility that we can grow because the fact is that we have two different outlooks on things and maybe I can get positive advice and I can give him feedback if he can take criticism. But it all falls under how that mentor is. [You might have a] mentor that has a mindset that’s like, “You must achieve, you must succeed and you must go on and do this, this, this and this and you must work hard.” But if you have a mentor that has a mindset that’s like, “it’s okay, take your time, you’ll be okay,” then they’re not really advocating and trying to push that mentee to the best of his or her abilities.

What do you think needs to happen to make this Recommendation a reality? What can we do to increase the number of people involved in mentoring, whether formally or informally?

Often I hear people say, ‘I’m going to be mentor, I’m going to be a mentor to a young person.’ You can’t just think you can become a mentor to a young person because you say you want to become a mentor. There has to be a one-on-one connection for there to be growth. When I think about it, I believe the best kind of mentor comes maybe not indirectly, but maybe it’s a person that you’d least expect to be a mentor. I don’t know the experience of someone being in a mentoring program, but I don’t think they’re actually beneficial. That’s like someone saying, “I’m advocating and I’m going to be this child’s mentor and I’ll be this person’s Big Brother or Big Sister.” I don’t think a bond being forced is best. I don’t think it’s effective at all.

You think informal, “happen-on-their-own” mentorships are more valuable?

Yes. I do. I believe that for younger people, for the younger generation, a lot of times we – I’m only 20, so I’m partially still part of this group – we typically have this wall up. We have this kind of self-pride that we don’t need nobody. We have a lot of trust issues – maybe it comes from family, maybe it comes from past relationships. If we see that someone is trying to work their way in, we will set up a really, really strong barrier. So in that timeframe was that mentor actually effective? Was you being my mentor actually a help to me, because really this entire time I was not allowing you to help. If someone wants to have a good mentor, I believe they should seek one out in a way…maybe not go out and look for one, but just be able to recognize, “Okay, this is a nice person in heart and mind and has experience and education” or whatever it is that’s most important for that young person to consider them their mentor. I do know that from experience, having [different mentors] with and without and experience works best. You have people that advocate completely differently, but in the end still advocate for the same thing – to see you excel and help you see the things that you do wrong and what you do right. It’s what most people might see as a parent’s job, but that’s what a mentor can be; a parent.

I think it would be much easier if a young person finds somebody that actually wants to listen to them or actually wants to see them excel. A young person recognizes that. They can see that “This person really wants to help me. This person really wants to help me see what I can do and become better at what I do. This person acknowledges me.”

The National Council of Young Leaders: On the Need to Reform the Criminal Justice System

National Council of Young Leaders banner, painted by council member Francisco Garcia

We wanted to hear the Council Members describe in their own words why these specific Recommendations are important to them and important to the success of America’s young people. Below, find out why council member Christopher Prado is passionate about Recommendation #6…

Reform the Criminal Justice System:
End the pipeline to prison for children and youth, make sure punishments actually fit crimes, eliminate disparities in sentencing that correlate with race, and end the various forms of lifetime punishments for all offenders that destroy lives, families, and communities. Expand second chance and re-entry programs for all offenders.
[Recommendations to Increase Opportunity and Decrease Poverty in America, p. 8]

(Parts of Christopher’s bio and his photo were taken from the YouthBuild website)

Born and raised in Stockton, CA, Christopher Prado decided at an early age that he would do whatever he could to invest in his education. He didn’t want to experience the same barriers to economic success that he watched his father struggle with as a result of having dropped out of high school to support their family. It was this determination that helped Christopher become a first-generation college graduate. While enrolled at California State University, East Bay, Chris was active in campus life and took advantage of every opportunity; he played intercollegiate sports, served as president of the student body, and participated in efforts to advocate for lower college tuition in California. As a political science major, Christopher benefited from spending a semester in Washington, DC as an intern for a member of Congress. This experience helped him discover a passion for local and domestic policy.

Concerned about the economic and social problems in his hometown, Christopher returned to Stockton after graduating to work on a local city council campaign and as an after-school educator at Aspire Langston Hughes Academy. He currently works with the PICO Network on addressing immigration issues and helping people realize benefits they may be eligible for through the Affordable Care Act.

Why is this particular Recommendation important to you, or important to youth in general?

Reforming the criminal justice system is primarily where my interests are. I don’t know if you’ve read the book The New Jim Crow. I believe it’s by Michelle Alexander. It talks about how right now we have a huge issue with violence and the incarceration of black and brown young males. In the city of Stockton we have an issue with violence that I think is reflective of a national problem. So the city has made a Marshall Plan to stop violence. And when they were talking about the Marshall Plan, most of the homicides were black and brown males between the ages of 15 and 24. Those are our youth. I think that in the criminal justice system, often times we find that black and brown youth are the individuals that are incarcerated when they’re young and they end up staying there until their old. Essentially they’re not able to live out successful lives. So I think that’s one of the reasons why I think we need to stop this cradle to prison pipeline. That’s what’s going on in our communities through the K-12 education system. There are Zero Tolerance policies and students are getting suspended. There’s an emphasis on punitive discipline instead of restorative discipline. We’re trying to change the conversation to focus more on restorative efforts. We are operating in a world right now where the system is broken.

Stockton, CA is where I was born and raised. I graduated from California State University, East Bay and I came back to Stockton. I got my degree in political science. When I was in college, Forbes magazine had, during my sophomore year, titled Stockton “The most miserable city in the nation.” That was primarily because it has such a high homicide rate and such low literacy. And I think it’s clear there are intersections between the quality of education one is given at a young age and how that can change their trajectory to be involved in violent activities, or how it can actually put them on a path to success and prosperity.

Would you say that one of your biggest concerns about the criminal justice system is the disparity in sentencing?

Yes. At least as the Council’s Recommendation says, there is unfair sentencing. I know that one of the things around sentencing is that – I think I read a statistic that across the board, across cultures from black, brown, Asian, to low-income white folks, white people actually get pulled over just as often or even more than black and brown folks, but they aren’t sentenced as much. That’s not my opinion or bias – there are statistics that back that up.

The Recommendation suggests that reforms need to happen in the justice system to protect all offenders, not just young offenders, but do you think it’s particularly important that changes be made to specifically protect youth in the justice system?

I think both groups need protection, but because we are the National Council of Young Leaders our focus is young offenders. But “young” or “youth” is kind of subjective. I’m 23. We have someone on the Council in his 30s. Depending on who you’re talking to, we both might not be considered young, or maybe the individual who is 30+ might not be considered a youth. I know in his situation, in his encounter with the criminal justice system, he served his time. I think it’s important that we focus on youth, but I think the majority of the older folks that are in the criminal justice system now started when they were young. It’s connected.

Do you think there are any specific problems with the justice system that are particularly harmful towards young offenders?

If I could just speak generally, I went to a seminar here in Stockton and a local judge was speaking. And his perspective on whether he’s going to sentence a young person or put them in a program that’s more focused on rehabilitation, it comes down to the judge’s discretion. Prior to listening to this particular judge, I guess I kind of thought judges were handicapped in their ability to do anything. It was my assumption that it was their role to sentence folks in the way the laws are written. There’s a judge in Stockton who has a lot of influence and leadership as far as the way the court system is structured and I know he’s more progressive and proactive. There are different options where you can put offenders in probationary or rehab programs. The way he articulated it, they actually significantly increases the ability of the person, once they’re released from the criminal justice system, to function. There’s a decreased recidivism rate and he pretty much explained this through a story. He says he treats the people that come before him with respect. I guess this had a huge effect on the demeanor of the proclaimed criminals because a lot of people would take pride and want to look the judge in the eye and be fearless. But he said that from the outset, when he’s meeting somebody who’s about to be in court, he treats them with humanity and because of that philosophy it has an impact on his decision to send someone to one of these programs in the criminal justice system. There was some sort of statistic – I think it was something like there was a 70 percent drop in recidivism for people in these programs. But this is just this one judge’s philosophy. So I think that if that philosophy was national we would see the criminal justice system shift towards reform.

What do you think needs to happen to make this Recommendation a reality? It seems that you believe one of the main things that should happen is increased emphasis on reform programs.

It’s really difficult, because we can’t just focus on the criminal justice system and how the courts are run. We can’t just focus on one court system in a specific county. That court system is connected to local ordinances, which are connected to state laws, which are connected to federal legislation. The thing that we’ve been trying to do as a National Council is we’ve met people in the White House, at the Department of Justice, and also people that work for foundations that would hopefully fund programs that are preemptive. But I know one thing that I’ve done while wearing the banner of the National Council of Young Leaders here in Stockton is I’ve been part of organizing a group here in our city. Our county board of supervisors had the option to build a new prison in the county or not build one depending on their vote. So through the group that I’m organizing we were able to sway the vote on that and stop this prison from being built.

There’s another study, and this is probably another talking point that you’ve heard as well, that from the state tests of third or fourth grade students we can project into the future which of those kids will be offenders and which will not be offenders. Us stopping that prison from being built was definitely aligned with the goals of the National Council of Young Leaders to stop the growth of the cradle to prison pipeline and the growth of the criminal justice system, which in my opinion, is not working.

The Recommendation mentions the “pipeline to prison.” What is that pipeline? What makes up the pipeline?

I can tell you some of my own experiences in the K-12 system, but also this past year I graduated from college and I worked at a charter school with 6^thgraders. In my experience growing up and going through the public school system, me and one of my good friends were put in the magnet program. We were part of the “smarter” students in the school. So one of my good friends – I’m a Latino male, he’s a black male – he would always get good grades, but he would always get kicked out of class. Had he not had at least a 3.5 in those classes he probably would’ve been placed in all-day suspension and had he continued he might have gotten caught up in an incident involving the juvenile justice system. This situation isn’t exclusive to this personal anecdote. We were in the magnet program, but a lot of our friends weren’t in the magnet program and they didn’t have that emphasis on education like we had. So I think that I don’t really see a strong effort from the school I was involved with to try to curb those suspensions or focus on those students who were getting suspended. They just seemed like they really didn’t know what to do with those students or they didn’t bring in the resources to deal with the situation. This is what happens across the nation. Students are put into a broken education system and this model doesn’t work for a majority of students. The emphasis is placed on the wrongdoing of the student. Plus, I know in Stockton, a lot of the schools have Zero Tolerance policies. These policies just put more emphasis on suspending students rather than educating them in a way that’s meaningful to them. So this is how it’s a cradle to prison pipeline. Where students go through the K-12 education system and don’t make it and end up in the juvenile justice system or even in the county prison.

What do you think are the biggest injustices in the justice system right now?

I think that right now one of the biggest things is that people serve their time, but even after they serve they’re still very handicapped. It’s hard enough for someone like me who has a college degree and a clean record to get a good job these days. But having to check off the box that you are a former felon is very debilitating in a highly competitive job market. When you have two resumes next to each other and both the candidates are equally qualified, one of them has a felony, I think in the mindset of the moderate employer they’re going to choose the person that doesn’t have the felony. So I think that’s a result of the criminal justice system and that’s extremely debilitating. Then additionally, stripping former felons of their voting rights is completely detrimental to creating a fully functioning democratic process in this country. So those are some of the biggest things that I think clip people’s wings, as they say.

What do you think are the most important reforms that need to happen? Are there any reforms you’d like to see that might specifically benefit young offenders?

I think that one thing that can happen is that juvenile offenders could have more access to post-secondary opportunities while they’re actually serving out their terms. Perhaps if there’s a local business or local nonprofit that can connect people to college opportunities or internship opportunities, I think there should be that relationship between that sector and the court system. You can connect people to opportunities. I think in general, the lack of opportunity and good jobs are indicators of why people might end up in the criminal justice system to begin with. Additionally, I think there could be some preemptive measures cultivated through churches and community centers. There needs to be a better understanding that it is our children that are being sentenced unfairly. I think that when people talk about crimes, there’s always a stereotype about who commits crimes but there isn’t an understanding that it is unfair. I think we can build that understanding in our churches locally. And also, I think there needs to be more emphasis on positive role models in the community. These are the types of things that can be preemptive.

Why should people be concerned about what’s happening in the justice system? Certainly people should be concerned when there is any kind of injustice or discrimination happening anywhere, but a lot of people are never directly touched by the justice system…so why should they take notice?

Well number one, people should be concerned from a moral perspective. I think this is a moral issue of our time. But for those who aren’t necessarily sold on that argument, I know there are definitely tons of economic reasons connected to the degree of productivity of offenders. Like right now I know there are at least around 6.7 million youth between the ages of 16 – 24 who are essentially at-risk youth. These are people that are not working, not going to school. And so these are the people that the statistics predict will have some type of encounter with the criminal justice system. If these youth were actually connected to opportunities this would give us more tax revenue. I think there are estimates that the tax burden for each at-risk or opportunity youth is $215,580. The social burden is over $596,640 per youth. Opportunity youth could be more productive. I think the statistic is that 3.3 million of these opportunity youth not being in school or work equates to about $707 billion in social loss. There’s a moral prerogative, but there’s also an economic incentive to really fix the criminal justice system so that we can get our nation turning like it’s supposed to. I think a lot of our talent is trapped in communities like the one I grew up in, Stockton, CA. We can’t figure out how to connect people to opportunity or pathways to becoming good students.

Immigration Reform Clears Senate; $1.5 billion for Youth Jobs

Today, just after 4:00pm, the Senate voted to approve the bipartisan immigration reform bill. The over 1,000 page bill is not only good news for 11 million immigrants currently living in the U.S. illegally by providing a path to citizenship, but for youth ages 16-24. Included in the sweeping legislation is a $1.5 billion youth jobs amendment proposed by Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT).

The amendment, which is funded by charging a $10 fee on employers who hire guest workers, seeks to address the incredibly high youth unemployment rate across the United States. It does this by allocating $7.5 million to every state automatically and then distributes the remainder of the money to states and local workforce investment boards with the highest rates of youth unemployment.

This investment is meant to, “provide summer and year round employment opportunities for youth, with direct links to academic and occupational learning; and provide important services such as transportation and child care, necessary to enable young Americans to participate in job opportunities.” The last provision has stirred up some controversy with conservative groups who believe the language of “transportation” is too vague and could lead to providing youth with cars, bicycles, or other means of individual transportation. They even coined the amendment “Obamacar” as a result.

Senators Sanders’ and Rubio’s spokespersons have each said that this accusation is a little ridiculous, just attempting to stir up controversy surrounding the amendment. Hopefully we can all agree the title “Obamacar” is a little clever, at least, however misdirected.

The Sanders youth jobs amendment is projected to create more than 400,000 jobs to WIA eligible youth over 2014-2015 for both summer and year-round employment. A quick fact sheet written by Senator Sander’s office on the amendment can be found here.

TCN and Earth Conservation Corps Participate in Great Outdoors America Week event on the National Mall

On Wednesday, June 26, 2013, The Corps Network and Earth Conservation Corps participated in the Kids, Youth and the Great Outdoors Festival and Walk on the National Mall in recognition of GO Week (Great Outdoors America Week, June 24 – June 27, 2013). Earth Conservation Corps demonstrated two birds from their Raptor Education Program, while other organizations offered activities ranging from knot tying to mountain biking and kayaking lessons.

The purpose of the event, sponsored by OAK (Outdoors Alliance for Kids), was to celebrate youth in nature and raise awareness about the importance of outdoor recreation and various efforts to ensure that all kids and families have opportunities to get outside.

A press conference on the NE lawn of the Washington Monument included speeches by Sally Jewell, Secretary of the Interior; Nancy Sutley, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality; Jo-Ellen Darcy, Assistant Secretary of the Army; Michael Brune, Executive Director of the Sierra Club; Jamie Williams, President of The Wilderness Society; Jackie Ostfeld, Chair of OAK; and Arturo Cervantes, Outdoor Nation Youth Ambassador. Following the press conference, guides from GirlTrek led Festival participants on a walk to the Capitol. See below for photos from the event.

Mountain biking lessons

Secretary Jewell

Daryl Wallace of Earth Conservation Corps with Skye the hawk

Secretary Jewell

Chair Nancy Sutley

Knot tying exhibit

Secretary Jewell and journalist Richard Louv discuss how to address the disconnect between youth and nature

Image from the 2013 GO Week informational brochure

As part of Great Outdoors America Week 2013, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and journalist Richard Louv discussed the future of youth in conservation at an event at the Center for American Progress. Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods and several other books about the relationship between children and nature, is possibly best known for creating the term “nature-deficit disorder” to describe the idea that children are spending less time outdoors, resulting in a variety of behavioral and physical problems.

In a question-and-answer format, Louv asked Secretary Jewell a range of questions about her views on the importance of encouraging youth outdoor recreation and about how to build a connection between young people and Americas natural spaces. Both Secretary Jewell and Louv stressed the idea that the future of our country’s conservation efforts depends on building an appreciation for nature in today’s youth. Both advocated for more unstructured outdoor play for kids. Secretary Jewell acknowledged that confronting the current lack of youth involvement in nature would require “building a bigger boat” – government can’t tackle the challenge on its own. She stressed the need for parents, teachers, schools, NGOs and businesses to all be involved in making nature more accessible for youth and adults alike. Secretary Jewell praised The Corps Network for helping create an entry-point into the green careers sector for America’s youth. She also advocated for a strong 21^st Century Conservation Service Corps to simultaneously tackle the youth unemployment crisis and the backlog of maintenance work on our public lands.

Click here to see a video of the event.

A Closer Look with Ross Seidman

Check back here to see the latest blog posts from Ross Seidman, The Corps Network’s Government Relations and Development Intern. For each edition of our weekly newsletter, The Crewleader, Ross will contribute to the “A Closer Look with Ross Seidman” section with an anaylsis of a new article that is relevant to our membership and the Corps world.

Date: June 27, 2013
Title: Immigration Reform Clears Senate; $1.5 Billion for Youth Jobs
Today, just after 4:00pm, the Senate voted to approve the bipartisan immigration reform bill. The over 1,000 page bill is not only good news for 11 million immigrants currently living in the U.S. illegally by providing a path to citizenship, but for youth ages 16-24. Included in the sweeping legislation is a $1.5 billion youth jobs amendment proposed by Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT)…Read More

Date: June 24, 2013
Title: New CNCS study shows correlation between volunteering and employment
A few days ago the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) released findings of a study titled, “Volunteering as a Pathway to Employment.” This is the first ever study that has taken data to determine the impact that volunteering has on the likelihood of someone finding employment when they were previously out of work. The study, with much aid from the U.S. Census Bureau, sampled over 71,000 people from 2002-2012 to compile these relatively profound results…Read More

A Closer Look with Ross Seidman: New CNCS study shows correlation between volunteering and employment

A few days ago the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) released findings of a study titled, “Volunteering as a Pathway to Employment.” This is the first ever study that has taken data to determine the impact that volunteering has on the likelihood of someone finding employment when they were previously out of work. The study, with much aid from the U.S. Census Bureau, sampled over 71,000 people from 2002-2012 to compile these relatively profound results.

Included in the findings was the fact that volunteering actually increases the chances of someone out of work finding employment by 27%. In addition, when isolated for individuals without a high school diploma or living in rural areas the results jumped to a 51% and 55% increase in prospects for employment. Volunteering provides those engaged with social and human capital that they would otherwise be missing. The increase in volunteers’ networks, soft, and hard skills that make a substantial economic difference by their ability to find employment.

As youth unemployment persists at a rate if 16.2%, more than double that of the national average, these findings couldn’t be anymore timely. At a time when the federal budget is under intense scrutiny and the sequester is continuing to hit underserved American families, this study exemplifies the economic necessity to continue funding national service. As the Save Service Campaign continues to advocate against cuts to vital programs like AmeriCorps, it has never been more evident that this should be a bipartisan issue. National service has proven to be both fiscally and socially responsible.

The “Volunteering as a Pathway to Service Report” also supports the extensive benefits that each of our Corps members experience in all across the United States on a daily basis. Not only does service provide a great advantage to the community, but to the volunteers themselves. It is no wonder that studies have found that Millennials are the group most likely to volunteer in community projects. It could not be more crucial to not only maintain support for service programs like Corps all over the country, but increase the funding that would allow for an even broader community impact while providing volunteers with the social and human capital to succeed in the workforce.

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Passes Public Lands Service Corps Act, Clearing Way for Vote by Full Senate

On Tuesday the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee amended and passed S.360, the Public Lands Service Corps Act of 2013. An expanded Public Lands Service Corps program will provide more opportunities for thousands of young Americans to gain valuable workforce and career development while assisting our nation’s land and water management agencies to address critical maintenance, restoration, repair and rehabilitation needs in a cost effective manner.

The committee agreed to amend S. 360 to allow military veterans up to the age of 35 to participate in the Public Lands Corps program and inserted the authority of the Secretary to establish a preference for Corps that recruit members local to the state or region. The amendment also stripped unnecessary language allowing residential centers and temporary housing for Corps in an effort to lower the potential cost of the legislation. You can find the amendment here.

The legislation will next be “scored” by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and then be scheduled for Senate Floor consideration. The CBO “scorekeeping” process includes calculating the budgetary effects of the legislation and impact on the budget resolution. The Public Lands Service Coalition estimates that implementing this legislation will not bring the need for additional appropriations and will in fact help stretch the land and water management agencies operating budgets and looks forward to CBO’s scorekeeping. Research conducted by the National Park Service’s Park Facility Management Division found that using Conservation Corps to complete maintenance and trail projects provided a cost savings of over 50%.

The Public Lands Service Coalition commends Chairman Wyden (OR) and Ranking Member Murkowski (AK) for agreeing to a bipartisan amendment and passing this critical legislation. We look forward to the legislation being scheduled for floor action and signed into law by the President. Similar legislation has been introduced in the House by Representative Raul Grijalva (AZ-3) and has 32 cosponsors and awaits action by House Committee on Natural Resources.

Thank you to everyone who has reached out to their Senators on the committee in support of the Public Lands Service Corps Act of 2013.

Additional information about the PLSC Act can be found here.

The National Council of Young Leaders: On the Need to Expand Private Internships

National Council of Young Leaders banner, painted by council member Francisco Garcia

We wanted to hear the Council Members describe in their own words why these specific Recommendations are important to them and important to the success of America’s young people. Below, find out why council member Philan Tree is passionate about Recommendation #3…

Expand Private Internships:
Support internships that offer paid employment experience with private corporations that provide appropriate supports to the interns and potential for long-term hiring. Establish a corporate tax credit of up to $4,000 for each six-month paid internship offered to low-income young adults that results in employment. Some of us have experienced amazing internships in the private sector through Year Up, coupled with college prep and a supportive community. [Recommendations to Increase Opportunity and Decrease Poverty in America, p. 8]

(Parts of Philan‘s bio and her photo are from the YouthBuild website)

Philandrian Tree is a member of the Towering House Clan of the Navajo Nation. Her knowledge of the Navajo language and traditions allows her to help build relationships between tribal leadership and local governments. As an AmeriCorps mentor with Coconino Rural Environment Corps (CREC) – a member of The Corps Network based out of Flagstaff, AZ – Philan was able to secure two memoranda of understanding between Coconino County and the Navajo’s Leupp and Tonalea Chapters. This accomplishment made it possible for homeowners from all local Navajo chapters to receive much-needed Coconino County weatherization retrofits. The collaboration also allowed CREC to employ Navajo AmeriCorps members to work directly with their chapters to install energy efficiency measures in homes throughout underserved Native American communities.

In addition to her work with Coconino County, Philan serves as the chair of the Native American Parent Advisory Committee for Flagstaff Unified School District, where she works with families and the District to support and enhance the quality of education for 2,500 Native American K-12 students.

Why is this Recommendation important to youth in general, or to you specifically?

Internships are really good for a lot of youth. It’s not only the job experience; they’re working in a field that they either want to study in or they have studied in. They can realize long-term what their next step in the field might be. Without private internships, a lot of youth would miss an opportunity that they wouldn’t see otherwise.

Why do you think it’s especially important to make sure internship opportunities are available to opportunity youth in particular?

Well generally, if you look at the communities that low-income youth come from, a lot of them don’t have these types of opportunities and a lot of them lack basic resources – even just infrastructure and technology. So for young people to be able to have internships it would be a huge step up in being able to see a different side of the workforce that they wouldn’t normally experience. If you look at the overall population of youth right now, you’re going to really see a trend that we want to offset in the future, as far as youth from low-income communities not being job ready. Internships are a way to give them the working skills that they’ll need to be successful in their future careers.

Can you talk a little bit about your own experience with internships and how you might have benefitted from them?

(Philan interns with a local elected official)
A lot of it has been about the exposure. With the person I’m interning with, it’s not so much a single focus; it’s a really broad focus on everything. Also, there’s a lot of one-on-one guidance that allows for insight and input. With private internships you get a lot of experience as far as how to go about resolving issues, or even just looking at issues more critically. You get different viewpoints. It teaches you to really be open because you have to listen to a lot of suggestions and a lot of recommendations. It’s been very useful.

Internships can really help youth get involved in their communities on a larger level. They can understand how they’re part of the bigger picture. They can see what it would take for them to work at a higher level – maybe not immediately, but definitely in the near future. And then also, they can get their peers involved. They can spread the word about how this is what we need to be doing, this is what needs to get done. That’s especially important for the future generation.

My internship has definitely helped me feel like I’m entering a field that I am interested in, but I’ve also learned that there are other areas that I would like to be more knowledgeable about. There’ve been a lot of personal development opportunities. I want to be involved with the community, so this has given me a really strong foundation to build off of.

What do you think needs to happen to put this Recommendation into practice and make the suggestions a reality?

To get it done, I think there needs to be a strong legislative support that listens to the youth voice that says ‘private internships have positive affects for us and we need to expand current programs that support this such as Public Allies.’ We need partnerships between local governments, NGOs and nonprofits and the business sector as well. There’s a need for better partnering within communities to support youth.

Something that we’ve done locally [Philan works with a local youth workforce investment board] – you can see what types of businesses are willing to offer opportunities for youth. We went around and talked with local businesses to see if they’d be willing to hire local youth, maybe just for a summer internship. And then we made an inventory of those businesses; who would be willing to and who wouldn’t be willing to. And we didn’t shut out the businesses that said they weren’t willing to. We went back and approached them about it and asked why they wouldn’t be interested. A lot of them said it was because sometimes youth interns are not that experienced; sometimes it’s a training issue, sometimes it was just that employer’s perception of youth. So we sat down and thought, ‘if we’re going to work with those businesses, what if we could create some kind of orientation or training for youth throughout a semester, or something along those lines, so they’re prepared when they get to the internship?’ We can address some of these issues that are creating this cautiousness about hiring youth. A lot of businesses have been open to this idea. So it’s about creating that dialogue at various levels to see what would benefit the youth and the businesses. Internships can benefit the corporations because they will have a viable workforce to choose from in the future. They’ll know where the youth were trained and know they have this background of experience. In our Recommendations we support the establishment of a corporate tax credit of up to $4,000 for each six-month paid internship offered to low-income young adults that results in employment. As youth this is something we take seriously and would like all sectors of our communities benefit from.

Do you think it matters what kind of business or organization a young person interns with? The Recommendations talks about ‘private internships’…

So if you open up to private internships then you’re really opening up to a wide variety of employment opportunities. It’s not just going to be just one corporation that we’re working with, or just one nonprofit. Not all companies offer the same program, so you have to take into consideration that aspect. Also, knowing that a lot of youth are not all going to have the same interest and they’re not all going to have the same background and they’re not all going to want to pursue the same kinds of things. If you open up to more businesses then youth will have a choice about what they’re interested in. And if they find something they’re interested in there will be a higher success rate because they’re going to be a lot more motivated. They’re going to be able to learn a lot a more and they’re going to be more interested in advancing in the field. As long as there’s a strong support established, youth interns will be positively impacted.

Partnership for the 21st Century Conservation Service Corps Launches

Rhea Suh, Assistant Secretary for Policy, Budget and Management at the Department of Interior (DOI) talks about the vision for the 21st Century Conservation Service Corps.

Yesterday in Washington, D.C. the Partnership for the 21st Century Conservation Service Corps launched with a meeting attended by over 50 people from numerous federal agencies, nonprofits, and youth policy groups. The Partnership is an effort to support the development and implementation of the 21CSC to reach its goal of engaging 100,000 young people and veterans per year in conservation service.

More specifically, the Partnership provides an interface for private partners to regularly interface with members of the National Council established earlier this year by 8 federal agencies to guide the implementation of the 21st Century Conservation Service Corps, following the completion of work by a Federal Advisory Committee that provided recommendations on how to structure, organize, and implement a program of this kind.

At the meeting Rhea Suh, Assistant Secretary for Policy, Budget and Management at the Department of Interior (DOI), spoke about the work that had occured so far to establish a 21CSC. Suh said that despite sequestration cuts and a general lack of new funding, that DOI plans to continue the momentum toward the large vision that the Federal Advisory Committee for the 21CSC mapped out. Another key theme throughout the discussion focused upon how Corps can help federal agencies, cities, and other partners to accomplish essential work during this era of limited budgets with a high degree of professionalism and low cost. Getting this message communicated to potential partners would be essential.

The Partnership next plans to focus the efforts of working groups upon key tasks such as finding funding with the government and from private sources for building the program, developing essential branding and marketing messages, sharing how-to-guides for facilitating partnerships, and planning simultaneous 21CSC launch events for the Fall.