by Tae Yoo, Senior VP of Corporate Affairs, Cisco
Last year at a conference on national service, I heard a young man named Johann Shockency speak. Johann said that as a child, he had one goal: to serve his country through the armed forces. But as a high school freshman, Johann was diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease that made him both ineligible for the military and legally blind. Then, Johann realized he could still serve his country. After hearing a news report that 25 percent of third graders are not reading at their grade level and likely would not graduate from high school, he enlisted with the Minnesota Reading Corps — a program that provides daily literacy tutoring for children. Corps members like Johann commit one year of service and in exchange receive a small stipend and an educational award. In his speech, Johann told of other rewards — like helping one third-grader go from reading 19 words per minute to 70. “I am now so proud of my students and so happy with the great impact that I have had on my community,” Johann said. “Feeling this much pride and happiness is something that no paycheck can replace.” Johann is one of 80,450 young people engaged in full-time, non-military national service in America. I’ve already written about how national service can help young people build job skills and find their place in the workforce. But it can also help improve the economic health of local communities. According to a study conducted by the Center for Benefit-Cost Studies in Education at Columbia University, every dollar spent on youth national service yields over two dollars in savings. The report, The Economic Value of National Service, values the current total social benefit of youth national service at $6.5 billion. These numbers are powerful, but they could be even better. There are nearly 31 million Americans between ages of 18 and 24. Yet if only 80,450 youth are participating in national service, we are missing a big opportunity. The demand is there; many more young people want to serve. But right now there aren’t enough positions available. For example, in 2011, AmeriCorps received 7 applications for every 1 available position. A movement is underway right now to change this imbalance. At this year’s Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting in September, a number of companies and organizations announced Service Year — a commitment to create 1 million national service positions in America by 2023. Service Year is designed to make conducting a year of service a common expectation and opportunity for all 18 to 28 year olds. It will be powered by the Service Year Exchange — an online platform that will connect people who want to serve with organizations that need their help and donors who want to support both. In announcing the commitment, Clinton Foundation Vice Chair Chelsea Clinton said, “If more young people participated in full-time service programs like AmeriCorps, it would have a transformative impact on our country.” Research supports this. According to The Economic Value of National Service, greater investment in national service will increase the social impact. Currently, total social expenditure on national service for 80,450 full-time youth members is $1.65 billion. With social benefits of $6.52 billion, the net benefits are 3.95 times greater than the costs. Supporting 1 million service positions would involve a $20.7 billion investment, but would yield $92.6 billion in social benefits — a net benefit 4.65 greater than the cost. ~1@BODYURL[id=114jbcurl1222]@