Brookings: Experts - David L. Caprara

Return on American Humanitarian Aid: They Like Us

David L. Caprara and Ken Ballen — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 12:28:00 -0500

As the United States approaches the fiscal deadline looming early next year, it is also time to assess the future – and “return on investment” – of American humanitarian assistance around the world.

There is a growing body of research to suggest that U.S. humanitarian aid to developing nations results in substantial benefits to the U.S. itself.

Beyond the self-evident worth of compassion toward those in need, global humanitarian assistance serves the self-interest of the U.S. and other donor countries by substantially improving public attitudes about the giving nation, justifying such help in an era of growing budgetary constraints and slow economic growth.

First, there is clear evidence that large-scale disaster assistance can dramatically move public attitudes, as found in surveys by Terror Free Tomorrow, a nonprofit research organization in Washington.

For instance, two-thirds of Indonesians favorably changed their opinion of the U.S. because of the generous American response to the tsunami in 2004. The highest percentage of that group was among those under age 30. Even 71 percent of self-identified Osama bin Laden supporters adopted a favorable view of the United States.

Second, more significant changes in public opinion can occur when American aid is targeted and focused on directly helping people in need and not foreign governments.

Moreover, as a direct result of the American effort, support for Al Qaeda and terrorist attacks dropped by half in Indonesia – the world’s largest Muslim country. Even two years later, 6 in 10 Indonesians continued to state that American humanitarian aid made them favorable to the United States.

The U.S. Navy ship Mercy is a fully equipped, 1,000-bed floating hospital, which while docking for several months in local ports in 2006, provided medical care to the people of Indonesia and Bangladesh. Nationwide polling in Bangladesh following the Mercy’s visit found that 87 percent of those surveyed said that the activities of the Mercy made their overall opinion of the US more positive.

In fact, Indonesians and Bangladeshis ranked additional visits by the Mercy as a higher priority for future American policy than resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In light of the U.S. war in Afghanistan and the American armed drone strikes inside Pakistan, anti-American attitudes in that country are among the strongest in the world. Yet while the favorable impact of intense disaster assistance following the 2005 earthquake declined in subsequent years among Pakistanis throughout the country, U.S. assistance had a long-lasting effect on attitudes at the local level among those directly impacted by the aid.

A survey conducted four years after the earthquake found that Pakistanis living near the fault-line were significantly more likely to express trust in Americans and Europeans than those who were living farther away.

When it’s wisely conceived and delivered, humanitarian aid saves lives and often improves quality of life. It can also favorably change public opinion toward the U.S. and other donor countries. Data further indicate the tantalizing possibility that humanitarian aid can lead to far more significant changes in values, from increasing understanding across borders; lessening inter-tribal, religious, and regional conflict; and enhancing support for free markets, trade, and democracy.

In this time of limited government resources, the effectiveness of American foreign humanitarian help must be rigorously examined. Not only should measurable outcomes of the aid itself be looked at, but also whether the aid can lead to changes in values and trust. A full understanding of humanitarian aid can show that it helps all, donors and recipients alike.

Authors

David L. Caprara
Ken Ballen

Publication: The Christian Science Monitor

Image Source: © Kena Betancur / Reuters

Impacts of Malaria Interventions and their Potential Additional Humanitarian Benefits in Sub-Saharan Africa

David L. Caprara and Ken Ballen — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 14:24:00 -0400

INTRODUCTION

Over the past decade, the focused attention of African nations, the United States, U.N. agencies and other multilateral partners has brought significant progress toward achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in health and malaria control and elimination. The potential contribution of these strategies to long-term peace-building objectives and overall regional prosperity is of paramount significance in sub-regions such as the Horn of Africa and Western Africa that are facing the challenges of malaria and other health crises compounded by identity-based conflicts.

National campaigns to address health Millennium Development Goals through cross-ethnic campaigns tackling basic hygiene and malaria have proven effective in reducing child infant mortality while also contributing to comprehensive efforts to overcome health disparities and achieve higher levels of societal well-being.

There is also growing if nascent research to suggest that health and other humanitarian interventions can result in additional benefits to both recipients and donors alike.

The social, economic and political fault lines of conflicts, according to a new study, are most pronounced in Africa within nations (as opposed to international conflicts). Addressing issues of disparate resource allocations in areas such as health could be a primary factor in mitigating such intra-national conflicts. However, to date there has been insufficient research on and policy attention to the potential for wedding proven life-saving health solutions such as malaria intervention to conflict mitigation or other non-health benefits.

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Authors

David L. Caprara
Ken Ballen

Image Source: © Handout . / Reuters

Volunteering and Civic Service in Three African Regions

David L. Caprara, Jacob Mwathi Mati, Ebenezer Obadare and Helene Perold — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 09:44:00 -0400

INTRODUCTION

In December 2011, the United Nations State of the World’s Volunteering Report was released at the U.N. headquarters in New York along with a General Assembly resolution championing the role of volunteer action in peacebuilding and development. The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) Program report states that:

The contribution of volunteerism to development is particularly striking in the context of sustainable livelihoods and value-based notions of wellbeing. Contrary to common perceptions, the income poor are as likely to volunteer as those who are not poor. In doing so, they realize their assets, which include knowledge, skills and social networks, for the benefit of themselves, their families and their communities…Moreover, volunteering can reduce the social exclusion that is often the result of poverty, marginalization and other forms of inequality…There is mounting evidence that volunteer engagement promotes the civic values and social cohesion which mitigate violent conflict at all stages and that it even fosters reconciliation in post-conflict situations...

The “South Africa Conference on Volunteer Action for Development” convened in Johannesburg in October 2011, and the July 2012 “Africa Conference on Volunteer Action for Peace and Development” co-hosted with the Kenya’s Ministry of East African Community, the United Nations and partners in Nairobi give further evidence to the rise of and potential for volunteer service to impact development and conflict. Indeed, in the aftermath of the 2011 Arab Spring, youth volunteer service and empowerment have emerged as a pivotal idea in deliberations aimed at fostering greater regional cohesion and development.

In “Foresight Africa: Top Priorities for the Continent in 2012,” Mwangi S. Kimenyi and Stephen N. Karingi note that: “One of the most important pillars in determining whether the positive prospects for Africa will be realized is success in regional integration… This year is a crucial one for Africa’s regional integration project and actions by governments, regional organizations and the international community will be critical in determining the course of the continent’s development for many years to come.”

The authors note the expected completion of a tripartite regional free trade agreement by 2014 and the expected boost to intra-African trade, resulting in an expanded market of 26 African countries (representing more than half of the region’s economic output and population). At the same time, the declaration from the “South Africa Conference on Volunteer Action for Development” calls on “Governments of Southern African member states and other stakeholders to incorporate volunteering in their deliberations from Rio +20 and to recognize the transformational power as well as economic and social value of volunteering in achieving national development goals and regional priorities, which can be achieved by facilitating the creation of an enabling environment for volunteering to support, protect and empower volunteers.” This speaks directly to the urgent need to factor the social dimension into the regional integration agenda in the different African subregions.

This paper includes examples of the growth of volunteer service as a form of social capital that enhances cohesion and integration across three regions: southern, western, and eastern Africa. It further highlights civil society best practices and policy recommendations for increased volunteering in efforts to ensure positive peace, health, youth skills, assets and employment outcomes.

The importance of volunteering to development has been noted in recent United Nations consultations on the Rio+20 convening on sustainable development and the post-2015 development framework. As the U.N. reviews its Millennium Development Goals (MDG) process, Africa’s regional service initiatives offer vital lessons and strategies to further achieve the MDGs by December 2015, and to chart the way forward on the post-2015 development framework.

But how does volunteerism and civic service play out in sub-Saharan Africa? What are its institutional and non-institutional expressions? What are the benefits or impacts of volunteerism and civic service in society? Our specific purpose here is to provide evidence of the different manifestations and models of service, impact areas and range of issues in three African regions. In responding to these questions, this analysis incorporates data and observations from southern, western and eastern Africa.

In conclusion, we provide further collective insights and recommendations for the roles of the Africa Union and regional economic communities (RECs), youth, the international community, the private sector and civil society aimed at ensuring that volunteerism delivers on its promise and potential for impact on regional integration, youth development and peace.

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Authors

David L. Caprara
Jacob Mwathi Mati
Ebenezer Obadare
Helene Perold

Image Source: Wolfgang Rattay / Reuters

U.N. International Year of Volunteers Ignites Colombia’s Youth to Volunteer

David L. Caprara and Matt Clausen — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 12:31:00 -0500

Last October, 200 students from Colombia's Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje (SENA) worked the floor of the campus coliseum at Universidad del Norte in Barranquilla. They were among 900 youth volunteer leaders from nearly 40 nations who had traveled the globe to join the second World Summit for Youth Volunteering, convened by Partners of the Americas and the International Association for Volunteer Effort (IAVE) on the 10th anniversary of the United Nations International Year of Volunteers.

As a developing country, Colombia’s increased civil society participation through volunteering is focused on extending poverty-reduction efforts to levels that the government cannot achieve on its own. Volunteers represent a powerful demographic for a new "service generation" by providing a dual benefit. First, volunteering provides critical services in areas such as education and asset development, which are needed to reduce extreme poverty; second, it connects a new generation with like-minded individuals across the world, which provides young people the professional and leadership skills needed to further access to employment opportunities including entrepreneurship.

For SENA, one of the world's largest educational institutions with more than four million students across Colombia, the opportunity was clear: engage talented and often under resourced youth in Colombia — one of the most economically unequal countries in the world– with innovative global volunteer leaders. According to research from Brookings and the Center for Social Development at Washington University, these types of global volunteering connections have the potential to enhance skills development while increasing social capital networks.

Extreme poverty, along with armed conflict, is one of the highest priorities of the Colombian government. Coincidentally, during the same week as the World Summit, the Colombian armed forces eliminated the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) leader Alfonso Cano while President Santos created a new national superagency to combat extreme poverty. The strategic focus on poverty reduction includes a strong role for civil society as a partner with the government in meeting the U.N. Millennium Development Goals and other development commitments. Civil society plays an essential role in overcoming internal conflict. And the youth services generation is among some of the most effective in civil society in working to help their country tackle poverty.

Colombia is certainly not the only country where youth have taken the lead through service to combat poverty. Attendees at the summit heard from Australian humanitarian Hugh Evans, who at 14 began his work to create the Global Poverty Project. In 2006, Evans became one of the pivotal leaders behind the successful Make Poverty History campaign, leading a team across Australia to lobby the country’s government to increase its foreign aid commitment to 0.7 percent of gross national income.

Whether or not SENA’s youth will be able to capitalize on their new connections with global service leaders to combat extreme poverty in Colombia is left to be seen. But the SENA volunteers and their international counterparts are more motivated to do so after gaining access to resources and social capital networks with other inspiring young leaders. That is a cause for celebration as the United Nations releases its State of the World Volunteering report in New York in December at a special session of the U.N. General Assembly.

Authors

David L. Caprara
Matt Clausen

Image Source: Â© Fredy Builes / Reuters

Community-Centered Development and Regional Integration Featured at Southern Africa Summit in Johannesburg

David L. Caprara — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 17:00:00 -0400

Volunteer, civil society and governmental delegates from 22 nations gathered in Johannesburg this month for the Southern Africa Conference on Volunteer Action for Development. The conference was co-convened by United Nations Volunteers (UNV) and Volunteer and Service Enquiry Southern Africa (VOSESA), in observance of the 10th anniversary of the United Nations International Year of Volunteers (IYV).

Naheed Haque, deputy executive coordinator for United Nations Volunteers, gave tribute to the late Nobel Laureate Wangari Mathai and her Greenbelt tree planting campaign as the “quintessential volunteer movement.” Haque called for a “new development paradigm that puts voluntarism at the center of community-centered sustainable development.” In this paradigm, human happiness and service to others would be key considerations, in addition to economic indicators and development outcomes including health and climate change.

The international gathering developed strategies to advance three key priorities for the 15 nations in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC): combating HIV/ AIDS; engaging the social and economic participation of youth; and promoting regional integration and peace. Research data prepared by Civicus provided information on the rise of voluntary service in Africa, as conferees assessed strategies to advance “five pillars” of effective volunteerism: engaging youth, community involvement, international volunteers, corporate leadership and higher education in service.

VOSESA executive director, Helene Perold, noted that despite centuries of migration across the region, the vision for contemporary regional cooperation between southern African countries has largely been in the minds of heads of states with “little currency at the grassroots level.” Furthermore, it has been driven by the imperative of economic integration with a specific focus on trade. Slow progress has now produced critiques within the region that the strategy for integrating southern African countries cannot succeed on the basis of economic cooperation alone. Perold indicated that collective efforts by a wide range of civic, academic, and governmental actors at the Johannesburg conference could inject the importance of social participation within and between countries as a critical component in fostering regional integration and achieving development outcomes.

This premise of voluntary action’s unique contribution to regional integration was underscored by Emiliana Tembo, director of Gender and Social Affairs for the Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). Along with measures promoting free movement of labor and capital to step up trade investment, Tembo stressed the importance of “our interconnectedness as people,” citing Bishop Desmond Tutu’s maxim toward the virtues of “Ubuntu – a person who is open and available to others.”

The 19 nation COMESA block is advancing an African free-trade zone movement from the Cape of South Africa, to Cairo Egypt. The “tripartite” regional groupings of SADC, COMESA and the East Africa Community are at the forefront of this pan-African movement expanding trade and development.

Preliminary research shared at the conference by VOSESA researcher Jacob Mwathi Mati noted the effects of cross border youth volunteer exchange programs in southern and eastern Africa. The research indicates positive outcomes including knowledge, learning and “friendship across borders,” engendered by youth exchange service programs in South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania and Kenya that were sponsored Canada World Youth and South Africa Trust.

On the final day of the Johannesburg conference, South Africa service initiatives were assessed in field visits by conferees including loveLife, South Africa’s largest HIV prevention campaign. loveLife utilizes youth volunteer service corps reaching up to 500,000 at risk youths in monthly leadership and peer education programs. “Youth service in South Africa is a channel for the energy of youth, (building) social capital and enabling public innovation,” Programme Director Scott Burnett stated. “Over the years our (service) participants have used their small stipends to climb the social ladder through education and micro-enterprise development.”

Nelly Corbel, senior program coordinator of the John D. Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement at the American University in Cairo, noted that the Egyptian Arab Spring was “the only movement that cleaned-up after the revolution." On February 11^th, the day after the resignation of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, thousands of Egyptian activists removed debris from Tahrir Square and engaged in a host of other volunteer clean-up and painting projects. In Corbel's words: “Our entire country is like a big flag now,” from the massive display of national voluntarism in clean-up projects, emblematic of the proliferation of youth social innovation aimed at rebuilding a viable civil society.

At the concluding call-to-action session, Johannesburg conferees unanimously adopted a resolution, which was nominated by participating youth leaders from southern Africa states. The declaration, “Creating an Enabling Environment for Volunteer Action in the Region” notes that “volunteering is universal, inclusive and embraces free will, solidarity, dignity and trust… [creating] a powerful basis for unity, common humanity, peace and development.” The resolution, contains a number of action-oriented recommendations advancing voluntarism as a “powerful means for transformational change and societal development.” Policy recommendations will be advanced by South African nations and other stakeholders at the forthcoming Rio + 20 deliberations and at a special session of the United Nations General Assembly on December 5, the 10^th anniversary of the International Year of the Volunteer.

Authors

David L. Caprara

Image Source: © Daud Yussuf / Reuters

Peace Corps at 50

David L. Caprara — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 15:12:00 -0400

This week, our nation reflects on the 50-year legacy of the Peace Corps, which President John F. Kennedy signed into law on September 22, 1961. The passing earlier this year of Sargent Shriver, the indefatigable founding director of the Peace Corps, furthered national and international recognition of America’s longstanding traditions of service to the world. The time is right to expand the national policy discussion to include a broadened array of global service actors inspired by the example of Peace Corps volunteers to address critical human needs.

The largest independent representative survey of Peace Corps volunteers to date is being released this week as part of the 50th anniversary assessments by Civic Enterprises and the National Peace Corps Association with Peter D. Hart Research Associates. The survey documents responses from 11,138 Peace Corps volunteers who served from 1961 to 2011.

Among the survey findings of the returned Peace Corps volunteers:

82 percent view Peace Corps service “effective in promoting a better understanding of Americans in the communities they served,” and 74 percent indicated they view it “helps the U.S. adapt to globalization.”
59 percent view their service as, “effective in meeting the needs for trained workers.”
98 percent would recommend Peace Corps service to their family members.

Enhanced international awareness among volunteers was underscored in prior research assessing international NGO service released at a Brookings-Washington University joint forum. The Center for Social Development (CSD) report found that cross-cultural service also contributes significantly to international social capital, by developing a group of volunteers abroad who can leverage additional resources and connections to coordinate humanitarian aid projects.

Impacts of the broadened field of global and local volunteers are being demonstrated in critical issue areas such as basic hygiene and malaria reduction by Peace Corps and Malaria No More in Senegal, and a promising demonstration project led by Omnimed and Makarere University in Kampala, Uganda. The Omnimed model has utilized an innovative combination of international medical volunteers, supported by Volunteers for Prosperity at USAID and Peace Corps, to train and equip local village volunteers in Community Health Teams in sustaining malaria prevention. By expanding this network of public and private partners, and empowering local social entrepreneurs and village volunteers, potential exists to spread effective, results-based malaria health service corps across Sub-Saharan Africa and worldwide.

A steadily growing recognition of the importance of the wider landscape of volunteers— including NGOs, faith-based institutions, corporations and universities—is furthering goals for multi-sector inclusion in international service that Peace Corps’ founding director Sargent Shriver articulated to President Kennedy in his original 1961 report.

The Call to Peace and accompanying Service World recommendations represent a fresh call to action which should be taken up by foundations and both national parties to develop innovative and results-oriented solutions to today’s challenges of development and peace.

Authors

David L. Caprara

Image Source: Â© Ho New / Reuters

Sargent Shriver’s Lasting—and Growing—Legacy

David L. Caprara — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 09:56:00 -0500

Robert Sargent Shriver, Jr. guided the Peace Corps from its inception in 1961 (when it was a nascent vision of service and citizen diplomacy) to establish a renowned track record of success over the past half century, in which more than 200,000 volunteers and trainees have served in 139 countries.

The legacy of Shriver’s leadership with the Peace Corps and later with the Office on Economic Opportunity and Special Olympics has reached and changed millions of lives—of both those empowered and those who served—from impoverished communities across rural and urban America to huts and villages in developing nations throughout the world. Yet one of the greatest gifts he leaves us is the foundation to build on those accomplishments to scale-up service as a direly needed “soft power” alternative to establish international understanding and collaboration in a volatile world. As Sarge put it, so simply but powerfully: “Caring for others is the practice of peace.”

Sarge Shriver’s unquenchable idealism today is being advanced by a new generation of social entrepreneurs such as Dr. Ed O’Neil, founder of OmniMed and chair of the Brookings International Volunteering Project health service policy group. With the help of Peace Corps volunteers and USAID-supported Volunteers for Prosperity, O’Neil has fielded an impressive service initiative in Ugandan villages that has expanded the capacity and reach of local health-service volunteers engaged in malaria prevention and education on basic hygiene.

Timothy Shriver, who succeeded his parents, Sarge and Eunice, at the helm of the Special Olympics, speaks eloquently on the move of a second generation from politics to building civil society coalitions promoting soft power acts of service and love, one at a time. This impulse is echoed in the Service World policy platform which hundreds of NGOs and faith-based groups, corporations and universities have launched to scale-up the impact of international service initiatives. This ambitious undertaking was first announced by longtime Shriver protégé former Senator Harris Wofford at a Service Nation forum convened on the morning of President Obama’s Cairo speech in which he called for a new wave of global service and interfaith initiatives.

I had the privilege of serving as a national director of the VISTA program inspired by Shriver and to work alongside Senator Wofford and John Bridgeland, President George W. Bush’s former White House Freedom Corps director, who have co-chaired the Brookings International Volunteering Project policy team. Along with Tim Shriver, they have ignited the Service World call to action, together with Michelle Nunn of Points of Light Institute, Steve Rosenthal of the Building Bridges Coalition, Kevin Quigley of the National Peace Corps Association and many others.

The Obama administration and Congress would best honor the life and legacy of Sarge Shriver by calling for congressional hearings and fast- tracking agency actions outlined in the Service World platform and naming the global service legislation after him. Coupled with innovative private-sector and federal agency innovations, the legislation would authorize Global Service Fellowships, link volunteer capacity-building to USAID development programs such as Volunteers for Prosperity, and double the Peace Corps to reach a combined goal of 100,000 global service volunteers annually—a goal first declared by JFK.

Those who promote opportunity and service as vehicles to advance peace and international collaboration will continue to draw inspiration from Sargent Shriver’s indefatigable quest for social justice―from the time he talked then-Senator John F. Kennedy into intervening in the unjust jailing of Martin Luther King, Jr. to his refusal to accept wanton violence and impoverished conditions in any corner of the world.

Information on offering online tributes to the Shriver family and donations in lieu of flowers requested by the family of Sargent Shriver can be found at www.sargentshriver.org .

Authors

David L. Caprara

Image Source: © Ho New / Reuters

@ Brookings Podcast: International Volunteers and the 50th Anniversary of the Peace Corps

David L. Caprara — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 11:20:00 -0400

David Caprara, a Brookings nonresident fellow and expert on volunteering, says that John F. Kennedy’s call to service a half-century ago led to the founding of dozens of international aid organizations, and leaves a legacy of programs aimed at improving health, nutrition, education, living standards and peaceful cooperation around the globe.

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The Role of the Corporation in Citizen Diplomacy

David L. Caprara and Stanley Litow — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 09:45:00 -0400

It was fifty years ago that President Kennedy famously launched the Peace Corps, bringing international volunteerism to its true prominence in this country. Today, a diverse set of international volunteer efforts are supported by federal, state and local governments and through partnerships with NGOs. These efforts have been particularly effective at engaging two segments of our population: students or recent graduates; and retirees or those pursuing second careers.

But the segment that holds perhaps the greatest promise for global development has – for the most part – been underserved. We’re referring to mid-career employees at corporations: particularly large, globally-integrated enterprises. These corporate employees have what is most required for a successful international service engagement: cutting edge skills, deep expertise and relevant strategic knowhow.

Why has this resource largely gone untapped? Because a clear connection to business strategy and return on investment has been made in only a few cases.

There exists a triple benefit from corporate-sponsored international volunteerism. Local communities receive premier business and consulting services. Employees enrich their skill sets by working in international markets and leadership experience from working with diverse teams of colleagues and local partners. And corporations gain experienced leaders, insights into new markets, and brand and reputation enhancement that can ultimately create new global business opportunities.

IBM’s Corporate Service Corps (CSC) was developed with those benefits in mind. Often referred to as a “corporate peace corps,” CSC provides IBM employees with unique opportunities to develop and explore their roles as global citizens. Through one month deployments, IBM’s top talent works in teams of roughly 12 to provide in-depth business and IT consulting support to local entrepreneurs and small businesses, nonprofit organizations, educational institutions and governmental agencies. Already in its third year, Corporate Service Corps has deployed 700 IBM employees from 47 countries on 70 teams to 14 countries including China, Nigeria, Romania, Poland and Vietnam. The result is a leadership development program that has made strides in answering the economic, social and environmental sustainability challenges faced by many emerging markets.

We’re pleased to see that other organizations are adopting similar programs. In fact, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has announced a partnership with IBM to accelerate international volunteerism by leveraging the Corporate Service Corps model. USAID and IBM are creating an Alliance for International Corporate Volunteerism Program to help smaller companies and organizations eager to implement their own corporate peace corps, but lacking the resources and scale to do so.

As we look to help expand international service opportunities, there are several best practices to share based on IBM’s experience.

In the case of executives, keep the duration of the projects relatively short. This allows for better access to a company’s top talent because rather than interrupting a career, you are asking someone to make service an integral part of it.
Continue the relationship. While the duration of an individual’s participation may be short, your involvement with the region should be long-term and sustainable. It is not a vendor relationship; it is a partnership.
Identify the right projects. The most successful development efforts take time and effort to scope out and plan. Partner with NGOs early and often to find the best local opportunities for growth and impact.
Carefully mix and match skills when forming a team of service participants. This allows them to deliver results quickly and build capacity on the local level.
Take advantage of technology. Technology can be a powerful tool to help train and prepare service participants. Technology like social networking can also help build a community of service participants and allow them to share their experiences.

The world has changed significantly over the last 50 years. Corporate-sponsored international volunteerism is now building upon the government’s original architecture of the Peace Corps. The same conditions and capabilities that have made the world “flat”, allowing its systems to become smarter, are also opening up new paths for citizen diplomacy. Those seeking out international volunteer service opportunities are no longer limited to government guidance and other official avenues into long-term engagements.

In an interconnected world, citizens have the choice of participating more directly in service through short-term assignments that will not disrupt their careers but enrich them. And it is these mid-career volunteers who possess the skills to make such assignments successful. Forward-thinking corporations with a clear understanding of the benefits of international volunteer programs can empower meaningful citizen diplomacy, contributing to sustainable development practices and building partnerships in a globalized world.

Authors

David L. Caprara
Stanley Litow

Compassion Across Borders

David L. Caprara, Harris Wofford and John Bridgeland — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0400

High unemployment, the Gulf oil spill, and mounting fiscal worries clouded our July 4th celebrations. Yet, one patriotic highlight in President Obama's first year was bipartisan support of the Serve America Act, which expanded opportunities for Americans of all ages to meet urgent domestic challenges through community and national service. In the process, Americans who otherwise would have been unemployed are engaging in productive work, at low cost to taxpayers, to meet problems like the high school dropout epidemic. Similar efforts can expand volunteer service abroad.

As President Obama made clear in his first major policy speech to the international community in Cairo, Egypt, the world must unleash its collective imagination through social innovators, entrepreneurs and citizen diplomats to contribute to global development, respond to natural disasters, and initiate interfaith action to tackle preventable diseases like malaria. The moment is now.

Fifty years after John F. Kennedy's call for a Peace Corps, we might reconsider our obligations to meet needs around the world. President Kennedy said that the Peace Corps would be serious when 100,000 Americans were serving abroad each year. Although the Peace Corps is America's flagship international service program, today less than 8,000 volunteers are spread across 77 countries. Since 1961, America has sent and returned nearly 200,000 volunteers, a number significantly less than the millions Kennedy envisioned by his Peace Corps' 50th year. Had the Peace Corps grown at the rate Kennedy envisioned, the course of our country's foreign policy, diplomatic strategy and global awareness over the past 50 years would be very different.

Last week, ServiceWorld, an international service coalition of more than 300 non-profits, colleges, corporations and faith-based institutions, released a bold plan to meet President Kennedy's goal of mobilizing 100,000 Americans every year - and one million over a decade - to serve abroad. The proposed Sargent Shriver International Service Act calls for doubling Peace Corps to 15,000 by 2015, lowering costs per volunteer, and forging partnerships with the hundreds of non-profits that have emerged since its creation. Doubling of the Peace Corps is a goal that both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama have embraced.

Volunteers for Prosperity will tap 75,000 skilled Americans for flexible term assignments to work on international challenges Congress and many Presidents have made priorities, such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and clean water. Global Service Fellows will enable Members of Congress to nominate top talent from their districts and states, as they do for the military academies today, to serve for up to one year abroad. Together with the Peace Corps, these efforts will meet John Kennedy's goal of mobilizing 100,000 Americans to serve abroad each year.

The Service World plan focuses on multi-lateral partnerships and exchanges so Americans serve side-by-side with people from other countries, including in the United States. Under the plan, both skilled and non-skilled volunteers of all classes and ages will serve abroad for both long- and short-term assignments and veterans have specific opportunities to utilize their many skills in a civilian capacity. We believe an inclusive and mobile model of volunteering will contribute to the development of a new generation of global leaders, provide skills for U.S. citizens to compete in a global economy, increase international awareness, strengthen development, and improve the image of America abroad.

Volunteer service by people of all nations should become a common strategy in meeting pressing challenges in education, health, the environment, agriculture and more. By having national policies that engage more Americans in international service at every stage of life, we will be sharing our most valuable assets - the skills, talents and perspectives of our people - to make a significant difference in communities and nations throughout the world.

Authors

David L. Caprara
Harris Wofford
John Bridgeland

Publication: The Huffington Post

International Volunteering and Service

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 14:30:00 -0400

Event Information

June 23, 2010
2:30 PM - 5:30 PM EDT

Falk Auditorium
The Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington, DC

On June 23, Global Economy and Development at Brookings and Washington University’s Center for Social Development hosted a forum to examine how international volunteering and service serve as critical tools for meeting global challenges.

The forum framed international service as an integral component of “smart power” diplomacy and as a cost effective way to build cross-cultural bridges. Ambassador Elizabeth Frawley Bagley, special representative for global partnerships at the U.S. Department of State, delivered a keynote address on how the United States can better promote international service and its impact on American diplomacy, national security and global economies.

The research panel released new data on the impact of international service on volunteers, host communities and host country perceptions of volunteers from the United States. Policymakers and sector leaders discussed options for enhancing international service, and provided recommendations for bringing global service to the forefront of American foreign policy initiatives.

View the keynote speech by Ambassador Bagley »

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Moderator

Panelists

Mark Wrighton

Chancellor, Washington University in St. Louis

Ambassador Elizabeth Frawley Bagley

Special Representative for Global Partnerships, U.S. Department of State

Moderator: Adam Weinberg

President and CEO, World Learning

Janet Kerley

Chief, Research, Evaluation, and Measurement; Peace Corps

Susan Jenkins

Evaluation Program Analyst, Peace Corps

Amanda Moore McBride

Research Director, Center for Social Development
Assistant Professor, School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis

Moderator: John Bridgeland

CEO, Civic Enterprises

Stanley Litow

Vice President, Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs
President, IBM International Foundation

Michelle Nunn

CEO, Points of Light Institute

Steve Rosenthal

Executive Director, Cross-Cultural Solutions
Chair, Building Bridges Coalition

The Honorable Harris Wofford

Former Senator (D-Penn)

International Volunteer Service: Global Development from the Ground Up

Amanda Moore McBride and David L. Caprara — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 14:50:00 -0400

President Obama’s emphasis on “smart power” diplomacy has thrust the need for international volunteer service into the global spotlight. On June 23, Global Economy and Development at Brookings and Washington University’s Center for Social Development (CSD) will host a forum examining how international volunteer service can address multiple global challenges simultaneously and build international cooperation. The forum will frame international service as an effective tool for increasing international social capital as well as building sustainable cross-cultural bridges.

This event begins with an address by service champion, Ambassador Elizabeth Frawley Bagley, who leads the Department of State’s Global Partnerships Initiative. Bagley is well poised to foster innovative public-private partnerships, an approach she describes as “Ubuntu Diplomacy: where all sectors belong as partners, where we all participate as stakeholders, and where we all succeed together, not incrementally but exponentially.” The need for multilateral approaches to development has been analyzed by Brookings scholars Jane Nelson and Noam Unger, who explore how the U.S. foreign assistance system works in the new market-oriented and locally-driven global development arena.

This spirit of cross-sector collaboration will carry the June 23^rd forum, beginning with a research panel releasing beneficiary outcome data from a Peace Corps survey completed with over 800 host country nationals, including community members, direct beneficiaries, and collaborators. Peace Corps colleagues, Dr. Susan Jenkins and Janet Kerley, will present preliminary findings from this multi-year study measuring the achievement of “helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women” and “promoting a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served”. Aggregate data about respondents’ views of Americans before and after their interaction with the Peace Corps will be discussed.

This work complements the release of new data on the impact of international service on volunteers, which is supported with funding from the Ford Foundation and a joint Brookings-Washington University academic venture capital fund. Washington University’s CSD has studied international service over the last decade. The current research, first in a series from the quasi-experimental study, compares international volunteers’ perceived outcomes to a matched group who did not volunteer internationally: volunteers are more likely to report increased international awareness, international social capital, and international career intentions.

Building on the demonstrated potential of international service, policymakers and sector leaders will then discuss options for enhancing international service, and provide recommendations for bringing international service to the forefront of American foreign policy initiatives. This policy plenary will introduce and discuss the Service World policy platform: a collaborative movement led by the Building Bridges Coalition, National Peace Corps Association and the International Volunteering Initiative at Brookings. This powerhouse of sector leaders aims to scale international service to the levels of domestic volunteer service with increased impact through smart power policy proposals. What Service Nation did to unite Americans around domestic service as a core ideal and problem-solving strategy in American society, Service World hopes to do on a global scale.

Next week in New York City, the Points of Light Institute and the Corporation for National and Community Service will convene to further spotlight the Service World Platform at the 2010 National Conference on Volunteering and Service. This event will bring together more than 5,000 volunteer service leaders and social entrepreneurs from around the world, including local host Mayor Bloomberg. Michelle Nunn, CEO of Points of Light Institute noted in Huffington Post that “demand, idealism and presidential impact are leading American volunteerism to its…most important stage – the movement of service to a central role in our nation’s priorities.”

Nunn’s statement illustrates the momentum and power that make the voluntary sector a unique instrument in the “smart power” toolbox. According to successive polling from Terror Free Tomorrow, American assistance, particularly medical service, is a leading factor in favorable opinions toward the United States. A 2006 survey conducted in Indonesia and Bangladesh showed a 63 percent favorable response among Indonesian respondents to the humanitarian medical mission of “Mercy,” a United States’ Navel Ship, and a 95 percent favorable response among Bangladeshi respondents.

Personifying the diplomatic potential of medical service abroad is Edward O’Neil’s work with OmniMed. In the Mukono District of Uganda, OmniMed has partnered with the U.S. Peace Corps and the Ugandan Ministry of Health as well as local community-based organizations to implement evidence-based health trainings with local village health workers. Dr. O’Neil is now working with Brookings International Volunteering Initiative and Washington University’s CSD on a new wave of rigorous research: a randomized, prospective clinical trial measuring the direct impact of over 400 trained village health workers on the health of tens of thousands of villagers.

In the words of Peace Corps architect and former U.S. Senator Harris Wofford, the pairing of new data and policy proposals on June 23^rd will support a “quantum leap” in the scale and impact of international service, advancing bipartisan calls to service from President Kennedy to Bush 41, Bush 43, Clinton and Obama.

Authors

Amanda Moore McBride
David L. Caprara

Image Source: © Juan Carlos Ulate / Reuters

Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship: Experts Volunteer Abroad

David L. Caprara and Stanley S. Litow — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 13:15:00 -0400

Over 200 delegates from 50 countries gather this week in Washington for the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship. The summit hosts entrepreneurs to teach and learn innovative ways to strengthen professional and social relationships between the U.S. and the Islamic world. During his first major address to the Muslim world, delivered in Cairo last June, President Obama pledged to increase engagement through entrepreneurship, exchange programs and multilateral service initiatives.

Volunteer-led development initiatives have begun to act on Obama’s call for citizen diplomacy and private-sector engagement. The Initiative on International Volunteering and Service at Brookings and the Building Bridges Coalition have fueled an emerging legislative initiative that calls for increasing the role of international volunteers in the U.S. diplomatic agenda and development programs. This Service World Initiative has drawn from Brookings research outlining options to advance the president’s call for multilateral service.

As seen last year, for the first time in history, the majority of the world’s population lived in urban areas. And this trend is accelerating at an unprecedented rate. By 2050, urban dwellers are expected to make up about 70 percent of Earth’s total population. These informed 21st century urban citizens demand 24-7 connectivity, smart electric grids, efficient transportation networks, safe food and water, and transparent social services. All these demands place a huge strain on existing city infrastructures and the global environment. Most affected by this rapid urban boom, are the emerging markets. So how do we tackle this development dilemma?

One way is for highly-skilled experts, from a range of countries, to volunteer their time in emerging markets to help improve economic development, government services and stimulate job growth. This type of pro-bono program has many benefits. It benefits the urban areas in these emerging markets by leveraging intelligence, connecting systems and providing near-term impact on critical issues such as transportation, water, food safety, education and healthcare. It benefits the expert volunteers by fostering their teamwork skills, providing a cultural learning experience, and broadening their expertise in emerging markets.

IBM, which chairs the Building Bridges Coalition’s corporate sector, hosts a range of volunteer-led global entrepreneurship programs that improve economic stability for small- and medium-sized businesses, increase technology in emerging markets and open doors for the next generation of business and social leaders. This program connects high-talent employees with growing urban centers around the world and fosters the type of leadership to help IBM in the 21st century.

Recently, IBM sent a group of experts to Ho Chi Minh City as part of its Corporate Service Corps, a business version of the Peace Corps. This was the first Corporate Service Corps mission to be made up of executives, and the first to help a city in an emerging market analyze its challenges holistically and produce a plan to manage them. As a result, the city has now adopted a 10-year redevelopment plan that includes seven pilot programs in areas ranging from transportation to food safety. IBM will also help the city set up academic programs to prepare young Vietnamese to launch careers in technology services. IBM will continue this program throughout the next couple years to evolve the next set of global business and cultural hubs utilizing the volunteer hours of some of its most seasoned experts.

The Presidential Summit this week will further Obama’s call to “turn dialogue into interfaith service, so bridges between peoples lead to action.” The policy initiative of the Building Bridges Coalition, coupled with entrepreneurial innovations such as IBMs, can foster greater prosperity and service between the U.S. and our global partners.

Authors

David L. Caprara
Stanley S. Litow

Image Source: © STR New / Reuters

Obama's Smart Power Surge Option

David L. Caprara — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:13:00 -0500

President Obama’s speech at West Point, outlining the way forward on Afghanistan and Pakistan, was followed three days later by two important events underscoring the president’s view that “our security and leadership does not come solely from the strength of our arms.” He conveyed a new smart power view of security that “derives from our people [including] … Peace Corps volunteers who spread hope abroad, and from the men and women in uniform who are part of an unbroken line of sacrifice …”

On December 4, General Anthony Zinni, USMC (Ret.), former commander-in-chief of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), addressed an audience celebrating the tenth anniversary of the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy (ICRD). He pointedly noted that hard power alone cannot fight terrorism; economic and social factors of terrorist populations should be addressed. He further noted that empowering faith-based approaches “is a tremendous asset to inform the ways we mediate and find common ground … to figure out what the other side of smart power means.”

Recognizing that educational reform is critical, ICRD to date has empowered about 2,300 Pakistani madrassas administrators and teachers with enhanced pedagogical skills promoting critical thinking among students, along with conflict resolution through interfaith understanding. Evidence of success is mounting as the program fosters local ownership reasserting Islam’s fundamental teachings of peace and historical contributions to the sciences and institutions of higher learning—a rich history that was misappropriated by extremists who took over a significant number of madrassas using rote learning laced with messages of hate.

Earlier the same day, President Obama’s newly minted Peace Corps Director Aaron Williams, himself a former Dominican Republic Peace Corps volunteer, received high marks from former Senator Harris Wofford—a JFK-era architect of the Peace Corps—and hundreds of NGOs and volunteer leaders at the “International Volunteer Day Symposium.”

Director Williams has embraced a new “global service 2.0” style leadership committed to championing Peace Corps volunteers alongside a growing corps of NGO, faith-based, new social media and corporate service initiatives. Wofford, who co-chairs the Building Bridges Coalition team with former White House Freedom Corps Director John Bridgeland, spoke about the present moment as a time to “crack the atom of citizen people power through service.”

The notion of a “smart power surge” through accelerated deployment of people power through international service, interfaith engagement, and citizen diplomacy should be quickly marshaled at a heightened level to augment the commander-in-chief’s hard power projection strategies outlined at West Point.

According to successive Terror Free Tomorrow polling, such strategies of service and humanitarian engagement by the United States have been achieving sustainable results in reducing support for terrorism following the tsunami and other disasters from Indonesia to Pakistan and Bangladesh. Lawmakers should take note of these findings, along with the evidence-based success of Johnston’s ICRD Madrassas project (which, inexplicably, has not received federal support to date, in spite of its evidence of marked success in giving Pakistani children and religious figures critical tools that are urgently need to be scaled up across the country to wage peace through enlightened madrassas education and interfaith tolerance).

A growing coalition of now over 400 national organizations is amassing a “Service World” platform for 2010. They have taken a page out of the incredibly successful Service Nation platform, which Barack Obama and John McCain both endorsed, creating a “quantum leap” in domestic service through fast track passage of the Kennedy Serve America Act signed into law by the president last spring. Organizers hope to repeat this quantum leap on the international level through a “Sargent Shriver Serve the World Act,” and through private-sector partnerships and administration initiatives adapting social innovation to empower service corps tackling issues like malaria, clean water, education and peace.

With the ICRD Pakistan success, a rebounding Peace Corps and the Building Bridges Coalition’s rapid growth of cross-cultural solutions being evaluated by Washington University, the pathway to “the other side of smart power” through service, understanding and acceptance, is being vividly opened.

A Brookings Global Views paper further outlines how multilateral collaboration can be leveraged with other nations in this emerging “global force for good.” It is a good time to reflect on all this as we approach the upcoming 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps next year in Ann Arbor, where on October 14, 1960 President John F. Kennedy inspired students to mount a new global service.

President Obama’s call to global engagement in Cairo in June, which ignited the announcement of Service World later that same morning, now demands a response from every citizen who dares to live up to JFK’s exhortation to “ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country,” along with our young men and women preparing for engagement at West Point.

Authors

David L. Caprara

Image Source: © Shruti Shrestha / Reuters

Presidents Obama and George H.W. Bush: Building Bridges Through Service

David L. Caprara — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:00:00 -0400

President Barack Obama’s visit to the George Herbert Walker Bush Library in College Station, Texas this week highlights the crucial role of America’s volunteer traditions in addressing critical issues at home and abroad. The two presidents will commemorate the 20^th anniversary of the Points of Light movement, championed by the 41^st president, and advance the United We Serve initiative of President Obama.

Michelle Nunn, CEO of Points of Light Institute and daughter of former Democratic Senator Sam Nunn noted in Huffington Post that “demand, idealism and presidential impact are leading American volunteerism to its…most important stage – the movement of service to a central role in our nation’s priorities.”

The bipartisan nature of America’s vibrant service movement is also reflected in the landmark Kennedy-Hatch Serve America Act signed into law by President Obama earlier this year and pending Global Service Fellowship legislation introduced by Senators Feingold and Voinovich.

In a recent Brookings Global Views policy brief, “International Volunteer Service: A Smart Way to Build Bridges,” Lex Rieffel, Kevin Quigley and I articulate policy options for the new administration to advance President Obama’s call for engaging service on the global level. President Obama’s speech in Cairo on June 4 called for turning “dialogue into interfaith service, so bridges between peoples lead to action – whether it is combating Malaria in Africa, or providing relief for a natural disaster.”

Following the president’s Cairo speech, the administration assembled a laudable Global Engagement Initiative across the administration to implement and track results in scaling up initiatives of service and interfaith action. The potency of coupling American service with foreign assistance was documented in Indonesia and Bangladesh through successive Terror Free Tomorrow polls showing increased favorable ratings for our nation and decreased support for terrorism.

The Building Bridges Coalition has organized an impressive array of over 210 organizations dedicated to expanding American volunteerism internationally, as part of a new “Service World” policy coalition gearing up for the 50^th anniversary of the Peace Corps. This new “international service 2.0” incorporates NGOs and faith-based groups, universities and corporations as new development actors advocating multilateral service and achieving impacts on issues ranging from Malaria to peacebuilding and climate change.

A Foundation Strategy Group report commissioned by Brookings and Pfizer, “Volunteering for Impact” assessed best practices in the increasing array of international corporations engaging volunteers such as IBM’s Corporate Service Corps, GE Volunteers and Pfizer’s Global Health Fellows.

Around the globe, initiatives such as Cross Cultural Solutions and an emerging global service and peacebuilding alliance in hot spots from Kenya to Mindanao are giving substance to the president’s call in Cairo. The collaboration of Presidents Clinton and G.H.W. Bush on humanitarian assistance after the tsunami, and this week’s service dedication with the Obama administration and former President Bush, bode well for the bipartisan extension of our nation’s noble voluntary service traditions in the international context where they are urgently needed.

Authors

David L. Caprara

International Volunteer Service: A Smart Way to Build Bridges

David L. Caprara, Kevin F. F. Quigley and Lex Rieffel — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 12:04:50 -0400

Introduction

President Obama has proposed expanding the Peace Corps and building a global network of volunteers, “so that Americans work side-by-side with volunteers from other countries.” Achieving this goal will require building on the success of the Peace Corps with a new combination of public and private initiatives designed to expand opportunities for volunteers to address critical global problems such as poverty, contagious diseases, climate change, and conflict.

We examine alternative service models, both domestic and foreign, and offer recommendations to the Obama Administration for harnessing the energy and skills of Americans eager to engage in volunteer work in foreign countries as part of a multilateral mobilization effort and smart power diplomacy.

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Authors

David L. Caprara
Kevin F. F. Quigley
Lex Rieffel

The Kennedy Serve America Act: A New Boost for Service

David L. Caprara — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 10:49:05 -0400

Congress recently passed the “Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act,” which will expand the number of AmeriCorps slots from 75,000 to 250,000 by 2017, and increase volunteer opportunities at home and abroad.

This legislation takes a critical and concrete step toward advancing President Obama’s call to service for Americans, offering citizens more ways to get involved in their communities and across the world.

On the global front, many of the ideas proposed by Brookings’s Initiative on International Volunteering and Service and the Building Bridges Coalition, which partners with Brookings on service initiatives, can be found woven into the legislation.

Specifically, the global provisions of the bill authorize the Volunteers for Prosperity (VFP) initiative at the US Agency for International Development and provide matching grants for service stipends to deploy highly skilled professionals to address issues such as extreme poverty, clean water, preventable diseases, universal education and business and information technology through participating nongovernmental organizations. The VFP provision authorizes $10 million in Fiscal Year 2010 and added amounts for Fiscal Years 2011-2014 that will be matched by private sector contributions. Our recent policy brief on Global Service Fellowships is a good guide to understanding how international service opportunities can broaden America’s public diplomacy efforts.

President Obama’s engagement of a new generation of Americans in service, linked to our nation’s international diplomacy and development efforts, signals a defining opportunity to advance the full potential of smart power in addressing critical global challenges. This bi-partisan congressional action also reflects a welcome step to help boost national and international service.

Authors

David L. Caprara

Renewing America through National Service and Volunteerism

David L. Caprara — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 12:00:00 -0500

Editor's Note: In testimony before the U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor, David Caprara spoke to the effectiveness of international volunteering and how it is an essential element of the U.S. response to critical challenges at home and abroad.

Chairman Miller and Ranking Member McKeon, Members of the Education and Labor Committee: Thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony at today’s hearing on the vital topic of our national call to service. I am pleased to speak about the powerful work of volunteers serving through faith-based and community organizations and the positive impacts they are having on our nation’s most challenging social issues. I commend you for recognizing the potential of these dedicated volunteers.

I also applaud President Barack Obama for his signal leadership in making the cause of service a centerpiece of his presidency. His call to a new generation to give national and even global leadership in service to others has the potential to become a defining legacy of this Administration.

Expanding partnerships with neighborhood mediating institutions has proven to be an effective path in addressing many of the social difficulties we face as a country.

During my service at the Corporation for National and Community Service, I was tasked with leveling the playing field and advancing innovative service programs- VISTA, AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, and Learn and Serve America. I often considered the insightful words of one of my mentors, Robert Woodson, founder and president of the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, and author of the landmark book, Triumphs of Joseph.

Woodson, who has been frequently called to testify about grassroots community remedies by the Congress and our nation’s governors, told me that faith-based initiatives are not about promoting a particular faith, but rather, advancing secular outcomes that faith-based and other grassroots groups are uniquely positioned to effect. He notes that not only are these groups generally the closest to the problems in a community, they are the ones most often trusted by residents, particularly in times of need like our present economic crisis.

Volunteer efforts brought to bear by faith-based groups, since Tocqueville first noted our nation’s founding charitable traditions and social capital in the 19th century, have been immensely important throughout America history. In fact, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, more Americans volunteer through religious groups than any other kind of organization.

A CNCS Research and Policy Development report, entitled “Volunteer Management Capacity in America’s Charities and Congregations,” found that volunteers can boost both the quality of services and delivery capabilities in charities and congregations while reducing costs.

We could cite many examples of successful faith-based models, such as the Latino Pastoral Action Center of Rev. Ray Rivera in the Bronx, which has made great use of AmeriCorps volunteers in building community capacity. Southeast Idaho’s Retired and Senior Volunteer Initiative and the Columbus, Ohio, based Economic and Community Development Institute serving Muslim refugees from Somalia and Ethiopia, as well as Jewish and Pentecostal Christian refugees from the former Soviet Union, provide other models.

At the Corporation, we teamed up with HHS’ Administration for Children and Families in leveraging volunteer expertise with family strengthening, fatherhood and healthy marriage programs, and economic asset development with groups like People for People founded by Rev. Herb Lusk, the former Philadelphia Eagles “praying running back.” Bishop Joseph Henderson converted a former juvenile detention facility into the Bragg Hill Family Life Center in Fredericksburg, Virginia, supported by Doris Buffett’s Sunshine Lady Foundation. The Potters House of Bishop TD Jakes in Dallas launched a nationwide initiative promoting responsible fatherhood and ex-offender reentry with faith-based volunteers and new media technology.

Amachi Mentoring Children of Prisoners Initiative

I would like to touch more deeply upon two innovative program models - one, the Amachi Initiative, which utilizes CNCS volunteer resources, and another, the Violence Free Zone Initiative engaging former gang members and other forms of indigenous community volunteer capacity.

Researchers at the Cambridge University Institute of Criminology have shown that children of prisoners are far more likely to become involved in crime in the future than children from other backgrounds. The Amachi program, founded by former Philadelphia Mayor Rev. Wilson Goode, provides this vulnerable cohort of young people with caring adult mentors who help guide them to success in life, avoiding a pathway to incarceration which statistics show would too often be the case without such intervention.

Amachi, whose name in Africa means, “who knows what God will bring forth from this child,” began training faith-based organizations to play a key role in scaling up the program after its founding in Philadelphia in 2003, with the support of Big Brothers Big Sisters and area congregations. To date the initiative has enrolled 3,000 congregations as partners mentoring more than 100,000 children across America.

The Amachi mentoring model, supported by AmeriCorps members who assist recruitment of community volunteers and form congregational mentoring hubs, has proven so effective that it was adopted by the Department of Health and Human Services as the basis of the federal Mentoring Children of Prisoners program. At the Corporation for National and Community Service, it was our great honor to support Dr. Goode in helping to replicate the Amachi success with the help of Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and VISTA volunteers nationwide. We then expanded that effective approach with a new initiative of VISTA and DOJ programs that built mentoring and support hubs with faith-based and community volunteers who share their love and practical transition support for ex-offenders coming home.

Violence-Free Zones

Robert Woodson’s Center for Neighborhood Enterprise has developed one of the most effective gang intervention programs in our country, by tapping indigenous community healing agents and volunteers from within crime-ridden neighborhoods. The Center reaches out to former gang members who have been transformed by faith, and connects them with other adjudicated and at-risk youths in high-crime schools and community centers.

In 1997, CNE stepped in after Darryl Hall, a twelve-year-old District boy, was shot and killed in a senseless gang war between the “Circle” and “Avenue” crews and others that had already left fifty young people dead in South East Washington, DC. In partnership with the Alliance of Concerned Men, many who were ex-offenders themselves, CNE negotiated a truce and helped the young people involved gain skills and find jobs as an alternative to drug-dealing and crime. Those young people were then engaged as ambassadors of peace in their neighborhoods, motivating other youths toward positive attitudes and behaviors. Ten years later, crew-related homicides have been eliminated in the area since the intervention began.

Today CNE is expanding the reach of Violence Free Zones to cities across the country including Chicago, where a major spike in gang violence threatens to cut short the lives of our young people and their fellow neighborhood residents.

Baylor University researchers, who Woodson recently cited in testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, documented the impact of the VFZ intervention model in six Milwaukee public schools where violent incidents were reduced by 32%. Suspension rates were also dramatically reduced, and student grade point averages rose compared to the control sites.

Dramatic decreases of violent incidents where CNE grassroots leaders intervened were also reported in Baltimore, Dallas, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C.

Congress, the Administration, and private foundations would be well served to advance dynamic linkages and partnerships with such effective grassroots, faith-based programs together with the volunteer power of the Corporation for National and Community Service and programs at the Departments of Education, Labor, and Justice. Attorney General Eric Holder could be a natural leader for such a cross-sector effort. He has been a strong proponent of Violence Free Zones since their inception during his prior tenure at Justice.

I believe these initiatives represent “low-hanging fruit” if the new White House Council on Faith-Based and Community Partnerships wants to scale up such results-oriented models with expanded private sector and public support.

Hurricane Katrina Response

In addition to their unique quality of being deeply embedded in communities, faith-based organizations are usually much more nimble and innovative than governmental bureaucratic bodies. Take for instance the response to Hurricane Katrina. Groups like Lutheran Disaster Response, Islamic Relief USA, and the Points of Light and Interfaith Works Faith and Service Institute, directed by Rev. Mark Farr and Eric Schwarz, were able to mobilize quickly. They and countless other faith-based groups galvanized congregations, synagogues and mosques into action with donations and volunteer “boots on the ground” to help families recover, while FEMA and other agencies famously struggled to respond.

International Voluteering

Our nations’ volunteers have also made great headway in promoting global solutions. Freedom from Terror polls have noted a marked drop in support for violent terrorism and a dramatic increase in positive views toward the United States in populous Muslim nations like Indonesia, Bangladesh and Pakistan following our national and volunteer responses after the tsunami and earthquake disasters, that were sustained beyond the initial period of aid.

According to a BLS assessment report by researchers with Washington University’s Center for Social Development, approximately 52% of global volunteers from America said their main volunteering organization was a religious one.

The International Volunteering Project at the Brookings Institution, launched at a forum with General Colin Powell nearly three years ago, has achieved solid gains in doubling a cohort from 50,000 to 100,000 international volunteers through the Building Bridges Coalition, comprised of more than 180 US-based international service NGOs, faith-based groups, universities and corporations.

Together with the national policy leadership of John Bridgeland and Senator Harris Wofford, who is here as an expert witness today, the Brookings volunteering team crafted a design for a new Global Service Fellowship initiative that would empower tens of thousands of new international service volunteers supported with modest stipends that could be redeemed by NGO and faith-based entities registered with the State Department. Global Service Fellowship legislation patterned after our research has attracted broad bipartisan support, with leadership from Senators Russ Feingold, Chris Dodd, and Norm Coleman in the Senate last year, and Representatives Betty McCollum, Mark Kirk and many others in the House and Senate. Our team also helped to craft the Service Nation global volunteering platform, which calls for doubling the Peace Corps, enacting Global Service Fellowships, and authorizing Volunteers for Prosperity at US AID.

In the past year my travels have included visits to hot spots of Israel and Palestine, Kenya, the Philippines, Brazil and other nations supporting ongoing Global Peace Festival initiatives on each continent. Through these efforts I have witnessed first hand the tremendous power of interfaith partnerships and volunteering to heal conflicts across tribal and religious divides. Upcoming Global Peace Festival initiatives in Mindanao, Jakarta, and other cities including an International Young Leaders Summit in Nairobi next month hold particular promise. Over 120 global leaders, NGOs and faith-based groups have supported the call for a new Global Service Alliance in these endeavors. Such a “global peace corps” will build a vital link between volunteering and global development to impact peacebuilding outcomes.

Closing

In conclusion, faith-based and community volunteers are not only effective but they are an essential element of our nation’s response to critical challenges we face at home and abroad. Now is the time for our national leaders and the private sector to tap into their full potential in light of our massive challenges ahead.

We have only begun to scratch the surface of the incredible wisdom and resources of transformative hope, embodied in today’s grassroots “Josephs.”

I hope we can rally across party lines with this President to connect and support these groups in a force for good, as proven allies in the fight against poverty and disease, gang violence, environmental degradation and global conflict and disasters. Such an alliance would show the world the full potential of America’s best diplomats, our volunteers.

I would like to close by quoting Dr. King’s words that my former mentor and boss Jack Kemp, the distinguished former House member and President Bush 41’s HUD Secretary, often cited in his testimony:

“I don’t know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future.”

Thank you very much.

Authors

David L. Caprara

Publication: U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor

International Service and the Obama Administration

David L. Caprara — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 12:00:00 -0500

Editor’s Note: President Obama has stated his commitment to enhancing service and volunteer opportunities for Americans both at home and abroad. David Caprara, the director of Brookings’s Initiative on International Volunteering and Service, explores the administration’s agenda in this Q&A.

Q: President Obama has been a long-time supporter of service and volunteer efforts. As his administration now commences in earnest, what are the major areas of focus we might expect to see from the president and his cabinet?

President Obama has just made his first successful mark on national service by supporting $201 million in new funding for Americorps and related national service programs adopted in the stimulus bill and signed into law as one of the first acts of his presidency. The administration has aims of expanding the Peace Corps and boosting AmeriCorps participation from 75,000 slots to 175,000 members.

In addition, the Administration is supporting “development 2.0” approaches by engaging the private sector, civil society and new media, which certainly include an expanded focus on volunteer service at home and abroad.

Q: Doubling the size of the Peace Corps to 16,000 by 2011 has been one publicly stated goal of the new Administration. What does the international service community think about this objective?

The Building Bridges Coalition, an outgrowth of the International Volunteering Initiative at Brookings, which includes more than 180 international volunteer service organizations and universities, strongly supports the President’s Peace Corps goal. The Coalition has also supported boosting overall global volunteering to 100,000 annually through a combination of doubling Peace Corps, enacting Global Service Fellowship funding along the lines proposed by Senator Russ Feingold, and authorizing Volunteers for Prosperity at USAID. These goals formed the basis of the Service Nation Summit’s global policy recommendations last year. Former Senator Harris Wofford (a legendary architect of service initiatives under Presidents Kennedy, Clinton and now Obama) and our International Volunteering team at Brookings helped to craft the recommendations following months of policy research and practitioner forums.

Q: The Obama administration has expressed an interest in establishing an “America’s Voice Initiative” to utilize Americans with foreign language skills for public diplomacy efforts, and to increase opportunities for older individuals to serve overseas in volunteer capacities. What would these types of efforts mean for America volunteer and service programs overall?

The Administration’s America’s Voice Initiative and multilateral approach to service signal a new direction that places greater emphasis on “track two diplomacy” and smart power assets represented in our nation’s greatest diplomats – our volunteers. Our project policy team and national advisors will continue shaping policy options that could make multi-lateral service a reality.

Q: Given its full agenda with the global financial crisis and new domestic programs, do you think Congress will take up new service policy proposals this year?

The Kennedy-Hatch “Serve America Act,” which was announced during the Service Nation Summit on September 11, 2008, stands a strong chance of passing in this Congress. We can base this projection on the foundation of a solid groundswell of bipartisan support, a broad popular mandate, and leadership by President Obama, who has embraced service as a central cause of his presidency. This week’s adoption of expanded funding for Americorps in the stimulus package is the first installment on this agenda.

Authors

David L. Caprara

We Are a Service Nation

David L. Caprara and Steven C. Rosenthal — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 12:00:00 -0400

On the seventh anniversary of September 11, Senators McCain and Obama will gather in New York to discuss one of the most powerful, but frequently overlooked, pillars of our global public diplomacy efforts—service and volunteerism. For this September 11 marks the beginning of the two-day ServiceNation Summit, which will herald the potential impact of citizen service and offer a forum to discuss policy options to address some of America’s toughest challenges through service—both at home and abroad.

Senators Obama and McCain will be joined by more than 500 leaders, including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Alma Powell and Caroline Kennedy among many others, who all believe in the power of service and volunteerism to inspire our citizens, help our neighbors and build a stronger global society.

As we gather with these leaders in New York and engage America’s grassroots volunteers and activists in expanded service efforts, we must also ask Congress to recognize the value of volunteerism by enhancing opportunities for Americans to engage in global service. For as Peace Corps members, diplomats, corporate volunteers, faith-based groups and the growing ranks of university service learning volunteers can tell you, it is through our individual actions abroad that we often do the most good—changing action by action the way someone sees the United States and leaving a legacy of good will together with enhanced local civic capacity.

We have seen this time and time again through our work together in the Brookings Institution’s Initiative on International Volunteering and Service, through which we work with more than 150 groups, including corporations, non-governmental organizations, leading universities and government agencies who work to encourage more international volunteering and reciprocal exchanges with Americans and their foreign counterparts from all walks of life.

As part of that initiative, we have recommended that our policymakers offer Americans more opportunities for service, including the creation of Global Service Fellowships (as proposed by Senators Feingold and Coleman in S. 2609), expanding the Peace Corps, fostering multilateral exchanges in concert with UN volunteers and other efforts. These policy actions would link the efforts of American volunteers in a variety of service projects to a broader national effort aimed at enhancing international and cross-cultural understanding while improving lives through service.

The momentum and desire for this type of citizen effort, supported by government, is clear as ServiceNation commences and Americans choose service to others as a way to remember September 11. It is critical to capture this momentum and engagement as a new administration and Congress commence to ensure America presents its best face to the world, which is frequently the face of the volunteer.

Authors

David L. Caprara
Steven C. Rosenthal