Creating Greater Opportunity Through National Service

Dear Friends,

Forging a meaningful pathway to a thriving career can be challenging for anyone, especially for many young people across our country who lack guidance, exposure, and connections to career-development opportunities. We believe that national service programs have tremendous potential to address this problem by serving as launching pads to meaningful careers for young people.?

Our approach has been focused on supporting human-centered innovations that harness the power and potential of national service to create opportunity for young people, while also having a positive impact on their communities. Our partners across the country, who are tirelessly doing the essential work, have helped to inform our strategies and shape new approaches. Through their dedication and the investment of other philanthropies, we have helped create meaningful opportunities for 10,000 people who have answered the call to serve. This work has influenced states, nonprofit organizations, and philanthropic peers to see national service as?an engine for economic impact in addition to community impact.?

We recently released a report capturing?key learnings from our work in increasing access and opportunity for those who wish to serve. Recommendations in the report acknowledge the potential of national service to catalyze career development for young people and address workforce needs. We encourage you to read the full report here.?

Our work in this space began in 2020 by addressing food insecurity and youth under-employment resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, especially among young people who are from diverse backgrounds or from low-income communities. In partnership with Serve Washington, we developed the Washington COVID Response Corps. Combining our philanthropic resources with federal and state funding, we kept members of our community fed while creating meaningful service opportunities for young people whose lives were upended due to the pandemic. The results are a testament to how national service can be tailored to address emerging state-level challenges and how philanthropy can serve as an innovation partner with states.?

Ninety-five percent of COVID Response Corps members were able to use AmeriCorps to gain experience in?–?and clarity about?–?a career path of interest, and 67 percent found support for their career using national service as a navigation tool. Building on the learnings and impact of the COVID Response Corps, the Foundation launched the National Service Challenge, allowing us to dive into our role as an innovation partner with seven additional states to make national service accessible and valuable to more young people across the country as a workforce development pathway.

The National Service Challenge provided the Foundation an opportunity to be an innovative partner with eight states, identifying where and how national service can be tailored to address emerging state-level goals and challenges while increasing access for individuals to serve in AmeriCorps as an economic opportunity path.?

Our next major step in national service, announced last month, is?a partnership with the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) to support Governors and state leaders in designing and expanding innovative civilian national service programs to address critical state needs while also enabling those who serve to use the experience to launch their careers in a meaningful way. The NGA Center aims to improve awareness, connection, and partnership across state entities through Governors’ offices, state workforce development leaders, state service commission leaders, and community-based organizations. At the state level, we are looking to partner with additional states to make national service more accessible and equitable for individuals and communities.?

We look forward to the work ahead.?

Recently, members of our team spent a few days with ServeMinnesota visiting programs and members that have been supported by the Foundation's?National Service Challenge.?

These individuals and organizations are providing direct service to communities most in need. At the same time, members are using their service to earn certifications and degrees, helping them access greater opportunities once their service term ends.

One of the members we met with was John, Public Health Corps member with the Minneapolis Health Department's Living Healthy Initiative.?

During his service term, John received sector specific training, career development, and an opportunity to explore the public health field. As someone who is passionate about diversity, equity, and inclusion, one of his biggest takeaways was that public health initiatives center?the community. We would like to extend a huge #AmeriThanks to John and the other AmeriCorps members for their dedication to supporting their communities through national service!

America’s Service Commissions, Beam (formerly Edquity), Common Threads Farm, iFoster, Inspiring Service, Life Works, Local Initiatives Support Coalition, Michigan Community Service Commission, Next100, OneStar Foundation, PennSERVE, Project Basta, Safe Streets, Serve Colorado / Trailhead Institute, Serve Washington, ServeMinesota, SISGI Group, SkillUp, South Caroline Service Commission, United Way of Benton and Franklin Counties, United Way of King County, UpMetrics, Volunteer Iowa and, Washington Service Corps