The Corporation For National And Community Service, which oversees AmeriCorps, just released a carefully done study which examined how AmeriCorps affects the lives of those who serve. The study compared the lives and choices of two thousand AmeriCorps alums eight years after they served with the lives of a control group composed of a similar demographic which hadn’t passed through AmeriCorps. And the results, presented by CNCS CEO David Eisner, at Brookings this morning are interesting. Here are a few headlines:
- AmeriCorps is an excellent pipeline into public service. Sixty percent of AmeriCorps alums (compared with 40 percent in the control group) are employed in public service-related jobs (and Latino and African American alums are almost twice as likely to go into public service than their peers). This is important because multiple other studies show that there is a looming shortage of qualified people to run our non-profits and our government.
- About 80 percent of alums said that AmeriCorps exposed them to new career opportunities and possibilities.
- And about 90 percent of AmeriCorps alums say they are satisfied with their lives and careers eight years out. (Which just goes to show that happiness can be more about what you give than what you get).
Eisner also mentioned that research the CNCS is doing on the Millenials is showing that 16-19 year olds today volunteer twice as much as 16-19 year olds did in the 1970s and 1980s. The Millenials really are going to change everything, which is why the ServiceNation campaign to expand service opportunities in America holds such promise. And Rep. Chris Shays (R-CT), who helped introduce the event, is ready to help. Asked by moderator EJ Dionne what he would say if the next president calls him up and says he wants to expand AmeriCorps, Shays answered he would have a simple response: “How can I help?” It would be nice if that were uniformly the response from Capitol Hill, but something tells me…
You can download the full AmeriCorps study, the Executive Summary, and all the other paper released today here. We’ll have some video clips from the event up later.
Eisner: ”The more intense and lengthy your service is, the more likely you are to continue it.”
