RPCV Senator Dodd Introduces More Peace Corps Bill

This week, RPCV Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) introduced s.1382, the Peace Corps Improvement and Expansion Act of 2009.

The bill, as currently written, would authorize $450,000,000 for fiscal year 2010; $575,000,000 for fiscal year 2011; and $700,000,000 for fiscal year 2012 — representing a gradual increase to double Peace Corps’s current budget. The bill also requires the agency director carry out assessments that lead to a new strategic plan. (As of now, Obama hasn’t appointed a new Peace Corps director, Jody Olsen serves as Acting Director.)

Read the legislation (PDF). After it was introduced, the bill was sent to the Committee on Foreign Relations. (Is your Senator a member of this committee?)

Here is the transcript of Dodd’s speech on the floor of the Senate Thursday. Thanks to Jonathan Pearson at the National Peace Corps Association for this text:

Mr. President:

I rise today to introduce the Peace Corps Improvement and Expansion Act of 2009.

For 48 years, the Peace Corps has stood as a uniquely American institution.  What other great nation would

NCVS Opening Plenary Monday Night

Michelle Obama speaking at NCVS 09

The launch of the National Conference on Volunteering and Service Monday night brought a huge crowd of people out to hear First Lady Michelle Obama speak, among other familiar faces.

When I arrived, the throngs of people waiting in line to go through security matched the throngs of people already inside the hall, and everyone was waiting for Michelle Obama. Helping the time fly was comic/emcee Wally Collins who made fun of individual audience members between introducing musical acts like Sondre Lerche and the Glide Ensemble. Also in the lead-in to the main event, Shawn Rubin accepted the Eli Segal Award from AmeriCorps Alums, Alan Khazei of Be the Change, Inc., spoke introducing corporate sponsor Shannon Schuyler of PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

The highlight of the night didn’t come at the end, as I would have expected. Michelle Obama took the stage somewhere in the middle of the opening event, and everyone in the crowd cheered and stood if they could. Her words were inspiring of course, but I was more stunned by the simple fact of her presence—the President’s wife chose to spend time with us. She used to run a Public Allies AmeriCorps program—and said to start that she was with her people. What I liked the best about what she said was the reaction she and President Obama received when they each decided to forego lucrative careers for nonprofit jobs—Mrs. Obama at Public Allies and Pres. Obama at various nonprofits like the Developing Communities Project where he was a community organizer. She said, regarding people in our lives who dismiss our career choices: “But what these folks don’t understand is that the story of progress in this nation has always been the story of people who chose — in times of trial and struggle — to serve it.”

Mrs. Obama also announced the launch of the United We Serve summer of service initiative, which will last through Sept. 11th of this year, which will make community service easy to do for anyone, and focus on health care, energy

Daily Points of Light Award to Cindy Kerr of ConKerr Cancer

Actress Kerry Washington, representing L’Oreal, presented the Daily Points of Light Award just now to

Adorable child from the ConKerr Cancer website

Cindy Kerr in the lead up to the opening session of the National Conference on Volunteering and Service.

Cindy Kerr’s organization ConKerr Cancer has mobilized volunteers to make over 90,000 pillow cases for sick kids.  Her endeavor began in 2002, inspired by her son Ryan who was diagnosed with a rare childhood cancer in 2002. She started making pillow cases to brighten up his hospital room, and soon began to make them for other kids at the hospital.

From the ConKerr Cancer website:

In 2008, Ryan lost his very brave battle with cancer but the pillowcase project – now a not-for- profit called ConKerr Cancer – has grown in amazing ways.  In just two years, Cindy and thousands of volunteers have provided over 90,000 pillowcases to sick children in hospitals across North America and in South Africa.  School groups, sewing circles, church groups and fabric stores have all pitched in and are making pillowcases for the kids.

In 2007, Cindy was an honoree of L’Oreal’s Women of Worth Award.

Careers: Brand New Career Transitions Book for Current and Former Service Corps Members

My career transitions book is live on Idealist! Free, downloadable, accessible from any place with an internet connection — and written just for you.

I’ve been working on this for almost a year — giant thanks to everyone who helped out reading and offering feedback!

Intended for national and international service corps audiences of all ages, Service Corps to Social Impact Career – A Companion to The Idealist Guides to Nonprofit Careers is a free new book from Idealist.org.

While most resources and trainings focusing on “life after” the corps begin and end with career search skill building, Service Corps to Social Impact Career emphasizes integrating career development throughout the term.

The book highlights practices that current corps members can incorporate during their service experience which also prepare them for their next steps, including discerning their professional calling, gaining relevant skills, building relationships, and documenting their accomplishments.

For corps members actively transitioning from their service term to a career or further education, Service Corps to Social

National Conference on Volunteering and Service ‘09: Participate from Home through Live Webcasts

The 2009 National Conference on Volunteering and Service (NCVS) starts today!

Last night, Conference organizers announced that they’re offering the first-ever live webcast of a couple of the events this week so that people who can’t be in the room can still see what’s going on and pose questions to the speakers. Learn more & register by following the hyperlinked event titles below:

National Service Town Hall Meeting
Tuesday, June 23, 2009 — 11:30 AM – 1:30 PM PST (2:30 PM-4:30 PM Eastern)

Launching Today: YouTube’s Video Volunteers

Originally posted on today’s Idealist homepage blog by Julia Smith.

President Obama has asked everyone in the United States to heed the call of service – to pitch in and make their communities a better place. YouTube is stepping up to provide a very “21st century” way of doing just that: a new program called YouTube’s Video Volunteers.

The mission of YouTube’s Video Volunteers platform is to connect nonprofit organizations with skilled video makers who can help them broadcast their causes through video, reaching new audiences online and driving action around issues and projects that matter to them.

The Video Volunteers page shows video-related volunteer opportunities that have been posted to Allforgood.org (which includes listings from Idealist.org and VolunteerMatch). As a result, a YouTuber eager to help out might find a listing like this (“Afro Diaspora Music Video Website” in New York City) or this (“Promotional Video for the GO-Science Challenger Learning Center” in Greenville, NC).

Do you work at a nonprofit that needs help making a video? From now on, when you post a volunteer opportunity on Idealist, make sure to use the words Video Volunteer in your posting. That way, it will show up in the AllforGood feed – and as a result, on the YouTube Video Volunteers page.

To learn more, visit youtube.com/videovolunteers.

Service Nation Strategy Session in San Francisco as part of NCVS

Monday, Service Nation coalition members and others gathered for a luncheon at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, prior to the kick off of the National Conference on Volunteering and Service.

Overall the strategy luncheon was more luncheon than strategy, but I was glad to see an effort made to bring the Service Nation campaign spirit into the National Conference on Volunteering and Service gathering, which overall seeemed to involve more media attention and celebrity involvement this year than in the past.

Speakers included:

Alan Khaizei, founder of Be the Change, Inc, leader organizer of the Service Nation campaign, spoke—summarizing the

The Idealist.org Career Center at NCVS

At the National Conference on Volunteering and Service this week, look for the Idealist Career Center in the West Hall’s Third Floor Lobby, near the escalators and against the wall.

Monday through Wednesday, we’ll have staff on hand for one-on-one or small-group conversations about careers, as well as a series of 30-minute workshops to address specific topics. All of these are free to attend, and no reservation is required.

Monday, June 22

3-5 pm        20-minute Career Conversations with Steven Joiner, Director, Career Transition Program or Russ Finkelstein, Associate Director. Got burning questions? Need a sounding board? Here’s a chance to brainstorm ideas with some people on our careers team.

Tuesday, June 23

Supporting Your Corps Members’s Career Transitions

Next week at NCVS, in addition to blogging & helping staff the Idealist Career Center on the Third Floor Exhibit Hall, I’ll be offering a workshop for service corps program directors and team leaders called “Incorporating Career Transitions Throughout the Term of Service.”

My workshop will take place first thing Wednesday morning as part of the NCVS events at the Moscone Center — and I am looking forward to seeing a room full of wide awake, rearing to go participants. I hope you can join us!

The idea behind the workshop is that preparing corps members for their career transition out of your program benefits both your program and the members themselves. With this workshop, participants can explore the components of an effective career transitions support strategy, and share effective practices with each other and me.

Because I learned how to train people as a Peace Corps Volunteer in China (where I taught English

Film Screenings at the National Conference on Volunteering and Service

Sargent Shriver, an American Idealist

NCVS is next week in San Francisco, and will bring together thousands of volunteer and service leaders from around the country — and world.

The National Conference on Volunteering and Service (NCVS) is the world’s largest gathering of volunteer and service leaders from the nonprofit, government and corporate sectors. Co-convened by Points of Light Institute and the Corporation for National and Community Service, the annual event gives participants an opportunity to learn, connect and be inspired through a wide range of plenary sessions, workshops, special events, service projects, exhibits, specialized corporate tracks, and more. More than 4,000 attendees are expected to attend the 2009 conference, taking place June 22-24 in San Francisco.  

One thing I am getting really excited about — other than getting to see old friends and meet new people (you?) — is the mini-film festival taking place Tuesday afternoon from 4-6 pm.

Two films are showing at the conference as part of the Civic.Energy.Generation. Film Festival:

New Podcast: A Pride Month Interview – Lesbian and Gay Perspectives in AmeriCorps and Peace Corps

June is Pride Month, so The New Service podcast from

Gay Pride 8-colors Flag by Stonewall Veteran Gilbert Baker

Idealist.org is taking a closer look at the experience of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals serving in Peace Corps and AmeriCorps.

Today’s guests are lesbian and gay former service corps participants:

• Chad Jeremy, a former AmeriCorps NCCC corps member, currently a training specialist with AmeriCorps NCCC in Perry Point, MD. Chad is an officer with National Service GLOBE, an affinity group for LGBT folks involved with national service.
• Kate Kuykendall, a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (China, 1999-2001); currently a Public

A Pride Month Interview: The First Known Transgender Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Speaks Out

A Pride Month interview.

A recently-Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, and the first known transgender person to serve, writes about his experiences—first on the website for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Returned Peace Corps Volunteer group (also known as the LGBT RPCVs), and now in an interview with my intern Sara Lozito and me.

The interview here is timed to appear on the same day as our podcast interview for Pride Month. The RPCV has chosen to remain anonymous for security purposes.

To give you a little background here are some excerpts from the LGBT RPCVs website:

My desire to become a Peace Corps volunteer stemmed from not only believing in the mission and goals of PC, but because I wanted to gain valuable international experience

Pride Month Podcast Transcript

Gay Pride 8-colors Flag by Stonewall Veteran Gilbert Baker

Below is the transcript of our June podcast, “Lesbian and Gay Perspectives in AmeriCorps and Peace Corps.” Huge thanks to podcast intern Sara Lozito, an AmeriCorps member, for work in creating the transcript.

Amy: Welcome to the Idealist podcast. I’m Amy Potthast and this is the The New Service Podcast from Idealist.org – moving people from good intentions to action.

June is Pride Month, so The New Service podcast is taking a closer look at the experience of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals serving in Peace Corps and AmeriCorps. The terms lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender are abbreviated throughout the show as LGBT or GLBT.

Today’s guests are lesbian and gay former service corps participants:

Nita Lowey Announces $450M for Peace Corps on Chris Matthews Show

RPCV Chris Matthew, RPCV Maureen Orth, and Rep. Nita Lowey on Hardball

More Peace Corps is looking more likely.

This afternoon, Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY) announced on RPCV Chris Matthew’s show Hardball that the proposed Peace Corps budget would increase to $450 million (over $340 million, last year) that would help expand Peace Corps’s presence to 20 additional countries.

Congress will vote next week. Lowey chairs the Appropriations Committee.

Check out the segment here (find the story “What’s Next for the Peace Corps?” among the images to the left of the video player).

“Have Rainbow, Will Travel” – Peace Corps Info for Prospective LGBT Volunteers

In honor of Pride Month, Peace Corps will offer an online info session this Saturday, June 20th, 11 am – 12 pm Pacific time, exploring the issues faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals who serve their country through Peace Corps.

All Peace Corps Volunteers must work hard to adapt to their service assignments, learn a foreign language, and fit in with the local culture. LGBT Volunteers face special additional challenges, including being discreet, if not entirely closeted, about their sexual identities while in their host communities.

This online info session — requiring an internet connection — will discuss topics such as:

• Balancing the desire to be true to ourselves with the need to be respectful of the host community

Share Your Story of Service: It Could Show Up as the Plot of Your Favorite T.V. Show

Service Nation — the coalition of organizations campaigning for a new age of service and citizenship in the United States — is asking for your service stories.

This past year, Service Nation organizers have been working hard to bring Hollywood and the service movement closer together. Now, through a cooperative effort led by the Entertainment Industry Foundation, the entertainment industry will “shine a spotlight on the great service and volunteer heroes who are changing our world for the better, both at home and abroad” by fictionalizing real-life stories of service, and the impact of service.

The stories will be used as inspiration for writers at various television networks and shows. Here are some guidelines from Service Nation:

• These stories need not be recent examples, but should be true.   

Mayor Bloomberg Appoints a City Year Staffer as NYC’s First Chief Service Officer

Photo by Ed Reed, Office of the Mayor

This week, New York’s Mayor Bloomberg announced that Diahann Billings-Burford will be New York’s first Chief Service Officer.

Billings-Burford — who’s coming from an external affairs role at City Year New York — will lead an innovative new municipal effort that Bloomberg launched earlier this year called NYC Service.

The initiative promotes volunteering and service, with the goals of making New York “the easiest place in the world to volunteer,” finding ways for volunteers to address the impacts of the economic downturn, and”setting a new standard for how cities can tap the power of their people to tackle our most pressing challenges.”

Billings-Burford’s work will include implementing the agenda spelled out in the NYC Service Report (PDF).

One new project — sponsored by Big Brothers Big Sisters — is a campaign to bring 2000 new mentors into 51 high needs middle schools through Middle School Mentors. Mentors would spend eight hours a month with a middle school student, “being their friend in

More Peace Corps Rally Saturday, June 13th

Show your support for More Peace Corps at a rally in Washington, DC, tomorrow from 2-4 pm at Freedom Plaza.

Hundreds of former Peace Corps volunteers will come together tomorrow to remind President Obama of his campaign pledge to build a Peace Corps of 16,000 volunteers by 2011, the 50th anniversary of the agency.

The rally will culminate with a march to the White House, led by Tim Shriver — CEO of Special Olympics International and son of Peace Corps’s founding director Sargent Shriver.  Leamer, a speaker at the event as well as one of its organizers, insists the event isn’t anti-Obama, but a friendly reminder to honor his own campaign promise.

The event will feature music from an 22-woman Brazilian drumming group Batala, Peruvian flutist Juan Cayrampoma and the American rock-n-roll band Cairo Fred.

In addition to Tim Shriver, event speakers will include:

• Harris Wofford, long-time advocate of service, and an early staffer at the Peace Corps.

Idealist Graduate Admissions Fairs – Next Week in Washington DC and New York

Social impact professionals at all stages in their careers get a chance to meet representatives from a range of public-service focused grad schools next week in DC and New York. The events are free, after work, and include information sessions.

Idealist’s 2009 season of Graduate Degree Fairs for the Public Good launches next week in Washington, DC, and New York.

These events are unique among graduate admissions fairs in that they are completely geared toward degree areas that our Idealist network is looking for—ranging from nonprofit and business management to public policy and social work. Education, divinity, public health, and

What Happened to Getting Rid of the Taxes on the Education Award?

When the various bills that became the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act were in play, there was talk about eliminating the taxes from the Segal AmeriCorps Education Award.

In case you are new to national service, the education award is the post-service benefit received by AmeriCorps and VISTA members that can help them pay for educational expenses and/or student loans. It’s considered taxable income.

It was never the Kennedy bill but rather a separate bill introduced by Senator Dodd of Connecticut that would have ended the tax on the education award. Late in the process, elements of Dodd’s national service bills were incorporated into the Serve America Act. However, the elimination of the taxes on the education award was not one of those elements. The tax remains.

I called Senator’s Dodd office last week and asked a staffer if there were any plans to follow through with