Michelle Obama and Jill Biden help kick off the Veteran’s Day launch of the new Service Nation initiative Mission Serve.

Today we pause to think of our veterans who have served our country in the Service. In honor of Veteran’s Day, Service Nation — the campaign to expand service opportunities — launches a new initiative, Mission Serve, to connect civilians and the military community in service.

Service Nation aims to strengthen the bonds between the military and civilian service worlds — two overlapping communities that have much in common because we all want to serve our countries and make our communities stronger.

Mission Serve will build a broad partnership of civilian service organizations, veterans groups, military family groups, and active-duty and reserve members of each military branch. The partnership will encourage troops, veterans, and their families to serve at home and continue to strengthen our country in new ways. By coming together in service, it’s Service Nation’s hope that these two communities can support one another and grow the service movement across the country.

So far the network of partners includes 36 groups who will offer crucial support to military families while their loved ones serve their country. They will help veterans transition to new careers through focused training, job search assistance, and mentoring.

At 2 pm ET today, First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden will join Service Nation to officially kick off Mission Serve. Service Nation will be streaming the event live on its website.

Mission Serve is launching a new veterans volunteer match registry www.MilServe.org and in support of that, Idealist.org’s Steven Joiner has created a toolkit to ease the path of members of the military community who are transitioning into the civilian service world.

Reports from the US and many other regions in the world continue to show that young people are bearing the brunt of the recession.

In the US, the Center for American Progress reports that minority workers, teens and less-educated workers have unemployment rates far above the national average. The latest available data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that in July 2008, 3.4 million young people in the United States were unemployed representing a youth unemployment rate of 14 percent, the highest rate recorded for July since 1992.

According to the National Youth Employment Council, “an unprecedented “age twist” in employment rates occurred in the US over the past 8 years with older workers (55+) improving their employment rates strongly while teens and 20-24 year old males reached new post-World War II lows.”

This trend is true in many parts of the developing and developed world. In several countries, young people represent the largest cohort in society yet experience some of the lowest employment rates.

The Middle East/North Africa region has an unemployment rate near 15 percent, the highest of any region in the world. Young people in the region experience even greater unemployment with average rates of 25 percent, far exceeding the world average of 14 percent. The Economist reported that in the UK, the class of 2009 is the most debt-ridden group of college graduates in Britain’s history and is the least likely to find a job with unemployment rates among young people aged 18-24 rising to 17.3 percent over the past year.

Despite these discouraging statistics, youth service has been growing as a powerful strategy for preparing young people to find rewarding employment. Young people who are engaged in meaningful service to their communities gain valuable, real-world skills that improve their employability in today’s competitive labor markets, thus combating the high rates of youth unemployment.

Studies have shown that youth who participate in organized community engagement programs are more likely to find gainful employment. Through service opportunities, unemployed young people can participate in structured opportunities to apply their talents and abilities while building skills and habits that transfer to economic viability.

As illustrated in ICP’s 2006 report Service As a Strategy for Combating Youth Unemployment, civic engagement programs of sufficient duration and sophistication can tap energetic young people to help address critical needs such as environmental sustainability, public health and education, while also providing a mechanism for young people to build skills such as leadership, responsibility, the ability to take supervision and make decisions, self-management, team-building and cooperation.

Instead of feeling disempowered and alienated, young people engaged in service projects achieve a sense of purpose and accomplishment that counteracts pressures to get involved in unhealthy behaviors and sets them on the right track to participate in a productive and industrious workforce.

Many young people in the United States are taking advantage of these service opportunities with applications to AmeriCorps, Peace Corps and other service programs having seen dramatic increases. According to the 2009 Volunteering in America study released by the Corporation for National and Community Service, over 441,000 more young people aged 16-24 volunteered in 2008 than 2007, representing an increase from about 7.8 million to more than 8.2 million.

The report also indicated that more non-profit organizations are increasing volunteer opportunities to respond to shrinking budgets in the recession. Between September 2008 and March 2009, more than a third (37 percent) of nonprofit organizations reported increasing the number of volunteers they use, and almost half (48 percent) foresaw increasing their usage of volunteers in the coming year.

As young people experience greater rates of unemployment, service opportunities provide an opportunity to gain valuable skills for finding employment while making concrete contributions to organizations and communities affected by the downturn economy.

Additional resources:

• To learn more about using service as a strategy for combating youth unemployment, please see ICP’s 2006 report.
• To learn more about volunteering rates in the US, please see the Volunteering in America website.
• Peruse the many useful links on the right and categories on the left of The New Service blog for resources about careers, service opportunities and more.
• Read more about transitioning from a corps to career in Service Corps to Social Impact Career, a free guide from Idealist.org.

Think about what it takes to change the world. Now think about all the people involved. I’m not talking about the global leaders here—after all, we’re all familiar with extraordinary figures like Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Mother Teresa—but rather those who contribute behind the scenes, who change the world for the better outside the spotlight’s glare.

For every global leader, there are millions of individuals working, volunteering, and generally doing their part to foster healthy citizens and communities the world over. One such oft behind-the-scenes role that deserves a shout-out today? Volunteer resource managers.

If you’ve had a great volunteer experience somewhere—a role or project where you felt engaged in meaningful work, supported and valued for your contributions—chances are you have a great volunteer resource manager to thank. The folks who do this work are responsible for connecting willing helpers with diverse opportunities to make a difference, all while managing relationships, assessing organizational needs, serving as advocates and a bridge between volunteers and staff, and identifying potential changemakers and crafting opportunities to engage them. All this in addition to the nuts and bolts of volunteer management: from risk assessment to screening, communications to evaluation. In short, volunteer resource managers are a human gateway to service for millions of volunteers worldwide.

Volunteer resource managers recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of volunteers on a regular basis. So it seems only fair we do the same for them. One such opportunity comes today, November 5, with International Volunteer Managers Day, a global day when we recognize the millions of volunteer resource managers worldwide who find, match, and support volunteers in an equally wide range of volunteer opportunities.

So, if you regularly volunteer somewhere, please take some time today to thank volunteer resource managers there for all they’ve done. Want to learn more about volunteer management as a career? Visit our Volunteer Management Resource Center. 

Cross posted from the Idealist homepage blog.

A new film shares the story of an community of service in Maine.

On Veteran’s Day, The Way We Get By — a new documentary about senior volunteers who staff a welcome center in the airport at Bangor, Maine, to receive returning military folks — will premiere on PBS stations as part of POV, “documentaries with a point of view.” (Check the broadcast schedule.)

From the show’s synopsis:

On call 24 hours a day for the past five years, a group of senior citizens has made history by greeting over 900,000 American troops at a tiny airport in Bangor, Maine. The Way We Get By is an intimate look at three of these greeters as they confront the universal losses that come with aging and rediscover their reason for living. Bill Knight, Jerry Mundy and Joan Gaudet find the strength to overcome their personal battles and transform their lives through service. This inspirational and surprising story shatters the stereotypes of today’s senior citizens as the greeters redefine the meaning of community.

Participants of the Conference on Volunteering and Service in June 2009 were invited to a preview of the film, but now anyone with a television or internet connection (Nov. 12 through Dec. 12, the film will stream online) will be able to view the film.

Here are other ways to share the film’s message in your community:

• If you are part of a service corps, nonprofit, class, or community group that would benefit from seeing the film, you can access a free copy of it and host a screening in your own community. When you sign up you’ll also be able to access facilitation guides, lesson plans and other tools.
• Promote the activities of seniors and veterans in your community and find new ways to get involved.
• Learn more about ways to support the documentary.
• Watch the film’s trailer:

Nov. 4th Update: A submission based on the t.v. show 30 Rock won the competition, with prize money to benefit Quality Services for the Autism Community, a New York nonprofit. Read more here:

The entry was submitted by Joe Moran, assistant director of multimedia development at the autism group, who created a video showing how 30 Rock could highlight the organization’s work in one of its episodes. The plot twist involves a cast member’s confusion over the words “artistic” and “autistic.”

And check out his submission:

This month, the Chronicle of Philanthropy has sponsored a contest for people to produce scripts of their favorite television shows with plot themes that incorporate volunteerism.

Finalists, announced recently, submitted scripts and video for shows like Bones, House, two submissions for Two and a Half Men, a couple for 30 Rock, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Glee and at least a couple inspired by The Office (and here). (See all the submitted ideas and the nonprofits that will receive the prize money here.)

VolunTV contest judges include people like Ashley Judd and Nigel Barker  from the entertainment industry as well as leaders in our sector like volunteer resource management guru Susan Ellis, social media mavens Beth Kanter and NTEN’s Holly Ross, and blogger and podcaster Rosetta Thurman.

Contest prizes and categories include:

• $5,000 Grand Prize: The most creative pitch, script, or scene that best incorporates volunteerism
• — written or video — into a TV show.
• $2,500 Silver Prize (Text): A written pitch/script that effectively incorporates volunteerism into a TV show.
• $2,500 Silver Prize (Video): A video pitch/scene that effectively incorporates volunteerism into a TV show.

Recently the Entertainment Industry Foundation and partners piloted the iParticipate campaign, in which t.v. shows actually mentioned volunteerism, or at least offered public service announcements in support of the iParticipate campaign.

You haven’t really participated in a term of service until you one day think to yourself, “You know, I could just quit. I could make more money at Subway, plus get free sandwiches and “burnt” cookies. What am I doing with my life?!”

I can think back to conversations with my dad when I first started. He told me that it’d be smart to keep looking for “real” jobs while in AmeriCorps VISTA and not to worry about ending my term early. He said it’d make sense to take another offer, economically, since anything else would likely pay more than $210/week.

I reminded him that I’d be forfeiting the $4725 education stipend and the forbearance benefit, and that my healthcare at a new place might not be as good as the VISTA benefits. I also reminded him that it doesn’t look good to only have worked at an organization for a few months, not to mention those few months were my only post-degree experience.

So I never applied for jobs while a VISTA with the intention to end my term early.  I’ve certainly been tempted and browsed open positions.  But I know others who have applied for jobs, and still others who have left their term of service early for another situation.

I don’t know how many service corps participants leave early or try to leave early, but I do know there are many reasons given for doing it or trying to end early:

• The stipend is too little for me and my family.
• I don’t have enough to do/I don’t feel like I’m making a difference/I don’t agree with my program/I don’t get along with my supervisor.
• A family member (or self) has a medical emergency/condition that prevents me from working.
• I was on an acceptance waitlist and just got accepted to grad school.
• I have no real interest in doing anything related to this in the future, I took the job as a stepping-stone because the market was awful.
• The way the site the position was presented, there was lots of work to do, but I completed everything within the first (insert period of time).
• I thought I could have a part-time job or go to school while doing the term of service, but that’s not true according to my program’s guidelines (like AmeriCorps VISTA, or NCCC).

Some can be solved, others are not as flexible; some could’ve been forseen, and others emerge after time.

If you do choose to look for other jobs, please please please be professional (yes, I have seen most of these happen):

• Don’t apply for open positions at your site or host organization.
• Don’t use your site’s/organization’s fax/email/phones to communicate with potential future employers, send out resumes, and complete applications.
• Don’t apply for other jobs while at your site, using your site’s computer, on your site’s time.
• Don’t talk to other corps members or staff about applying for other jobs.
• You get 10 sick/10 vacation days if you’re a VISTA (you get them in other programs too). Use these for interviews instead of coming in dressed differently than normal.

Thinking of leaving? Applying for other jobs?

See if there are things you can be doing differently to make the current service experience a better one. Meet with your project supervisor or manager. If that doesn’t leave you happy, meet with your site supervisor. Still not happy? Meet with your service corps team leader or a staff member at the organization that placed you (the Corporation for National and Community Service state office, for example, or your specific service corps). Be open to hearing others’ observations about yourself. You may have to face some hard truths about your own work style and readiness for the workplace.

Re-evaluate your plan for what you want out of your term of service. Re-evaluate whether you are taking care of yourself or burning yourself out. Take time off to have a life, re-connect with hobbies, friends, and family. You may just be stressed out.

Most importantly, if you choose to leave don’t do it in a bad way. Don’t burn your bridges. If you choose not to leave, don’t think you’ll stick it out but make everyone else around you as miserable as you are. You may not consciously think to make everyone around you painfully aware of your unhappiness, but that’s how it comes off.   It’s hard to pretend you’re happy. But it’s also hard to make these decisions on your own and without first talking to a trusted non-work friend or adviser, and then your supervisor.

I also found this post from March on the Change.org site, which tries to filter people out to begin with.

—-

Service Corps to Social Impact Career — a free career transitions guide from Idealist for service corps participants — offers specific career-related advice for people who who have terminated their term of service early, or who are considering it, including how to talk about early termination in a future job application (see Part Two).

The same book also offers basic work-related skills to build during your term, that might save you from needing to terminate early (see Part One).

Last year, Atlas Corps won America’s Giving Challenge, and this year it’s in the running again — but it needs the support of people like you who care about service, crossing borders, and professional development for people dedicated to working in social impact careers from all over the world.

Atlas Corps, a year-long international service fellowship which sends U.S. residents abroad as well as brings foreign nationals to the United States to serve in nonprofits, is currently in sixth place in the overall competition that rewards the number of daily donors, not the total amount raised through the competition. Your daily donation of $10 can help Atlas Corps win, as it did last year.

See the standings — for today and “all-time” for this year’s competition — here.

America’s Giving Challenge, which takes place using the Facebook Causes platform, is co-sponsored by the Case Foundation, the W.G. Kellogg Foundation, and Parade Magazine, among other groups. According to the rules:

$50,000 will be awarded to the cause with the highest total number of unique daily donations over the 30 days of the Challenge. $25,000 will be awarded to the causes with the second and third highest total number of unique daily donations over the 30 days of the Challenge. $10,000 will be awarded to the next five causes with the highest total number of unique daily donations over the 30 days of the Challenge.

So far, over $1.3 million dollars has been donated to 7,600+ organizations, through the competition—by over 70,000 donors. Atlas Corps’s had nearly 2000 donors.

Last year Atlas Corps not only raised $33,000 through America’s Giving Challenge, but also won the $50,000 grand prize for having the most donors. The organization, headed by Scott Beale, went onto to win $20,000 from an online Ideablob competition. (Read more about these online contests here.)

I plan to donate daily this week because I believe that Atlas Corps’s mission of bringing nonprofit professionals from the Global South to serve in the U.S. nonprofit sector stands to strengthen our perspectives as well as help us discover new ways of solving problems. As a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, I also admire Atlas Corps’s efforts to send mid-career U.S. nonprofit professionals overseas — people who have a great deal of targeted skills, and who already speak the host country language fluently and can jump into short-term, high-skill roles at partner organizations. Atlas Corps is completely privately funded, and has only recently emerged from its pilot phase.

Learn more about Atlas Corps:

• Check out its website
• Listen to this early 2009 podcast interview with founder Scott Beale
• Listen to a recent Nonprofit Career Month podcast episode featuring recently returned Atlas Corps Fellow Abby Flottemesch
• Check out this video from 2009-2010 Atlas Corps Fellow from Kenya Becky Gitonga:

And please consider donating to Atlas Corps as part of America’s Giving Challenge.

Comer Staff greeting students as they enter the building

Jim Conti contributed this post — a visit to a site where  Inner City Teaching Corps (ICTC) of Chicago’s Volunteer Teaching Corps (VTC) members serve. Jim is the program’s Recruiting Coordinator and Associate Director.

For 18 years, the Inner-City Teaching Corps has placed highly excited and motivated recent college graduates in high-need, urban schools.  Though some schools have been partners for many years, the Inner-City Teaching Corps’s Volunteer Teaching Corps also searches out new placements for volunteer teachers.  One such partnership was established in 2007 and has had members of the Volunteer Teaching Corps ever since.  The character, identity, and make-up of the school are specific to this one placement, but the message and sense of hope are transferable to all other school placements.

San Miguel School – Gary Comer Campus is located on Chicago’s West-side, specifically within the Austin neighborhood.  The school and community are almost entirely African-American, with a small percentage of students and residents coming from a Hispanic background.  The neighborhood lies to the West of the Garfield Park and Humboldt Park neighborhoods, and to the East of Chicago’s first Western suburb, Oak Park.  For several years now, residents have been facing the loss of affordable housing as the surrounding neighborhoods continue to be re-gentrified and the identity of this proud neighborhood is transformed.

There are several public schools surrounding Comer (the nickname that staff affectionately uses to refer to the school).  Sadly, the schools are struggling to provide a quality education for their students.  Neighborhood violence and few resources make it hard for students to live up to their full potential.  Many parents look to Comer as a haven within the neighborhood, a place where students won’t have to worry about running out of supplies, sitting in classrooms that are overcrowded, or hallways that are filled with violence.

Comer is a pure middle school, serving students in fifth through eighth grades.  The doors were first opened in 2002 in the

Comer Students Using Computers

old Our Lady Help of Christians School.  The building previously housed several other schools, including a K-8 Catholic school and an alternative public school.  When Comer opened its doors in 2002, a fifth grade class was all that entered the building.  The school grew each year over the next four years until it finally housed the full contingent of 120 students across four grade levels.

With the success of another campus in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, Comer is the second San Miguel model school to open in Chicago.  The San Miguel model is a type of school run through the Christian Brothers, a religious order committed to inner-city youth and education.

Both of the Chicago-based San Miguel schools, along with most across the country, are designed to bring struggling middle school-age children up to grade level so that they may attend competitive and selective high schools in their area.  The San Miguel model also calls upon young adults to give of themselves, routinely hiring volunteers as staff members.  Comer is no exception to this philosophy.

Comer is currently home to volunteers from the Inner-City Teaching Corps, Lasallian Volunteers, Mennonite Volunteers, and Notre Dame Mission Volunteers AmeriCorps.  For the Inner-City Teaching Corps (ICTC), there are currently three members of the Volunteer Teaching Corps (VTC) and one former UNITE member (the ICTC program for mid-career professionals).

Comer Staff 2009-2010

The VTC teachers span grade levels and subject areas.  David D’Antonio (North Park University) and Katie Malnor (Macalaster College) are both second-year volunteers, teach Math and Science, and live in the VTC’s St. Frances of Rome Community.  They teach sixth and eighth graded, respectively.  Peter Maginot is new this year, coming from Johns Hopkins University, teaching fifth grading Reading and Language Arts, and living in the VTC’s Su Casa Community.  All three are active members of the staff, participating in various extracurricular activities, and engaging the Comer community.

Many questions often arise around the hiring of new teachers, especially those through Alternative Certification programs such as that offered by ICTC.  Kathy Donohue, Assistant Principal at Comer, happily addressed some of these questions to clarify why the school so highly values its volunteers.

“We only exist because of volunteer teachers, because of their generosity.  The financial situation of many of our families dictates that we need to fundraise everything.  Some of our primary benefactors are our teachers who work for far less than they deserve.  They donate their salaries and should be on our donor list.  They are mission-driven, and give of their talent, treasure, and time.”

When asked about how the school views bringing in teachers with limited classroom experience, Donohue’s comments echoed the same positive view.

“So much of teaching is passion.  With some challenges, they come well trained and ready for the classroom.  They come prepared and with a great support network behind them.  If there are any bumps, [the teaching coaches] are there to help along with the administrators.”  For VTC members, teaching coaches visit classrooms a minimum of every other week in the first year, and every three to four weeks in the second year.  There are also a number of additional resources available to VTC teachers including alumni of the program, in-school mentor teachers, and a teacher resource center.

Finally, Donohue explained how volunteer teachers, and especially teachers from the VTC, are viewed in the school community.  “All of our teachers are part of our school community.  All adults are part of this community for the purpose of the kids.  Every new staff member is welcomed with open arms.”

Comer continues to shine in the face of challenge, being built on the principles of faith and caring.  The community is a family to anyone lucky enough to find their way in.

For more information about Comer, visit www.sanmiguelchicago.org, and for more information about the Inner-City Teaching Corps, visit www.ictc-chicago.org.

Posted as part of Nonprofit Career Month, featuring the diversity of career opportunities in the nonprofit sector. Listen to more shows in this series.

Today’s guest is Heather Calverase, Executive Director of Teach For America’s Newark, New Jersey region where she is responsible for growing sustainable base of financial, community, and district awareness and support including cultivating and stewarding donations, building strong ties with local school districts, and recruiting corps members.

Prior to her position with Teach For America, Heather worked in the business sector, including nearly a decade with Kaplan, best known for its test preparation books and classes.

Amy Potthast chats with Heather about what is appealing about what Heather brings to the nonprofit sector from her business sector experience, as well as her background on educational issues.

Podcast transcript coming soon.