Service Year Alliance

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Service Year Alliance is an American nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. dedicated to making a year of paid, full-time service — a service year — a common expectation and opportunity for all young Americans.^[1]

History[]

The organization was formed in 2016 through the merger of three historical national service efforts (the Franklin Project at the Aspen Institute, ServiceNation and the Service Year Exchange project of the National Conference on Citizenship^[2]). In March 2018 the organization acquired AmeriCorps Alums from Points of Light.^[3]

Campaigns[]

Stop National Service Extinction[]

In response to President Donald Trump’s fiscal year 2018 budget which called for the elimination of the Corporation for National and Community Service, Service Year Alliance launched a campaign to save funding for national service. The campaign culminated on August 30, 2017, with over 100 volunteers dressed in inflatable dinosaur costumes across Washington, D.C., raising awareness during the morning commute and then coming together at the capitol.^[4]

Let National Service Soar[]

Following a second year of a proposed elimination of the Corporation for National and Community Service and cuts to the Peace Corps budget by President Donald Trump, Service Year Alliance launched a campaign to instead grow funding for national service. The campaign culminated on May 7, 2018, with over 100 volunteers dressed in inflatable eagle costumes across Washington, D.C., raising awareness during the morning commute and then coming together at the capitol. ^[5]

Serve America Together[]

Serve America Together is a campaign connected to the 2020 United States presidential election to make national service part of growing up in America. Coalition partners include Student Veterans of America, The Mission Continues, the National Peace Corps Association, YouthBuild, Teach For America, The Corps Network, the Warrior-Scholar Project, the Catholic Volunteer Network, City Year, Vets for American Ideals, States for Service, Jesuit Volunteer Corps, Voices for National Service, Repair the World, America Forward, and America's Promise Alliance. Co-chairs of the campaign are Stanley McChrystal, Arianna Huffington, Robert Gates, Laura Lauder, Andrew Hauptman and Deval Patrick.^[6] The campaign kicked off with a challenge to presidential candidates to release a plan to expand national service. On July 8, 2019, Pete Buttigieg became the first candidate to accept the Serve America Together challenge;^[7] on August 27, 2019, Kirsten Gillibrand became the second candidate to accept the Serve America Together challenge;^[8] and on September 17, 2019, Tom Steyer became the third candidate to accept the Serve America Together Challenge.^[9]

Initiatives[]

National Service and American Democracy[]

Service Year Alliance partnered with Arizona State University to create the course National Service and American Democracy that allows prospective, current, and alumni of service year programs to learn more about American democracy, civic engagement and to contextualize the service year experience within the story of service in America. The three-credit course is offered in-person and online as part of ASU's Online Global Freshman Academy.^[10]

Service+Tech[]

Service+Tech is an initiative launched by Service Year Alliance on December 11, 2018, that provides an "opportunity for service year corps members and alums to develop essential technology skills, discover pathways into tech careers, and leverage technology to solve society’s most pressing challenges."^[11] Funding provided by Schmidt Futures, SAP, and Cisco allows the initiative to offer programming to participating service year corps members and alumni for free.^[12] Founding corps were the Corporation for National and Community Service, AmeriCorps, Teach For America, City Year, Reading & Math Inc., Public Allies, the National Peace Corps Association, and Citizen Schools. Founding training partners were Per Scholas, Make School, General Assembly, Northeastern's Align Program, Code for America, and LinkedIn.^[13]

References[]