Youth Service & Service-Learning in the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act

We're excited to report that after being passed by the Senate (79-19) last Thursday and by the House (275-149) this Tuesday, the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act is headed to President Obama's desk. The bill, renamed in honor of Massachusetts' Senator Edward Kennedy, authorizes a massive expansion of national service programs for Americans of all ages.

Service-Learning in Serve America
This legislation greatly increases federal support for youth service and service-learning, raising authorized spending levels for youth service programs from 43 million to 97 million and creating several new service-learning programs, including:
* Youth Engagement Zones - competitive grants for local school-community partnerships that commit to engage a majority of K-12 youth-and all high school students-in a comprehensive continuum of service-learning
* Summer of Service - program that engages middle and high school students in volunteer activities in their communities and allows them to earn a $500 education award to be used for college costs.
* Service-Learning Impact Study - a ten-year longitudinal study to measure outcomes of service-learning programs

The legislation includes several items called for in YSA's Nine for '09 policy platform. Of particular interest to Youth Service America, the legislation also:
* Establishes a Semester of Service Program, modeled after YSA's Semester of Service, that allows K-12 youth to earn academic credit for service-learning programs tied to academic standards and of at least 70 hours in duration with a third of the time spent in the community opportunities in school and community-based programs.
* Recognizes Global Youth Service Day and authorizes the Corporation for National Service and other federal departments and agencies to organize activities and make grants to public or proviate nonprofit organizations to organize activities on GYSD.

This legislation also triples the size of AmeriCorps to 250,000 members. This expansion includes a new education corps, of which many members will serve as service-learning coordinators in schools.

Read a summary of all service-learning elements of the bill: http://www.nslponline.org/images/ServeAmericaSLSummary.FINAL.pdf

Read a summary of the entire bill: http://edlabor.house.gov/blog/2009/03/the-edward-m-kennedy-serve-ame.shtml

Read other updates & information: http://www.voicesforservice.org/

What's Next?

First, it's incredibly important to thank all of the Members of Congress who voted for this legislation.
* See if your Representative (http://voicesforservice.org/Serve_America_Act/HR1388HouseVote033109.pdf) and Senators (http://voicesforservice.org/Serve_America_Act/VotingRecord_HR1388.pdf) voted for the legislation.
* Download a sample thank you letter at http://servicevote.org/images//thankyou.doc
* Edit and send to your Representatives (https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml) and Senators (http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm).

You can also sign on to a group thank you letter at: http://www.bethechangeinc.org/servicenation/passthankcongress

Next Up: While this bill authorizes new programs and spending, we must go through the budget and appropriations process to actually ensure that all programs are fully funded at authorized levels. The President's proposed budget already includes an increase, but more advocacy will be needed soon, so watch for further action alerts.