Peace Corps Polyglot

Obama Budget Includes $373.5 Million for the Peace Corps

This morning President Obama released a detailed version of his Fiscal Year 2010 budget to Congress which includes a funding request of $373.5 for the Peace Corps. This request represents a ten percent increase in spending above the current $340 Million funding level for Peace Corps.

“President Obama’s Peace Corps funding request is a step in the right direction, but it is only a step”, said NPCA President Kevin Quigley.  “As a growing number of Americans are responding to the President’s call to service, and as more and more countries request Peace Corps volunteers, we need to provide the resources that will allow us to meet these needs and reach the President’s stated goal of doubling the number of volunteers by the 50^th anniversary of Peace Corps. Unfortunately, this budget does not reflect that goal, rather calling for a very modest increase in the number of volunteers to 9,000—an approximately 13% by the time of the 50^th Anniversary.  There is more work to be done in securing the needed resources for the Peace Corps, and we hope Congress will address this in the coming weeks and months by appropriating funding for the Peace Corps that meets - or surpasses - the President’s request.”

Consideration of the President’s budget moves to the Senate Appropriations Committees. If your representative(s) serve on these committees, contact them to express support for Peace Corps funding levels that go beyond the President’s request, such as the $450 Million proposed in the Peace Corps Expansion Act of 2009, legislation before the House of Representatives.

>> Click here for the State Department's Summary and Highlights of the International Affairs Function, FY2010 Budget Request (.pdf format) and then click to page 35 of the document to see the budget details for the Peace Corps.

Obama References Peace Corps at "Be the Change" Inaugural Ball

At MTV's "Be the Change Inaugural Ball," newly inaugurated President Barack H. Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama walked out the tune of “Hail to the Chief” and were greeted with chants of “O-ba-ma” from a crowded ballroom of young men and women [7,000 strong] hoping to get a glimpse of their president.

President Obama’s every word was greeted with cheers, chants, screams and whistles. He opened “how’s everybody doing tonight?” and “I have been looking for the ball for quite sometime [cheers] because when you look at the history of this campaign, [cheers] what started out as an improbable journey, when nobody gave us a chance [cheers] was carried forward, was inspired by, was driven by, was energized by young people all across America” [crowd chants: yes we can repeatedly].

He went on to say:

“I can’t tell you how many people has come up to Michelle and myself and said ‘I was a kinda skeptical but then my daughter, she wouldn’t budge: she just told me I needed to vote for Obama.’ Or ‘suddenly I saw my son, he was out volunteering and traveling and knocking on doors and getting involved like never before and so a new generation inspires previous generations, and that’s how change happens in America.

It doesn’t just happen in elections and campaigns, it’s happened in service all across America. Young people getting involved in Teach for America and Americorps, people teaching in schools and working in community organizations [pause] joining the Peace Corps! And as this is broadcast all around the world, we know that young people everywhere are in the process of imagining something different that what has come before. Where there is war they imagine peace, where there is hunger they imagine people being able to feed themselves. Where there is disease they imagine a public health system that works for everybody. Where there is bigotry they imagine togetherness. The future will be in your hands if you are able to sustain the kind of energy and focus you showed on this campaign. I promise you, that America will get stronger and more united, more prosperous, more secure. You are going to make it happen and Michelle and I thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

God bless you and God bless the United States of America.”

(President and Mrs. Obama dance at the Inaugural Youth Ball Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Petition to Obama: Signed, Bound, Delivered

Thanks to the dedicated efforts of hundreds of MorePeaceCorps campaign advocates around the nation, two bound documents totaling 600 pages and containing nearly 15,000 signatures were delivered Monday to C.D. Glin, a co-leader of the Obama transition team for the Peace Corps.

 

The petition congratulates President-elect Obama on his election and urges him to follow through with his campaign pledge to expand the Peace Corps.

 

This is the initial delivery of petition signatures, as more and more people continue to sign.  This action will remain open until the inauguration so there is still time to sign the petition! 

 

You can also see how your state is faring on the petition collection front.  For example, what state just cracked the 1,000 mark in signatures?  What state is about ten signatures shy of breaking into the top ten?  And (yikes!) what states are in the bottom ten?  Get connected with other friends from your state or region and move up the leader board! Follow this link to see the latest rankings.

 

We are grateful to all of you who have done so much to get us to the 15,000 mark.  Thank you for your contributions.  They really do add up!

Wofford Calls for "Service Stimulus"

Peace Corps Pioneer Harris Wofford recently teamed up with Stephen Goldsmith (Chairman of the Board of the Corporation for National and Community Service) to say that along with repairing roads, schools and bridges, our nation's "civic infrastructure" also needs to be strengthened.

Read their commentary, "Volunteers for national service desperately needed", published by the McClatchy News Service.

ServiceNation Calls for Expansion of Peace Corps

MorePeaceCorps Coordinator Rajeev Goyal sent an update to MorePeaceCorps supporters this morning:

Senators Obama and McCain both pledged to expand the Peace Corps at the ServiceNation Summit which took place on the 7th anniversary of the September 11th attacks at Columbia University last week.  Both candidates emphasized the heightened importance of the Peace Corps post-September 11th.  Queen Noor of Jordan joined the campaigna advisory council and hundreds of others learned about MorePeaceCorps.  Our 100 House Parties effort was acknowledged by the conference conveners as an example of how a small grassroots effort can make a national impact.

With grasstops support for MorePeaceCorps growing and public promises being made, we need to continue to grow grassroots chapters for MorePeaceCorps, building on the national success of 100 House Parties, to keep the pressure ON. Though we did not reach our pronounced goal of 5,000 sign-ups at www.MorePeaceCorps.org by September 13th, lets try to achieve it by October 14th, the historic 48th anniversary of JFK's call to action at University of Michigan.

Over the next month, I'll be traveling to Florida, Vermont, and Massachusetts to meet with former volunteers and lawmakers to grow support for our goal.  In this period, we will be strengthening and publicizing our campaign plans, posting contact information for MPC leaders in your area, fundraising, developing MPC advocacy videos, and much, much more. 

You can help by visiting your local lawmaker's office and sharing info about the campaign and asking for an endorsement.

Thank you!  MorePeaceCorps is coming alive!! 

Rajeev Goyal
Nepal 01-03
Nat'l Coordinator of www.MorePeaceCorps.org

Check out ServiceNation's Change/Wire for lot's of posts on the summit, live-blogging, Twitters, videos....

Changing the Peace Corps for a Changing World

NPCA President Kevin Quigley and Lex Rieffel brought the discussion about national service, global citizenship, and the role of the Peace Corps in the wake of 9/11 to The Globalist Online Magazine yesterday. 

They wrote an editorial that notes that although both Democratic and Republican parties recognize the Peace Corps is one of the essential ways to address the international challenges facing the nation, the current government is falling short of its promises to expand the Corps.  They point out that an evaluation of the vision, funding model, and even organizational form of the Peace Corps is necessary in the face of falling government revenues and the slowing U.S. economy. 

However, they also emphasize that a new model can help the Peace Corps stay in tune with the realities of a changing world, offering opportunities for more effective volunteerism and a broader sense of global citizenship.  They suggest four main ideas for potential change:

• Coordinate volunteer exchange with other countries.  For example, exchanging volunteers with countries like China and Brazil would help all the volunteers learn about each other's cultures and help the world's poorest and most underpriviledged, no matter their home nation. 
• Reevaluate the way Peace Corps volunteers are funded.  Create a system based on cost sharing that includes state and local governments, or that includes NGOs.
• Create a management model that is ready for the Peace Corps' growth.  Quigley and Rieffel suggest a Corporation for International Study and Service, similar to the Corporation for National Community Service in charge of AmeriCorps and other national service programs. 
• Offer programs beyond the 27 month commitment, such as a post-high school "gap year" program or a six-month renewable program for retirees. 

Their message is one of reform. With it comes with the powerful sense that a mission as important as being responsible citizens of the world is one that can inspire us to make the changes we need to address the challenges ahead.

Read the full editorial here.

ServiceNation Summit: News Media Roundup

Yesterday's ServiceNation summit generated an enormous amount of press.  Rather than trying to recap it all, I'll send you to this Google News page, which has a complete list of links.

You Never Know Who You'll Meet on Amtrak

Life is full of serendipity.

NPCA President Kevin Quigley was en route this morning to the ServiceNation Summit in New York City and he happened to sit next to John Bridgeland, co-organizer of the Service Nation Summit, former Director, U.S. Freedom Corps

Taking advantage of this, Quigley asked Bridgeland a few questions:

How does the Peace Corps fit into the Service Nation Summit?

Bridgeland:  First, the citizens petition from students that was sent to President Kennedy saying that they would join his Peace Corps is the model for the Service Nation Declaration of Service. We want millions of Americans to sign. Second, our Service Nation Policy Plan calls for the doubling of the Peace Corps to enable more Americans to share their compassion and skills in countries around the world.

And third, Peace Corps officials and the President of NPCA will be with us for the President's Forum and the Summit.

What do you want to see coming out of the Summit?

Bridgeland:  ServiceNation Summit is an action-forcing forum, giving the Presidential candidates a platform to share their visions and plans for a renewed culture of service, Senators the chance to announce the introduction of new legislation and highlight existing bills, including the expansion of the PeaceCorps, and leaders across the country to make their commitments to service and plot their next steps.

What is one thing you would like every member of the Peace Corps community to do?

Bridgeland:  Work in partnership with the ServiceNation Coalition, of which NPCA is a key part, sign the Declaration of Service, and urge policymakers and leaders at all levels to follow through to implement their plans.

Reaching for the Top: ServiceNation Summit (Part II)

Some of the best and brightest in the world of national service are getting together for the much-anticipated ServiceNation National Summit on Sept 11-12 in New York City.  The summit seeks to bring together powerful political, community, and corporate leaders from around the country in support of creating opportunities for all Americans to serve our country and solve the critical issues that face our nation today.

NPCA President Kevin Quigley, MorePeaceCorps Coordinator Rajeev Goyal and NPCA Board President Jan Guifarro will be representing the NPCA and the Peace Corps community.

The chance to speak out about increasing national service is not one we could pass up.  In fact, the goals of the Service Nation   movement align with many of the goals of our MorePeaceCorps campaign.  In an article about the value of and real need for "ten times the Peace Corps" (which we blogged about here) by NPCA President Keven Quigley with Lex Rieffel, highlights the positive effects increasing the size of the Peace Corps and service would have both nationally and internationally.

One of the great things about the ServiceNation movement is that while it focuses on national (American) service, it recognizes and celebrates the strong relationship between domestic and international service.  In its declaration, ServiceNation emphasizes that all communities help "build upon the strength of our nation’s diversity of ideas, experience, and perspectives as we unite to serve."  We've seen the correlation between service at home and service abroad and know that the unique perspective that service abroad brings enriches the service we do at home, and vice versa.

ServiceNation stresses the important point that service is essential to citizenship.  "By engaging individuals in a lifetime of service," ServiceNation says in its vision statement, "we will make service a defining ethic of what it means to be an American."  In supporting this movement we also know that service creates more than just state-bound citizens, it creates global citizens who are ready to meet the world's challenges with open minds and high spirits. 

Stay tuned to hear more about the ServiceNation Summit and the great things that happen when we all put our minds to making making a difference a priority!

Brookings Institution Global Brief: Ten Times the Peace Corps

The Brookings Institution has just published Ten Times the Peace Corps: A Smart Investment in Soft Power by NPCA President Kevin Quigley and Non-resident Senior Fellow Lex Rieffel. The paper--part of the Global Policy Briefs series--is available for downloading on the the Brookings website.

Following is the abstract:

A critical challenge for the next president of the United States will be to convince the rest of the world that we are more interested in being a reliable partner than a military superpower. Our future security and prosperity will depend on the success of this effort.

Reversing the negative attitudes toward the United States that prevail in many parts of the world will require a mix of hard power and soft power instruments. The Peace Corps has been one of the most effective forms of American soft power since it was created by John F. Kennedy almost 50 years ago. With 8,000 volunteers in the field, however, it is half the size it reached at its peak in 1966, and most Americans are unaware that it still exists.

Scaling up the Peace Corps to ten times its present size could be one of the smartest initiatives advanced by the next president if it is premised on a new vision, a different funding model, and an enhanced organizational form.