Leveling the Path to Participation: Volunteering and Civic Engagement Among Youth From Disadvantaged Circumstances

This report is the third in the Youth Helping America Series, a series of reports based on data from the 2005 Youth Volunteering and Civic Engagement Survey, a national survey of 3,178 American youth between the ages of 12 and 18. The survey was conducted by the Corporation for National and Community Service in collaboration with the U.S. Census Bureau and the nonprofit coalition Independent Sector. The survey collected information on teen volunteering habits, experiences with school-based service-learning, and other forms of civic engagement. This report explores the attitudes and behaviors of youth from disadvantaged circumstances toward volunteering and other forms of civic engagement

Community Service and Service-learning in America's Schools

"In the spring of 2008, 1,847 principals of K-12 public schools, nationwide, responded to a survey on the prevalence of community service and service-learning in their schools. The National Study of the Prevalence of Community Service and Service-Learning in K-12 Public Schools, sponsored by the Corporation for National and Community Service and conducted by Westat, collected data on the scope of community service and service-learning activities, as well as the policies and supports for service-learning provided by and for schools during the 2007-08 academic year.

College Students Helping America

The Corporation has produced the most comprehensive national report ever conducted on college student volunteering in the United States. "College Students Helping America" concludes that college student volunteering increased by approximately 20 percent between 2002 and 2005, as students have become involved in helping their communities. The report presents data on student volunteering and volunteers in an easily accessible format that will be useful to people -- whether experienced researchers, policy makers, or just concerned citizens -- interested in learning more about volunteering in the states. "College Students Helping America" is based on statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The report includes a state-by-state ranking of college student volunteering

AmeriCorps: Changing Lives, Changing America

AmeriCorps is designed to help strengthen and rebuild communities affected by poverty, impacted by disasters, and marked by crime. From the initial members who served during the "Summer of Safety" in 1994 to the soon-to-be 500,000th member in 2007, AmeriCorps members have been on the front lines of service every day, recruiting and managing volunteers of all ages and backgrounds -- 1.4 million in 2006 alone. Together, AmeriCorps members and the volunteers they mobilize tackle some of our nation's toughest problems: crime, illiteracy, homelessness, gang violence, and drug abuse. They teach and tutor to help students improve academically, mentor children and youth from disadvantaged backgrounds, run after-school programs, reconnect prisoners with mainstream society, care for seniors, and protect the environment. This report examines the results from a longitudinal study of AmeriCorps members and surveys of members, alumni, and the organizations where members served to examine the impacts of national service on members' civic engagement, education, employment, and life skills. Findings reveal that AmeriCorps alumni are more connected to their communities, continue to participate in community activities, and choose public service careers after their service with AmeriCorps

Volunteer Growth in America: A Review of Trends Since 1974

The Corporation has produced a national report that for the first time tracks volunteering over a 30-year period. "Volunteer Growth in America: A Review of Trends Since 1974" illustrates how volunteering has rebounded to a 30-year high today -- rising by more than 32 percent over the past 16 years -- after declining between 1974 and 1989. The report found that older teenagers (ages 16-19) have more than doubled their time spent volunteering since 1989; that far from being a "Me Generation," that Baby Boomers are volunteering at sharply higher rates than did the previous generation at mid-life; and that the volunteer rate for Americans ages 65 years and over has increased 64 percent since 1974; and the proportion of Americans volunteering with an educational or youth service organization has seen a 63 percent increase just since just 1989. "Volunteer Growth in America" is based on statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The findings are encouraging while demonstrating that more engagement is needed to achieve a national goal of raising the number of volunteers from 65 million in 2005 to 75 million by 2010

Where Are America's Volunteers?

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: While the United States recently experienced record highs in total volunteer hours and charitable dollars given to community organizations, these seemingly positive numbers mask a troubling trend: fewer Americans are engaging in their community by volunteering and giving than in any time in the last two decades. The importance of recognizing and addressing this decline in American’s participation in their community cannot be overstated. Throughout the country, volunteers work with congregations, charities, and other nonprofit organizations to provide needed services of all types to people and communities. However, while people, communities, and organizations all rely on the work provided by volunteers, volunteering also generates indirect positive benefits for communities and for volunteers themselves. Given the decline of charitable behaviors among Americans and the importance of these behaviors for the well-being of individuals and communities, this brief analyzes data from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS) to explore – for the first time – how the recent national decline in American volunteering played out in all 50 states (plus the District of Columbia) and 215 metro areas. Every September between 2002 and 2015, the CPS collected national statistics on volunteering through a supplemental survey. Among its many strengths, the CPS sample includes more than 55,000 households that generate reliable statistics for all states and most major metropolitan areas

Youth Helping America - Educating for Active Citizenship: Service-Learning, School-Based Service and Youth Civic Engagement

This brief is the second in the Youth Helping America Series, a series of reports based on data from the Youth Volunteering and Civic Engagement Survey, a national survey of 3,178 American youth between the ages of 12 and 18 that was conducted by the Corporation for National and Community Service in 2005 in collaboration with the U.S. Census Bureau and the nonprofit coalition Independent Sector. The survey collected information on teen volunteering habits, experiences with school-based service-learning, and other forms of civic engagement. While the first brief in the Youth Helping America Series focused on youth volunteering and social institutions, this brief focuses on participation in school-based service — service opportunities made available or required by schools — among middle school and high school aged youth. We pay particular attention to the extent to which youth participate in service-learning courses, which integrate school-based service opportunities into the academic curriculum such as those programs supported by Learn and Serve America

Good Intentions, Gap in Action: The Challenge of Translating Youth's High Interest in Doing Good into Civic Engagement

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Volunteering has long been recognized as a primary mechanism for creating productive and active citizens. A large and diverse body of research describes how volunteering promotes beneficial outcomes for young people: volunteering enables youth to develop social connections and “soft skills” that smooth the transition to adulthood and encourage lifelong community engagement. Social institutions, such as family, religion, and schools, play important roles in the development of many young people by providing paths of entry into volunteering and other forms of community engagement. Our research has shown that teenagers have volunteered at much higher rates over the last two decades (2002-2015) than they did the mid-1970s and late 1980s. Moreover, according to research by the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) conducted over the last 51 years, the desire to do good is at an all-time high among entering college students. In 2016, HERI reported that record numbers of first-year college students felt “helping others in difficulty” and “becoming a comm unity leader” was an “essential” or “very important” personal objective. In this report, we analyze for the first time high school and college student data on actual student engagement taken from the Current Population Survey (CPS), which is conducted monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau. Each September between 2002 and 2015, the CPS included a supplemental survey on volunteering that collected data from a national sample of more than 55,000 households, with representative samples in every state and the District of Columbia

Volunteering in America: 2007 State Trends and Rankings in Civic Life

Analyzes information on volunteering in America in general and in individual states. Part one gives a general overview of American voluntarism. Part two compares rates of voluntarism across the 50 states and Washington, D.C. Part three analyzes voluntarism within each state by focusing on the number of volunteer hours and demographics. The last section is a technical note on statistical methods and data sources. With bibliographical references

N=8 Superspace Constraints for Three-dimensional Gauge Theories

We present a systematic analysis of the N=8 superspace constraints in three space-time dimensions. The general coupling between vector and scalar supermultiplets is encoded in an SO(8) tensor W_{AB} which is a function of the matter fields and subject to a set of algebraic and super-differential relations. We show how the conformal BLG model as well as three-dimensional super Yang-Mills theory provide solutions to these constraints and can both be formulated in this universal framework.Comment: 34 + 10 pages; added references, minor correction