Tag Archives: volunteering

Do young people have too much time to think about only themselves?

Posted on January 17, 2012 | Leave a comment

I spent the weekend in a skilled nursing center with my 95-year-old father, and I met a young person, James, who at age 26 has done more inspiring work than many of us will do in a lifetime. His story makes me wonder about a couple of things, the first of which is whether this slower path to adulthood might just be giving kids a little too much time to focus on themselves–and how we might transform this slower path into something more. Read the full post over at Psychology Today.

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Posted in delayed adulthood, millennials, politics, work and earnings

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Young adults–the new “do-gooders”? As job offers dwindle, young adults flock to the public sector

Posted on March 7, 2011 | Leave a comment

In 2009, 16% more college grads worked for the federal government than the  year before, and 11% more worked for nonprofits, according to a recent article in the New York Times. Welcome to the recession. As the competition gets fierce, nonprofit groups rub their hands together in welcoming anticipation. Americorps has seen applications triple between 2008 and 2010. Teach For America had more than 46,000 applications in 2010, a 32% increase, according to the Times.

For some, this decision is a temporary side-step, a place to cool one’s heels and gain some work experience while riding out the recession. This generation is frequently tagged as apathetic–they don’t vote, they don’t keep up with politics, they’re not politically minded, despite the Obama “youth vote.” Only about one in five youth under 30 eligible to vote did so in the midterm elections.  They may be  quick to sign on to “lifestyle” causes–buying Tom’s shoes because the company gives a percentage of profits to charities, or joining online causes. However, as many have noted, these acts require little real action. It’s easy to click “like” to a Facebook cause. It’s harder to rally for change on the Capitol steps.

On the other hand, this generation grew up with volunteering. According to a recent analysis of high school seniors nationally, by 2005, about one-third of high school seniors had volunteered in their community, up from 21% in 1990.  Most faced service requirements in high school, and many have continued that volunteering habit in college. They have been hooked into the volunteering, community-organizing system at an impressionable age, and it might make life-long volunteers out of them. Indeed, the number of educated Millennials in public-service jobs has been rising since 2000.

Yet the kids coming in the doors of the nonprofit world are largely college-educated. It is that group that is also more likely to vote and be more involved in traditional forms of political participation, such as writing their congressperson, finds Amy Syversten and colleagues in their recent study, “Thirty-Year Trends in U.S. Adolescents’ Civic Engagement: A Story of Changing Participation and Educational Differences. They are also more hopeful about the future and are more trusting of government than their peers with plans to attend a two-year school or none at all. Disaffection among those with lower educational aspirations set in around 1994 and has only begun to bounce back lately (the data only go to 2006), leaving a large voting and civic participation gap between college-goers and those planning to attend a two-year school.

In some respects, then, the surge of college grads into the public sector is a double-edged sword. If the interview pool is increasingly made up of “the best and the brightest” who were, as the Times put it, increasingly forced by the absence of private-sector jobs “into lower-paying, if psychically rewarding, jobs,” then what chance do those with fewer educational credentials have in landing a job in the public sector? Yet that outcome is likely to only widen the already wide divide between the college elite and the more than two-thirds of young adults with only a two-year degree or less.

Whatever the outcome of this recession and the surge in public-sector work, it seems an opportune time for nonprofits to reach out to Millennials of all backgrounds, many of whom are living at home with their parents, trying to save money, and hoping someone will hire them. After all, they have the two ingredients nonprofits most need: youthful passion and time on their hands.

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Who says this generation is apathetic?

Posted on January 17, 2011 | 2 Comments

I’m just starting to read a new book by Alan Khazei called “Big Citizenship.” Khazei co-founded a nonprofit organization called City Year, which unites young adults ages 17-24 for one year of full-time community service mentoring, tutoring, and educating children.  City Year served as the model and inspiration for President Clinton’s AmeriCorps program and now operates in 20 U.S. cities, as well as Johannesburg and London. He more recently launched Be the Change, Inc., in 2007. The guy is amazing–and he’s got me hooked on his enthusiasm and I’m only on p. 25.

His book, and his work, get to the heart of what makes this generation tick: giving back to their communities. We hear a lot about the apathy of the younger generation. But once again, I think that’s a case of looking in all the wrong places for social action. It’s true that young people are not voting as much as generations before them did (we’re all not voting as much). But that doesn’t mean they’re not taking part in their communities. This generation, in fact, is much more likely to volunteer than my generation was. The habit may have begun as a requirement in high school (kids often need to fulfill “service learning” requirements to graduate), but it doesn’t stop there. Many more college graduates continue to volunteer than in the past. (That said, volunteering and civic participation is yet another clear divide between the more- and less-educated groups. There is a sharp drop-off after high school in civic action by those with the least education.)

This latest generation combines the skills they learned in service learning with another famous trait of theirs: self-confidence. Many complain that 20-somethings are entitled or think too highly of themselves. I see it differently. Sure there are examples of young people who haven’t a clue what service, effort, or work actually means (and they’re usually in the service sector alas). But for every one of those clueless 20-somethings, there is Natasha, Sean, Ashley, or Geneva, or Zena:

Zena is the 32-year old founder of both the South Bronx Food Cooperative and the South Bronx Food Foundation. She has dedicated her life to bringing affordable, healthy food to people in the Bronx and is ready to pursue a new project called A Kid Grows in NYC. The project will provide students with tools and teachers with lesson plans to grow healthy foods in classrooms, as an alternative to sugary foods. Students can also use the food to begin school-based farmers markets and cooking classes.

Geneva is an 18-year old freshman at Columbia University. As a former foster child legally adopted at the age of 10, Geneva is personally familiar with the neglect that many foster children experience. She is especially concerned about teenagers in foster care, who are phased out of the system but often lack the skills and encouragement to get jobs and lead fulfilling lives. In her Fostering Greatness project, Geneva will visit Harlem foster homes 2-3 times per week to teach foster kids various skills, from financial budgeting to interview etiquette. Her goal is to help these teenagers gain confidence and positivity about their futures that the foster care system does not provide.

Sean, a 22-year old artist and writer from Brooklyn. He is starting Artists for All Stripes, a free weekly art class for children at New York Presbyterian Hospital. He and 3 trained artists will teach the art classes, including an ex-Disney cartoonist who will help the kids learn to draw caricatures. Sean’s goal is to help 15 kids express themselves through art in a fun, open environment.

Ashley is a 20-year old junior at Columbia University. When she was in elementary school, she participated in a reading program called Battle of the Books, which helped her develop a love of reading. Ashley is concerned that kids in urban schools do not have similar opportunities. She is starting a Battle of the Books after-school program for 20 fourth and fifth grade students at P.S. 145 in West Harlem. Her goal is for the 20 students to leave with new friendships, a greater appreciation of reading, and a new assurance in their own academic abilities.

Natasha Dillon is a 26-year old student and activist that advocates for LGBT rights, protection and equality. She is concerned that 9 out of 10 LGBT students experience harassment at school and are at a much higher risk for suicide, substance abuse, homelessness and HIV/AIDs. For her project, Natasha will start Guiding Proud, which will provide a safe space for LGBT youth to meet and connect with LGBT role models. Guiding Proud will allow these teenagers to connect face-to-face with LGBT adults who have lived through the same bullying, harassment and confusion. Five youth will meet with 10 adults for a monthly group outing to bowling alleys, museums, etc.

All these and 10 other pilot projects  are part of an ambitious (and heartening) program organized by 20-somethings, called Pando Project. Their initiative, self-confidence, and commitment to giving back are truly inspiring. Check it out! And never again say that young adults are apathetic.

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The American Dream is on life support

Posted on May 6, 2010 | 3 Comments

The American Dream– that mythic force that spurs us to “make no small plans,” that feeds our imaginations, that draws thousands to our shores to make it big. It’s a force to be reckoned with. Or maybe not. It seems that the American dream has been downsized.

John Zogby studies the American Dream (yes, apparently that’s a real profession), and he’s finding some rather deflating facts. Like this one: only 57% today believe it’s possible to achieve the American Dream. That’s down from 76% in 2001. Ouch.

“The American dream still exists” he says. “It’s not going anywhere. But in so many ways, it’s being refashioned and repackaged to reflect the new circumstances of so many of our lives …We still dream great things for our children, but today we do so within the context of the new limits in our own lives.”

This is particularly true for the group he calls the “dreamless dead,” those who say neither they nor most middle-class Americans can achieve the American Dream materially or spiritually. (This is one of the groups of young people Rick and I also track in Not Quite Adults).

Compared with November 2008, … the percentage of Dreamless Dead jumped from 12% to 20%. We [zogby] found this pessimism increasing across all demographic groups. Predictably, the jump was greatest among those earning the least (annual household income below $25,000), going from 19% to 44%. Other groups that also had higher increases of Dreamless Dead included women, political independents and those without college degrees.

This is a big moment in our history–a cultural turning point if you will. Our identity as Americans–our cultural touchstone–is built on this notion that you can get ahead in life through hard work and some gumption. Undergirding that belief is an enduring optimism–an optimism built on the notion that we all have the same opportunity to succeed if we play by the rules. (Big caveats there for enduring racism.)

The Game is Rigged

So what changed?  Why do nearly half of Americans think that the American Dream is dead. I’d venture it’s a whole slew of factors. They feel trapped at work, they don’t see the path to advancement anymore, they fear for their jobs in many cases. Their pay is stuck in “barely making it” mode.

But most of all, they feel the deck is stacked against them. When Wall Street is free to create an investment rigged to go bad just so they can place a side bet on it that it will go bad (and surprise, surprise, win that bet), you know the little guy doesn’t stand a chance. When lobbyists flood the halls of Washington, rigging the so-called democracy to tilt toward them, you know the little guy is screwed. When we lower taxes on the wealthy on the assumption that the largess of their sound investments (see point #1) will trickle down to the little guy, you know your bank account is going to be empty. When predatory lenders are set loose to sell the ultimate symbol of the American dream–a home–with exploding interest rates and artificially pumped up prices, you know you don’t have a chance.

Some reading this might be nodding and saying, yeah, welcome to my world. Those readers are likely black or Hispanic. Minorities in this country have felt for a long time that the game was rigged. They have for decades had less reason to trust their fellow man. They have long felt the American dream didn’t include them.  It seems that maybe now,  middle- and working-class whites are beginning to share those suspicions.

The Glue that Binds

When you’re stuck in a hole or feel the game is rigged, you don’t exactly feel expansive toward your fellow man, and especially not toward the easily scapegoated “big government.” Trust withers. Social trust is the glue that holds this grand experiment in democracy together. Without it, we begin to distrust one another as the divisions in opinions, money, jobs harden our edges and we dig in our heels. We balkanize, listening  only to those who parrot our beliefs, and little by little, the mortar of our society–trust–is chipped away. And without trust, we don’t cooperate with each other to make things better. It’s a self-fulfilling prophesy.

It’s also one of the hardest things to rebuild. But rebuild we must. It starts at the voting booth. But too many of us say, ack, why vote? My vote doesn’t matter. The lobbyists tilt it toward them anyway. See the dilemma?

But it also starts in our communities and deliberately reaching beyond our balkanized groups. Millennials are really quite good at this. They do believe they can make a difference–and they volunteer to make it happen (even beyond the service requirement in school). They aren’t looking to fix the entire world or create revolutions, like their parents were. They don’t want to tackle all the big social inequities. Instead, they want to make a difference locally, and see personally how that difference plays out. They might tutor a failing third grader or volunteer at the  community garden or farmer’s market. Likewise, they don’t go in for the big protests. They prefer to put peer-to-peer marketing to use in social causes. It’s personal. They also abhor “politics”–it’s too confrontational and nothing ever gets done. (ok, they may be right about that.)

Their efforts are a great step, and can go far in fostering a lifelong base for social trust. But they do have to vote. With all the talk of the Obama youth vote, only 50% of those under 30 voted overall–just a smidge higher than the 2004 midterms. (And the majority were college-educated.)  Nearly 80% had NOT participated in government, political, or issue-related organizations. They had never emailed Congress about an issue, contributed to an online discussion or blog on politics, or attended a political rally. They had never donated money to a campaign.

We need both forms of involvement–local giving and keeping politicians working for US– if we are to restore the American Dream.

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