In honor of anti-bullying month, City Year asked corps members all across the country to share words of wisdom and support for children who are facing bullying. I had the pleasure of putting this together.
AmeriCorps, today’s Depression-era CCC via CNN by Senior Political Analyst David Gergen and CEO and Co-Founder of City Year Michael Brown. (via cityyear)Unemployment is striking America’s young people even harder than adults. Among those ages 16-24, unemployment stands at 17.7%, nearly twice the national average. It is even worse for minority youth — 32.4% of young blacks and 19.3% of young Hispanics are unemployed. All told, nearly 3.7 million young people are looking for jobs.
The millennial generation is staring into the abyss of a decade lost, dreams shattered. Experts say the negative effects of long-term joblessness, low earnings and rusted skills could haunt this generation for the rest of their lives.
AmeriCorps is not a cure-all for that adversity, but it will give more hope, and research shows some impressive returns for the communities served by AmeriCorps, as well as for the members themselves. For a small living stipend and a scholarship after service is complete, AmeriCorps members meet pressing local and national needs. They invest in their country, and their country invests in them.
Sometimes idealism can get a bad rap. That it means just being positive all the time— or worse, being naïve. But idealism is incredibly practical. It’s about seeing things as they are, imagining things as they could be, and taking real and practical steps to turn what is into what could and should be.Michael Brown, CEO and Co-Founder of City Year in his 2008 commencement address at the University of New Hampshire. (via cityyear)
