A Call to Peace - Civic Enterprises

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service policy implementation; and the effects ofinternational service on volunteers, host organizations,and host communities. We expect to be able to showimprovements in cross-cultural understanding,human capital development, civic engagement,capacity building, education, the environment, andglobal health.The Peace Corps has grown over the last decade,but at a pace too slow to reach the goal of doublingwithin a reasonable number of years. Together, theseprograms, by 2015, can mobilize 100,000 volunteers toserve abroad each year—one million over a decade—fulfilling President Kennedy’s vision. In his 2002 Stateof the Union Address, President George W. Bush calledon Congress to double the Peace Corps and eventuallyincreased the Peace Corps to its highest Volunteerlevels in the previous three decades, showing interestin the Congress in growing the Peace Corps. As BarackObama said in his 2008 message to the National PeaceCorps Association: “We will double the size of PeaceCorps… and we’ll reach out to other nations to engagetheir young people in similar programs, so that wework side-by-side to take on the common challengesthat confront all humanity.”Our ProposalsWe offer the following initial recommendationssupported by a broad-based, bipartisan coalition ofmore than 300 organizations.1. The Peace Corps: The Peace Corps shoulddouble its ranks to 15,000 volunteers by 2015 andforge partnerships with other volunteer-sendingand international development organizations tomaximize impact and leverage funding. In additionto requesting an increase in funding for thesenew slots, the Peace Corps must continue to beaggressive in increasing the safety and security ofits Volunteers. Bills pending in Congress wouldcodify reforms the agency has put in placesuch as better staff training and protectionfor whistleblowers, and would require moredetailed crime statistics and the Peace Corpsand U.S. Department of State to formalizehow U.S. Embassy officials respond to crimesagainst Peace Corps Volunteers. We also proposethat the Peace Corps should strengthen currentprograms, lower the cost per volunteer, enable morevolunteers to serve, and respond to requests fromadditional countries. It should work to form servicepartnerships with countries such as Brazil, Indiaand Nigeria where there are currently no PeaceCorps Volunteers.“I’M NOT DEFENDING THE OLD PEACE CORPS,I’M ATTACKING IT! WE DIDN’T GO FARENOUGH!… WE NEVER REALLY GAVE THEGOAL OF ‘WORLD WIDE PEACE’ ANOVERWHELMING COMMITMENT.”—Sargent Shriver speech at Yale university,two months after 9/11: November 10, 20112. Volunteers for Prosperity: Volunteers forProsperity should expand from its present 43,000to 75,000 skilled Americans each year recruitedand deployed for flexible term assignments througha network of U.S. nonprofits that work in thedeveloping world on urgent problems, such asHIV/AIDS, malaria, education, clean water, andhelping entrepreneurs start local businesses. Thisincrease should occur through the expansion ofthe Volunteers for Prosperity’s Serve Program,which offers modest stipends to volunteers,more than matched by individual and privatesector contributions.3. Global Service Fellowships: Building onprogress in funding Global Service Fellowships withprivate sector support, Global Service Fellowshipsshould be created to mobilize 10,000 volunteerfellows each year for up to one-year assignmentsto help build the capacity of NGOs and faith-basedinstitutions working in the developing world toinnovate and solve significant global challenges.These new opportunities for international servicedirectly through experienced and tested NGOs willenable Americans to serve who would have muchto offer but are not able or ready to enlist for thetwo years that the Peace Corps requires. The GlobalService Fellows should be selected in a competitiveprocess. Members of Congress may nominatefellows from their districts and states, similar to thenominating process for the Military Academies.4. An International Social Innovation Fund:An International Social Innovation Fund should becreated to fuel further innovation in how Americanscan have a greater impact through internationalvolunteer service and increase the capacity oflocal organizations to effectively utilize their timeand talents. To enhance the impact of Americansserving overseas each year through governmentand non-government organizations, we will buildon the examples of the Volunteer Generation andSocial Innovation Funds authorized in the EdwardM. Kennedy Serve America Act.| 30A CALL TO PEACE SEPTEMBER 2011
The Peace Corps, Volunteers for Prosperity, GlobalService Fellowships, and the International SocialInnovation Fund should be asked to give appropriateattention to mobilizing volunteers who will advance thefollowing goals. In all cases, programs should measureoutcomes and be accountable for results:Promote a New Generation of GlobalLeaders through Service Abroad: We aim tomake serving abroad the norm, not the exception,for the education of Americans. Participants in suchglobal service coming out of high school and before,during and after college and graduate schoolwill develop an ethic of service, concrete skills (inlanguage, entrepreneurship and leadership), and aglobal perspective. These programs will be traininggrounds for a pipeline of new global leaders whohave the insight and conviction needed to solveglobal problems, and to foster understandingamong cultures, religions, and people over thecourse of their lives.Align International Volunteering andStudy Abroad: Central to promoting a newgeneration of global leaders, we propose tobroaden the mission of study abroad programsin colleges and universities to include thedevelopment of international volunteering projectsin the developing world that expose studentsto less traditional locations and better integrateinternational service into mainstream curriculum.Given the already substantial role the federalgovernment plays in funding study abroad activities,we will be able to leverage existing resources andbroaden support for international service throughprograms in the U.S. Department of State and theU.S. Department of Education.Promote Opportunities for Americans Age50 and Older to Serve Abroad: We propose toramp up efforts to engage older Americans—thelongest-living, best-educated, wealthiest, andmost highly skilled generations of Americans inour history— in international service to use theirlifetime of experience, skills and knowledge to helpmeet our most pressing problems. We believe theconnection between older Americans and youngerAmericans on international service projects canenhance outcomes and the experiences of thevolunteers.Promote Multi-Lateral Service: We proposeto find the ways and means to enable volunteersfrom the United States to serve side-by-side withvolunteers from host countries and from othercountries. Such multi-lateral service will strengtheninternational bonds among people of differentnations. The proposals by Sargent Shriver andPresident Johnson to host volunteers from othercountries in the United States should be reviewedand seriously considered. In advancing a smallpilot program called Volunteers to America, in1967 President Johnson said that our nation has“no better ambassadors than the… volunteerswho serve in the Peace Corps,” and added: “Ipropose that we welcome similar ambassadorsto our shores. We need their special skills andunderstanding, just as they need ours.”Increase International Service Opportunitiesfor Returning Veterans: Many veterans maintaintheir interest in volunteering after their militaryservice. They have acquired key skills duringtheir service and can be outstanding examplesto young people. The veterans themselves havePeace Corps Volunteer in Malawi, 2009. ©Peace Corps.A CALL TO PEACE SEPTEMBER 201131|
Page 1 and 2: A Call to PeacePerspectives of Volu
Page 3 and 4: TABLE OF CONTENTSIntroduction . . .
Page 5: EXECUTIVE SUMMARYTHE PEACE CORPS EX
Page 9 and 10: WAYS FORWARDIn anticipation of the
Page 11 and 12: A CALL TO PEACEThis report is not a
Page 13 and 14: KEY MOMENTS: PEACE CORPS FOUNDINGOC
Page 15 and 16: Those serving in predominantly Musl
Page 17 and 18: Peace Corps to set the goals of the
Page 19 and 20: TODAY, 22 PERCENT OF ALL PEACE CORP
Page 21 and 22: A TRANSFORMATIVE EXPERIENCEThe over
Page 23 and 24: Figure 15: Regions by Decade of Ser
Page 25 and 26: Confidential. Embargoed until Septe
Page 27 and 28: women who reported feeling unsafe a
Page 29 and 30: While RPCVs recognized the need for
Page 31: Below are core principles and propo
Page 35 and 36: CONCLUSIONThe Peace Corps was a bol
Page 37 and 38: country and how to apply their over
Page 39 and 40: Schwarz, K. (1991). What You Can Do

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