What you think? - National Service Iniative

[claypool4prez]

Carter Endorses National Service Initiative


Fifth District Congressional Nominee Roy Carter is throwing his support behind efforts to expand national service programs for students and older Americans.

Each year 75,000 people serve with AmeriCorps to meet critical needs in education, public safety, health care and the environment. National Service programs are among the most successful initiatives of the federal government.

Carter has signed a pledge to add another 175,000 annual members to the army of existing volunteers. "In my teaching and coaching career," says Carter, "when we took on a service project kids really got excited helping others. This type of experience helps them mature while engaging them in the local community."

Carter, 64, who recently retired after teaching and coaching high school football for forty years, also supports expansion of Senior Corps. "So many seniors are eager to give back, and are looking for ways to help in a constructive way," says Carter. "Volunteer work keeps folks feeling useful and youthful. My personal involvement leading Habitat for Humanity builds and working with my church to fight poverty are some of the more meaningful experiences of my life. Those experiences shaped my thinking about public service and service to others."

Carter is the fifth congressional district’s Democratic nominee for the November election. For more information about the congressional pledge to expand national service, log on to the website

www.roycarterforcongress.com

http://www.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/18412

[claypool4prez]

1. Roy's working hard at it

The freshly mounted drywall was still green around the joint compound, so we took the next chronological step by applying primer to the ceiling. Several of us worked together that day to complete what was one of the more simple, yet crucial, tasks necessary to finish the house that would eventually become a home to a family.


On this particular day, congressional candidate Roy Carter, who is a veteran of such service through both Habitat for Humanity, as well as with his church, joined us.

Roy has provided friends and neighbors with volunteer labor throughout his lifetime. He actually built his own home himself, and three others before the one he lives in now.

It’s not only a can-do attitude, but also a can-do-now attitude that inspires those around him, and persuades many that his leadership is what the fifth district needs now more than ever.

When he is a member of Congress, Roy Carter has vowed to make national service a priority, including strengthening the programs that have been successful in allowing citizens to give back to a great nation that has given us so much. Outfits such as Habitat and Ameri Corps advance patriotism and are essential to healthy communities and individuals. Studies have even found that active volunteers live longer and have a higher quality of life. Public policy that takes this into consideration proves to be exponentially effective.

Every week thousands of Americans serve their communities and our nation by volunteering their time with groups like Habitat for Humanity; numbers that have grown rapidly since President Clinton signed the National and Community Service Trust Act in 1994, resulting in the creation of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). Every year the CNCS recruits new volunteers and creates inventive initiatives. With a modest budget of less than one million dollars for 2008, thousands of non-profit, religious, and public programs are successful in changing the landscapes and lives of millions of Americans.

Unfortunately, it has been too long since Washington challenged us to become engaged in improving our society through volunteer service. There has also been an absence in leadership that leads by example. Roy Carter will put an end to that.

[claypool4prez]

2. Is DU...

Are ya'll for such an idea?

[claypool4prez]

3. hmm

Just curious?

[Gormy Cuss]

4. Expanding it is a good idea.

Mandatory service, which some others have proposed, is the best way to kill the spirit of the national service movement.

[claypool4prez]

5. I agree

We should provide as many opportunites as possible.

Should there be incentives, such as helping those who do go to college or get jobs?

[Gormy Cuss]

6. There are education incentives in Americorps.

The biggest problem with Americorps IMHO is that the stipend level makes it difficult for enthusiastic but lower income youth to make the commitment. One way to remedy that would be to earmark a certain number of slots for locally recruited volunteers, on the theory that it would be easier to get by with the network of resources in his/her home community. VISTA had such a set aside.

On a national level the problem isn't one of finding enough volunteers -- at current funding levels the problem is having to turn down potentially good candidates.

[Joe Fields]

7. I'm all for it.

My son is involved in a few few charities, but maily Habitat for Humanity. There is absolutely no downside to helping other people. I'm very proud of him.