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Youth Service Policy in the U.S.

In the

United States

, National Service has taken many forms over the past 75 years and has allowed the government to enhance its capacity to respond to critical national needs, from building public infrastructure during the great depression to responding to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2004.

Past, Present, and Future of National Service in the U.S.

Click on the links below to read about the different forms of National Service in the

United States

over the past 75 years.

Generating New Ideas

More than ten years have passed since the creation of AmeriCorps and the Corporation for National and Community Service.

Since the establishment of national service, the number of participants in such programs has increased only incrementally. The demand for positions in programs such as AmeriCorps continues to outweigh supply, signaling that many young people who want to participate in an intensive service experience and earn money for higher education or training are frequently unable to do so.

Passing the ten-year anniversary of AmeriCorps is a timely opportunity to revisit current thinking about national service and generate new ideas regarding its potential for expansion and influence.

In order to stimulate the next generation of thinking about large-scale models of national service, ICP plans to use its reputation as a leader in the national service movement in the

United States

and its significant network of contacts and organizations to solicit ideas from the field.