Good morning, ladies and j gentlemen. Im john allenen, president of brookings. On behalf of the institution and our partners, i want to welcome you all to this important event today. I want to welcome those coming in over the webcast, and, of course, we always welcome the media. This morning, youll be hearing from a distinguished group of leaders and volunteers on the matter of National Service. Let me make a few brief comments to begin with. In such divided and turbulent times, we must look for ways to bridge society. To bridge the divides and to restore a sense of community. In recent years, much has been done, sadly, to burn rather than to build the bridges in our civic nation. Leading to a growing culture of fear and distrust, incivility and a reflex to retreat into the safety of tribalism. Our trust in institutions and our trust in each other has taken a beating and has, in fact, declined, and that decline makes it harder for us to solve some of the key problems we face as a country and as a people. From my personal experience, i know that when individuals from different walks of life have an opportunity to serve together and to serve their country and to do something bigger than themselves, they almost always live up to the challenge. In fact, they almost always perform magnificently. Emerging from the experience better young women and men. And in the process, they learn a crucial lesson. That when you serve side by side with another person, it really doesnt matter who they are or where theyre from, bonds of trust will form and endure and often last a lifetime. Its time to consider whether we should be providing more opportunities for service. Not just in the military, but importantly, in the civilian sector as well. Research by our scholar, isabelle sawhill, shows that americans are enthusiastic about National Service. What she calls an American Exchange program that would ask American Families across the country to voluntarily host a young person from another community for as much as a year while they perform their service, thats groundbreaking. If provided with the right opportunities, americans can Work Together across so many areas to prepare for and to respond for emergencies and disasters, to improve public spaces, to help our elderly americans to stay in their homes and provide training or Career Opportunities to lowincome youths. And that doesnt begin to even scratch the long list of opportunities and possibilities that lie before us. This event this morning by virtue of those who are participating and certainly those in the audience, this event this morning importantly lies at the intersection of where policy meets action. And the people that youll hear from this morning, the conversations that youll listen to this morning, will be all about translating policy into action. And thats so important. So we welcome our panelists. We welcome our guests. We welcome the conversation this morning. And most importantly, we welcome you. Were going out over webcast and were very much on the record, and with that, belle, may i offer you the floor, please, for your remarks and the first panel. Thank you. [ applause ] first panel should probably come right on up. Dont think theyre a shy group. So, good morning, everyone. Its great to see this group and i am so thrilled to be on the stage with so many leaders in the National Service area. Let me start by saying just a few words about National Service, itself. Ill be echoing to some extent what president john allen has just said. But im not sure it can be said too many times. We are a very divided nation. You all know that. Its a cultural problem. Its a political problem. Its an economic problem. So, i do want us not to forget about that. One writer recently said, we are texting and tweeting ourselves into disunion. I thought that was an interesting way of putting it. So we really need to have a good conversation about the potential of National Service to bring us together again and to get us off of our phones and into our communities. So, there are many benefits to National Service in addition to the role it can play in bringing us together. It has benefits for the participants. The young people who serve. It has benefits for the communities they serve. And youre going to hear much more about that through the rest of the morning. But the basic point, i think, is that democracy cannot flourish when we do not trust each other and do not trust our institutions. And i think National Service can play a role. This is no easy task, but we should do everything we can to repair some of these divisions. There is considerable evidence, now im just putting on for a second my hat as a researcher because ive delved into this a bit, lots of evidence that when people Work Together on a common task across divisions that would normally keep them apart, they learn, as john allen said, to trust and respect each other and to form bonds. Form bonds, and is the classic example of where we have seen that happen as he said. I personally got interested in this issue when i was working on a book last year called the forgotten americans, and i got interested in all of the usual policy solutions to the problem of people who have been left behind in our society or our economy, but it came to a conclusion at the end that public approximately see alone are the usual kinds of policies that we talk about here at places like brookings arent sufficient. Theyre necessary, but we also have to really Start Talking a lot more about relationships and about respect. Some work well be doing in the future will be saying a lot more about that. After i finish my book i decided i needed to field test the ideas and take them on the road. So i went out and did focus groups with three cities in america with middle and workingclass americans and one of the things that really surprised me was the degree of concern about these divisions and the degree of enthusiasm amongst the public and im not talking about a sophisticated public here. Im talking about ordinary, everyday working americans for doing something about those divisions and National Service appealed to them a lot. So i then came back and realized that at this point i didnt know nearly enough. In fact, i knew very little about the work that was going on by all the people who were sitting up here on this stage, so dr. Joe heck is the chairman on the commission of military national and Public Service, did i get that right . And that commission is going to be reporting back to congress in march and youll be hearing more about their work, but i think its very important. Barbara stewart is the ceo of the corporation for national and Community Service. The Major Federal Agency that has responsibility for americorp, seniorcorp and other Service Programs in the government. She has a wonderful background and nonprofit and from everything that ive been told, barbara, you are fulfilling that role very well in your current post, and next, we have duval patrick, former governor of massachusetts. I just finished reading your book about how you began on the south side of chicago, went to Milton Academy and ended up at harvard and harvard law school, if i remember correctly, and are now and have now served in some of the highest positions in the land. Its an inspiring story, so thank you, governor, for being here, and last, but definitely not least is jesse culvin, the ceo of Service Alliance who also has one of these multifaceted backgrounds thats equally impressive to everyone elses, but without further ado, ill turn this now over to dr. Heck. Well, thank you, bella. Good morning. My thanks to brookings and service year for putting this together and for hosting us this morning as well as my thanks to all of you either in the audience or watching over the web who have served, will serve after hearing this mornings conversations or are currently serving. Its an incredibly important time in our nations history as people have talked already this morning about how do we heal the rifts that we see in our society and how National Service is one of the potential solutions to healing these divides. It is my honor to serve as chairman of the National Commission on military and national and Public Service and for those who have not heard about the commission previously, we were charted by congress in the fiscal year 17 National Defense authorization act. It originally started as a commission to review whether or not women should have to register for selective service. However, the late senator john mcdane and senator jack reed saw an opportunity to do much more with the commission than just answer that single question and so they expanded the scope of the mandate to encourage more americans to participate across all service line, whether it be in uniform in the military, whether it be in a National Service program which we also include local community and similar programs or in Public Service which is finding a job in state, local, federal government or running for selected office. There are 11 bipartisan members with congress, and i am blessed to have a very Incredible Group of thought leaders across the Service Spectrum representing diverse ideas and we have worked over the last two years in listening to the American Public on views on service. As belle mentioned our goal is to issue a report in 2020 with recommendations back to congress, the American Public and the president about how we can actually encourage more americans to serve. I also want to thank john dulio in the audience who released the report on will america embrace National Service because it fits perfectly into our commissions mission which is every american inspired and eager to serve. So what have we been doing over the last two years since we started . Our first year was a factfinding tour. We traveled around the country. All nine census district, 15 state, 24 cities and met with over 300 organizations and received literally thousands of Public Comments either at our Public Meetings or via the internet via our website. We looked at what encourages people to serve, why arent they serving and what are the obstacles for those who desire to serve, but arent. So after we went around the nation on this listening tour, we came back and issued our interim report which, for those of you who have not yet had an opportunity to read is available at our website, inspired to serve. Com. Thats inspire, the numeral two. Gov and in that report we talk about who we are, where weve been and where were heading. So based on the years worth of research and public listening we came up with some potential recommendations on how to encourage more americans to serve. In the second year, we traveled to another ten states and held public hearings where we listened to 68 policy experts and received 40 statements for the record, issued eight memorandum, staff memorandum and started to vet some of the potential policy recommendations that we have under consideration. Upon completion of those public hearings, the commission is now in its delivered phase. We are now reviewing all of that information with the goal of compiling our report which hopefully will be on time in march of 2020 that will lay out the recommendations that the commission does want to put forward. So in my remaining time i want to stay at the 30,000foot level and speak generally where were headed because in the interest of time as a recovering politician, brevity and public speaking is not necessarily one of my strong suits so ill stay general and leave specifics to questions and answers. So what are some of the common themes that weve heard . What we first heard, and i guess isnt too surprising is that we do have an incredible culture of service in this nation today. Wherever we went we heard from americans who currently serve and we heard from americans who want to serve, they just want to know how. So we look at this culture of service which is one of the exceptional pieces of being an american and wanting to help our neighbors and how can we nurture that culture of service into an ethos of service to where service is not just encouraged, but expected. So that at a certain point in time its the individual who doesnt serve that is the odd person out and not the person who does serve. So that it becomes almost automatic as a right of growing up the conversation goes to so what are you going to do for your Service Project and how do we change that mindset and how do we change that culture . It begin, we believe with a strong and robust Civic Education program. We feel that over time, as academic curricula get more and more compressed and pressed for time and other projects that Civic Education is falling by the wayside in some states and by and large Civic Education has fallen away and how can we encourage someone to serve their community and their state and their nation when they dont truly understand the rights and responsibilities that go along with being a citizen of this democratic republic and its not just simply a high school u. S. History class. Its how do we weave common themes of Civic Education throughout the curricula regardless of subject so that our youth are exposed to these important principles throughout their academic life . It builds into there is a finite Service Project that a middle class has to do. A project with a specific goal done over a specific period of time to introduce them to the concept of actually serving. Moving to high school with perhaps a semester of service and we all know Spring Semester is pretty much with the senior year and youre shot and either waiting to start a job or go to school and what if that was completing a project over the course of the semester. Perhaps there should be Service Fellowships where Post High School or post college you geta vouch tore serve in a Service Program of your choice. Have the money, follow the service individual. So it begins with that piece. It then grows into how do we getmore individuals aware of Service Opportunities and how do we make them aspire to serve and then how do we grant access . The three buckets that were really looking at. You cant be or do what you dont know doesnt exist. You think about it, when i was growing up i saw peace corps commercials and i havent seen one in over 30 years. We smoke to cadets at fort knox, many of two who were two or threeyear scholarship students and none of them knew about the opportunity for a fouryear scholarship while they were in high school. No one talked to them about it. The youth take the asvab test in high school. Once we make them a wire, how do we inspire them. What are the incentives . Whether tobacco direct incentive, whether its appealing or altruistic, characteristic that they want to follow, but we then have to have them be inspired to want to serve. And then we have to have access. The commission is overwhelmingly successful and all 329 million americans want to serve. We know we wont have 321 Service Opportunity, but what we must do is make sure that for those who are aware and inspired that they have access to a clear and supportive path to service and that Service Opportunity has to be meaningful and worthwhile to that individual because we know that once you have someone serve one time in a meaningful way, they are hooked for life. They will come back and serve again. It may not be right after the first Service Opportunity and they go out to start their career and start a family at midcareer and say i now have the time and of the to serve again. Postretirement and they have the rsvp tomorrow and come back to serve as a senior. I bring it back to a medical a ge analogy. We want every american inspired and eager to serve and so with that, i call for your help, not only do we value your input, but we need your input as we consider our final recommendations and continue to draft our final report. Our Public Comment period remains open until december 31st of this year so i encourage everyone here today or listening who has a comment on these important issues. One, to read our interim report and see where we might be headed and two, to provide your comments on where you think we are headed and whether its right or wrong. Please do so via our website at inspire to serve. Gov because it is only through your help that we will achieve our vision of every american inspired and eager to serve. Thank you. [ applause ] that was inspiring about being inspiring. Barbara stewart . Thank you very much for having me here this morning and i appreciate brookings and Service Year Alliance for putting this on and its wonderful to be in a room full of people who know about service, are supporters of service. I am interested very much in the first two panels. For those of you who thought you might slip out and not hear the last panel, youre making a big mistake. The last panel is going to be fantastic. Its an opportunity to hear from our americorp members and alumni about how service has impacted their life and i encourage you to stay for the best panel, no offense