Next, currents and former public official officials on the importance of military and civilian Service Programs. The event hosted by the Brookings Institution lasts just over an hour. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Im john allen, im the president of brookings and on behalf of the institution and our partners at service here alliance, i want to welcome you all to this event today. I want to welcome those coming in over the especially with web cast and of course we always welcome the media. This morning, you will 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, bends of trust will form, and endure, and often last a lifetime. Its time it 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 isabel sawhill, shows that americans are enthusiastic about National Service. And 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 opportunity, 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 low income youth. 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 you will hear from this morning, the corporations that y corporations, the conversations that you will listen to this morning, will be all about translating policy into action. And thats so important. So we welcome our, our panelists, we welcome our guests, we welcome the conversation this morning and most importantly we welcome you. Were going out over web cast. And were very much on the record. And with that, bell, may i offer you the floor please for your remarks and the first panel. [ applause ] our first panel should probably come right on up. 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. But 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 you are 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, as 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. And the military is the classic example where we have seen that happen as he said. Now, 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 the usual policy solutions to the problem of people who have been left behind in our society, or our economy, but i came to the conclusion at the end that Public Policy alone are the usual kinds of policies that we talk about here at places like brooklyn, arent sufficient. Theyre necessary. But we also have to really Start Talking a lot more about relationships and about respect. And in some work were going to be doing in the future, we 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 i did focus groups, in three cities in america, with middle and working class 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 every day 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 of the people who are sitting up here on this stage. And i think its just remarkable that theyre all here today. I couldnt be more thankful to the fact that they made time to be here. I want to particularly call out our partnership with Service Year Alliance, this meeting would not have happened without their participation, and we got lots of help from the other groups on this stage as well. Now, im in the going to do long introductions, but before i turn it over, to them, because i know you want to hear from them now, i think ill just say a brief word about each person, so dr. Joe heck is the chairman of the commission on 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 it is very important. Barbara stewart is the ceo of the corporation for national and Community Service. The Major Federal Agency that has responsibility for americorps, senior corp and other Service Programs in the government. She has a wonderful background in nonprofit management and from everything ive been told, barbara, you are fulfilling that role very well in your current post. And next, we have deval 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, ended up at harvard and harvard law school, if i remember correctly, and are now, 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 jessy colvin, the ceo of Service Year Alliance, who also has one of these multifaceted backgrounds thats equally impressive to everyone elses, but without further ado, im going to turn this now, over to dr. Heck. Well, thank you, bell, and good morning, and 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 and will serve after hearing this mornings conversations or are currently serving. It is an incredibly important time in our nations history as people talked already this morning about how do we heal the rift lass 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 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 recently started as a commission to review whether or not women should have to register for selective service. However the late senator john mccain and late senator jack reed saw an opportunity to do a lot more with the commission than just answer that single question. So they expanded the scope of the commissions mandate, to look at how can we actually encourage more americans to participate across all service lines. Whether it be in uniform in the military, whether it be in a National Service program, which we also include local communities, similar programs, or in Public Service, which is finding a job in state, local, federal, or travel government, or running for elected office. There are 11 bipartisan members, appointed by leadership from congress. 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, about their views on service. As bell mentioned our goal is to issue a final report in march of 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 bridgeland and john dulio who are in the office for their recentlyreleased report on will america finally embrace National Service because it segues perfectly into our commissions vision, 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 fact finding tour. We traveled around the country. All nine census districts, 15 state, 24 city, met with over 300 organizations and received literally thousands of Public Comments either at our Public Meetings or via the internet, via our web site. We looked at what encourages people to serve, why arent people serving, what are the obstacles they are facing for those who desire to serve but arent. And 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 had an opportunity to read is available at our web site, inspire to serve. Gov. Thats inspire, the numeral 2, serve. Gov. In that report, we talk about who we are, where weve been, and where were headed. So based on that 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, held public hearings, where we listened to 68 policy experts, 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 deliberate phase. We are now reviewing all of that information, with the goal of compiling our report, which hopefully will be on time in market 2020, and that will lay out the recommendations that the commission does want to put forward. So in my remaining time, i want to stay at kind of the 30,000 foot level. Speak generally about where were headed because in the interest of time, as recovering politician, brevity and public speaking is not necessarily one of my strong suits so i will stay general and leave specifics to questions and answers. So what are some of the current 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, that we actually have now, what is described as one of the exceptional pieces of being an american and wanting to help our neighbor, 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, what are you going to do for your Service Project and how do we change that mind set and how do we hang that culture . It begins we believe with a strong and robust Civic Education program. We feel that over time, as academic curricula bet more and more compressed, and pressed for time, for other subjects, that Civic Education has fallen by the wayside. Now wloo while there are some great programs in some states by and large Civic Education has fallen away. And how can you expect to encourage someone or expect someone to serve their community, their state, 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 experiential and service learning. Where perhaps in middle school, there is a finite Service Project that a middle school 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 that spring semesters are pretty much of your senior year is kind of shot, youre either waiting to start your job or go to school, what if that was spent in completing a Service Project over the course of a semester . Perhaps there should be Service Fellowships where posthigh school, or even postcollege, you have the opportunity to get a voucher, to go serve a fellowship in a Service Program of your choice. Kind of have the money follow the service individual. So it begins with that piece. It then grows into how do we get more individuals aware of Service Opportunities how do we make them aspire to serve . And then how do we grant access. The three buckets that we are 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. I havent seen one in over 20 years. We spoke to military cadets in rotc down at fort knox many of whom were two or threeyear scholarship students because none of them knew about the opportunity for a fouryear scholarship while they were in high school. No one talked to them about it. Less than 5 of todays youth take the asdab test in high school. How do we increase awareness number one. Once we make them aware, how do we inspire them . What are the incentives . Whether they be direct financial incentives, whether it be an educational award, whether it is appealing to their sense of patriotism or some 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. What we hope is beyond our wildest dreams, the commission is overwhelmingly successful, in all 329 million americans want to serve. Now, we know we wont have 329 million Service Opportunities. 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, they may go out and start their career, and start a family, at mid career, say i now have the time i want to go back and serve again. Postretirement. Commit to the rsvd program and start to serve again as a senior. As a physician, i always bring things back to a medical analogy, i believe every