Remarks as Prepared for CEO Michael D. Smith at the 2024 AmeriCorps State and National Symposium

Good morning, everybody! When I say fired up, you say ready to serve. Fired up...

It's hard to believe our time together is coming to an end soon. What a remarkable few days this has been, right?

Thank you, Sonali, Jennifer and the entire ASN team for the late nights, early mornings, creativity, and care you've put into this remarkable convening. I'd also like to thank all of you. Thank you for everything you've done and continue to do to bring out the best of America.

This week's theme, "Honoring the Past, Building the Future," was the perfect opportunity to reflect on how much this room has gotten done for America over the past thirty years - and even in the past four years - together!

When I took this job a few years ago, I did so with deep respect and gratitude for the pride, tradition, and progress on which our movement is built, and excitement for the chance to work alongside all of you to create a bold vision for the future...

A vision built on the smart, common-sense principles that have sustained us for 30 years: national service but local solutions; developing diverse leaders for a lifetime, not just a service year; uniting individuals across difference; and remaining flexible to meet any moment.

Together, we decided on a pathway forward, with three main focus areas: Impact, Equity, and Unity.

From Day 1, we strengthened our focus on impact, by investing in evidence-based interventions - measuring performance and sharing best practices to maximize the return on public investment.

Earlier this summer, the Washington Post Editorial Board issued an Op-ed calling for "America to make it easier for young people to serve their country," an increased investment in AmeriCorps and national service.

They noted, "A revitalized national service program would help not only young Americans preparing to enter the workforce," but that, "the most profound benefits might flow to society at large, from instilling in a diverse group of participants a shared sense of service and duty, alleviating political apathy and building unity."

We agree and we have the data to back it up.

Nearly 70 percent of ASN grantees have strong or moderate levels of evidence- which means that when AmeriCorps shows up, results follow.

82 percent of our members have said, "service was a defining professional experience."

Our alumni gain greater awareness of social and systemic issues; feel more comfortable engaging with people from a variety of backgrounds; and reexamine their beliefs and attitudes.

And AmeriCorps continues to leave significant impacts on our alumni's employment and career pathways, with 73 percent of employed alumni working across the nonprofit, social service, and public sectors.

We know that AmeriCorps is at its best when we are not only having an impact on the communities where we serve, but on the people who serve.

Over the last few years, we've heard how our agency can help grantees go further, and we listened.

We doubled down on changing ineffective rules from the 20 percent limit on training to doing business on private lands, and President Biden continues to call on Congress to do what's right from getting rid of the tax on the education award to making sure anyone eligible to work in this country is eligible to serve in this country.

We simplified some of our evaluation criteria and offered more evaluation support.

And we have simplified our NOFOs and added an emphasis on member experience, highlighting our priority to invest in grantees who invest in members.

I have long believed in the proverb, "If you don't know where you're going, you'll end up somewhere else."

But, we cannot ignore the fact that smaller organizations, and organizations led by people of color, often find themselves facing closed doors when it comes to the kind of resources they need to invest in evaluation infrastructure and growth.

We built partnerships to address this, which also serve as workforce pathways. Partnerships like Recovery Corps - which gives our members the opportunity to serve as recovery coaches and navigators - providing help to those overcoming addiction to remain drug-free.

I'll always remember meeting Jasmine, who served with the Virginia Recovery Corps, who shared how she has had many doors close because of her past, but AmeriCorps was her open door.

She told me that when everyone else said no, AmeriCorps said yes.

Partnerships and programs like these help us build a more just and equitable service movement.

I believe deeply that that everyone who wants to serve should be able to - service should not be a privilege for the few, but an opportunity for everyone.

With the Biden-Harris Administration's commitment to advancing equity at AmeriCorps and throughout the nation, we developed AmeriCorps' first-ever Equity Action Plan; we welcomed AmeriCorps' first-ever Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer; we increased language access; we renewed our commitment to tribal communities; and we made advancing racial and economic equity the center of all we do.

We've prioritized investment in second chance programs like PowerCorps PHL, Credible Messenger Mentoring, and iFoster.

Earlier this year, at a Colorado Climate Forum, I met Nik, an AmeriCorps member serving with Mile High Youth Corps.

Nik gave a passionate testimony about how his service experience changed his life, before speaking directly to federal and state leaders in the room.

He said, "AmeriCorps terms have the potential to put its members in a situation where they are not just paycheck to paycheck, but where they are one car accident, one health emergency, or one major life event away from not being able to pay rent, pay medical bills or to support their children."

Hearing from Nik and thousands like him is why we have been proud to raise the living allowance three times since the start of this administration...on a path towards President Biden's call to Congress to a minimum of $15 per hour.

AmeriCorps didn't do this alone. 80 percent of grantees in this room provide at least $1 an hour above our minimum living allowance.

Many of you have worked tirelessly to create deals with municipalities, business owners, and universities to provide housing, tuition, or career incentives to alumni - ensuring that people can serve with dignity, and that we are all upholding a moral standard about the health and safety of our members.

For 30 years, AmeriCorps has proven that service unites - across race, ideology, income, and boundaries big and small.

Recent polling shows that 70 percent of Americans agree with the statement that "America has become so polarized that it can no longer solve the major issues facing the country - and that those differences will only continue to grow," up from 45 percent in 2010.

Since President Biden's Service to America Summit in 2022, we've developed a 3-year MOU with Service Year Alliance to design and implement bridge-building interventions.

Two years into this work, surveys tell us that of AmeriCorps members participating in bridging initiatives, 66 percent have reduced feelings of polarization. And 94 percent said that national service broadened their understanding of society and different communities.

By working toward common goals and building trust between people of all creeds, generations, abilities, and identities, we can harness the transformative power of service and realize a shared vision for a more united America.

I believe history will look at us in this room and thank us for our bravery to speak hard truths, to dismantle the status quo and to make sure our decades-old national service movement remained fresh, relevant, and responsive to the greatest challenges of our times.

They will celebrate us for tackling the mental health crisis, the existential threat of climate change, learning loss, underfunded schools, social isolation, the scourge of gun violence and creating a new generation of proximate leaders who will open unseen doors and obliterate unmovable barriers.

But if we are going to make the next thirty years better than our last, we must reimagine what service looks like and how we can do even more.

In her book, the Sum of Us, my good friend Heather McGhee said "I'm fundamentally a hopeful person, because I know that decisions made the world as it is and that better decisions can change it. Nothing about our situation is inevitable or immutable, but you can't solve a problem with the consciousness that created it."

So, as we close our 30^th anniversary celebration and look to the next 30 years, I want us to challenge what aspects of our past or current consciousness we need to leave behind.

Do we need to leave behind the consciousness that says service requires suffering?

And that it's okay for our field to duplicate some of the worst practices of wage inequality, where some of our CEOs are making 5-10-20 times more than AmeriCorps members who are praying that their application for food stamps will be approved.

Do we need to leave behind the consciousness that upholds classist structures that = that says Washington wonks, college graduates or people from only certain pedigrees know best and it's up to us to save the rest? That applies to not only getting diverse groups of members but looking at the makeup of our staff, leadership, board and commissions.

Do we need to leave behind the consciousness that tells us that community and national service can only ameliorate the impacts of poverty and inequality, rather than addressing the deep, painful, and often intentional root causes of it?

We like to quote Dr. King in our national service family….

"Anybody can be great because anybody can serve."

"Life's most persistent and urgent question is what are you doing for others."

I love those words. They have been the fuel in my tank and the spring in my step on many days. But today, as we sit at this inflection point, as we face budget shortfalls, political transitions, and unprecedented division, I think about these words from Dr. King…

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

So, as you go back to boardrooms and strategy sessions, spending and strategic plans, I challenge you to get comfortable with being uncomfortable, with making others uncomfortable, demanding that we confront where we excelled and where we were part of the problem, being brave enough to pioneer a solution.

Let's stop programming and practices that no longer work and commit to welcoming bold, new ideas that just might change the game.

Because at the end of the day we're in the business of being the door that opens when all others are closed. And if we're going to be the change the world needs - that our communities need - we have to keep looking ahead, with one arm outstretched, inviting someone else to join us as we move forward together.

Thank you for your deep and tireless dedication to this work. and for all you do every day to get things done for America and AmeriCorps!