GREG TORRES, MASSINC DIRECTOR: Thanks for coming out. If you want to blame someone for the weather one of our panelist grew up in Scotland. It’s our first RealTalk event for 2009. It’s our young professional program and we are going into our sixth year. Tonight we talk about our economy and how young leaders are navigating today’s challenges. We bring these programs to the public due to financial commitments of our sponsors and the two that stand out tonight are State Street Corporation and Zipcar, based right here in Boston. I thank the steering committee for organizing a number of young people. The moderators are Alison Lobron, associate editor of Commonwealth and Emily Wood, who manages the RealTalk program.
WOOD: Thanks for coming. We are going to try to engage the audience after Alison and I ask a few questions. Tell us what your organizations do and whether you were interested in working in public service and non-profits? It’s not always the usual route.
MAZO: Reconciliation’s Reach is a documentary film project designed to teach kids about preventing conflict. I learned a lot on a trip to Rwanda about reconciliation. As a journalist, it inspired me to do something beyond television news. I worked on this project and got it into schools.
CLARK: After college I volunteered in Africa, played soccer and was an English teacher. I got some money from the Rotary Club and Dartmouth College and spent a year in Africa. It shaped what I would later go on to do. The two main things were soccer was very popular. I played for a team with 20,000 at a game. They would know everywhere that you were the white guy on the team. The second thing was many people died in Africa from AIDS. Those were two formative experiences. Grassroots Soccer is an AIDS education organization focused on young people. It’s an educational curriculum and we work in 14 countries.
CLAY: I work in the governor’s office and I am passionate about politics. In 1988, that election I was 8 years old and already starting fights as people were talking about Bush. I volunteered on campaigns as a student. To come into politics was a lifetime dream but there were not many politicians I was enthusiastic about working for. When Gov. Patrick started an unlikely campaign, I was a regular volunteer and as it seemed he was really going to be governor I worked very hard and started on the policy side and now am director of grassroots governance. My background is in urban planning and city development. I was passionate about the governor’s agenda around civic engagement.
BIBER: An undercurrent theme is service becoming more mainstream. As a senior in college I had no idea what I wanted to do other than something good. I remember being very excited about the career fair to figure out how to make a difference. I then knew what I did not want to do, which was pretty much everything at the career fair. It was the most depressing day. There were defined pathways for good things like graduate school or public sector. I found Teach for America and became a corps member. There is a heightened dialogue now and more pathways for doing this kind of work.
LOBRON: There have been a lot of articles about the economic climate and people being unemployed or volunteering more and looking at Teach for America and AmeriCorps and Commonwealth Corps. Why are people moving towards this after they can’t find a job? There seems to be more interest in public service.
BIBER: People are not getting their first choice – I don’t think that is the core of what’s happening. The economy is playing a role. I get cynical about people saying these are people who can’t get jobs. I see a lot of college students saying ‘wow the economy is in crisis and I want to be part of a solution. I should step back and think about what I care about.’ There are incentives removed from other fields. My fundamental hypothesis is people are saying there is opportunity to do good work. I welcome pushback.
LOBRON: Adam, you needed to suddenly make a change.
MAZO: I lost my job in July last year. In September a non-profit project seemed like a less than ideal idea. I hear from non-profits about pulling back on fundraising. People are hearing about great organizations pulling back and other people are saying I want to step in. They are seeing what’s happening and saying, I want to fill that vacuum created by people saving more and donating less.
CLAY: Another piece of it is leadership. The number of people who applied to work in the administration was extraordinary. People said this is the time, I want to get in. That is dwarfed by the administration of President Obama. People are saying this is the most exciting time to be involved in government. There are sad stories about people involved in the campaign who are not involved in the administration. But there is a desire when the leadership is something they respect. With the downturn, we all recognize painful impacts in communities. Those with jobs and resources feel a stronger desire to share, even if it’s just for an afternoon.
CLARK: We have a volunteer program, a hundred applications for 26 spots. It’s way, way up. We did have more outreach. I know a lot more people have approached me. Our U.S. headquarters are near Dartmouth College. More people are being in touch. I would love Josh to have your optimism about people. But a lot of it is that people just don’t have jobs and are considering other things.
MAZO: People do have the time because they have less work.
LOBRON Some non-profits are feeling a need to combine and have overlapping missions. People here tonight have an impulse to do something. Your advice?
MAZO: I would say research, research, research and make sure what you are doing is unique and targeted and you can be extremely persistent. The documentary was initially about Rwanda. It’s now about teaching kids how to manage conflict here in Boston and around the world. From what we’ve found, that does not exist yet. There are a lot of documentaries about Rwanda. Find your passion and your experience and a place where those intersect. If someone else is doing it, find a way to compliment them.
CLARK: I would look to add value to something that already exists. I don’t know if that is the right answer. Betsy, who I just met, started her own thing. She identified a need. Go in very informed. A lot of things went right. Grassroots Soccer got a lot of breaks. But it was not entirely premeditated. We never fell too in love with our own strategy and we were prepared to modify with our eyes on the prize.
MAZO: That is important. Don’t be afraid to change what you are doing.
CLAY: From some work I did in India, a number of us worked on human rights issues and a number of us wanted to start our own non-profit and have since scaled back and partnered with another organization.
MAZO: Fundraising is another component that is an elephant in the room for non-profits. You have to really, really be willing to talk to anyone and everyone about what you are doing or have someone who is willing to do that for you. Without it, it’s impossible to survive.
LOBRON: What is important about getting people involved?
CLAY: Everyone has an issue they are passionate about but need to find a way to get in. I notice a trend in one-day huge service events. There are about ten other major service days throughout the year. Park Serve Day is another. Last weekend we had 4,000 participate. Young professional groups are trying to combine the social and networking with the service day.
AUDIENCE STATEMENT: I have a comment really. I came here from Worcester. I am impressed by the panel and this event. I am in Greg’s demographic. I heard, find something unique and the importance of research. I am in public health. I calculated Elizabeth that you were born in 1980. I was working in the non -in the late 60s. I am concerned about disparities across the board in health and education. I would suggest that there is not a whole lot out there that is working for our urban youth. In Boston 14 percent of Latinos have a bachelor’s degree. One of eleven black individuals is incarcerated, on probation or on parole. I have seen these numbers are growing. Research is part of my job and there is room for improvement. I can’t really point to anything and say this is making the difference with a whole lot of young people. A lot of students of color are left out of the loop.
AUDIENCE QUESTION: I was curious about panelists who may have had a mentor who has helped them along the way.
MAZO: I would not be to the point where I am without my fundraising strategist, my dad’s college roommate. I called him and we had conversations almost nightly. He lives on the West Coast and has worked with big universities. My board is filled with people who are older and more experienced than me and who have provided me with an array of advice.
BIBER: My deficit is not that there are not a lot of people to offer mentorship. It is you can get so bogged down that you don’t access mentorship in a meaningful way. To get in our position, be proactive about finding mentorship. I found no dearth of that.
AUDIENCE QUESTION: I teach at a private university locally and my husband teaches at a state university, not UMass. We promote civic engagement to different populations. My question is not just who is benefitting from the programs but who is going into public service? My students are predominantly middle class and white and my husband’s not so much and it’s more difficult for them that make that choice.
CLAY: Commonwealth Corps has about 260 members who serve full or part-time in 36 organizations. We expected some young folks with privilege and comfort but one charge was to look in your own community. The program offers a stipend and enables people to make some money while they are doing service. We are incredibly impressed with the diversity of the corps. Many corps members are over 45. We don’t have specific race and gender statistics but we have tremendous diversity. But that was as a result of being proactive and offering a stipend for giving a year. Folks need resources for transportation and food.
BIBER: There is incredible value for anyone getting involved in this work. It’s just being proactive and conscious. I am graduating from college and have a host of debt and external pressures. Organizations can be mindful of that and help with those gaps. We work hard to provide transitional grants and loans.
AUDIENCE QUESTION: I am an independent researcher for and about higher education. You mentioned loans. The not-for-profit sector pays less than the private sector and higher education is more and more expensive. My question is how much of a difference are you finding in recruitment due to loan debt? Is it discouraging to them or is it a factor at all?
CLARK: It hasn’t really been an issue. We have one kid who is not going to go in the program because of loans, but one kid out of 25.
BIBER: It’s hard to benchmark. As an AmeriCorps program we do have that loan deferral option. The general sense of, I am not going to make any money and this sounds great and I have family responsibilities, that comes up. For folks who join, those barriers still exist. They could probably make more money somewhere else but that has not been the real decision point. They say, am I really committed to this mission? I feel like there is a broader national investment coming down the pike to make this more accessible.
WOOD: What kind of implications do you see with the passage of the Kennedy National Service Act? That’s a huge amount of funds coming in.
CLAY: It’s incredible, tremendous excitement at non-profits. It will mean over eight years from 75,000 AmeriCorps members to 225,000 slots available. It increases the education award due to the impact of debt. It increases positions for older adults to serve. Baby Boomers are thinking about post-retirement and that is going to be a huge wave of volunteerism. The other piece of the act that is exciting, assuming it’s all funded, are the creation of an education corps and a health corps and a corps on environmental issues. President Obama has shown tremendous leadership in the area of service.
BIBER: What is exciting to me about this is what it does to the national conversation. When I think about barriers people have, low on the list is the loan piece and higher is, my parents just don’t want me to do this. Mainstream in this country is something we celebrate. When the act gets passed, my father calls me and says, I heard your program mentioned and there is this new bill and this is like a real thing. Five years later, some validation.
CLARK: A big part of Grassroots Soccer is getting the kids who are beneficiaries involved as activists after they go through the program. Information diffuses from the kids who go through the program to the kids who don’t go through the program. It’s a good idea to take that idea of doing service all the way down to the people we are serving.
BIBER: Sometimes there is tension around lumping those who are serving with those being served. We can remove the categories and make it something that is more circular. We can think about service in a round way rather than one group giving to another.
MAZO: From a journalist’s perspective, the coverage of the act’s passage gets people thinking more about volunteerism.
AUDIENCE QUESTION: How are you taking advantage of technology and social networks with outreach?
CLAY: The governor’s office in terms of promoting volunteerism is using Facebook YouTube, Twitter. We have a statewide calendar of public engagement activities. We are trying to be thoughtful and engaged. The governor has a new media director who encourages us to use those tools and spread the governor’s commitment to civic engagement.
LOBRON What is most effective?
CLAY: I am not into Twitter myself. The governor has a large following. A lot of people are paying attention to that. YouTube is probably number one for the governor.
MAZO: A big component is the Facebook fan page. We also involve college kids and ask them to show us how they are trying to prevent conflict.
AUDIENCE QUESTION: I work for CityYear here in Boston. These are year and two-year programs. What do people go on to do? Do they stay in the public and non-profit sector?
BIBER: Our mission is explicitly twofold. We recruit new teachers and they make two-year commitments. They can make an incredible difference. The short-term impact is really valuable for the communities they work in. The second half is about what happens to them afterwards. If you have done any of this work successfully you walk out pretty transformed. The value of young and informed citizens to step out and say, what is next? That is really valuable. Two thirds of our folks are full-time in education.
CLARK: We are trying to do what CityYear is doing. We are a much younger organization. The other group we have been thinking about are the young leaders in Africa delivering the program. How do we build them up? They will be in the organization for the next ten to twenty years.
AUDIENCE QUESTION: I went into non-profit work in Boston when the economy was good and quit a year ago because I was frustrated. I was at an old old-oriented organization. People who are younger have an expertise that young people didn’t have 15 or 20 years ago. We know what to do. I got frustrated with the inability for me to do the job because no one would listen. I do digital media strategy now on my own. Bigger organizations are afraid of that. They did not want to try the stuff that people our age are good at.
CLAY: Some of it is about timing on your part. The entire country has taken a shift on social media in the last 18 months or two years. You were way ahead. Federal and state government and major companies realize they are at a complete disadvantage if they don’t keep up with the way 18- and 25-year-olds use technology. In a large organization, some of it is just about leadership change. Baby Boomers are moving out of leadership positions. When the costs of technologies are lower, the risks are also lower.
CLARK: You should have joined a smaller organization, like Grassroots Soccer. There is an interesting book called “Uncharitable” by Dan Pallotta, a guy who raised a lot of money and lost his job because his overhead was too high. His argument was we should focus on the outcomes and less on the process. With young people coming into this field and challenging the structure, I would hope they would challenge the underlying premises.
AUDIENCE QUESTION: I have been studying a lot of this for three years. There is a generation gap unlike anything we have seen since the 60s. I urge you not to become ageists. Some old people understand this stuff and some young people are clueless. Think of the friends you have and the solutions you can bring to life without red tape. Where do people go who can’t be in a corps? They are of all ages. We have huge brain drain. People are laid off. People need mentors.
CLAY: Commonwealth Corps offers flex time, quarter and part-time opportunities. It’s part of the reason why we have such diversity. For folks who want to engage in a small way on one-day projects and volunteerism and travel to parts of the world they want to go to, those are often very transformative experiences.
BIBER: I have a friend at the Generational Project. This site directs time and services. People can say I have a skill and have x, y and z time and people are saying I would love to have someone come into my classroom and do x, y and z. I imagine there are other organizations that do that kind of stuff.
MAZO: The best option I can think of is to go to events like this and find like-minded people.
