The American Way to Change: How National Service and Volunteers Are Transforming America

San Francisco, CA – What is the typical profile of someone who volunteers? What does he or she look like? Would this person be an elderly, African American “Foster Grandparent” who coddles premature babies for $2.20 an hour for an underfunded hospital? Or does this person resemble a Marketing Executive who lends pro bono marketing and IT services to nonprofit organization? This frail Foster Grandparent and Marketing Executive seem to have little in common, yet they represent the diversity of volunteers available to help solve America’s challenges.

The American Way to Change: How National Service and Volunteers Are Transforming America (Jossey-Bass; 978-0-470-56557-5; May 2010) by Shirley Sagawa outlines a compelling vision of national service at scale and illustrates what this means for our country, arguing that policymakers should put more resources into service in order to solve pressing problems. By profiling real people who have served, the impact they have made and organizations they have worked with, this book tells a powerful story of change and shows readers how they too can change their own communities through service. Examples include people like Washington DC Public School Chancellor Michelle Rhee who began her career as a Teach for America corps member and is now a nationally recognized school system leader, pursuing reforms once thought impossible in a large city district.

The American Way to Change points to four ways in which service has had an impact, opportunities in which even greater results could be obtained with greater investment of human and financial services. First, it looks at how serving changes the lives of those performing the service. It then examines the impact of service on civil society and the way that citizens engage in their communities. Next, it looks at the impact on specific challenge facing the nation and how service can address them – child development, education, health, poverty, aging, energy conservation, environmental protection and disaster response. It examines the role that service has played in social innovation. Finally, it offers a new blueprint for future action to maximize the potential of service to point the way forward for America.

As AmeriCorps Week approaches (May 8-15), many alums and volunteers want to shine a spotlight on service. The American Way to Change shows how America would look if programs like these operated at scale – not just in one or two neighborhoods, but wherever they were needed. It will describe how we can achieve this change through action at the community and organizational level, and how service programs can tackle different issues with examples and key lessons. Finally, this book speaks to ordinary Americans about what they can do to make a difference.