Youth Service Conference Report
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The Ford Foundation Worldwide Workshop on Youth Involvement as a Strategy for Social, Economic and Democratic Development Held in San José, Costa Rica, January 4 – 7, 2000 3 Acknowledgements This report was written by Helene Perold. Thanks go to the following people who contributed to its compilation: n The Ford Foundation staff for providing the budget for the development, production and distribution of the report. n Susan Stroud for guiding its conceptualization. n Catherine Garson for her summaries of the country profiles on Hungary, Nigeria, Mexico, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, South Africa, United Kingdom and the USA. n Liesa Jossel for her summaries of the country profiles on Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, Israel and Kenya. n Oona Sullivan for copy-editing the report. n Eliot Greenspan for providing translations of contributions made to the conference in Spanish. n Jim Shapiro for the photographs taken at the Costa Rica workshop. n Manik Design, Johannesburg, South Africa, for the design and layout. © The Ford Foundation 320 East 43rd Street, New York N.Y. 10017 USA November 2000 Printed by Knoxville Press, Johannesburg, South Africa 4 Contents Foreword 5 Executive Summary 6 Introduction 13 Perspectives on Youth Service 15 Social capital and youth service 15 Youth service and economic productivity 22 Youth service, participation and adolescent development 26 Youth service as a means of reintegrating marginalized youth 31 Youth service, civic engagement and the role of the state 34 Youth service as strong policy 40 Youth Service in Action 46 South Africa 47 Mexico 52 Russia 56 Brazil 61 Costa Rica 65 Service project visits 70 The Way Forward 72 Recommendations for developing the field 75 5 THE FORD FOUNDATION WORLDWIDE WORKSHOP Closing Remarks 79 Country Profiles on Youth Service: Summaries 81 Brazil 81 Canada 83 China 85 Costa Rica 87 Egypt 89 Hungary 91 Israel 93 Kenya 95 Mexico 97 Nigeria 99 The Philippines 101 Poland 103 Russia 105 South Africa 107 United Kingdom 109 USA 111 Workshop participants 113 6 Foreword This report attempts to summarize a set of rich discussions about the experience of national and community service in countries in every part of the world. The discussions took place at a worldwide meeting organized by the Ford Foundation in January 2000 in Costa Rica and included Ford Foundation staff and participants from fifteen countries. The purposes of the meeting were 1) to share information and experience regarding policy and practice, and 2) to examine questions that cut across the experience of national and community service in different countries. Many challenging ideas and questions were raised by the five speakers, which I believe have been adequately described in this report. Prof. Robert Putnam and Prof. Michael Sherraden provided key ideas for the conference – Putnam in a presentation about the relationship between youth service and social capital formation; Sherraden on youth service as strong policy. Professors Duràn, Krauskopf and Espinoza challenged us in their presentations on youth service in relation to economic productivity, social development and civic participation, respectively. Participants from Brazil, South Africa, Mexico and Russia presented information about national and community service in their countries. In addition, papers were commissioned in advance of the meeting that describe the current programs and policies related to youth service in sixteen countries. The contribution that this meeting makes to the discussion about national and community service globally is due to the high level of information, participation and discourse of the participants and the authors of the background papers. The most important idea to emerge from the meeting was the SUSAN STROUD conceptualization of national and community service as an emerging social institution that can be expanded in many different political and cultural contexts. The institution of national service has multiple aspects, including generating social capital, serving as a mediating institution for young people in their transition to adulthood, and providing service through many activities that improve conditions in communities. Our hope is that this report will help to raise and advance these and other ideas, and contribute to a continuing examination of national and community service worldwide. I especially want to acknowledge and thank Alison Bernstein and the Ford team of Michael Lipsky, Inca Mohamed and Joseph A. Aguerrebere for their guidance and support for the worldwide meeting. Michael Sherraden worked with the authors of the conference papers and contributed generously in many other ways to the content of the meeting. Helene Perold was a superb conference reporter and editor of this report. Susan Stroud Consultant 7 Executive Summary The Ford Foundation’s Worldwide Workshop on Youth Involvement as a Strategy for Social, Economic and Democratic Development took place in Costa Rica in January 2000. It had three purposes: to acknowledge and explore the potential of youth service as a strategy for social, economic and democratic development; to identify new work that needs to be undertaken by program practitioners, researchers, policy makers and funders to build the field of youth service internationally; and to increase knowledge about youth service worldwide. Attended by 55 participants from 15 countries, the workshop program comprised five issues papers, which examined different perspectives on youth service, one evening presentation, and four panel discussions on country experiences of youth service in South Africa, Mexico, Russia and Brazil. One morning participants visited community service projects undertaken by students from the University of Costa Rica. In her opening remarks, Ford Vice President Alison Bernstein located the workshop within the Foundation’s twenty-year involvement with service and its current interest in the global context of youth service. The Foundation wants to establish whether youth service can animate new forms of citizenship and political participation, strengthen democratic values and practices and provide pathways for the integration of excluded groups in the south and the north. How does youth service integrate those excluded groups through productive work and can it help overcome the atomization of modern life by providing the experience of collective work and collective productivity? Six thematic presentations identified trends emerging in the field: n Youth service as a component of social capital formation (Robert Putnam). n Youth service and economic productivity (Clemente Ruiz Duràn). n Youth service, participation and adolescent development (Dina Krauskopf). n Youth service as a means of reintegrating marginalized youth (Sheila Sisulu). n Youth service, civic engagement and the role of the state (Vicente Espinoza). n Youth service as strong policy (Michael Sherraden). Social capital and youth service Robert D. Putnam looked at the relationship between social capital and youth service. He distinguished social capital from physical capital and human capital and argued that social networks have value because of the information they transmit and the culture of reciprocity they sustain. 8 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY He asserted that social capital takes different forms; that not all social capital has positive effects for everyone; and that it is important to distinguish between different types of social capital e.g. “bonding capital” and “bridging capital”. Bonding capital describes social networks that link like people to like people, while bridging capital links people to others unlike themselves. Both can have positive and negative effects. Bonding social capital is not necessarily better than bridging social capital, but it is easier to build because people are more comfortable with people like themselves. Putnam argued that levels of social capital can be assessed through measures such as the average number of groups to which people belong, the frequency with which people volunteer and the frequency with which people see their friends. The positive effects of social capital can be seen in spheres such as neighborhood vitality and neighborhood safety, a high turn-out in elections and large numbers of nonprofit organizations. He also suggested that democracy, health and economic development are demonstratively improved through connectedness, since forms of social capital have been shown to raise levels of economic development, heighten tolerance of difference and improve government performance. How can youth service play a role in reversing the decline in social capital and connect people more closely with one another? According to Putnam, the most important effect of youth service is generated through young people serving although the impact is more often measured in terms of those served (numbers of students tutored, numbers of children inoculated). In young people the experience of service creates the skills for building social capital; it generates the value of social capital; and it inculcates the habit of paying attention to and acting on what is going on in one’s community. Two critical issues need to be researched: First, what kinds of social capital have what kinds of effects? Second, what kinds of youth service produce different forms of social capital? This suggests the need to design youth service programs with positive social capital goals in mind. “All our societies need more social capital... and in my view the single most promising area of initiative is youth