Youth Corps Case Studies: the New York City Volunteer Corps. Interim Report
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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 283 033 CE 047 506 AUTHOR Branch, Alvia Y.; Freedman, Marc TITLE Youth Corps Case Studies: The New York City Volunteer Corps. Interim Report. INSTITUTION Public/Private Ventures, Philadelphia, PA. PUB DATE Oct 86 NOTE 91p.; For related documents, see CE 047 498 and CE 047 502-508. AVAILABLE FROM Public/Private Ventures, 399 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106. PUB TYPE Reports - Descriptive (141) EDRS PRICE MF01 Plus Postage. PC Not Available from EDRS. DESCRIPTORS Case Studies; Conservation (Environment); *Conservation Education; Demonstration Programs; Human Services; Minority Groups; *Outcomes of Education; Postsecondary Education; Program Costs; *Program Effectiveness; Student Characteristics; Urban Areas; Urban Education; Volunteers; *Youth Employment; *Youth Programs IDENTIFIERS *New York (New York); *Youth Conservation Corps ABSTRACT The New York City Volunteer Corps (CVC), which began operation in 1984, is the nation's largest urban youth service corps. Though it has the same dual goals as many youth corps--community service and youth development--the CVC is distinctive among youth corps in many respects. The CVC had pioneered the large-scale use of corpsmembers in delivering human services to homeless, elderly, disabled, and other dependent populations. The corps also enables corpsmembers to pursue mainstream academic credentials during their service and offers them either $2,500 in cash or a $5,000 scholarship after a year of service. Other unique aspects of the CVC include its emphasis on service to the city rather than on employment and training, its definition of corpsmembers as volunteers who receive stipends, its nonresidential proaram design, and the city's commitment to provide virtually all the corps' financial support. The CVC appears to be well positioned at the end of its start-up phase to build on its initial progress. Thus far, CVC has provided nearly 500,000 hours of needed service to New York City. Although the program was too new to conduct a definitive assessment of its impact on youth development, participation in the program appeared to be particularly effective in developing a sense of service in corpsmembers. At the end of the first year, the CVC had 674 active enrollees, of whom about 75 percent were black, 21 percent were Hispanic, and 2 percent were white. (MN) *********************************x************************************ Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** Public/Private Ventures 399 Market Street Philadelphia, PA 19106 (215) 592-9099 Youth Corps Case Studies: The New York City Volunteer Corps Interim Report by Alvia Y. Branch Marc Freedman October 1986 "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION MATERIAL INMICROFICHE ONLY Office of Educational Research and Improvement HAS BEEN GRANTED BY jEDU r ATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. O Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality TO THE .1 CATIO RESOURCES points of view or opinions stated in this docu- ment do not necessarily representofficial INFORMATION CETER (ERIC)." OERI position or policy. 2 BESTCOPY AVAILABLE Public/Private Ventures Board of Directors Rex D. Adams William J. Spring Vice President Vice President Employee Relations Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Mobil Oil Corporation Boston, Massachusetts New York, New York Mitchell Sviridoff Judy Barker Professor, Graduate School of President Urban Management The Borden Foundation New School for Social Research Coli.mbus, Ohio New York, New York Alan K. Campbell Alfred M. Zuck Vice Chairman Executive Director ARA Services, Inc. National Association of Schools Philadelphia, Pennsylvania of Public Affairs and Administration Alonzo A. Crim Washington, D. C . Superintendent of Schools Atlanta, Georgia Alan K. Campbell Chairman of the Board Alice F. Emerson President Michael A. Bailin Wheaton College President Public/Private Ventures is a national, not-for- Norton, Massachusetts profit corporation that designs, manages and evaluates social policy initiatives designed to Gary Walker Sol Hurwitz Executive Vice President help those whose lack of preparation for the Senior Vice President workforce hampers their chances for productive Committee for Economic lives. Its work is supported by funds from both Development the ptiblic and private sectors. New York, New York Further information about P/PV and its publi- Katharine C. Lyall cations is available from: The Communications Executive Vice President Department, Public/Private Ventures, 399 University of Wisconsin System Market Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19106. Madison, Wisconsin Telephone: 215-592-9099. Arabella Martinez Arabella Martinez Institute Berkeley, California James L. Medoff Professor, Department of Economics Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts Steven A. Minter Director The Cleveland Foundation Cleveland, Ohio Ersa 11. Poston Personnel Management Consultant McLean, Virginia 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors wish to acknowledge themany important contributors to this report. We wOuld first like to thank themany individ- uals -- CVs and staff alike-- at the City Volunteers Corps and its parent corporation, the National ServiceCorporation, who provided us with the time, interviews, andopportunities for observation upon which this report is based. They were unusually accepting of a research presence in theirmidst, even as they were attempting to get their program up andrunning. We would also like to acknowledge thecontributions of our colleagues at Public/Private Ventures. In addition to reviewing drafts of this report, Michael Bailin,Jerry Kolker, and Wendy Wolf shared with us their knowledge andexpertise and conducted a number of site visits to CVC. Natalie Jaffe and Gary Walker reviewed early drafts of the reportand provided critical insights. A number of other individuals providedthoughtful reviews of earlier drafts of this report,among them Carl Weisbrod, CVC's first Executive Director; GordonBerlin, Program Officer at The Ford Foundation; Martha Diepenbrock,Director of ths Los Angeles Conservation Corps; and Frank Slobigand Roger Landrum of Service America. While wOritIone are responsible forthe final version of the report, we benefited greatlyfrom their comments. We also wish to express our appreciationto Charlotte Thurmond and Christine Jeter who typednumerous drafts of the manuscript, to Judy Wilmoth White and NatalieJaffe who made many editorial improvements to the text, and toJohn Wooden who provided invaluable assistance with themanagement and analysis of the data. CONTENTS Page Executive Summary I. Introduction and Overview 1 II. Administrative Structure 11 III. The City Volunteers: Enrollment, Training, Characteristics and Attrition Patterns 23 IV. Work and Service 43 V. Youth Development in the City VolunteerCorps 55 VI. Funding and Costs 63 VII. Findings and Lessons Learned 73 TABLES 41r..7!. 111.1 CVC Referral Sources by Selected Characteristics of Trainees 26 111.2 Characteristics of City Volunteers 32,33 111.3 Length of Stay by Group for CVs LeavingProgram by October 31, 1985 38 111.4Reasons for Separation 40 VI.1 CVC Cost By Major Category (Cash Basis) 65 VI.2 CVC Cost-Per-Slot- FY 1985 71 FIGURES 11.1 CVC Organizational Chart 12 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The New York City Volunteer Corps (CVC), in operationsince the middle of 1984, is the nation's largest urban youthservice corps. As such, its experience is of particular interestboth to youth corps planners and operators, and topolicymakers confront- ing the challenges of unemployed youth andthe unmet needs of our cities. Though it shares with many youthcorps the pursuit of dual goals -- community service and youth development CVC is in many respects distinctive among corps: o After a nine-month planning period,it mountecl a citywide program that recruited, trainedand placed in the field 1,071young New Yorkers and had, at the end of its firstyear, 674 active enrollees. o It has pioneered the large-scaleuse of corpsmem- bers in delivering human servicesto the home- less, the elderly, the disabled andother dependent populations whoseneeds might otherwise go unserved. o It enablee&Drpsmembers topursue mainstream academic credentials duringtheir service and offers them either $2,500 incash or a $5,000 scholarship after ayear of service. Other aspects of CVC's program thatare of particular interest include an emphasis on service tothe city rather than on employ- ment and training, the definitionof corpsmembers as volunteers who receive stipends and educationalassistance rather than wages, non-residential program design,decentralized management of operations, residential training,a major role played by work sponsors in supervising corpsmembers' workperformance, and the commitment of the city of New Yorkto provide virtuelly all the corps' financial support. THE ASSESSMENT This study of CVC is part ofa broader assessment of youthcorps programs being conducted by Public/PrivateVentures with Ford Foundation support. The first of two reports on theCVC, it begins with the developmental periodthat started in January 1984 and continues through the firstfull year with corpsmembers in the field, ending in October 1985. A final report on CVC will appear in 1987. Because the case study focuses on CVC's start-upperiod and early operations, it does not make definitiveassessments. Instead, it seeks