Investing in the Health and Well-Being of Young Adults
Investing in the Health and Well-Being of Young Adults

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2015-01-27

Total Pages: 431

ISBN-13: 0309309980

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Young adulthood - ages approximately 18 to 26 - is a critical period of development with long-lasting implications for a person's economic security, health and well-being. Young adults are key contributors to the nation's workforce and military services and, since many are parents, to the healthy development of the next generation. Although 'millennials' have received attention in the popular media in recent years, young adults are too rarely treated as a distinct population in policy, programs, and research. Instead, they are often grouped with adolescents or, more often, with all adults. Currently, the nation is experiencing economic restructuring, widening inequality, a rapidly rising ratio of older adults, and an increasingly diverse population. The possible transformative effects of these features make focus on young adults especially important. A systematic approach to understanding and responding to the unique circumstances and needs of today's young adults can help to pave the way to a more productive and equitable tomorrow for young adults in particular and our society at large. Investing in The Health and Well-Being of Young Adults describes what is meant by the term young adulthood, who young adults are, what they are doing, and what they need. This study recommends actions that nonprofit programs and federal, state, and local agencies can take to help young adults make a successful transition from adolescence to adulthood. According to this report, young adults should be considered as a separate group from adolescents and older adults. Investing in The Health and Well-Being of Young Adults makes the case that increased efforts to improve high school and college graduate rates and education and workforce development systems that are more closely tied to high-demand economic sectors will help this age group achieve greater opportunity and success. The report also discusses the health status of young adults and makes recommendations to develop evidence-based practices for young adults for medical and behavioral health, including preventions. What happens during the young adult years has profound implications for the rest of the life course, and the stability and progress of society at large depends on how any cohort of young adults fares as a whole. Investing in The Health and Well-Being of Young Adults will provide a roadmap to improving outcomes for this age group as they transition from adolescence to adulthood.

The Politics and Civics of National Service
The Politics and Civics of National Service

Author: Melissa Bass

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2013-01-03

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 0815723814

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In 1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt created America's first domestic national service program: the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). As part of this program—the largest and most highly esteemed of its kind—nearly three million unemployed men worked to rehabilitate, protect, and build the nation's natural resources. It demonstrated what citizens and government could accomplish together. Yet despite its success, the CCC was short lived. While more controversial programs such as President Johnson's Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) and President Clinton's AmeriCorps survived, why did CCC die? And why—given the hard-won continuation and expansion of AmeriCorps—is national service an option for fewer Americans today than at its start nearly eighty years ago? In The Politics and Civics of National Service, Melissa Bass focuses on the history, current relevance, and impact of domestic civilian national service. She explains why such service has yet to be deeply institutionalized in the United States; while military and higher education have solidified their roles as American institutions, civilian national service is still not recognized as a long-term policy option. Bass argues that only by examining these programs over time can we understand national service's successes and limitations, both in terms of its political support and its civics lessons. The Politics and Civics of National Service furthers our understanding of American political development by comparing programs founded during three distinct political eras—the New Deal, theGreat Society, and the early Clinton years—and tracing them over time. To a remarkable extent, the CCC, VISTA, and AmeriCorps reflect the policymaking ethos and political controversies of their times, illuminating principles that hold well beyond the field of national service. By emphasizing these programs' effects on citizenship and civic engagement, The Politics and Civics of National Ser

In Search of the Nonprofit Sector
In Search of the Nonprofit Sector

Author: Jonathan B. Imber

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-09-04

Total Pages: 341

ISBN-13: 1351512978

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

At a time when boundaries between the nonprofit, business, and public sectors have grown increasingly confused and contested, this volume by leading experts on nonprofit organizations offers new ideas and frameworks for understanding the terrain that lies between the state and the market. The chapters span a broad range of emerging issues including nonprofit commercialism, sector-bending hybrid organizational forms, increasingly sophisticated nonprofit advocacy activities, newly hatched forms of volunteerism and philanthropy, tensions in public-nonprofit contracting, and new roles for faith-based nonprofits in social provision.Contents include: Peter Frumkin, ""Charity and Philanthropy After September 11th""; Joseph M. Knippenberg, ""Faith, Hype, and Charity: Constitutional Controversies over Charitable Choice""; Leslie Lenkowsky, ""The Bush Administration's Civic Agenda and National Service""; Mark E. Warren, ""What is the Political Role of Nonprofits in a Democracy?""; Steven Rathgeb Smith, ""Government and Nonprofits in the Modern Age: Is Independence Possible?""; Amy L. Sherman, ""Faith in Communities: A Solid Investment""; Stephen V. Monsma, ""Nonprofit and Faith-Based Welfare-to-Work Programs: Government's Partners or Government's Captives?""; Thomas H. Jeavons, ""The Vitality and Independence of Religious Organizations: A Once and Future Trend""; Estelle James, ""Commercialism--Does It Help or Hurt the Nonprofit's Mission?""; J. Gregory Dees and Beth Battle Anderson, ""Sector-Bending: Blurring the Lines Between Nonprofit and For-Profit""; David Reingold, ""Scaling-up National Service in an Era of Performance Measurement and Accountability.""In Search of the Nonprofit Sector will be essential reading for scholars and practitioners interested in the pressing management and policy challenges facing nonprofit organizations today.

Gifts of Time and Money
Gifts of Time and Money

Author: Arthur C. Brooks

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 9780742545052

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Policymakers, civic leaders, and scholars have increasingly focused their attention over the last decade-and-a-half on the importance of voluntary participation in civil society. From George H. W. Bush's Thousand Points of Light to Bill Clinton's AmeriCorps to George W. Bush's faith-based initiatives, it is undeniable that communities are looking to increase their levels of charity and voluntarism in the provision of public goods and services. What mobilizes giving and volunteering? What are the characteristics of communities that are engaged, and those that are not? What can policymakers and nonprofit managers do to change the current landscape in places with low levels of participation? These are the questions this edited collection addresses. It is the first book specifically dedicated to community giving and volunteering efforts with a best practices element. Published in cooperation with the Alan K. Campbell Public Affairs Institute at Syracuse University.

Does Your Vote Count?
Does Your Vote Count?

Author: Paul R. Carr

Publisher: Peter Lang

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 364

ISBN-13: 9781433108136

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"Paul R. Carr has produced a rich and impressive examination of the multiplicity of relationships among notions of democratic formation, critical pedagogy, human rights, anti-racism, and feminist, anti-colonial, political and cultural studies. Drawing from a deep well of intriguing and eclectic sources..., he moves with clarity and elan between the brood and the narrow, the general and the specific to capture the power of theory without sacrificing the nitty-gritty of concrete practice. A balance of possibilities rather than false dualisms will be found here. Does Your Vote Count? has become an essential contribution to my own work and teaching." ---Tom Wilson, Chapman University --Book Jacket.

The Ideology of Civic Engagement
The Ideology of Civic Engagement

Author: Sara Carpenter

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2021-01-01

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 1438481349

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Over the last thirty years, calls for the civic engagement of the American citizenry, especially young people, have gotten increasingly louder. A clear message has emerged that today's pressing social problems are best addressed through the innovative and entrepreneurial work of citizens. But what are we learning about democracy through our community service and civic engagement? The Ideology of Civic Engagement is a unique study of the American volunteerism program AmeriCorps. Drawing from deep ethnographic data, Sara Carpenter provides careful analysis of the ways in which public policy and federal regulations influence the inner workings of AmeriCorps programs, from grant writing to volunteer training, with special focus on how teaching and learning for "civic engagement" takes place within the program. Rather than following predetermined metrics for what constitutes democratic participation for young people, she examines how young people's political participation is shaped in a nexus of volunteer labor, neoliberal transformation of human services, deepening forms of inequality, and political discourse about democracy.