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Interview with Todd Bernstein, Director, The Citizenship Project
Interviewed by Michael Feagans, on 03.10.00.
4npo: Todd, you are involved with the Martin Luther King Day of Service. Would you tell me about how that got started?
Todd: Well it actually came out of a conversation that Harris Wofford and I had late one evening in 1988. We were both working in the administration of Governor Bob Casey. We were reflecting on the establishment of the King federal holiday just two years before. For millions, particularly young people, it was just another holiday for relaxing, sleeping late, watching a lot of television, and going to the mall. There was no focus on Dr. King and what his life meant; the sacrifices he made and the legacy that young people could learn from. We thought, "how ironic, that King was a champion of action and an enemy of apathy. Yet for millions, it was turning into a day of apathy and inaction." We envisioned a day of action, which better reflected who Dr. King was and what his life meant to so many people. His legacy would be truly honored if in communities across the nation, people addressed problems by turning words into action and creating positive results. Spring forward to 1994 when Harris was in the U.S. Senate (PA) and we crafted legislation known as the King Holiday and Service Act, co-authored with Congressman John Lewis from Atlanta (GA). This legislation called on Americans of all ages and backgrounds to transform the King federal holiday into a day of citizen action and serving others. On August 23, 1994 President Clinton signed the King Holiday and Service Act into law.
Unfortunately, in that same year Harris Wofford lost his Senate seat and we didn't really plan much beyond that. In 1996, Harris asked me to pilot the King Day of Service effort in the Philadelphia area. The first King Day of Service was held about a week after the infamous blizzard of 1996, which brought more than thirty inches of snow to the city. Nonetheless, in that first year we had about 1,000 participants - mostly students serving in a couple dozen projects. In 1997, we broadened our efforts beyond the city limits to create a city-suburban partnership. It is now the Greater Philadelphia Martin Luther King Day of Service. In '97 we had 3,000 volunteers in 75 projects; in 1998 we had 7,000 in 200 projects; in 1999 we had 12,000 in 300 projects; This January 17, we had over 18,000 serving in 400 projects.
The Martin Luther King Day of Service is a rare opportunity to bring together people of all backgrounds, across every imaginable barrier, with a common mission. It underscores how much more we have in common than the small differences between us. While people are making a real difference by serving others, they are engaged in a process of getting to know other volunteers. This reflects the kind of person Dr. King was: a champion of bringing together broad coalitions of people, responding to some of the greatest challenges our nation has ever faced. The King Day of Service has now become a national movement. It is held in dozens of cities across the country; from large cities like Philadelphia, New York, L.A. and Atlanta to smaller cities like Camden, Tulsa and Minneapolis-St. Paul.
4npo: Is anyone coordinating this on a national level?
Todd: Harris Wofford is the Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation for National Service, which runs AMERICORPS/VISTA and SENIOR CORPS as well as other national service programs. The Corporation for National Service spearheads the project nationally, and serves as a repository of information about events across the country. Each year, the Philadelphia King Day of Service has been the largest King day event in the nation.
4npo: Why do you think that is?
Todd: One of the differences between what other cities do and what we do is that we have created a central organizing system. This enables every person who wants to participate to do so. Most cities organize the King Day of Service on an ad hoc basis. For instance, in Chicago it might be a Habitat for Humanity site organizing the effort on the one hand, a church doing the same on the other hand, and a school in another case; with no coordination between the three. In Philadelphia, by constrast, we've created a central headquarters . Anyone who wants to volunteer can call and be matched with an existing project. We can also provide technical assistance to help a person or group organize their own project. For instance, if they do their own organizing, they might have capacity for a hundred volunteers. Perhaps they want to rehabilitate a community center on the King holdiay. If they have 50 of their own volunteers who will come out that day to work, we in turn will match them with another 50 people who want to help. So that serves a couple of purposes: one, it helps build the capacity necessary to get a project completed. And two, it helps diversify the project in terms of the different kinds of folks who end up volunteering and interacting and getting to know one another. This is all in the spirit of Dr. King, of breaking down barriers and learning from one another.
One of the things that we do at the completion of each project is to have a reflection period. Everyone comes together briefly to talk about the significance of the day, sharing personal reasons for coming out to perform service when they could have done something else entirely. They talk about the connection between volunteering and Dr. King's message. Then we talk about how this kind of citizen action is not only important on one day of the year, but should be carried forward in a more sustained way. That has lead to projects that continue beyond the King holiday. In some cases, projects will start on the federal holiday and then continue throughout the year. A couple of examples are: this past January 17 we trained 500 reading tutors in 12 different training sites throughout the region; 8 in Phialdelphia and 4 in the surrounding counties. In a ninety minute session, volunteers were trained by Philadelphia Reads, the organization that was started through federal legislation to promote reading and to ensure that all children can read independently by grade 3. Philadelphia Reads, led by Marcienne Mattleman, is a local effort that brings together corporations, law firms, and non-profits to help children increase their capacity to read independently. All of the trainers were certified reading specialists, one of them being my wife. At the conclusion of the ninety minute training session the volunteers read to kids who, during the training session, were doing mural projects focused on Dr. King. Those two groups came together after the ninety minutes to read about Dr. King, to and with one another. Each of those volunteers has made an ongoing commitment to read to kids at least one hour each week throughout the entire year. We have enabled them to do that in our partnership with Philadelphia Reads, by matching those volunteers with existing programs.
Another example is the Heritage Community Economic Development Corporation in North Philadelphia, led by Ruth Birchett. This group took an abandoned house on the 1900 block of Norris Street, a house that was a center of drug activity; it had become an eyesore; a symbol of decay and of the challenges the community was experiencing. Ruth's organization, along with volunteers from Beaver College and others, started this project by clearing debris form the house, stripping paint, cleaning ajacent abandoned lots that were strewn with litter and debris; and thus began a project that will transform this drug house into a center that will serve the needs of people in the neighborhood, particularly young people.
This is another example of the sustainability and the springboard effect of the King Day of Service. We hope that it will be not just one day of action but will lead to year-round civic engagement.
4npo: And is that the ultimate goal of the King Day of Service?
Todd: Yes, it's really to make citizen action the common experience of everyone. I really believe that this is the "new patriotism." Too often we think of patriotism in connection with fighting wars on foreign soil and the destruction that goes along with it. The King Day of Service is an example of Americans taking responsibility, not just relying on others or government to solve problems that are much greater than what any one agency or any one person can handle. To solve our country's most pressing social problems, we must harness the resources of the entire country. Government is certainly responsible for doing its part, but each of us has to be willing to step up and do what we can; to take ownership of these challenges. If people expect others to solve their problems, they will not be full partners in the solution. Whether it's cleaning a lot, or doing something broader. The lot that was cleaned next to Ruth Birchett's community center will have a greater impact because people in the community are taking ownership.
One of the things we do not do is just have only outsiders going into a community; volunteers doing good "against" the community. When this happens there is no ownership. When we build a playground or restore a house, community ownership increase the likelihood that there will be a sustainable effect.
In another example, we did projects in 50 Philadelphia public schools and 50 Philadelphia recreation centers. One of the projects we did was at the Cecil B. Moore Recreation Center in North Philadelphia. It was a project involving Americorps members from the National Civilian Community Corps. These were a team of 13 corps members, representing about 10 different states, who came to Philadelphia to do this project in partnership with the community. They began in January. This was a major renovation project at the community center and it is continuing through the end of February; it is a project that began before and goes beyond the holiday. These corps members work 5 days a week, 8 hours a day, stripping the walls and floors, doing elctrical work and plumbing. The most important thing is that they also reached out into the community to involve folks who would benefit from this renovation and from the programs offered at the center. It was also at this community center that Mayor Street announced that he was establishing one of two computer centers where staff from the mayor's office would volunteer with young people to support kids in the community in after school programs. Ten computers were provided to establish this program at the Cecil B. Moore Recreation Center and also at the Martin Luther King Recreation Center about a mile away.
There's a particular importance to young people getting involved in the Martin Luther King Day of Service. I think that young people want to know that they're valued, that they are important. I don't think weask enough of people, especially young people. When a young person knows that he or she can do something that helps to create a better community, that in turn can build and boost self-esteem. It teaches a kid in a way of "learning by doing"--that you can really make a difference, can really contribute something of value. I think that the effect of this is so far-reaching that it supports a child's development, their ability to achieve, to succeed in school and in life. It will be a contributing factor as to whether that young person ends up choosing to vote when he or she becomes eligible. Too often, people who don't vote say their vote doesn't really matter: "What does anyone really care whether I vote?" Citizen action is a way of providing proof that one person can make a difference. That can even translate into further community participation as one becomes an adult. There is a contagious effect.
4npo: Not only by doing it themselves, but also by participating with their parents and older members of their community.
Todd: Absolutely. One of our key themes this year was "family" and family participation in the King Day of Service. One year ago at Simon Gratz High School during one of our reflection sessions, I heard parents, mothers in particular, talking about the connection that felt to their kids while serving together in the King Day of Service. It was a connection that had been absent in their lives; it was a connection that they were really yearning for and hadn't been experiencing. So, this past January 17 we made a real focus out of trying to bring together families to serve together. We heard testimony, if you will, to the value of families serving together.
4npo: That actually came through in our interview with Eleanore Pabarue, who saw her mother volunteer throughout her childhood. Now Eleanore volunteers and sometimes includes her children.
Todd: Beyond politics we have to come to the realization that the era of big government is over and that the era of big citizenship is here. We have to approach our common challenges with everyone taking responsibility. I do some work on civic engagement internationally, through the organization that I run, The Citizenship Project. I spent some time this past fall in the Ukraine working with various groups on how to build a sense of community and civic responsibility. I think in some ways it takes the contrast of being in an emerging democracy in the eastern bloc to understand how far we've come in this country. We are building a volunteer "army" to help in solving community problems, realizing that we all have a stake in the outcome. Whether we live in a particular community or not, we have to see ourselves as one big community. For those of us who haven't had to struggle much, we ought to look at community participation as not just a good thing or a noble thing, but as something that is our responsibility as citizens. Ben Franklin liked to say that the highest office in the land was that of "citizen:" not President; Governor; Mayor or City Council member. To be a citizen is not just to care about oneself and ones' family, but to look at the greater community as part of one's family. And I think that the whole notion of patriotism is directly linked to citizen action.
4npo: Can I step back a little bit? The central oragnization that you set up in Philadelphia; how is that funded? Because I think that other cities might be going about this independently in part because setting up a central organizing system seems like it would require some funding.
Todd: You're right, and part of what I'm trying to do now is to take this model and encourage other states and cities to adopt this as a way to engage more people and become more effective. There are three key organizing partners in the King Day of Service. My organization is The Citizenship Project which I started in 1995. What I've done each year in the King Day of Service is link up with an organizing partner, and in the past two years that has been the United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania. Through this partnership we have established a organizing headquarters out of the United Way in Center City. That is where our staff works, beginning in September, to help organize and facilitate these partnerships. I don't think we could have done this on the scale we have without the incredible partnership we have with the United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania, and with the partnership and leadership of Christine James-Brown, their president. We set up our headquarters there and, with the tremendous resources that the United Way has provided, are able to support hundreds of organizations, hundreds of schools, and hundreds of projects.
For me, this is a 365 day-a-year project. Part of the question you asked involves raising money. I spend much of the year doing just that. For every volunteer who participates in the King Day of Service, we acknowledge their participation with a tee shirt. This year, we had tee shirts for 18,000 volunteers. That's a lot of tee shirts, and requires a lot of money. So we recruited 22 sponsors, and those sponsors were acknowledged in a number of ways, including putting their logos on shirts and acknowledgement by the mayor at our annual kick-off news conference. Mayor Street is our honorary Chair. We had 6 co-chairs for the event, representing a whole range of organizations and efforts. So, it is a massive organizing effort that gets in some ways, more complicated each year, but in other ways easier.
There has been an interesting evolution in thinking about the King holiday. It is now sort of an expected thing for people to come out and devote that day to serving the community. That has been wonderful. When you look back on the twentieth century, the landmark legislation and Supreme Court decisions that have altered the social landscape by ending legal sgregation or giving everyone the right to vote, it's one thing to change laws, which is hard enough; it's even harder to change minds. The King Day of Service has seen a real change in of thinking about how best to honor Dr. King and how best to honor an American hero. By not just taking advantage of the mall "sale of the day" but actually doing something that reflects that individual's message, we have done something pretty powerful. I think that comes from the years of doing this project, it really hasn't been that long; just 5 years.
4npo: What kind of involvement do you receive from the King family?
Todd: Coretta King and her son Dexter, who runs the The King Center in Atlanta, and the other members of the King family, have been tremendously supportive. I'll give you a quote from Coretta. "The greatest gift my husband could receive is if people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds celebrated the holiday by performing individual acts of kindness through service to others. Our goal is to change the way Americans think about the holiday from seeing it as a day off to a day on." The King family has been a significant advocate for taking the holiday and the memory and celebration of Dr. King and turning it into a day of action; bringing diverse citizens together with a common goal.
4npo: In looking ahead, is organizing going to become an even greater task? Can you see fundraising and corporate involvement becoming bigger parts? It seems that the nice part of all this is that it is more "grassroots."
Todd: I think that the grassroots effect of this will perhaps make an all-out centralized organizing effort unnecessary. That is, as the sparks of interest and commitment build, people around the country will instinctively see the King holiday as an opportunity to organize and turn words of concern into actions. Ultimately it is my hope, that we won't need to have these special efforts to convince people that this is a great way to honor Dr. King.
4npo The thing that would worry me is greater commercialization, which would lead to just one day of service rather than the ultimate goal of trying to get people to serve for a longer period of time.
Todd: I think that's always a concern but we never lose sight of making it more than just a day. In fact I have to say that one of the great inspirations for that whole way of thinking came locally from Jack Neary who when we firsted started this project was EVP of CoreStates Bank, which served as our lead sponsor for a couple of years. I remember my first meeting with Jack, pitching this project. I was explaining what we were going to do and what the goals were, and Jack said to me, "That's great; this sounds very noble to do these projects, but where are the legs?" That was his constant refrain: "Where is the springboard effect from this into sustained community action?" I think it was Jack's constant prodding that led us to see this not just as an opportunity to make a difference on one day but throughout the entire year.
4npo: The Presidents' Summit that was held in Philadelphia, did this help establish the success of the effort there?
Todd: Yes, it has. I mentioned that two of the major organizing partners are The Citizenship Project, my organization, and the United Way. Our third organizing partner is Philadelphia's Promise-The Alliance for Youth, which is the local effort that grew out of the 1997 Presidents' Summit for America's Future. One of the things we have done since the Presidents' Summit is to encourage organizations and projects on the King holiday to reflect the 5 fundamental resource goals of the Presidents' Summit. These are all focused around providing resources to children and youth. The 5 goals are: 1. to provide a caring adult in a young person's life; a mentor, coach, teacher, tutor; 2. to provide safe places for kids to learn and grow through after-school programs and thelike; 3. to provide a healthy start in a child's life through healthcare, prenatal care, eye care and those kinds of services; 4. to provide marketable skills for young people so they can become aware of professional opportunities. The 5th goal, which is perhaps the best known goal of the Presidents' Summit, is to challenge young people to give back to their communities; not just to be served but to serve others. We have always placed a special emphasis on encouraging organizations to incorporate the goals of the Presidents' Summit into the King Day of Service.
4npo: Todd thanks for allowing me to interview you.
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Todd's 2005 commencement speech.
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