We have exciting updates and a request for all Coalition for Service-Learning members. We need your help to ask Congress to include Service-Learning in the FY22 appropriation for the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS)!
Representative Teresa Leger Fernandez (NM) has prepared a Dear Colleague letter asking that the FY22 budget include $250 million in annual appropriations for a Service-Learning Fund to be administered through Learn and Serve America, Subtitle B of the Edward M Kennedy Serve America Act.
We’re working on securing a sponsor for a Senate Dear Colleague letter as well, so we’ll likely be asking for you to contact your two U.S. Senators soon; for the next few days, we’re focused on the House of Representatives.
What can you do to help?
Today or Tomorrow! Please contact your U.S. Representative’s office and ask them to sign on to Rep. Leger Fernandez’ letter to the Chair of the subcommittee that oversees CNCS’s funding, Rep. Rosa DeLauro. The deadline for sign on is next Monday, April 26. This is the first opportunity for federal service-learning funding in more than ten years; please help us to make this a reality!
Here are a few tools to help you reach out:
If you have a contact in either a district or the DC office of your Representative, especially with staff who manage education and/or national service issues, please reach out to them directly with this request.
If you don’t have a contact, find your Members of Congress’ websites using the search tool at Congress.gov or the state-by-state directory at https://www.house.gov/representatives. Once on each member’s website, look for a contact form.
Alternately, you can text SIGN PQHXNV to 50409 or to Resistbot on iMessage to send the message below to your U.S. Representative.
A sample message is below and a copy of the Dear Colleague letter can be downloaded here.
Consider sharing this request with your network. You can forward this message, or share this page (https://www.coalition4sl.org/action-alert). Share this Facebook post or this Tweet.
After you’ve sent your message, please use this form at the bottom of this page to let us know which office you have contacted.
SAMPLE MESSAGE:
On behalf of [INSERT YOUR ORGANIZATION], a member of the national Coalition for Service Learning, I am writing to request your support for funding for the Learn and Serve America program. Per the recommendation of the Congressionally-mandated and bipartisan National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service, please sign on to a Dear Colleague letter requesting $250 million for a competitive Service-Learning Fund in the FY 2022 Labor HHS Education appropriations legislation for the Corporation for National and Community Service (AmeriCorps Agency) to eligible SEAs, LEAs, IHEs, State Service Commissions, and nonprofit organizations, as authorized under Subtitle B (Learn and Serve America) of the National and Community Service Act.
Recovering from the pandemic and building back better will require active participation of young people in our nation’s civic life. Through the Learn and Serve America program, young people can contribute to addressing national challenges, like the pandemic, through service while learning the knowledge and skills necessary for future success. These funds will be used to develop and implement service-learning programs and opportunities for hands-on community service for K–12 and post-secondary students across the country. Schools, higher education institutions, and nonprofits in our district would be eligible to apply for the competitive grant programs funded with this appropriation. The Service Learning Fund is important because the programs it supports are proven to:
Improve school engagement and academic performance
Build cultural intelligence and SEL skills
Increase workforce skills
Develop civic skills
Create the lifelong habit of service and develops a pipeline to AmeriCorps and other service programs
Provide opportunities to serve to under-resourced communities
Members can sign on here until Monday, April 26 or at https://e-dearcolleague.house.gov/Home/Preview?DCID=329491 and can reach out to Adeline DeYoung in Rep. Fernandez's office for more information. Thank you for considering this important request!