2004 Annual Conference

Overview

The National Conference on Citizenship

So to be a good citizen, we have to reassess what we mean by the word love. Love of country isnt just waiving a flag. Love of country is knowing its story, knowing its values, its liberties, everything that has been passed on to us by so much in the way of sacrifice and genius by those who went before us. We have a torch to carry and a torch to pass. John Adams said, our obligations to our country never cease but with our lives.

-- David McCullough

It was one of the first times I had ever come to this city, a little less than 44 years ago, that I and the woman who would become my wife got on a train in Philadelphia. We rode the night, through a snowstorm that evening, ended up at Union Station and walked through the snow over to the East front of the Capitol. We stoodat the back of a crowd that morning and listened as a veteran of the war spoke, first of all to his own generation. He said, The torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans . [and] indeed I felt standing there that he was speaking to me personally.

-- Robert Putnam

Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian David McCullough opened the annual conference of the National Conference on Citizenship with a powerful address on the meaning of citizenship and inspired the audience to move forward on this important work that is never finished. In one of many compelling anecdotes, he told a moving story about how John Adams left the White House one night to go fight a fire to perform a heroic and unheralded act of citizenship. He offered his perspective on how to foster in young people a love of American history and a generosity of spirit, and on how we can reawaken in citizens notions of a good and caring society.

Professor Robert Putnam captivated the audience with his own personal story of how he became interested in the issue of citizen service. Putnam noted, however, that while President Kennedy called upon all Americans to serve their country and the world, this did not result in a public service or civic boom, but represented its pinnacle. In his seminal work, Bowling Alone, Putnam described the 30 year decline in social connectedness and civic engagement from the 1960s through the 1990s and asked the audience to consider why this pattern had emerged and what could be done to rebuild social capital. He noted that once or twice a century we have an opportunity to foster a kind of civic renewal that does not come again and that September 11, 2001, born of tragedy, has given us such an opportunity. By placing the idea of citizenship in its proper historic context and by setting forth the challenge of reversing a steep decline in civic engagement, David McCullough and Robert Putnam framed the debate for the rest of day. Speakers from the three branches of government, academia and the nonprofit community met the challenge by reporting on their progress in fostering a civic reawakening and asking the relevant questions to help ensure these positive trends of civic engagement are sustained.

Senator Lamar Alexander set forth an ambitious 10 point agenda for the Congress to strengthen our common culture, increase an understanding of the principles that unite us, and "put the teaching of American history and civics back in its rightful place in our schools so our children can grow up learning what it means to be an American." Deputy Secretary of Education Eugene Hickok summarized the work of the Executive Branch - including the USA Freedom Corps, the Department of Education, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Park Service and the National Archives, to strengthen citizenship, to promote a better understanding of our history, and to reawaken civic virtue. And U.S. District Court Judge Frank Damrell highlighted the good work of the Judiciary to support a civics revival in the aftermath of 9/11 and challenged conference participants to reach out to lawyers and judges who are willing to do even more.

One panel led by Professor John J. DiIulio of the University of Pennsylvania focused on how we are fostering citizenship through nonprofits, youth volunteerism and faith-based institutions, and another panel led by Professor Amy Kass of the University of Chicago addressed efforts to foster citizenship through civic education. Four concurrent breakout sessions led by James Basker, President of The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History; David Eisner, CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service; William Galston, Director of CIRCLE at the University of Maryland; and Gail Leftwich, Executive Director of By the People at MacNeil/Lehrer Productions focused on Citizenship through American History, Citizenship through Service, the Political Engagement Gap: Voting & Volunteering, and Technology Strengthening Citizenship, respectively.

Dr. James Billington, the Librarian of Congress, helped to close our program with a powerful speech on how the Library is using new technologies to make people aware of our traditions, values and history through 9 million original items of American history and culture that are now online through the National Digital Library. He talked about how these original documents and other items humanized history and made it something each of us can relate to as a person. Transcripts, summaries and anecdotes from these and other speakers and panelists at the annual conference are included in this Post Conference Report.

Former Senator Harris Wofford received the NCoC's Citizen of the Year Award 2004 for his lifetime of service to the nation.

The conference ended with the announcement of two exciting new initiatives. Kathleen Cox, President of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, announced a $20 million investment in a new American History and Civics Initiative for middle and high school students. Craig Turk, Chairman of the National Conference on Citizenship, announced the creation of the NCoC's National Center on Citizenship, a nationwide clearinghouse to help us all work better in common cause.

Early Signs of Hope

A Renewed Effort from the Three Branches of Government

• Legislative - Senator Lamar Alexander
• Executive - Deputy Secretary of Education Eugene Hickok
• Judicial District Court Judge Frank Damrell

The steady and steep decline in civic engagement in the United States has been exhaustively catalogued and discussed. The implications of this decline will no doubt be felt for years. But, in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, there have been many efforts at the federal, state and local levels to foster a culture of service and civic engagement, and there are some very promising signs that show the resilience and public-spiritedness of Americans. We highlight below a few of these signs of hope and one perspective for how to move forward to sustain these positive trends.

Regular Volunteer Service on the Rise

As part of the USA Freedom Corps, the federal government created a new, comprehensive and consistent measurement of volunteer activity with a baseline of September 2001. As the chart below shows, 59.7 million Americans regularly volunteered from September 2001 to September 2002. This was an unusually high baseline of volunteers, given the expected surge in volunteer activity after 9/11. What is encouraging is that the number of volunteers increased from 59.7 million in the year after 9/11 to 63.7 million from September 2002 to September 2003, and grew even further to 64.5 million from September 2003 to September 2004.

Bureau of Labor Statistics on Volunteering in the U.S.

Percentage of the Population Who Volunteered

Number of Millions Who Volunteered

Community and National Service Programs Reach Historic Highs

Participation in and funding for community and national service programs are significantly on the rise. Through the USA Freedom Corps, significant investments have been made in existing federally-supported service programs, such as the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, and Senior Corps. The Peace Corps has the highest number of volunteers in 29 years; AmeriCorps has grown in the last year from 50,000 to 75,000 members; and Senior Corps has grown from 500,000 to 540,000 participants.

New federally-supported service opportunities have been created to engage Americans in community-based activities to strengthen homeland security through Citizen Corps and to deploy highly-skilled American professionals to countries around the world who need their expertise through Volunteers for Prosperity (VFP). The chart below shows the extensive growth in Citizen Corps and the willingness of so many Americans to step up to serve their communities and country. During the past year, the VFP Office has recruited nearly 200 nonprofit and for-profit organizations representing a pool of at least 34,000 skilled American professionals. Volunteers for Prosperity have deployed nearly 7,000 volunteers, and plan on deploying 8,000 next year to developing countries around the world.

More information on these programs and other initiatives that are strengthening community, national and international service efforts can be found at www.usafreedomcorps.gov.

National Service Participation Increases Civic Engagement

The Corporation for National and Community Service recently released a Longitudinal Study entitled, Serving Country and Community: A Longitudinal Study of Service in AmeriCorps. The report showed that participation in the national service program increased both levels of civic engagement and participation in public service careers. More information on this important study can be found at www.nationalservice.org

Electoral Participation Up Significantly

More than 122 million Americans voted in the 2004 presidential election, represent-ing the highest turnout since 1968 and the largest uptick in voter participation since 1952. These post-9/11 trends are welcome, given the steep decline in voter participation from the 1960s through the 1990s as catalogued in Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone. Youth turnout, as reported by The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement (CIRCLE) at the University of Maryland, in the 2004 presidential election was also up dramatically from 2000, showing that about 21 million 18-29 year olds voted, an increase of 4.6 million from 2000, representing 51- 52% of eligible voters in this age group compared to 42% in 2000.

Percentage of Voter Turnout for the Voting Age Population in Presidential Elections From 1960 to 2004

Election Assistance Commission, and Center for Voting and Democracy

2004 Post Conference Report (pdf)

The Post Conference Report of the Annual Conference of the National Conference on Citizenship includes summaries or transcripts of presentations by each of our speakers, together with the hopeful trends we are seeing in the aftermath of September 11, 2001.

The Conference began an effort to create a national network of leading organizations working to strengthen American history and civic education, community and national service, and political and civic engagement.

To view documents in PDF format, download the Adobe Acrobat Reader at : http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html