ISOJI and Multi-Disciplinary Team, August 8, 2016
Congress Huffman:

Re: Support for The People’s Lobby/Dwayne Hunn’s “American World Service Corps (AWSC) National Service proposal”

Dwayne Hunn as presented his proposal to the ISOJI (e-so-gee) MDT on several occasions and the response has always be affirmative and supportive if not a necessary ingredient into plight of our straying teens and young adults

Collectively we would like to see this proposal forwarded for consideration by Congress as a viable, well thought-out social-economic support system, and certainly, an option for our young people.

ISOJI surmises the lack of technical and vocational tracks in high school and the 30 to 40% students not wanting to/or cannot attend college puts many students at a disadvantage in transitioning into the workforce. Add to that, the evidences that says 75 to 80% of high-schoolers leave the learning environment with low self-esteem, which means low resiliency skills and reduced motivation, which leaves them unsure about self and the future, and indeed, in need of an environment where they feel useful and have the time to acquire a sense of discipline that helps them sort out their life’s path.

Without question, the compelling arguments, from our point of view, lies in the large numbers unemployed and underemployed and the 35 to 40 % of students NOT wanting or UNABLE to attend college or an advanced technical-vocational training institution.

We see the general disposition, unrest, and the higher levels of negative self-worth and low personal efficacy reflected in societal conditions that too often manifests itself in criminal inclinations – and we know how hard it is for young people to overcome what happens to them when they become enwrapped in a discriminatory criminal justice system.

A number of groups such as Peace Corp, Cross Cultural Solutions, United Planet Abroad, AmeriCorps, National Association of Community Health Centers, The Corp Network, City Year, The Red Cross, State Conservation Corps and multiple non-profits and other charitable works often lack the type of centrality or direct volunteer arm needed to address America’s systemic need to structure healthy and productive youth-to-adult pathways.

Your office can look at this proposal as a complementary necessity to, without question, the need to build a national infrastructure nationally that serves a myriad of social-economic needs. This AWSCNS program could present a national image for addressing youth, many of whom seem to occupy a social vacuum rife with drugs, violent media, social disconnectedness, separated from the health and welfare attributes that our nation has promised.

For all these reasons, ISOJI and the Multi-Disciplinary Team and our CITT “Collective Impact” Community Equity Building Team, endorses fully, this proposal.

In closing, as a former Air Force intelligence manager let me add another reason this AWSCNS program should be implemented. Whereas the military use to be a haven, an option for growing into a healthy manhood, the military and/or war environment too often today does not provide that route. Service as depicted in this proposed bill offers a healthy route, while providing human resources to our overwhelmed non-profits and presenting to the public a government that looks and acts effective, outreaching, and caring.

Sincerely,

Ricardo Moncrief, Director
ISOJI 415 883-1757