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July 2009
Dear RSVP Directors
and Friends,
It was a pleasure
to catch up with so many of you in San Francisco
at the National Conference on Service and
Volunteerism. We have a lot coming up in the
next few months. But most importantly, we need
to be talking with our representatives in
Washington and letting them know that RSVP needs
to be funded at a higher level than that in the
President’s budget.
There are four
issues that will occupy us in the year ahead:
First, the
Corporation for National Service will continue
to work on how to implement the Serve America
Act. The Act lays out a timeline and a series
of steps that the Corporation is supposed to
follow in implementing competition. We need to
make sure that the Corporation follows the
timeline, properly conducts its rulemaking,
consults with program directors, and, in
general, doesn’t try to use this process as an
opportunity to radically change the RSVP program
as we know it. We need to be prepared to go to
our friends and allies on the Hill to make sure
that doesn’t happen.
Second, is the
continuing battle over appropriations for the
RSVP program. During the consideration of the
Serve America Act, the Administration said
essentially that if the Congress agreed to
competition in RSVP, the Administration would
grow the program. The Administration’s FY 2010
budget, however, doesn’t really make good on
that commitment. For example, it proposes to
increase AmeriCorps state and national grants by
37 percent and proposes to fully fund a new
Social Innovation Fund at $50 million, but
proposes only a $4.4 million (7.4 percent)
increase for RSVP (while providing less than 2
percent for FGP and SCP). The Administration
position seems to be that whatever doesn’t get
funded this year will be taken care of in the
future, but that is a promise that may become
increasingly difficult to fulfill, particularly
if the deficit continues to grow and the economy
doesn’t recover.
The third area is
to look beyond the Corporation for support for
RSVP. We continue our discussions with CDC
about the possibilities of funding RSVP for
falls prevention programming. There maybe
additional funds through CDC to get these
programs at every RSVP across the nation. its
also worthwhile for us to explore national
partnerships with other agencies for funding,
or for-profit partnerships as well. As the
Administration does more to promote service and
volunteerism, there may be other opportunities
to pursue. I think that the environmental,
education, and energy areas are worth close
looks.
Finally, I’d like
to see us continue to promote RSVP on the Hill
and to the Administration as the most
cost-effective solution to the wave of retiring
baby boomers. In order to do this, I think we
need to recognize that many people (1) don’t
know very much about RSVP; (2) don’t
differentiate it from FGP and SCP; and (3) think
of it as something that is fluffy, soft, and
nice but not necessary. We need to educate
policymakers about RSVP and demonstrate its
effectiveness. This may mean working with CNCS
on a campaign, but it may require NARSVPD to do
this independent of the Corporation.
In this age of
stimulus packages, and continual spending its a
perfect opportunity for RSVP to promote the cost
effectiveness of the program. We don't need new
programs and new money to start those programs,
we need new money to support RSVP to develop,
run and promote those new programs in the cost
effective manner that RSVP was meant to
operate. We need to educate Federal legislators
that RSVP is the most cost effective program
nationally, and that we are ready and willing to
take on new challenges. We just need more funds
to get those new programs, new volunteers and
new challenges up and running.
I
look forward to working with all of you to
develop the strategy over the the coming year to
place RSVP in the forefront of Volunteerism,
where RSVP should be. If you have any
questions, suggestions on how to develop this
strategy, please email me your thoughts. My
email address is
broppnarsvpd@aol.com
Thank you for
supporting NARSVPD.
Yours in Service,
Brian
Ropp
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