Leading AmeriCorps with Barbara Stewart
Overview of this Episode
In this episode of the Trust Your Voice podcast, host Sylvie Légère sat down with Barbara Stewart, Former CEO of AmeriCorps to know what is the uniquely American value of volunteering and giving back.
In this conversation, Sylvie and Barbara discuss:
What is AmeriCorps?
How AmeriCorps promote volunteerism
Leading AmeriCorps key goals and values
Future of Volunteerism in America
To bring out the best of America, visit AmeriCorps to serve and make a difference.
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Episode Transcript
Sylvie Legere 0:02
Have you ever felt challenged with making life changing decisions or leading in the public square or simply aligning your thoughts with your actions? Well, then you're in the right place. Welcome to trust your voice podcast. My name is Sylvie Legere. And as a civically engaged intrapreneur, and mom, I understand the challenges of advocating for yourself and others. While attempting to balance your personal and professional demands. I had to develop a personal system of success in every area of my life. And now, I want to help you build your unique system and truly trust your voice, even and especially when it shakes. By the end of each episode, you'll be energized to spark your creative leadership make purposeful connection, and confidently prioritize the matters that bring you the most joy. So that started to show we are in this season of giving and sharing our treasures. And one verse that's really speaks to me in this season is Matthew 516. In the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. So for our last episode of the year, I would like to share with you the interview that I did with my good friend Barbara Stewart, who served as CEO of America. And I think that you will be inspired by our conversation, the uniquely American value of volunteering, and giving back. I hope you enjoyed this conversation. I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. It's my pleasure to introduce my guest, Barbara Stewart. Barbara is on the National Advisory Board of the policy circle and recently joined the Grand Council of the University of Chicago. She has more than 30 years of experience in private public, nonprofit sectors, federal and state level government. Barbara and her husband Peter Bowie, co founded and lead the Bowie steward Foundation, which supports organizations that expand economic opportunity through education, training and work. So Barbara served as the presidential appointed CEO of AmeriCorps, and AmeriCorps is a federal agency for service and volunteerism. And it provides resources to more than 2000 organizations throughout the country. And it hosts nearly 300,000 Mare corps member and AmeriCorps senior volunteers. So I invited Barbara to share with us her experience as a presidential nominee of a federal agency, and really her thoughts on the future of civil society in America. So Barbara, welcome to the show. And I'd love for you to share with us the mission of the AmeriCorps agency, and what type of volunteerism does it promote.
Barbara Stewart 2:43
Sylvie, thanks so much for having me on your show and joining you today. So AmeriCorps is really the Federal Agency for service and volunteering. And the mission of AmeriCorps is to improve lives, and to strengthen communities and to foster civic engagement through volunteerism and service. And so currently, there are a couple of 100,000 Seniors who volunteer with the AmeriCorps seniors program. And they primarily work in schools as Foster Grandparents, or as Senior Companions working with other seniors to help keep them in their home. But the probably best known program that the agency supports is the AmeriCorps program, which is a year long service opportunity, mostly for young people, although Americans of all ages can participate, to serve with nonprofits in their communities. So they serve with organizations that you may be familiar with, like City Year or Teach for America, or Habitat for Humanity or Catholic Charities, but they also serve with a lot of very small local organizations all throughout the country, doing what needs to be done in that community be working at a homeless shelter or in food security or an education.
Sylvie Legere 4:01
And when was the agency established?
Barbara Stewart 4:04
AmeriCorps is actually relatively new as federal agencies go? It was established 27 years ago, it was really born out of George W. Bush's Points of Light effort. And then President Clinton furthered that effort and under the Clinton administration was signed into law, the AmeriCorps organization of service as we know it today, some of the programs preexisted AmeriCorps VISTA was around before the agency's creation, but the agencies 27 years old.
Sylvie Legere 4:39
How does the agency work with the local communities or the state as being a federal agency? I guess, people signed up with the agency at the federal level and then they get assigned to local agencies. How is it structured?
Barbara Stewart 4:52
So it's actually a federal grant making organization and one of the things that very much appeals to me about AmeriCorps is that there are wonderful private public partnerships and also strong partnerships with states. So for example, every state has a governor appointed state service commission. And a lot of the federal funds flow through the states, and states guided by their governors are able to make decisions on where AmeriCorps members should serve, and what the real opportunities are at their local level. We also partner AmeriCorps partners, with mayors and nonprofits throughout the country to make decisions about what the AmeriCorps members are going to be working on. So there's a lot of flexibility in terms of service opportunities. But there's a lot of local discretion about what really is needed in Alaska versus Missouri versus Maryland versus Florida.
Sylvie Legere 5:51
And do people apply to America like does the federal agency manage the application process are they apply more like to their state become an AmeriCorps volunteer or senior volunteer
Barbara Stewart 6:03
So the federal government and state governments really serve as marketing and information sources, and almost all of the actual recruitment is happening within the organizations where the AmeriCorps members would serve. So City Year, for example, is doing recruiting or Habitat for Humanity is doing recruiting. And so in many ways, the federal agency is about promotion, and encouraging service and volunteerism, but it is largely a grant agency. There is one program that is a residential program that's literally administered in four different states by the federal government. And it's an opportunity for 18 to 26 year olds to spend a year in residence on 104 campuses. But the vast majority of AmeriCorps members are serving in their communities or our community they chose to move to, and they're supported by grants that the federal government provides nonprofits or local governments and splits the cost with.
Sylvie Legere 7:07
So share with us how you were considered for this position as CEO of America, and what went through your mind when you learn more about America?
Barbara Stewart 7:18
So Sylvie? That's a really interesting question, because my path wasn't really, completely straightforward. I was contacted by the president's office about serving in the administration. And I literally looked through a book of opportunities. And I thought, working at AmeriCorps best fit with my values and the issues, I was interested in terms of supporting service and volunteerism. So I threw my hat in the ring. And then I actually didn't hear anything for a couple of months. And as quirky as this may sound, I got an email asking me to submit a full and complete application. I think I expected it to be a more formal phone call process. But I guess in the 21st century, we contact people about important things by email. So then I went through the application process, which was interesting and onerous. The federal government understandably wants to know a lot of information about presidential appointees. And so I needed to provide extensive background information, which ultimately led to being officially appointed by the President and then confirmed by the Senate.
Sylvie Legere 8:30
What did you tell yourself to feel like, okay, I can take on this challenge of running a federal agency that impacts hundreds of 1000s of people.
Barbara Stewart 8:40
Well, the prospect of leading this big and important agency was exciting to me. But I think I didn't really fully realize what I was getting into until I was there. I am a big, big believer in the mission of the agency, improving lives, strengthening communities, fostering civic engagement, and have seen throughout my professional, nonprofit career, how important volunteers and service are, but I don't think I fully realized the challenges, specifically the operational challenges that were ahead of me. America as an agency has attracted a lot of very passionate, visionary people. But the issues of fiscal audits and operational structure hasn't always been its forte. And so I was there in its 22nd to 25th year, and there were big challenges that had accumulated over time. So I ended up spending a lot more time than I had anticipated, reworking a lot of the internal structures to make sure that the organization had the capacity to continue to support the nonprofits, and importantly, the AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps senior members that it was supporting.
Sylvie Legere 9:57
So when you arrive at the agency, how did you get your bearings?
Barbara Stewart 10:01
So I had the opportunity to go and meet with some of my future colleagues before I was actually confirmed. But a big challenge when you're leading a federal agency is putting together your team. And so finding the people who would be part of my team support me, there were political appointees there when I arrived, and they were a terrific group. So that was a very lucky for me. And I also had a very talented career team that I worked with. But getting your bearings is a big project, because there's all kinds of history. There's all kinds of immediate decisions that have to be made in the first week, on top of putting together your vision for what you want to accomplish in the coming years.
Sylvie Legere 10:43
Yeah, and how did you decide on that vision or the key goals that you wanted to accomplish during your tenure? i How did you go? Did you you said you wanted to really restructures. So the agency could operate with excellence and at its best, and deliver its service. But how did you decide what your key goals were going to be and what was going to be your legacy there.
Barbara Stewart 11:08
So it's interesting, because what you envision, before you're confirmed, and what you're confronted with, in terms of reality, are often quite different. So I had envisioned using the contacts and relationships, I'd had to really strengthen the public private partnership and to get more nonprofit organizations, but importantly, business organizations to strengthen the AmeriCorps program. So that was my original vision, and something that I did focus on to some extent over time. But when I arrived, I was not fully aware of the operational challenges. And I ended up eight weeks after being confirmed, having to testify before a House hearing about the long standing operational issues of the organization so much more quickly than I would have originally anticipated. I ended up having to do a deep dive about our audit our financial problems, and are operational problems. This was not what I expected in my in my first couple months, but it really opened my eyes to the challenges that existed. Fortunately, there were a small group of career folks who were very well aware of these challenges, and had put together a blueprint of strategies that we could employ to really strengthen the agency. And what they needed was the political will to push through those strategies. So I ended up adopting a lot of the suggestions that the career folks had made and developed in the last year, and bringing in some additional talent from the private sector and from other areas of government so that we could actually make progress. But it was not what I expected. I really didn't think I'd become engaged in operational things as much as I did. The other thing that was a really fun project that we worked on, while I was there was rebranding the agency to be called AmeriCorps in a quirky twist, the legal name of the agency is the Corporation for National and Community Service. And nobody knew what that was. Everyone knew the agency by its primary program, AmeriCorps. So one of the fun projects that we worked on, was to change the logo, which had become very outdated, and more importantly, rebrand the entire agency under the American moniker, which again, was much better known, had a little bit of baggage. I'm not saying there weren't some issues with it that we had to consider. But in the long run, it felt like that was the right investment to make in terms of marketing.
Sylvie Legere 13:45
What was your greatest accomplishment that you felt at the agency or the experience that you had there that you felt really enrich your life?
Barbara Stewart 13:55
So I thought that we made some very good steps in terms of professionalizing, the internal structure of the organization, I'm really proud and excited by the rebranding work that we did. And it's very gratifying for me to go on AmeriCorps website, or to see their branding and a full embrace of a term that we coined bringing out the best in America. And that volunteerism and service really is so essential to moving communities forward to addressing polarization in our country. So the branding was something that I'm very proud of, but I'm also proud of the people that I brought in, and the steps we made to move forward in terms of some long standing operational issues. And again, that sounds dull, right? The marketing stuff is exciting, the operational stuff is dull, but if the public doesn't have confidence that the agency can execute on its mission. And candidly, if Congress doesn't have confidence, then that undermines the agency's ability. Need to get funded and move forward on its agenda?
Sylvie Legere 15:04
What do you think I'd like to In conclusion, you know, what do you think is the future of volunteerism in America? Do you feel like it's growing? Or shrinking? There's different reports about that. But from where you were, what do you see as the future?
Barbara Stewart 15:18
America did a number of studies on Volunteering in America, and a very good news that came out of them over a 25 plus year period, is that volunteerism is a steady, stable part of what we do as Americans, more than a third of Americans formally volunteer. And even more than that volunteer in the community simply by helping their neighbor, or helping their family and in a variety of different ways. So volunteerism is really alive and well and very stable, think bringing people together in service and volunteerism community is also solving the problem of conflict and polarization that we have. And that solution of volunteering has always been around and continues to be strong, but its ability to positively affect negative consequences in our community is really important.
Sylvie Legere 16:16
Ya know, it brings people to have different experiences to discover something that they didn't know about themselves. And also, like you said, just connect with people differently, and people with different backgrounds, different life experiences. And it really happens through volunteerism, because it pushes you outside of your comfort zone. For the most part, there's a just have to touch on this. But do you think that community service could be treated like military service and be run at the federal level? I know that there's a bill that was introduced in 2001, that talks about expanding the national service with the corpse act, and it was called, like cultivating opportunity and recovery from the pandemic through service. I guess this was done in the context of COVID. But what were your thoughts on these discussions? I'm sure you were part of these discussions in some capacity about having a bill around cultivating voluntourism.
Barbara Stewart 17:11
So that legislation was introduced after I left America, but I am familiar with it. And I think the broadly, the notion of expanding service opportunities is a great one. And some people are interested in serving in the military and for a variety of reasons that may have to do with health or other reasons, the military isn't an option for them. And so national service is a great option. Some of the supporters, sponsors of that bill themselves have served in the military and have seen the uniting reality of serving with people from all over the country and why that's so important. And similarly, National Service has the same outcome. And so think the thought of expanding service opportunities, which is one of the primary goals of that legislation is really essential in terms of bringing people together, military service is very special. And I don't want to necessarily compare the two because in military service, people are putting their life on the line, I have enormous respect for military service. But national service, people are also putting their time and commitment and effort in their community in a really meaningful way. And so the notion of getting more Americans engaged in military service, and national service, I think is, is a really important goal.
Sylvie Legere 18:33
As so many young people graduating leaving high school, this would give an opportunity for them to really find a focus, discover new talent, and then before moving on to perhaps vocational training, or university training. So I'd love for you to share some words of encouragement or words of wisdom that would inspire us to do a little bit like you did put ourselves out there and say yes to opportunities.
Barbara Stewart 19:00
An interesting aspect of what you're asking is about personal bravery. And I would not say that I was always as brave as I would have liked to have been in my corporate career. And when I was younger, and one of the things that I loved about my opportunity in America was it was a real opportunity to be personally brave, and do what needed to get done. Even if there were people who push back or didn't necessarily support in the short run, the goals that you were trying to accomplish, although they shared the long term goals. And so where I'm going with this is at any age, the sooner you dig in and take risks, the better your outcome is going to be both in terms of the organization you're working with are working for and for you personally. So setting goals is also one of I would say my life hacks working in the federal government actually was a goal of mine that I wrote on I business school application form and I look back and sort of laugh but also really smile when I see that. So setting goals even though they may feel audacious at the time, is how you will eventually get where you want to go. Yeah.
Sylvie Legere 20:15
Oh, thank you. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for this interview. Really appreciate it. Thank you, Barbara.
Barbara Stewart 20:20
Thanks, Sylvie great being with you.
Sylvie Legere 20:24
Thank you for joining me, Sylvie Legere, on my trust your voice podcast. I hope that this episode brought you a new way to think about your voice, how to trust yourself and how to use your voice for good in your life and in your community. If you liked this podcast, be sure to leave us a review in Apple podcasts. And subscribe to the show in your favorite podcast player again.