Descriptive 141) -- Reports -

ED 292 918

AUTHOR

TITLE

INSTITUTION

PUB DATE

NOTE

AVAILABLE FROM

PUB TYPE

EDRS PRICE

DESCRIPTORS

IDENTIFIERS

DOCUMENT RESUME

UD 026 087

Jaffe, Natalie; Freedman, Marc

Youth Corps Case Studies: The New York City Volunteer

Corps Exit Report.

Public/Private Ventures, Philadelphia, PA.

51p.; For interim report, see ED 283 033.

The Communications Department, Public/Private

Ventures, 399 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA

19106.

Reports

Descriptive 141) -- Reports -

Evaluative /Feasibility (142)

MF01 Plus Postage. PC Not Available from EDRS.

*Community Services; *High Risk Persons; Neighborhood

Improvement; Program Costs; *Program Effectiveness;

Public Service; Urban Improvement; *Urban Youth;

*Volunteers; Youth Opportunities; Youth Programs

*New York (New York)

ABSTRACT

This exit report chronicles the last 20 months of the

3-year demonstration phase of the New York City Volunteer Corps

(CVC), whose members worked in teams at various sites to either

provide human services or do physical work. These final months were

characterized by the following factors: (1) a change in Corps

leadership; (2) concern about continued funding; (3) enrollment of

fewer volunteers than planned; (4) reductions in staff and costs; and

(5) efforts to strike a balance between the goals of serving the city

and aiding the volunteers. Yet the CVC produced some positive results

in its projects. It was found that the volunteers required close

supervision and could benefit from individualized remedial education.

They formed productive field teams under the dedicated leadership of

the team leaders and coordinators. The CVC rendered valuable services

to the city as its mode of operation changed and matured. Other urban

areas are urged to adopt and refine this type of self help project.

Information is given on the following evaluation items: (1) types and

management of work; (2) characteristics of the volunteers; (3) youth

development; (4) costs; and (5) findings and coficlusions. (VM)

***********************************************************************

Re?roductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made

from the original document.

***********************************************************************

"PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS

MATERIAL IN MICROFICHE ONLY

HAS BEEN GRANTED BY

011117.6'1_L,

TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)."

Public/Private Ventures

399 Market Street

Philadelphia, PA 19106

(215) 592-9099

Youth Corps Case Studies:

The New York City

Volunteer Corps

Exit Report

&Si COPY AVAILABLE.

Fall 1987

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Office of Educational Research and Improvemer)

EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION

CENTER (ERIC)

to. This documont has been reproduced as

received from the person or organization

originating rL

0 Minor changes have been made to improve

reproduction quality

Pointsof view or opinionsstated in this docu-

ment do not necessarily represent (Acts!

OERI position or policy.

Public/Private Ventures is a national, not-for-profit

corporation that designs, manages and evaluates

social policy initiatives designed to help those whose

lack of preparation for the workforce hampers their

chances for productive lives. Its work is supported by

funds from both ;he public and private sectors.

Further information about P/PV and its publications

is available from: The Communications Department,

Public/Private Ventures, 399 Market Street,

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19106.

Telephone: 215-592-9099.

Public/Private Ventures

Board of Directors

Rex D. Adams

Vice President

Mobil Oil Corporation

New York, New York

Judy Barker

President

The Borden Foundation

Columbus, Ohio

Alan K. Campbell

Vice Chairman

ARA Services, Inc.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Alonzo A. Grim

Superintendent of Schools

Atlanta, Georgia

Alice F. Emerson

President

Wheaton College

Norton, Massachusetts

Harold Howe II

Senior Lecturer, Graduate

School of Education

Harvard University

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Sol Hurwitz

Senior Vice President

Committee for Economic

Development

New York, New York

Katharine C. Lyall

Executive Vice President

University of Wisconsin System

Madison, Wisconsin

Arabella Martinez

Arabella Martinez Institute

Berkeley, California

James L Medoff

Professor, Department of

Economics

Harvard University

Cambridge, Massachusetts

. .

Marion Pines

Commissioner

Baltimore City Neighborhood

Progress Administration

Baltimore, Maryland

Ersa H. Poston

Personnel Management

Consultant

McLean, Virginia

Mitchell Sviridoff

Professor, Graduate School of

Urban Management

New School for Social Research

New York. New York

Alfred M. Zudc

Executive Director

National Association ofSchools

of Public Affairs and

Administration

Washington, D.C.

Rex. D. Adams

Chairman of the Board

Michael A. Bailin

President

Gary Walker

Executive Vice President

Public/Private Ventures

399 Market Street

Philadelphia, PA 19106

(215) 592-9099

Youth Corps Case Studies:

The New York City

Volunteer Corps

Exit Report

by Natalie Jaffe

Marc Freedman

Fall 1987

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This exit report on the final phase of the City Volunteer Corps'

demonstration period was prepared under the supervision of Alvia

Branch, vice president and director of research at P/PV.

Site

visits were conducted by Dr. Branch, Marc Freedman, Thomas J.

Smith and Natalie Jaffe, who was the principal author of the

report.

Sally Leiderman was responsible for overseeing the

collection and analysis of the quantitative data in the report.

Michael Boldin provided programming support and Michael

Callaghan was the copy editor.

We are very grateful to the CVC's many staff, work

spcgsors and

volunteers for the time they took to provide us with information,

to help us plan our site visits and to describe their experiences

in the program.

CONTENTS

Page

INTRODUCTION

II.

WORK AND SERVICE

III

THE CITY VOLUNTEERS

IV.

YOUTH DEVELOPMENT

COSTS

VI.

FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS

TABLES

I.1

Characteristics of Selected Sites

III.1 Characteristics of the City Volunteers

111.2 Characteristics of Corpsmembers Who

Stay a Full Year.

111.3 Length-of-Stay

111.4 Length-of-Stay by Characteristics

of City Volunteers.

111.5 Reasons for Leaving by Characteristics

of CVs

111.6 Scholarship/Readjustment Allowance

Choices

IV.1

Enrollment in Education Programs

V.1

CVC Costs, FY 1986 and FY 1987

Appendix A.

CVC Sites Visited by the Research Team

INTRODUCTION

At the end of June 1987, the New York City Volunteer

Corps com-

pleted its three-year demonstration period; this

report chron-

icles observations on the CVC made by Public/Private Ventures

during the final 20 months.

P/PV first examined the CVC during

its planning period and its first year of operation,

finding a

program that had done an impressive job of start-up; had shown

strong potential for coping with problems of

productivity,

consistency and control in the field; and had mixed

success in

meeting its three primary goals of enrolling

a diverse group of

300 volunteers, providing community service, and

advancing the

personal development of its participants.

The interim report1

described the corps as it progressed through this

developmental

period, which started in January 1984 and continued

through the

end of the first full year of field operations

in October 1985.

This exit report to the CVC deals primarily

with the corps as it

functioned in the field toward the end of

the demonstration per-

iod.

The final 20 months

were characterized by a change in corps

leadership and concern about continued

funding; concomitant en-

rollment of fewer volunteers than

planned and reductions in staff

and costs; and continuing efforts to

strike a balance between the

corps' goals of serving the city and

aiding the volunteers.

De-

spite such uncertainty, however,

CVC projects continued to pro-

duce results and operations in the field

continued to mature.

The report is based on field observations

made by four P/PV staff

members between March and June 1987

(sites visited are listed in

Appendix A) and on an analysis of

CVC MIS data and reports.

Data

describe the characteristics of

corpsmembers who enrolled between

November 1, 1985 (the end date of

the interim report) and March

15, 1987.

Information on length-of-stay

is based on the separa-

tion experiences of all CVs

enrolled between January 1, 1985 and

March 15, 1986.

The research team visited 21 sites

during the observation period

(about half the projects in the

field at the time).

We observed

work at 16 of the sites and conducted

semistructured interviews

with work sponsors, site supervisors,

team leaders and CVs at all

sites.

Information from these observations

and interviews, as

well as the research team's informed

judgements, are the basis

for conclusions displayed in Table

I.1, which rates the 21 pro-

jects as weak, adequate

or strong along 10 dimensions.

A zero on

the chart indicates that the

relevant source was not available to

1Youth Ccrps Case

Studies:

The New York City Volunteer

Corps, Interim Report; P/PV,

October 1986.

TABLE I

, 1

CHARACTERISTICS or SELECTED SITES4

...

Z ;

4 *.

....

4..

4 :

.9 0

4%.

.I.

a .

Z 4

2 /

0 ,

C.,

V (4

'ft -

4 4

.1.4

.14

4 Z

4 f

il. "

C C

4 Ar

j ,....

4 4

IV.

ilt gt

..,

J .4

* ,

, ,

, 0

a 4

a a

: '1

i 41:

I to

cr e

Site

#. 3

$. 3

m ,t.

Physical Work Projects

Sook Arti

Greenbelt

States Island Botanical

Prospect Park

3 3

POTS

Went Side Rehab

Community Carden

Clothing Sauk

Human Service. Projects

Jewish Rowe

10.

Irons Shields

11.

Seam Development

12.

Coney Island

13.

PS 397

14.

Coldwater

15.

Visions

2. 0

16.

Isabella

17.

Respite

3 3

1S.

CIS 236

19.

Bicycle Safety Training

20.

PS 192

1. 0

Physical Work and Hunan

Service Pro 'eta

21.

Homes for the Hoseloso

Key: 0

person not available or observation

of Clis at work not possible.

weak

adequate

strong

;

'Reflects judgements

by the four sits observers.

based on their informad knowldige

and statements

by work sponsors. CVC team

leaders and CVs.

Sae Appendix A.

be interviewed or that observation of CVs at work

was not poss-

ible.

Interviews were also conducted with central office

staff,

including all

field coordinators, other members of the

opera-

tions department, members of the recruitment and

planning staff,

the social support coordinator, several members

of the education

department and the CVC's executive director.

The research team sought to assess CVC in terms of

its own goals

and reach further conclusions

on specific issues identified in

the first P/PV report.

Therefore, the report addresses first,

CVC's service record; second, the nature and

experience of the

CVs; and third, the corps' youth development activities

and their

apparent effects.

A fourth section provides information

on costs

and the report ends with

our conclusions, a discussion of the

tension between CVC goals and reality, and

considerations for the

future.

II.

WORK AND SERVICE

CVC Goal:

To provide important and needed services that

would not otherwise be provided to benefit the

city and its

people.

The following assessment of CVC's

progress toward meeting this

goal describes the types of work CVC does and

how the work is

managed, and presents the research teamvs

findings on the need,

importance, quality and quantity of this

work.

TYPES OF WORK

The CVC has been a pioneer in using corpSmembers

to provide human

services as well as do physical work.

In fact, human service

projects now occupy about half of all

CVC work hours, a figure

that is up from one-third in 1985;

an additional 15 percent of

CVC work projects combine human service

and physical work.

The

remaining one-third of the work load is

entirely physical.

Since

human service projects are of

longer duration, a CV who stays

one

year in the corps spends about four months

on physical projects

and eight, months on human services.

CVC's physical projects

average four weeks in duration and in-

volve various types of manual labor, such

as painting and reno-

vating living quarters for the

homeless, clearing overgrown

por-

tions of parks and botanical gardens,

restoring tennis courts,

and moving and sorting cartons of

donated clothing.

The tasks

themselves often require few skills,

but the projects usually

provide on-the-job

exposure to such fields as construction,

painting, groundskeeping and

horticulture.

Some teams have the

opportunity to work alongside

skilled craftsmen, and some work

sponsors train CVs in such skills

as bricklaying, cementing,

detail painting, grouting

and gardening.

One project we observed

exposed CVs to the art of binding

fine books.

Physical projects in CVC tend

to be physically demanding,

are

generally designed to be performed by

E team working together,

and result in tangible end

products.

The CVs interviewed were

eager to explain the significance of these

visible accomplish-

ments and wore proud of their

work both as individuals and

members of the team.

One CV, throwing debris into

a dumpster on

the last day of a renovation

project, was congratulated

for all

the work he had done.

"WE did!" he corrected.

Human service projects involve

CVs in work as paraprofessionals,

aides and tutors in hospitals,

day care centers, facilities

for

the physically and developmentally

disabled, schools, nursing

homes and the apartments

of elderly people throughout

New York

City.

The projects generally last

four months.

Personal skills and maturity are more imprmtant than technical

skills in these projects.

Many human service projects present

CVs, who frequently work either alone or in pairs, with delicate

and difficult situations in which inappropriate behavior

or er-

rors in judgement could have serious consequences.

As a result,

the projects are emotionally demanding.

At the same time, the direct contact with clients

can be both

rewarding and engaging, and the contact with professional staff

dramatizes for CVs the need for education in pursuing an inter-

esting career.

Relationships with clients are often the high-

light of a CV's corps experience; the emotional farewell parties

that regularly- occur at institutions when a team leaves testify

to the clients' deep feelings of appreciation for the CVs.

Projects that mix physical work and human services

occupy about

15 percent of CVC work hours.

Examples of such projects are at

Prospect Hospital, where CVs renovated a facility for homeless

families and worked in its day care center; and at

a YMCA, where

CVs painted the interior then became junior counselors in the

day

camp.

The alternation of physical and human service projects

provides a

beneficially wide range of work and yo,!th development opportun-

ities.

Physical projects demand teamwoxk and concentration

getting the job done.

Human service projects require human rela-

tions skills and help CVs build a sense of being

a member of a

wider society.

Furthermore, many human service projects split teams

up during

the course of the work, requiring the team

:Wader to maintain

spirit and unity at the beginning and end of each

day.

Human

service projects are also subject to intermittent

downtime, which

tends to subject CVs to periods of boredom that

contrast sharply

with the periods of emotional strain.

Undertaking an occasional

physic,a1 project enables the team to work

together throughout the

day, to expend more physical energy than emotional

energy and to

progress through an assignment that has a visible beginning

and

end.

Movement back and forth between the two types of project

helps keep CVs fresh and interested, introduces

them to varying

work opportunities and increases the

opportunity for all members

of a team to work to their strengths and

explore their weak-

nesses.

THE NEED FOR AND IMPORTANCE OF CVC WORK

Although sponsors of work projects would

be expected to report

that CVC's contribution to their operations

was necessary, the

case they make is strong and, with few exceptions, P/PV's

observation of worksites bears them out.

None of the work that

P, /PV observed appeared unnecessary or manufactured for the

occasion.

The research team defined need in terms of whether the work

was

beneficial or essential--beneficial in the

sense that service to

users or clients was greatly enhanced by the CVC work (as seen in

park projects and many large institutional projects) and

essen-

tial in the sense that the important work literally could not

have been completed without the CVC.

Projects observed that met both criteria include the rehabilita-

tion of a small building to feed and house the homeless in the

South Bronx, which was sponsored by Part of the Solution,

volunteer group that had no funds to

pay for construction work;

and the rehabilitation of a hotel on the Upper West

Side to

provide immediate housing for the homeless, sponsored by

another

community group, The West Side Federation of Senior

Housing.

The

latter sponsor reported that CVC teams had readied

more than 50

units in a month at a cost of $75

per room.

"We would have had

to pay $200 a room to get regular workers to do

so much so fast,

and we just don't have the funds," the

sponsor said.

An example of an essential human service project

is the Respite

Program, which was organized by a group of agencies in

upper

Manhattan.

The program provides more than

a dozen Alzheimer

patients and their caretakers with

a recreation session once a

week--for most, their only current social

activity.

According to

the sponsor, the program would not be possible

without the three

CVs who come weekly to help the

program director entertain and

feed the group.

As shown in the first column of Table

I.1, CVC work was of clear

value to the sponsors, the

users of the service end the quality

of city life in 15 of the 21 sites

observed.

The sponsors were

convincing in their declaration that

the work could not have been

done without the CVC.

They contended either that the tasks had

been structured for performance by

volunteers, of which suffici-

ent numbers were not otherwise available

(examples include summer

park programs, a bicycle safety

campaign, hospital and nursing

home staff support, school aides, and

homebound and handicapped

visiting and support) or that the

tasks required paid workers but

funds were not available (examples

include CEO efforts to

reno-

vate buildings that would house the

homeless and restoration of

public parks).

In the five other sites

we visited (Site Number Two was not ob-

served), the need was also adequately

demonstrated, though not as

impressively.

While it appeared to the research

team that the

CVs' work at these sites

was beneficial, the team cited one of

two mitigating factors.

In some cases, they felt that the

work

could have been done without

the CVs, though perhaps not

comprehensively.

Examples are a nursing home that already

had a

thriving community volunteer program and a school where the CVs

were described as "helpful and cooperative," but were not seen as

essential.

In other projects, the research team felt that CV

labor could have been eliminated without a serious loss to the

community.

Examples include two gardening projects that proved

to be of limited accessibility and use.

Overall, however, our

observation of 21 sites indicated that CVC is meeting its objec-

tive of addressing unmet needs and offering services that

are of

considerable importance to New York City.

QUALITY AND QUANTITY OF CVC WORK

The quality of work in the 16 sites where work

was observed was

judged by the research team and the sponsors to be strong in 11

cases and adequate in five.

In no instance was it judged to be

weak.

In eight sites, the degree to which CVs appeared thorough-

ly engaged in the work was strong; in three other

sites, engage-

ment appeared to be more than adequate; and in

five, it appeared

to be simply adequate.

Worksite discipline was defined as strong

in six sites, more than adequate in

one and adequate in the re-

maining eight.

These subjective judgements are shown in Table

I.1.

The volume of work also appears to have met

both sponsors' and

team leaders' expectations.

During the demonstration peric, the

CVC completed more than 1.7 million hours of work.

Clearly, CVs

get the work done.

Productivity

CVs were observed to work in spurts:

when the assignment is

clear, they work vigorously and fast.

When a task is completed,

they tend to socialize and wander around the

area until the next

assignment is given.

Thus, CVs seem to work hard, but not

always

long.

Their own perceptions, as conveyed in

conversations with

the research team, is that they work

very hard; harder, in fact,

than many of the permanent staff in the

projects to which they

are assigned.

The work hours differ from those in

many other youth corps (which

pride themselves on putting in

a full eight-hour day of hard la-

bor, plus several hours of physical training

and meetings), but

they do not appear to differ much from

those found in the tradi-

tional workplace.

In an eight-hour day, concentrated work

occurs

for about five hours.

One or two hours per day

are devoted to

group and individual meetings with the team leader;

another hour

or two is spent at lunch or,on breaks.

Fewer hours of work were

observed in one outdoor project site

on a hot day and in another

where no toilet was available; in both

cases, the teams were dis-

missed early.

Also, fewer hours of work

are done during the two

days a week that CVs attend classes; in

many cases, more than

half the team is dismissed at

noon to have lunch and travel to

classes that begin at 3 p.m.

The few CVs who remain are often

not fully productive.2

During CVC's first year, questions were raised about the relative

productivity of human service and physical work projects, given

that supervision of human service projects by CVC seemed

complex and problematic.

As previously mentioned, many of the

site management problems have been solved and the

consensus among

sponsors, team leaders and field coordinators is that produc-

tivity varies not with the type of project but with

the nature of

the team leader and the team leader/work

sponsor interaction.

According to the consensus view, both types of project

work well

when the team leader is able to command the respect of

CVs and

develop team unity, when the work sponsor has

clear expectations

and a firm grip on logistics, and when both the

sponsor and the

team leader have the same expectations of the CVs.

Level of Sponsor Satisfaction

As shown in Table I.1, all work

sponsors interviewed were either

strongly or adequately satisfied with both the

CVC operation and

the volunteers' performance.

The 15 enthusiasts were just that:

"We couldn't survive without them," "We

couldn't have done it

without them," "We don't know what we'd do without

them," "We

love them," and "They're great" were

among their comments.

One

human service sponsor at a large institution

for the elderly said

the benefits of using CVs went beyond improved

service to clients

to include staff development:

the CVs' freshness and ability to

see clients as individuals, she said, served to "awaken"

staff

from a tendency to view the clients simply

as a burden.

Sponsors whose enthusiasm was somewhat

tempered invariably said

their reservations were due to

a specific team that had presented

difficulties:

"The second of our three teams

was a problem,"

"We've had five teams, and the

one before this one made me think

about dropping the program, but this

one is great,"

"I wish they

could do what our third team did, but

what they do do is a

blessing."

With only one exception, the 21

sponsors attributed variations in

the quality of CVC teams' work to

the quality of the team leader

and his/her relationship with the

work sponsor and site staff.

The exception was a

case in which the sponsor attributed the

team's superior performance in

a school betting to the fact that

most of the CVs on the team happened

to be high school graduates.

The consensus among the other

sponsors was that unproductive

teams invariably result from

poor team leadership.

For example,

2In September 1987, after

this report was completed, CVC

rescheduled classes to take place

during the non-work education

day, Friday, and one evening

a week, starting at 6 p.m.

sponsors and CVs reported that, in some early teams, the team

leader was unable to command the respect of CVs, develop team

spirit or maintain discipline.

The result was lower productiv-

ity.

The team leaders' own feelings were that poor team performance

often resulted when the team leader had an unconstructive rela-

tionship with the sponsor.

Several sponsors described cases in

which a team leader was changed during the course of a team's

assignment and a previously difficult team became productive.

A minority of sponsors said they would like more highly skilled

CVs; many in human services said they would like more continuity.

("It's tsrrible when they have to leave so soon after the clients

come to depend on them.")

Some said they dislike the truncation

of the day caused by CVs leaving early for classes.

A few would

like more contact with the CVC central office to discuss general

programming issues.

Virtually all sponsors, including those who

identified areas they would like to see improved, said they would

like to continue their involvement with CVC.

MANAGEMENT OF WORK

Maturation of the cpsration in the field has resolved

many of the

worksite management and supervision problems that

were observed

in 1985.

In about half the sites P/PV observed, work

sponsors

were taking responsibility for technical supervision and train-

ing, and leaving everything else to the team leader.

In the

remaining sites, the team leader handled technical supervision

well.

Operations department staff say they have abandoned their

original expectation that work sponsors would be responsible

for

supervision and training at all sites.

They now consider it a

bonus when this occurs.

Reports of insufficient or delayed supplies

or instructions, both

frequent problems during the first observation

period, had become

infrequent by the second series of field visits.

However, one

worksite management problem remained:

the frequent absence of

team leaders, who devoted at least two afternoons

a week to ad-

ministrative work at central office and

were given ad hoc assign-

ments to training camp.

When the team leader was not on-site,

supervision was often assumed by either the work

sponsor or the

most experienced CV, who

some team leaders appointed "team cap-

tain."

Otherwise, the CVs are expected to

carry out tasks as

assigned by the team leader before his/her departure.3

3The "4+1" schedule instituted in September

includes time on

Fridays for team leaders to attend

in-service training sessions

and take care of administrative duties

previously discharged

during workdays.

CVs appear capable of doing the work to which they are assigned,

but they require supervision.

According to team leaders and

other CVs, CVs who leave the corps early include both volunteers

who find the program tougher than they expected and those at the

other end of the spectrum, who find the work to be insufficiently

challenging or interesting.

Those who remain in the program are

clearly able to do the work; however, close supervision ls

nec-

essary to ensure that they do it.

Many enrollees are not at the

stage where they can be expected to work productively, continu-

ously and carefully on their own initiative.

Ensuring, that the

work gets done is primarily the responsibility of the team lead-

er- -even in sites where the work sponsor provides technical su-

pervision.

P/PV's interim report defined the team leader's role

as pivotal

in both production and youth development, and observations

made

in preparing this report confirm that judgement.

Worksite man-

agement is primarily the team leaders' responsibility and,

for

the most part, they appear to do it well.

In the 16 sites where

team leaders were observed in action, the research team

judged

their contribution to project quality to be strong in

half the

sites and adequate in the rest.

For physical projects, the presence of well-defined tasks,

steady flov- of work, consistent supervision and

appropriate

tools--the elements necessary for

a sufficient volume and quality

of work--are in much greater evidence than

they were during the

first round of observations in 1985.

For human service projects, specific roles for

team leaders have

not been defined by CVC.

For the most part, definition is left

to the creativity and initiative of

team leaders themselves, some

of whom report a substantial amount of

idle time on these pro-

jects.

In the field, a more active team leader

role has evolved

since the first observation period.

Many team leaders work alongside the CVs,

identify areas for im-

provement in the program or the individuals

that can be discussed

later.

Most team leaders emphasize the importance

of getting the

team together at the beginning and the

end of each work day for

physical training and group discussion,

especially when work pro-

jects scatter members during the day.

The periods of downtime

that is characteristic of human

service projects are seen by,

many

team leaders as providing "the best"

opportunities for youth de-

velopment activities, even though such

periods are sporadic, are

often unplanned and usually

vary in duration.

Unscheduled youth development activities

include group discussion

of work-related or outside topics,

journal writing and critique,

presentations by individual CVs to the

group, tutoring of ABE

students by GED students and high

school graduates, and explora-

tion of possibilities in the job

market.

Many team leaders use

I 7

the free time to lie on the grass or sit on the floor with their

teams and, according to one, "rap about life and work."

One team

leader said:

"I make them tell me exactly what they learned that

day, pick things out and point to them, concentrate

on their

short-term goals."

Another said:

"I talk a lot about how impor-

tant it is to get an education.

A lot of them were heading for

the army, but I tell them anybody can do that!"

A number of team

leaders said they take these moments to give their CVs

a chance

to confide in a responsible adult about their lives and futures

in a way they never could with their families

or peers on the

block.

CVC reports that many of the team leaders who

were judged to be

weak during the first year of operations have been weeded out and

that those hired recently have been screened

more carefully.

The

team leaders interviewed included former Peace Corps volunteers,

athletic directors, youth workers, social workers,

a social work

educator, a former sergeant in the army, several Master's

Degree

candidates in social work and several recent college graduates

who had a special interest in youth work.

Management of CVC work has also improved

as the result of redu-

ctions in the scope of project development.

As expected, start-

up difficulties in new projects have been reduced

as rotationals

(single projects to which successive teams

are assigned) have

increased.

At the 21 sites observed, most human service projects

were rotationals in established institutions.

Most of the

physical projects, apart from those sponsored by the

Parks

Department, also involved successive teams, but

were usually

small, neighborhood-based projects.

Several administrative changes made during the past

17 months

have also improved management in the field.

Outstanding among

these is the change in assignment of

the staff that connects the

operations department and the field.

During the first observa-

tion period, liaison was performed by

borough coordinators, who

were responsible for contact with all work

sponsors in a single

borough as various teams came and went in their

projects.

Since

1986, theca staff, now called field

coordinators, have been

assigned to specific groups of teams, which

they follow through

various projects.

This change has enabled the operations depart-

ment to be more consistent in monitoring

and evaluating the per-

formance of teams and team leaders, to

provide team leaders with

constant support, and to make appropriate

changes in staff and

team assignments.

The change has also benefited work

sponsors,

many of whom said they prefer working with

a coordinator who

provides consistent supervision to the teams

rather than a

consistent liaison with

sponsors.

One work sponsor said: "Now

when something goes wrong with the team,

I don't have to say a

word.

The field coordinator knows about it and

does the right

thing."

According to the field coordinators, who

are each

responsible for 10 teams, the only

losers in the new system are

the best team leaders, who, because they present few problems,

seldom see their supervisors.

A second administrative change involved the empowering of

team

leaders to separate CVs who violate CVC rules,

a responsibility

that formerly belonged to the borough coordinators.

Giving this

responsibility to team leaders has increased productivity

enabling the team leader to demonstrate his/her authority.

This

allows problems to be taken care of c4' the spot, a situation that

carries over to other situations and helps team leaders impress

realistic workplace expectations on CVs.

Team leaders report that, despite initial fears, this

change has

not been counterproductive.

They say that they are careful to

explain the reasons for disciplinary actions to

the CV involved

and to the team, and they use these opportunities

to discuss the

utility of CVC rules and their relation to

an employers' expect-

ations.

Team leaders say that CVs do not

appear to regard their

authority to fire as being in conflict with the

role of confidant

and mentor.

The leaders stress that the information confided

never used for disciplinary purposes, but is used instead

to help

a CV succeed.

Aside from these minor adjustments,

staffing in the CVC opera-

tions department has been relatively stable,

making it possible

for the field operations to continue

to mature and increase the

teams' productivity.

The team leaders appear to be

a strong,

dedicated and creative group of

young men and women; the field

coordinators allow the team leaders considerable

authority to

manage their projects and supervise their teams.

III.

THE CITY VOLUNTEERS

CVC Goal:

To achieve a measure of integration among

corpsmembers, who come from different neighborhoods,

income levels and walks of life.

Since the early months of the demonstration, the CVC

was intended

to be a corps of 800 people who would be broadly

representative

of all New York City youth.

However, this goal has not been met.

At the end of the demonstration, the

corps had 600 to 650 corps-

members in the field, 97 percent of whom

were black or Hispanic.

The original goal for CV population is

now viewed as unrealistic.

Based on its experience during the demonstration

period, CVC

revised the goal, fixing on the 600 to 650

range as attainable

and manageable, considering the sizes of its

recruitment staff

and the estimated pool of potential recruits.

Attempts to enroll a more diverse population

continue, but CVC

has thus far failed to achieve the diversity

that characterizes

the young adult population of the city; in

1980, 16- to 24-year-

old New Yorkers were 44 percent white, 27

percent black, 24 per-

cent Hispanic and 5 percent other.

At the end of our second ob-

servation period, CVC enrollment

was 2 percent white, 71 percent

black, 26.6 percent Hispanic and 1.4 percent

other.

Since the

program's first year, the proportion

of black enrollment had

declined 4 percent, Hispanic enrollment

had increased 5 percent,

and white enrollment had remained the

same.

As shown in Table III.1, the

overall demographic characteristics

of CVs changed little between the first

year and the end of the

demonstration.

The table displays characteristics

c& the 1,261

CVs enrolled during the program's

first full year of operation

(November 1984 through October 1985)

and the 2,206 enrolled

during the next 17 months (November

1985 to March 15, 1987).

There are four small but statistically

significant differences in

demographics between the two periods.

1) The mean age of CVs

increased from 17.9 to 18.2, likely

reflecting the fact that,

during the first nine months of the

period covered by the interim

report, enrollment

was limited to CVs who would reach their 18th

birthday during the year of service.

In July 1985, CVC broadened

eligibility to 17- to 20-year-olds.

2) The ethnic distribution

reflects a small increase in the

proportion of Hispanics and

small decrease in the proportion of

blacks.

3) The proportion of

CVs with high school diplomas

shows a slight increase.

4) The

geographic distribution shifted

slightly, though at the end of

the demonstration, nearly half

the CVs still hailed from Brook-

lyn.

Table III.1

CHARACTERISTICS OF CITY VOLUNTEERS

Characteristics

Enrolled

11/1/84 - 10/31/85

(n = 1,261)

Enrolled

11/1/85 - 3/15/87

(n = 2,209)

Sex

Male

58.0%

55.6%

Female

42.0

44.4

Mean Age*

17.9

18.2

Education

High School Diploma (Graduated

or GED)*

21.9%

25.9%

Mean Grade Completed

10.1

10.3

Race*

Black

75.3%

71.0%

Hispanic

20.5

25.6

White

2.1

2.0

Other

2.1

1.4

Not Married

98.4%

98.2%

Borough*

Brooklyn

46.0%

46.2%

Bronx

23.1

25.2

Manhattan

16.1

14.7

Queens

11.5

12.3

Staten Island

3.3

1.5

Own Children in Residence

11.0%

9.6%

Mean Household Size

5.2

5.3

Primary Wage Earner

8.5%

9.3%

AFDC Receipt Past 6 Months

15.6%

13.4%

Food Stamps in Past 6 Months

31.8

29.7

AFDC or Food Stamps in the Past

6 Months

34.8

33.3

*Distributions of corpsmembers

enrolled during each of the two time

periods are statistically different

from each other at the .05 level.

Despite these changes, the overall profile of

CVC from November

1985 to March 1987 shows that the following

demographic con-

ditions ramained:

slightly more than half of the volunteers

were

men, less than 10 percent were primary wage

earners, nearly three

out of four did not have a high school degree (the

mean is less

than 11 grades completed), about 97 percent

were black or Hispan-

ic, and nearly half came from Brooklyn.

Although only about one-

third of CVs reported having received AFDC

or food stamps during

the six months before joining CVC, both

they and their team

leaders reported the impression that the majority

of CVs were

from low-income families in low-income

neighborhoods.

This

profile of CVC enrollees contrasts with

corpsmemher profiles of

the nine other youth conservation and

service corps P/PV has

studied, only one of which--Katimavik, the

nine-month Canadian

program--also did an appreciable amount of

human service work and

paid enrollees less than minimum

wage plus substantial completion

bonuses.

Excepting Katimavik, CVC is the only

corps that enrolls a high

proportion of women.

Of the nine corps, CVC has the lowest

mean

age, the fewest high school graduates, and is

one of four corps

that enroll more than two-thirds

of their corpsmembers from

one

race/ethnic group.

Information reported by CVs

on their appli-

cations indicates that about one-third

come from families that

are receiving public assistance--about the

same proportion as in

the California Conservation Corps

(CCC) and a higher proportion

than in San Francisco and Marin

County, the only other corps

pro-

grams for which we have this information.

Despite this, CVC

appears to enroll the largest proportion of

disadvantaged youth

among the corps P/PV has studied.

It should be noted that although

CVC enrolls few white and Asian

youth and few from middle-class

families, it recruits good mixes

of blacks and Hispanics, and

males and females, and youth from

wide variety of neighborhoods,

levels of education and aspira-

tion, and--as disclosed by

observation and discussion with CVs-

motivation to "make good."

According to team leaders, CVs

usu-

ally come from neighborhoods

whose residents are much like them-

selves, and most have had little

exposure to different kinds of

people, parts of the city and

ways of life.

The CVs can be roughly sorted

into three groups defined

on the

basis of conversations with

CVs, team leaders and field coordina-

tors (mostly former team leaders).

The following subjective

categories were constructed by the

research team in an attempt to

clarify thinking about the

types and needs of the disadvantaged

young people who enroll.

Group 1.

These youth, including

many in the one-quarter who have

high school degrees,

are in a transitional phase of their lives,

well on their way to adulthood.

They are unclear about what they

want to do and express the need

for time to sample alternatives,

These youth say they joined CVC for the scholarship and the

variety of experience.

Group 2.

These youth, the majority of corpsmembers, have sub-

stantial handicaps to successful living but

sense that something

better is possible.

According to team leaders, a high proportion

of these youth are women, who they perceive to be

more mature and

determined.

Also, many represent "the cream" among their alien-

ated peers:

the one kid on the block who is not drugging, not

stealing, not running numbers, not pregnant and not totally

re-

jecting the parent or guardian who is pushing him/her to

get out

of the house and do something.

Many CVs told of trying, with

little success, to get friends to join the CVC. "So why

you and

not them?" we asked.

"We knew what time it was," one CV replied.

These CVs consistently report having joined CVC for "the

pack-

age."

By this, they variously mean having

a paying job, "getting

a GED," going "upstate" for training, obtaining

a work history

and job reference, and securing admission to

college.

Little of

this vision has anything to do with

process; instead, it has the

air of magic:

join the CVC and "they" will fix things.

CVs re-

spond with bewilderment to questions

about why they joined the

CVC instead of working at a minimum

wage job and enrolling in

adult education on their own.

The more articulate said that they

couldn't "get it together" to do that; others

reported that they

couldn't get even a minimum

wage job because they lack a work

history or education credentials.

Team leaders and field coordinators

believe that no matter what

the CVs say, the real motivation for most

young people in this

group is a vague feeling that joining the CVC

is better than

hanging out or washing dishes.

Such "somewhat at-risk" youth

with a vision of something better--no

matter how unrealistic-

appear to come to grips with CVC's regulations,

respond posi-

tively to the team leaders' encouragement

and remain in the corps

long enough to reap benefits.

Group 3.

This group, composed primarily of those

who drop out or

are separated from the corps within the first month,

were de-

scribed by Group 2 CVs as much like

themselves, but with an im-

portant difference.

Both they and the team leaders

say that what

this group lacks is a willingness

to succeed on the CVC's terms.

They say early leavers continue to

insist on their own terms by,

"doing head games," "trying to beat

the system," and "letting the

team down."

Peers and team leaders say that these

recalcitrant individuals

exhibit one or a number of the

following characteristics:

low

motivation; bad situations at home;

a history of antisocial

behavior, contentiousness and

resistance to authority; and

limited cognitive capacity.

The CVC is not designed to

serve

such youth and they tend to

separate early as the result of

peer

2 ,,

uressure, disciplinary action for their defiance of the rules or

their own disenchantment.

However, in virtually every team visited, either the CVs

or the

team leader pointed with pride to one

or two of these "bad atti-

tude CVs" who made it in the corps despite their

initial problems

in adapting.

They attribute such exceptions primarily to the

determination of a team leader who would not give

up.

However,

such exceptional efforts are made at the team leader's

discre-

tion--without any instruction to do

so from the CVC and without

any training to perform such rescue work.

Several months after the research team visited

sites and deve-

loped these qualitative conclusions, the

quantitative data were

collected, cleaned and analyzed.

They are presented in the next

section.

In large part, the data support the impressions

gath-

ered in the field.

As will be seen, women and high school grad-

uates remain in the corps much longer

than men and high school

dropouts, respectively, and both have

disproportionately higher

rates of completing the

one-year program.

CV Needs

For the most part, the needs of

enrollees are similar to those of

most 18- and 19-year-olds--guidance,

work experience, education,

money, and socialization.

Youth in Group 2, the majority of CVs,

have additional needs for active

aentoring by a respected adult,

outside pressure to pursue education,

an educational program that

addresses their deficiencies, constant

reminders of the responsi-

bilities inherent in being

an adult, an older confidant to help

them handle personal problems and resist

"the street," and spe-

cific guidance in preparing for life

after the CVC.

One new team leader assigned to

a team composed of about half

six-month participants and half

newcomers asked them to write in

their journals on the following topic:

"If I were a team leader,

what would I do for my CVs?"

The resulting journal entries,

said, were very emotional.

The CVs wrote that they want

someone

to push them to get an education;

someone who will be a big

brother or a confidant; and

someone who will encourage them

without being too critical

of their mistakes.

For many, he

pointed out, graduation from

training was the first thing they

ever accomplished in their lives.

THE EXPERIENCE OF CVS IN THE CORPS

At the time of the first P/PV

report, which covered CVC's first

year (November 1984-October 1985),

only the pilot cohort of 65

CVs had had an opportunity to

remain in the corps for 12 months.

Of the 1,216 young people

who entered training

camp during that

period, 674 were still active

in October 1985.

Therefore,

untruncated data were available only for

the pilot cohort.

Data

on other CVs were provided, but were defined

as inconclusive.

Data discussed in the following sections

are based on the actual

separation experiences of all CVs who

enrolled between January

1985 and March 15, 1986.

Restricting the analysis to CVs who

entered the program by March 15, 1986

maant that every corps-

member in the sample had the opportunity

to stay for the full

program cycle of one year by March 15, 1987,

when data collection

concluded.

Thus, the data are untruncated and unbiased.

Completion Rates and Length-of-Stay

Looking at all CVs who had enrolled

a year or more before March

15, 1987, we find that 27 percent

completed a full year.

other yearlong corps that P/PV has

studied showed as high a rate

of completion.

High school graduates and

women are disproportionately likaly to

complete a full year (Table 111.2).

Nearly half (43%) of com-

pleters were high school graduates,

though graduates represented

only 26 percent of the enrollees.

Fifty-two percent of complet-

ers were women, who represented 44 percent

of enrollees.

Should

the trend toward greater

recruitment and retention of high school

graduates continue, the proportion

of graduates in the corps

could very gradually increase.

Of CVs who left the

program (Table 111.3), about 57 percent had

stayed six months or longer.

The mean length-of-stay for all

corpsmembers is 6.1 months.

Again, the CVC is exceptional

among

yearlong corps programs--no other

corps has a mean length-of-stay

longer than 5.5 months.

One explanation for this

excellent record may lie in the

nature

of the CVC program.

However, the one programmatic

variable that

stands out from a research

standpoint is that CVC is the only

corps we have studied that offers

a cash or scholarship bonus

after six mcnths' service.

The chance to get a substantial

lump

sum may be u strong incentive for

CVs to stay long enough to

qualify.4

CVC is the only yearlong

corps that pays a stipend

4It is worth noting

that 26 weeks of work at the

minimum

wage, net of taxes, equals about 0,061

($3.35 an hour X 40 hours

a week X 26 weeks, minus $423 in

income and FICA taxes); CVC's

stipend of $82 a week

totals $2,132 in six months.

Adding the

six-month $1,000 readjustment

allowance, which is $810 net of

taxes, brings the total

for a CVC with six months in the

corps

to $2,942, $119 less than

six months' work at the

minimum wage.

The comparable figures

for one year's service

are:

minimum wage

net of taxes, $o,722 (gross

minus $1,264 in income and FICA

taxes); one year's stipend

in the CVC, $4,264 plus the

$2,500 12-

month cash allowance, which

is $2027 net of taxes.

Thus, full-

year CVs earn $6,291,

or about $569 more than they would

for a

year's work at the minimum

wage. (The net income from a minimum

wage job will increase in 1987

as the result of higher exemptions

from federal income tax.)

Table 111.2

CHARACTERISTICS OF CORPSMEMBERS WHO

STAY A FULL YEARS

(n = 395)

Characteristics

.1=1171111

Percent

Sex

Male

Female

Ethnicity

48%

Black

White

Hispanic

Other

High School Graduate

Yes

Received AFDC/FS Six Months

Before Enrollment

Yes

Based on the actual separation experiences

of all corpsmembers

who entered CVC between J/1/85 to 3/15/86.

Table 111.3

LENGTH-OF-STAY

(n = 1,257)

Length -of -Stays

Percent

Less Than One Week

11%

One Week to One Month

Two to Three Months

Three to Six Months

Over Six Months, but Less than 12

Completed a Full Year

Mean Length-of-Stay

186 days

(6.11 months)

aBased on the actual separation experiences of

all corpsmembers who

entered CVC between 1/1/85 to 3/15/86.

that is leis than the minimum wage.

Other corps pay the minimum

wage and do not offer bonuses.

When considering the timing of CVs' departure from the

corps, it

is noteworthy that 11 percent leave in the first week (i.e., dur-

ing training camp), yet only another 3 percent leave during their

first three weeks in the field.

Thus, training camp appears to

be functioning as an immediate screen for CVs whose expectations

do not match those of the CVC.

Although the mean length-of-stay for all corpsmembers is

approxi-

mately

186 days (six months), there are four meaningful

varia-

tions by demographic characteristics (Table 111.4).

Women stay

an average of 6.9 months, more than a month longer than

men; high

school graduates stay an average of 8.3 months--close to

three

months longer than dropouts.

On average, CVs from welfare fam-

ilies stay in CVC about two weeks fewer than other

enrollees and

17-year-olds stay about a month fewer than older

enrollees. The

differences between males and females and between high

school

graduates and dropouts are statistically significant;

differences

in age and AFDC receipt are not.

Black and Hispanic corpsmembers

(97 percent of the corps) stay about the

same length of time.

Reasons for Leaving

In a corps' ongoing process of evaluating its

program elements,

it is helpful to understand why

some corpsmembers leave before

completing the full program.

Most important to gaining such an

understanding is obtaining information

on whether corpsmembers

leave because of outside opportunities/events

or aspects of the

corps experience, and whether they tend to leave at different

rates according to demographic characteristics.

Half the CVs who do not complete

a year of CVC service leave vol-

untarily, but not to take advantage of outside

opportunities.

Only about one in five can be defined,

in employment and training

parlance, as positive terminations, i.e.,

those that result when

CVs accept a job, enroll in school

or join the military.

Reasons

for "other" voluntary departures include

family problems, job

search, marriage and dissatisfaction.

Roughly half the CVs who leave the

corps before completing are

fired, largely due to

poor attendance or infringement of the

rules.

Only 2 percent of the noncompleters

are fired for failing

to attend class, though the CVC

rules require termination for

failure to attend three classes

in a month.

It appears that gender and AFDC

status cannot be correlated with

whether a corpsmember is fired

or leaves voluntarily (Table

111.5).

However, having a high school diploma

can be strongly

related and ethnicity also

appears to be a factor.

High school

Table 111.4

LENGTH-OF-STAY BY CHARACTERISTICS OF CORPSMEMBERS

(n = 1,257)

Characteristics

Mean Length-of-Stay in Days for all

CVs Enrolled from 1/1/85 to 3/15/86

Overall

186

Sex

Male

169*

Female

209

Race/Ethnicity

Black

186

White

196

Hispanic

185

Other

171

High School Graduate

Yes

251*

165

Received AFDC/FS Six Months

Before Enrollment

Yes

179

192

Age

168

192

202

196

*Statistically different from each other at the .05

level.

Table 111.5

REASONS FOR LEAVING BY

CHARACTERISTICS OF CORPSMEMBERSa

(n = 1,257)

Characteristics

Voluntary

Involuntary

Overall

50%

Sex

Male

Female

Race*

Black

White

Hispanic

Others

Education*

High School Diploma or

GED

Dropouts

Received AFDC/FS In Last

Six Months

Yes

°Based on the actual separation experiences

of all corpsmembers

who entered CVC between 1/1/85

- 3/15/86.

*The relationship between this variable

and the reason for leaving

CVC is statistically significant at the .05

level.

graduates are substantially more likely to leave voluntarily, as

are Hispanics (25 percent of corps enrollment) and whites (2%).

Scholarship/Readjustment Allowance Choices

Of the 893 CVs who remained in the corps at least six months and

were therefore eligible for a scholarship or readjustment allow-

ance, 81 percent chose cash, 4 percent chose a scholarship alone

and 13 percent chose some combination of cash and a scholarship

(Table 111.6).

Comparing the one in four CVs who had a high school diploma with

other CVs, one finds that the choice of a scholarship can be

correlated with high school completion status; high school grad-

uates are much more likely to take a scholarship than

are drop-

outs, though the majority of graduates also chose cash.

In all,

93 percent of dropouts and 59 percent of graduates chose the cash

option.

Most nongraduates had considerably more than

one year's

work ahead of them to qualify for higher education.

Thus, the

cash decision is likely a realistic one, since few dropouts in

the CVC would be in a position to take advantage of

a college

scholarship after one year's service.

The tendency of a CV to choose

a scholarship does increase with

program completion;

only 7 percent of CVs chose to take some

scholarship support after staying six months and only 12

percent

did so after nine months, but 44 percent of

program completers

did so.

This is consistent with the finding that high school

graduates stay in the CVC longer than dropouts.

Many CVs told interviewers they intended to finish high

school

and get more education.

But the notion that, like magic, CVC

will provide them with a GED and get them into

college eventually

gives way to reality.

Once CVs are in the corps and attending

classes twice a week, the challenge of studying and

doing

homework can be daunting.

As will be discussed in a later

section, team leaders report that

many CVs have a great deal of

difficulty with their classes and the dream of

achieving a GED,

accepting the scholarship and going to

college recedes.

31.

Table 111.6

SCIELARSHIP/READJUSIVENT ALLCMNZECHDICES

(n = 893)

Option

Percent of

All Eligible

Length-of-Stay

High School Graduation

6-8 Nbnths

9-11 Months

12 Months

Yes

100% Cash

81%

93%

88%

56% 93% 59%

60% Cash/40% Scholarship 4

33%

Cash/67% Scholarship

15 2 15

14% Cash/86% Scholarship

1 6

100% Scholarship

6 4

13 1

'Dotal

100%

100% 100% 100%

IV.

YOUTH DEVELOPMENT

CVC Goal:

To promote the personal development of

corpsmembers.

CVC's youth development goals

are both explicitly stated and

implicit in the program structure.

Explicit goals include

encouraging a sense of service and promoting

social harmony.

Implicit goals are improving the education

and work-related

attitudes and behavior of participants.

This section discusses

CVC's record in achieving these four goals.

DEVELOPING A SENSE OF SEnVICE.

CVs who serve for more than two

or three months develop a strong

sense that they are providing service to those who

are at least

as needy as themselves, according to team leaders

and CVs who

have observed individual volunteers'

experience over time.

Early

in their corps careers, CVs focus

primarily on the money and the

hard work.

But those who remain in the

corps for several months

express a sense of pride and meaning in helping

other people who

are needy, particularly the elderly, the

homeless, and handi-

capped children and adults.

This pride is evident in such

CV comments as:

"Now I think about

others, that they need me," "I feel

much better about myself when

I see what I can do for somebody else,"

"It gets my mind off

crime and the streets," "Dealing

with people is hard, they need

you a lot," "I really got interested in

working with the elderly,

it makes me feel good."

Many CVs are eloquent in describing to

visitor how their work fits into

the overall mission of the in-

stitution they are serving.

However, none of the CVs

we interviewed--including some nearing

the end of a full

year in CVC--indicated that they thought of

themselves as volunteers, though

most said their team leaders

issue constant reminders.

All the CVs we spoke to said they

could not afford to volunteer

their services and wished that

CVC

paid more than it does.

They refer to "pay" rather than

"sti-

pend," and "bonus" rather than

"separation allowance."

They

compare themselves to paid staff in the

institutions where they

work and complain about being paid

less.

They complain about

having to work weekends in the

park, even though they get days

off during the week instead.

When asked whether they would do

the work for nothing, they

say no.

When asked what they would

change about the CVC, they

say they would increase wages.

We believe that these two points

of view about work are not

contradictory and do not undermine

our observation that CVs

exhibit the sense of service

intended by the CVC.

The CVs view

their work as a job, not a volunteer assignment.

But they don't

view it as just a job.

They express a great deal of pride and

satisfaction in the fact that they are working to help the city

and other people.

They say they are gratified by helping others,

but also say they need a paying job.

What many CVs speak of as a

future goal is not volunteering but working for

a living at tasks

similar to those the CVC has introduced them to:

working with

the elderly, the handicapped, and retarded children; helping

the

homeless; and making parks safer and more accessible.

It should be noted that the familiar image of the community

ser-

vice volunteer is clearly projected by the team leaders.

They

tend to be idealistic and have a powerful

sense of service that

communicates to their CVs.

They also have a strong sense of

mission--to run a productive program and promote the

development

of their CVs.

It is this sense of mission that may explain why

people with graduate degrees, experienced youth workers and

other

professionals with considerable work histories, would

accept this

demanding position for only $18,000

a year.

PROMOTING SOCIAL HARMONY

There are very few white, Asian or middle-class

youth in the CVC,

but there are blacks and Hispanics, youth

with varying degrees of

economic and educational disadvantage, and

a good mixture of men

and women.

The CVC attempts to include representatives from

all

these groups on its teams and reports

very few problems.

In the

teams that were observed, youth had formed

close-knit mutual

support groups that function together in apparent

harmony.

CVs speak about the diversity and spirit

the CVC has achieved:

"Getting to know the kids who speak Spanish

is one of the best

parts,"

"I never knew a girl could do cement

work so good," "Our

team leader threw that guy out for

bad-mouthing the white guy on

our team...that was good,"

"Joe has his GED so he helps

me with

my work for class."

IMPROVING WORK-RELATED ATTITUDES AND

BEHAVIOR

"Come, come on time, wear

your uniform and do what you're told.

That's what I tell them, what I enforce

and what I throw them out

for not doing."

The impact of CVC's regulations--as translated

here by one team leader--cannot be

measured, since the postpro-

gram labor force experience of CVs is not tracked.

However, team

naders consistently report that the

CVs make progress in their

work-related attitudes and behavior and

the CVs concur.

Many CVs

spoke of their own or their teammates' "bad

attitude" early in

their service.

They credited the team leader's consistency

and

concern in enforcing the rules to "shape

us up."

They expressed

pride in "finishing something

for the first time in my life," in

"putting up that brick wall...did

you see it?," in "getting my

ass here every damn day on time," in "seeing how

the TL (team

leader) deals with that lousy boss."

"CVC is tough.

If you can

get through this, you can do anything,"

was the consensus of one

team interviewed as a group.

In turn, many team leaders spoke of their

success in reforming

"hard cases."

They told story after story of

young people who

initially resisted authority, flouted rules, challenged

their

teammates and refused to work, then slowly responded

to the

strictness, caring and insistence of their team

leader.

Several

of these "hard cases" ended up as team captains.

They proudly

told the research team of their reformation and

their plans for

the future.

Other aspects of the CVC program that

appear to contribute to the

maturing of attitudes toward work and adult

responsibility in-

clude the opportunities to observe other

people working steadily

on regular, structured jobs; to experience the rewards of

collec-

tive effort and mutual responsibility;

to be exposed to a variety

of work and working conditions; to

explore the diversity of the

city; and to see the value of education.

A number of CVs also reported that CVC

gave them a taste for a

particular line of work.

Several young women said they planned

to pursue a nontraditional

career in construction.

A number

discovered an interest in working with

the elderly and with

handicapped and retarded children and

adults.

The majority of CVs, however,

were vague about future work plans.

Several team leaders said they

were trying to collect materials

around which to build discussions of job

possibilities and ways

to pursue them.

All team leaders reported that the majority

their CVs, including those who

stay the full year, w11.1 need

lot of help to make their

way into the labor market.

Without

help, they say, many CVs will likely

lapse back into the immo-

bility of their pre-CVC lives.

Team leaders felt that they had

succeeded in increasing

many CVs' motivation to succeed, but

saw

that motivation alone is not

enough.

IMPROVING EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT

One-fourth of the CVs who entered

the program between November

1985 and March 15, 1987 had high

school degrees, either

as the

result of graduation or achievement

of a GED.

Of the remaining

three-fourths (1,637 youth), only 472

had completed 11th grade

and the remaining 1,165 had

a 10th-grade education or less.

As shown in Table IV.1, 534 CVs

were enrolled in GED preparation

courses during the 17-month observation

period.

That represents

24 percent of enrollees, about

the same proportion

as those who

already had school diplomas.

Of the 534 CVs in GED classes, 55

were still enrolled on March 31, 1987.

Among the remaining 479,

97 (20.25t) had earned their

GEDs during the observation period.

Table IV.1

ENROLLMENT IN EDUCATION PROGRAMS

Number

Enrolled*

Percent

Enrolled"

n = 2,206

GED Preparation

534

24%

Adult Basic Education (ABE)

1,019

English as a Second Language (ESL)

108

College Preparation Courses

282

College Courses

None

482

Earned a GED While Enrolled

*Based on the experiences of

all CVs enrolled from 11/1/85 (the

end

date of the P/PV interim report)

through 3/15/87.

"Values add to

more than 100% because some CVs

were enrolled in more

than one educational

program.

c4 percent of all enrollees,

20.25 percent of those enrolled

in GED

classes, exclusive of those still

enrolled on 3/15/87.

3'7

Although only one in five CVs who enrolled in

a GED class earned

the diploma while in CVC, the success rate far

exceeds that of

any youth corps for which P/PV has data; CVC is the only

corps in

which more than a handful of enrollees achieved

a GED while

serving.

Nearly half the CVs (46%) were enrolled in Adult Basic

Education

classes (46%) because they were reading below the eighth-grade

level.

An additional 6 percent enrolled in English

as a Second

Language instruction.

Of the 1,019 ABE students, 15.7 percent

moved on to the GED program.

The reasons given by CVC staff for the fact

that only one-fifth

of the CVs enrolled in GED preparation earned

a diploma and that

an even lower proportion moved from ABE to GED

classes vary

widely.

The CVC education department is convinced

that the

education delivered to CVs by the City University

of New York

(CUNY) is of high quality and that the CVs'

distaste for the

classes is the result of (1) an unrealistic

view of their own

capabilities (many CVs say the classes

are too easy but test at

the level where they have been placed),

(2) discomfort with a

curriculum that is organized around skill

areas rather, than

subject areas, and (3) fatigue at the

end of the work day.

(This

difficulty should be reduced this fall

when one of the two

evening classes is replaced by

a daytime class on Fridays).

Members of P/PV's research team did not

observe classes them-

selves.

However, we interviewed team leaders, field

coordinators

and the CVs themselves about their

experience with the education

component.

Team leaders and field coordinators report

that they

observe and the CVs tell them that the

CUNY classas are ill-

suited to their needs.

They reported numerous incidents

in which

teachers were not well-prepared and

failed to show sufficient

interest in the CVs' educational

needs.

As a result, team

leaders have been loath to terminate

CVs for violating the CVC's

class attendance regulations.

This may explain why only 2

percent of CVs are terminated

for failure to attend classes.

The CVs themselves

are diffident in responding to questions

from

strangers about their educational

experience.

The two most fre-

quently noted reports, however,

are revealing.

One is that the

CVs who take classes together

talk all the time and

are disrup-

tive.

The other is that "if

you want to get something out of it,

you have to do it yourself--you have to

think up the right ques-

tion and make the teacher

answer."

A final explanation for the

lower-than-expected rate of educa-

tional achievement may lie in the

fact that CVs are not required

to attend classes during the

summer.

As a result, the average

CV, who stays in the

corps only about six months, may attend

only

three months of classes if

his/her service spans the

summer.

The impression one gets from the field is that CVs wto

progress

in education or earn their GEDs do so with

a lot of help from

their friends and are more highly motivated than their fellow

CVs.

Team leaders report that they spend considerable time

helping CVs with their glasswork, and

a number have worked out a

system of assigning high school graduates to tutor lower-level

achievers on their teams.

:.4

COSTS

CVC was originally envisioned as a $10 million

per.

year pro1/4am

having 1,000 corpsmember slots.

The projected number of slots

was adjusted to 800 very early in the demonstration and has since

been reduced to about 650 to reflect more realistic expectations

of recruitment.

CVC's actual costs have been approximately $8

million per year and the average daily enrollment has been 630

corpsmembers.

In the most recent fiscal year, approximately half

of CVC costs

were attributable to corpsmember payments, including stipends and

the scholarships and cash bonuses given to departing

CVs who were

in the corps six months or longer.

Operations and field costs

accounted for slightly less than 20 percent of

overall expenses,

as did central administration costs.

The balance of expenses

went for training, recruitment, project development

and educa-

tion.

Overall, more than 70 percent of CVC'3 costs went

for

payments to CVs or staff.

Table V.1 sets out costs for fiscal

years 1986 and 1987 in greater detail.

CVC's cost-per-corpsmember slot in the

last year of the demon-

stration was approximately $12,820.

This cost-per-slot is lower

than that of other nonresidential urban

youth corps programs.

One example is the San Francisco Conservation

Corps, in which

cost-per-slot was about $16,000 during FY

1986; SFCC pays

corpsmembers more than CVC and uses

more equipment to do its

work.

CVC's cost-per-slot in FY '987 is

also considerably lower

than that calculated during its

can start-up period, when costs

were more than $16,000 per slot; the lower figure is

primarily

the result of increasing the number

of CVs in the field while

making relatively small increases in

overall staffing.

Table V.1

ACTUAL CVC COSTS, FISCAL YEARS 1986 AND 1987

Costs

(in dollars)

FY 1986

(7/1/85 -

6/30/86)

FY 1987

(7/1/86 -

6/30/87)

Corpsmembers Payments

CV Stipends

2,978,015

3;169,772

Scholarship/Readjustment

534,135

1,078,888

Operations

Staff Salaries

1,578,367

1,380,631

Other Costs

277,517

40,736

Training

Staff Salaries

173,943

169,412

Other Costs

181,708

319,312

Recruitment/Project Development

Staff Salaries

300,245

335,903

Other Costs

140,394

76,936

Education

Staff Salaries

95,037

114,874

Other Costs

75,823

72,171

Administration/Overhead

Staff Salaries

649,525

647,150

Other Costs

980,577

671,126

TOTAL COSTS

7,965,286

8,076,911

CVC Cost-Per-Slot

(FY 1987)

COSTS

AVERAGE DAILY CV SLOTS (1/1/86-3/31/87)

COST-PER-CV SLOT

debo3-40.tb1

$8, 076, 911

630

12,820

VI.

FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS

The CVC was designed to meet three goals:

providing worthwhile

work and service to New York City, enrolling

a diverse group of

800 volunteers, and advancing the personal development

of the

participants.

These goals have not been emphasized equally,

reality that is reflected in our findings.

WORK AND SERVICE

'In the view of city officials, CVC leadership and

the CVC board,

the corps' primary goal is service to provide service

to the

city.

The CVC is meeting this goal with outstanding

success.

Its work projects make important contributions

to the quality of

life in the city and many projects would not

materialize without

the CVC teams.

Sponsors of CVC work projects are nearly unani-

mous in their satisfaction with the CVs' work and their

desire to

continue the relationship.

Observation of the teams at work found most of

them productive,

engaged and personally invested in the

value of the work, both to

themselves and to the people

on whose behalf they were working.

The CVs do not work long hours, but work

hard and consistently

complete assignments in a timely fashion.

The CVC teams' performance of human

service work (about two-

thirds of the work time) has established

the feasibility of this

type of work for crews of

young, inexperienced corpsmembers.

with physical work, the tasks

CVs perform do not require well-

developed skills, but do entail

an interest in and an ability to

relate to people.

CVs perform such work capably and with

enthu-

siasm for the contribution they

are making to an institution's

overall mission.

Typical human service tasks include

escorting,

shopping for, and visiting with older

people who are in institu-

tions or are isolated at home;

escorting, visiting and acting

therapeutic aides for handicapped

children and adults; basic aide

work in hospitals; and playground

monitoring, trip supervising

and tutoring children in preschools,

elementary schools and day

care centers.

Many of the worksite management

problems identified during the

first P/PV observation period

have been moved toward resolution:

supplies and assignments

appear to be more regular, supervision

is provided by team leaders in

the absence of work

sponsors, team

leaders have carved out

constructive supervisory roles for

them-

selves in human service projects.

The one continuing problem is

the absence of team leaders at

least two afternoons a week.

such times, the CVs, who require

supervision to achieve optimum

productivity, do not perform

as effectively as they otherwise do.

One of CVC's outstanding achievements is the sheer amount of work

undertaken--more thah a million and a half hours during the

three-year demonstration period.

In achieving this record, CVC

has shown that an urban youth corps can field as

many as 650

corpsmembers while still maintaining the consistency of the

program's essential elements among 40 teams working throughout

the city's five boroughs.

To manage a corps in a large jurisdiction, CVC has given team

leaders substantial autonomy in implementing the corps' basic

rules and substantial responsibility in representing the

corps to

its members.

As a result, corpsmembers develop much stronger

identification with their teams than with the

corps as a whole.

But we did not observe that this smaller

arena for esprit de

corps diluted productivity or youth development.

THE PAR "ICIPANTS

CVC has been less successful in meeting its second goal, that

achieving a measure of integration in

a corps of about 800 young

people who are racially, educationally, economically and

geo-

graphically diverse.

In fact, the CVC has fielded, a corps of

about 650 young people who are predominantly low-income

high

school dropouts and are almost exclusively black and

Hispanic.

Nearly half the enrollees come from Brooklyn,

one of the five

boroughs of New York City, where about 35 percent

of the city's

eligible population lives.

However, CVC is alone among corps in the United States

in achiev-

ing equal enrollment of

women.

According to observations by the

research team, it has also developed

a good measure of social

harmony among men and women, blacks and Hispanics,

high school

graduates and dropouts.

The absence of more accomplished CVs

may have resulted in the

development of projects that require less

advanced skills than

had been anticipated; in

our view, however, this has not diluted

the quality of service.

With proper supervision, the CVs

appear

to be capable of performing the tasks to

which they are assigned.

In human service work, they relate very

constructively to the

clients they serve; many clients

and staff of social agencies

applauded the "differentness," "energy"

and "fresh air" these

young people brought into their lives.

The CVC has also established

a unique record in retaining young

people in the corps.

Of all CVs who had been enrolled in CVC

long enough to complete a year of service by

the time our data

collection terminated, 27 percent had done

so.

The mean length-

of-stay was 6.1 months.

No other corps that P/PV has studied has

shown as high a rate of completion

or mean length-of-stay.

The

availability of scholarships and

cash "readjustment allowances"

4 3

after six months' service appears to be influential in keeping

CVs in the program.

Two demographic variables appear to influence rates of completion

and length-of-stay:

on average, high school graduates stay in

the corps nearly three months longer than dropouts,

women stay a

month longer than men, and both women and high

school graduates

complete one year of service at substantially higher rates

than

members of other groups.

These differences are statistically

significant.

In P/PV's study of the CCC, education appeared to

be the only measured variable that

was related to length-of-stay.

Of the corpsmembers who do not complete

a year of service, half

leave voluntarily and half are fired, mostly for

chronic atten-

dance problems, insubordination or

poor performance.

Again,

having a high school diploma is

an influential variable--grad-

uates who do not stay the full term

are substantially more likely

to leave voluntarily than nongraduates

who leave the corps early.

Ethnicity is also a factor, with Hispanics

tending to leave vol-

untarily more frequently than black corpsmembers.

Gender and

welfare recipiency cannot be correlated with

either voluntary or

involmntary reasons for early departure.

Despite CVC's generous scholarship option,

which offers $5,000 to

CVs who complete one year in the

program and $2,500 to those who

complete six months, only one in five eligible

CVs, including

only 41 percent of the high school graduates,

chose to recieve

scholarship money. The lump

sum option of $1,000 at six months

and $2,500 at 12 months appears to be

more attractive to CVs,

particularly after working for $82

a week.

Part of the explana-

tion for this is that most CVs

are still too far from a high

school diploma or GED when they

leave the corps for the scholar-

ship option to be immediately attractive;

however, even high

school graduates chose the cash

'bonus at a higher rate.

YOUTH DEVELOPMENT

Assessing CVC's success in achieving

its third goal, promoting

the personal development of

corpsmembers, is difficult, largely

because the goal is vague and is

interpreted differently by

various members of the CVC staff.

In terms of fulfilling certain

explicit program intentions, the

CVC record is solid:

Sense of service.

CVs who serve more than several months

appear

to develop a sense of pride and

accomplishment in providing

service to needy people.

Although they do not define themselves

as volunteers, they say that CVC experience

has aroused in them a

growing interest in pursuing work

that benefits people in need.

Social harmony.

The integration of and harmony

among the various

demographic groups serving in the

corps is notable.

Although the

CVC has recruited few white

or Asian youth, few middle-class

youth and few high school graduates, it has

recruited mixes of

blacks and Hispanics, men and

women, and high school graduates

and dropouts, as well as a substantial number

of youth who have

spent most of their lives in

one neighborhood.

These youth and

their team leaders consistently comment

on the eye-opening exper-

ience of men working shoulder-to-shoulder with

women, of blacks

and Hispanics getting to know each other,

of high school grad-

uates tutoring dropouts, of "bad attitude"

youth being encouraged

to shape up by their teammates, and

of youth gaining exposure to

the wide variety and opportunities

of life in the city.

The

members of a CVC team are typically

very close and supportive of

each other, a situation described by

CVs and team leaders as

"like a good family."

In terms of CVC's less well-defined

goals, the results are mixed:

Work-related attitudes and behavior.

Team leaders report that

CVs have made progress in work-related

attitudes and behavior.

The CVs, too, remark on each others'

progress.

They specifically

mention learning not to let the

team down, observing the spon-

sor's staff working on structured

jobs, being exposed to

variety of work opportunities, seeing

the value of education and,

most frequently, responding

to the requirements and encouragement

of their team leaders.

Education.

Among youth corps studied by P/PV, CVC

has the best

record of GED achievement:

97, or 20.25 percent, of the

CVs

enrolled in GED classes had received

diplomas by March 1987.

This represents one in five

of the CVs who enrolled in the

classes and a very small proportion

of total enrollees, who read,

on average, at the 7th- to 8th-grade

level.

Other corpsmember needs.

The CVC is meeting some of the needs

that have been identified

by team leaders and field

coordinators,

but for which no

program components are in place.

These needs

include those for personal

counseling, help in progressing in

the

educational program, and guidance

and information in planning for

the future.

Team leaders with the

inclination and skill to help in

these

areas do so on their own initiative,

without formal resources

training from the CVC central

office.

They make themselves

available as adult confidants

and suggest social agencies that

might offer help with

personal problems; tutor

or arrange for

tutoring by CVs with higher

educational achievement; compile

information about jobs, job

searching techniques and interviewing

skills; and prod CVs to set

their sights on postsecondary

education.

COSTS

CVC was able to achieve its record of service and youth

develop-

ment at the cost of about $13,000 per-CV-slot in

FY 1987.

This

cost is lower than that of any other nonresidential urban

youth

corps.

The San Francisco Conservation Corps, for example,

had a

cost-per-slot of $15,971 during PY 1986.

CVC's cost-per-slot in FY 1987 is considerably

lower than the

$16,000 cost-per-slot that marked its start-up period.

This re-

duction is primarily the result of increasing the

number of CVs

in the field while increasing the number of staff

only minimally.

CONCLUSIONS

CVC was initially envisioned as

a volunteer service program for

New York City that would involve a heterogeneous

group of young

people who do not require extensive services themselves.

By se-

curing an allocation of $27 million for CVC's

three-year demon-

stration period, the mayor's staff intended

to initiate a program

that would show the promise of national youth

service in an urban

setting.

In accordance with this vision of the

CVC and with the expecta-

tion that CVs would include

a substantial portion of middle-class

youth and high school graduates,

a program model was designed

that included a small weekly stipend to

cover the costs associ-

ated with volunteering, a $5,000 scholarship

to be given at the

end of one year, and great faith in the

inherent ,youth develop-

ment potential of service itself.

In reality, CVC has been

program that provides services to the City of

New York primarily

through the work of low-income,

poorly educated young people,

almost all of whom are black and

Hispanic.

These youth define

their $82 dollar a week stipend

as pay and do not view themselves

as volunteers; only one in four are high school

graduates and

fewer than one in five have taken

advantage of the scholarship

option.

Nevertheless, these youth have accomplished

important,

needed work in the city and, according

to their supervisors and

themselves, have displayed personal

growth during their term of

service.

CVC staff who work closely with

these young people, however,

stress that while CVs have shown

themselves capable and enthu-

siastic in serving the city and

its needy citizens, they

are

quite needy as well.

They require close supervision

and could

benefit from individualized

remedial education, support services

and career guidance that

go beyond the personal development

en-

gendered by the actual work

process.

Whether CVC produces an

impact on the postprogram

experience of CVs cannot be determined

on the basis of available information.

This would require a

longitudinal follow-up study

in which outcomes for former CVs

are

compared with those of members of

a comparison group who did not

participate in CVC.

The disparity between the heterogeneous

CVC originally envisioned

and the relatively homogeneous

group of corpsmembers actually

recruited has produced for CVC what

some staff refer to as the

corps' "identity crisis," i.e., the

existence of two different

visions of what the CVC should strive to

become.

Both visions

differ in important respects from the

program developed during

the demonstration.

One perspective stresses CVC's rededication

to the original ideal

of recruiting a racially, economically

and educationally diverse

group of young people who would serve to exemplify

how a national

youth service program could succeed

in urban communities through-

out the country.

This view emphasizes the provision

of service

to the city and envisions youth

development primarily through the

work process, team structure and

natural interchange between

more heterogeneous group of CVs.

Proponents argue that enrolling

CVs from different socioeconomic

backgrounds would expose dis-

advantaged corpsmembers to constructive

role models both in terms

of work maturity and aspirations.

The rival view puts little

faith in the prospects for

recruiting

a more diverse group of CVs, instead

stressing acceptance of the

current composition of the

corpsmember population.

Proponents of

this view recommend that the

corps address the special needs of

the at-risk youth it

serves by making direct services to youth

priority of equal weight to provision

of services to the city.

They maintain that while the

CVs derive many personal benefits

from participation in the team

and work processes, CVC fails

ensure that these benefits will endure.

Primarily, they contend

that CVC encourages corpsmembers

to aspire to a college educa-

tion, but doesn't offer them

an educational program that will

make the goal realistic; givc

4 them a taste for working produc-

tively, but doesn't help them

translate this experience into

future employment through

career development and placement

effo.z.ts; and asks them to

develop a sense of service through

helping needy New Yorkers,

without acknowledging and addressing

their own needs for support

and counseling services.

The tension between these

visions of CVC is in

some ways common

to the pressures faced by

all youth corps.

In the CVC, however,

it is heightened by

a pair of factors unique to this

program: the

importance it has placed

on being not only a service

program but

also a national service model

with implications beyond the

par-

ticular circumstances of New

York City, and the fact that

the CVC

corpsmember population

appears to be more disadvantaged than

that

of the other youth service

corps programs P/PV has studied.

The two visions of

CVC--as a national service

program and as a

program for et-risk youth--each

have important constituencies.

4 7

CVC's board and its founder and sponsor, the City of

New York,

urge dedication to the original goals of heterogeneity among

corpsmembers and press the corps to enroll

a more ethnically,

economically and educationally diverse mix of CVs.

CVC's team

leaders and field coordinators argue for accepting the current

makeup of the CVC and addressing the unmet needs of these

youth.

Facing pressure from both sides, CVC management has

sought to

both diversify the corps and address

some urgent needs of current

corpsmembers.

This dual strategy derives from

a firm commitment

to the ideals of national service and

a simultaneous recognition

that CVC, whatever its recruitment

success, will always include a

substantial number of at-risk youth.

The strategy is also dedi-

cated to protecting a program that,

as this report has indicated,

has already been succeeding in a number of

important ways.

The question of CVC's proper priorities

was brought into sharper

relief as the three-year demonstration period

drew to a close and

the city opened up consideration of CVC's

future funding earlier

this year.

The result was continued support from the

city for

the year-round corps plus a CVC

summer program for in-school 16-

year -olds, which enrolled 39 percent Asian and 11 percent

white

youth during the summer of 1987.

At the same time, CVC planned

to reduce the work week from five to

four days in September, in

order to give additional emphasis to

education and other youth

development activities.

The fifth day, Friday, will include

one

of the two weekly CUNY class meetings

as well as team, corps and

team leader training sessions.

As CVC continues to experiment with

new strategies for recruit-

ment and youth development, its

experience over the past three

years suggests that the corps will likely be

able to exercise

much more control over efforts to

improve services for disadvan-

taged youth than over enrolling

a more diverse population.

CVC's

experience has consistently been that white

and Asian youth and

more advantaged youth of any race

are reluctant to join the year-

round corps.

While new recruitment tactics might

improve the

picture, they are unlikely to effect

a fundamental change.

Should diversity continue to

prove elusive, an alternative would

be to turn full attention to

enriching the program model's abil-

ity to serve the population currently

enrolled.

Such an effort

would build on CVC's

proven strengths while addressing two of New

York City's greatest problems--the

demand for service projects to

help its ailing infrastructure and

needy citizens, and the plight

of its disadvantaged minority

youth.

Virtually every city faces similar

problems, and CVC has already

established itself as

a model of national significance in this

area, albeit one still in need of

refinement.

While today's CVC

is not the model that inspired

its creation three years

ago, it

is of no less importance for advancing the

causes of service to

youth, service to the city and service to the nation.

Appendix A

CVC Sites Visited by the Research Team

Center for Book Arts, (Manhattan).

Work sponsor:

Candace Langhoff; team leader:

Felicita Morin;

interviewees:

work sponsor, 6 CVs.

Site visits:

6/24

Greenbelt, (Staten Island).

Work sponsor: Jim Ross;

team leader:

Mark Hill; interviewees:

work sponsor,

team leader, 7 CVs.

Site visit:

6/23

Staten Island Botanical Ardens, (Staten Island).

Work

sponsor:

Leonard Bessor; team leader:

Robert

Danborg; interviewees:

work sponsor, team leader,

3 CVs.

Site visit:

6/23

Prospect Park Tennis Courts, (Brooklyn).

Work

sponsor:

Ed Toth; team leader:

Edwin Figueroa;

interviewees:

team leader, 6 CVs.

Site visit:

3/26

Part of the Solution (POTS), (South Bronx).

Work

sponsor:

Pasquale Stroccia; team leader:

Alton

Owens; interviewees: work sponsor, team leader, 5 CVs.

Site visit:

5/8

West Side Federation of Senior Housing, (Manhattan).

Work sponsor:

Laura Javis; teem leader: Arthur

Glover; interviewees:

work sponsor, site supervisor,

team leader, group interview with 12 CVs.

Site visit:

6/24

Holy Deliverance Church of God Community Garden,

(Brooklyn).

Work sponsor:

Elder Childs; team leader:

Frank Silva; interviewees:

work sponsor, site

supervisor Viris Preston.

Visits at 11:30 a.m. and

2:00 p.m. on a sunny day found

no one on site.

Site visit:

6/24

Mayor's Voluntary Action Center (Manhattan).

Work sponsor:

Millie Mendez; team leader:

Ernest

Verdel; interviewees: work

sponsor, 5 CVs; Site Visit:

6/22

Jewish Home & Hospital, (Bronx).

Work sponsor: Risa

Landsman; team leader:

Nelly Velez; interviewees:

work sponsor, 5 CVs.

Site visit:

6/22

10.

Shields Institute, (Bronx).

Work sponsor: Joan

Laufer/Charles Smith; team leader:

Beth Goetting;

interviewees:

Work sponsor, team leader, 7 CVs.

Site visit:

6/22

11.

Bronx Developmental Center, (Bronx).

Work sponsox:

Nettie Evans; team leader, Wendy Whitcomb;

interviewees:

work sponsor, team leader, 6

CVs.

Site visit:

5/8

12.

Coney Island Hospital, (Brooklyn).

Work sponsor:

Annie Davidson; team leader:

Leslie Whiten;

interviewees:

work sponsor, team leader, 6

CVs.

Site visit:

5/7

13.

P.S. 397, (Brooklyn).

Work sponsor:

Marcia Levine;

team leader:

Rebecca King; interviewees:

work

sponsor, team leader, 7 CVs.

Site visit:

3/26

14.

Goldwater Memorial Hospital,

(Manhattan).

Work

sponsor:

Tammy Carlisle; team leader: Michael

Williams; interviewees:

work sponsor, 7 CVs.

Site

visit:

3/25

15.

VISIONS, (Manhattan).

Work sponsor:

Alan Cohen;

team leader:

Bridget Regan, interviewees:

work

sponsor: team leader:

Site visit:

3/25

16.

Isabella Geriatric Center,

(Manhattan).

Work sponsor:

Leslie Foster, Dir. of

volunteers; team leader:

Andres Acosta; interviewees:

work sponsor, team

leader, 3 CVs.

Site visit: 5/7

17.

Fort Washington Houses Senior

Center Respite Program,

(Manhattan).

Work sponsor:

Lucy Ezralow, team

leader:

Andres Acosta; interviewees:

work sponsor,

sponsor's site supervisor,

volunteer, 4 CVs including

team captain.

Site visit:

5/7

18.

Community Elementary School 236,

(Bronx).

Work

sponsor:

Clara Burgess, principal; team

leader:

Sharon Benson; interviewees:

work sponsor, two

teachers, office

manager, team leader, 5 CVs,

one

Special Project CV.

Site visit:

5/8

19.

Prospect Park Bicycle Safety

Project, work sponsor

training at Fort Greene Park

(Brooklyn).

Work

sponsor:

Maggie Landis, Urban Park

Service; team

leader: Gwen Haywood;

interviewees:

two Urban Park

rangers, team leader, 4 CVs.

Site visit:

6/24

20.

P.S.192 (Manhattan).

Work Sponsor:

Felix Polanko

(principal); team leader:

Anastasios Kalomiris;

interviewees:

Work sponsor, team leader,

Site visit:

6/22

21.

Homes for the Homeless, (Bronx).

Work sponsor:

Yvonne Burns; team leader:

Charles Jones;

interviewees:

work sponsor, team leader, 5

CVs.

Site visit:

5/8