The American Way to Change: How National Service and Volunteers Are Transforming America

This book outlines a compelling vision of national service at scale and illustrates what this means for our country. By profiling real people who have served, the impact they have made and the organizations they have worked with, this book tells a powerful story of change and shows readers how they too can change their own communities through service. Examples include people like Washington DC Public School Chancellor Michelle Rhee who began her career as a Teach For America corps member, teaching in an inner city school in Baltimore who went on to found the New Teacher Project, which has placed over 23,000 teachers in hard to fill jobs and sparked important reforms in teacher hiring. She is a nationally recognized school system leader, pursuing reforms once thought impossible in a large city district. The author will paint a picture of successes like these in all sectors, demonstrating their impact in individual communities and how this change came about. It will show how America would look if programs like these operated at scale — not just in one or two neighborhoods, but wherever they were needed. It will describe how we can achieve this change through action at the community and organizational level, and show how service programs can tackle different issues with examples and key lessons. Finally, it will speak to ordinary Americans about what they can do to make a difference — by advocating, joining AmeriCorps or volunteering in their own communities.