Service Year Alliance is devoted to promoting a “service year” in which young people throughout the nation engage in civic and community service opportunities for a full year. ¹ Service Year Alliance was formed under the leadership of retired U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal in 2016 upon the merger of three other national service projects: Service Nation, the Franklin Project, and Service Year Exchange. ²

Founding

In January 2016, three national organizations merged to form Service Year Alliance. The first organization was ServiceNation at Be The Change, Inc., which organizes national coalition campaigns to promote community advocacy. ServiceNation was formed during the 2008 presidential campaign between then-U.S. Senators Barack Obama (D-IL) and John McCain (R-AZ) and hosted a summit for both candidates to promote national service opportunities. ³

The second organization behind Service Year Alliance was the Franklin Project at the Aspen Institute. The Franklin Project was launched in 2013 to build a case for a voluntary civilian service counterpart to military service. ⁴ The idea for the Franklin Project originated at the 2012 Aspen Ideas Festival after retired U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal called for more Americans to serve their communities. McChrystal went on to become the chairperson of Service Year Alliance. ⁵

The third organization behind Service Year Alliance was Service Year Exchange at the National Conference on Citizenship (NcoC), a congressionally chartered nonprofit focused on advancing American civic life. ⁶ NCoC was chartered in 1953. ⁷ In 2013, the conference expanded its programs to focus on national service, creating the Service Year Exchange in partnership with the Franklin Project at the Aspen Institute as an online marketplace of service opportunities for Americans between 18-28 years old. ⁸

Activities

After its foundation in 2016, Service Year Alliance set the goal to generate 100,000 opportunities for Americans to engage in a service year doing civic and community work. ⁹ A service year is a paid opportunity to do hands-on service for the community. ¹⁰ The purpose of these opportunities was to provide young Americans with productive work, train people with the “habits of citizenship,” restore a sense of common purpose for America, help at-risk children, support transitioning veterans, counter poverty, and respond to national disasters. ¹¹

As of 2023, Service Year Alliance was committed to a three-part strategy. The first part is to expand national service through partnerships with the American Rescue Plan, Public Health AmeriCorps, and the potential new Civilian Climate Corps ¹² proposed by the Biden administration. ¹³ The second part is to improve recruitment efforts into the programming. The third part is to ensure service years are experiences that transform lives and fuel civic renewal. ¹⁴

People

The chair of the board of Service Year Alliance is retired U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal, ¹⁵ a former four-star general and commander of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan. ¹⁶

The CEO of Service Year Alliance is Kristen Bennet, who previously worked as the chief strategy officer at the alliance, led development at ServiceYear.org, worked as program officer at California’s state service commission California Volunteers, and is an alum of the AmeriCorps VISTA program, ¹⁷ a service program to alleviate poverty in the U.S. ¹⁸

Notable members of Service Year Alliance’s leadership council include Anna Burger, former secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union; Jean Case, CEO of the Case Foundation; Emily Cherniack, founder of New Politics; Richard Danzig, former Secretary of the Navy; Ann Dunwoody, a retired U.S. Army General; Robert Gates, former Secretary of Defense; Walter Isaacson, president and CEO of the Aspen Institute; Jack Lew, former Secretary of the Treasury; Steven Olikara, founder and president of Millennial Action Project; and Timothy Shriver, chairman of the Special Olympics. ¹⁹

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4. “Aspen Institute.” William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Accessed August 28, 2023. https://hewlett.org/grants/aspen-institute-for-support-of-the-franklin-project-an-effort-to-create-a-national-voluntary-civilian-service/.
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10. “What is a service year?” Service Year Alliance. Accessed August 28, 2023. https://www.serviceyearalliance.org/what_is_a_service_year.
11. “About.” Service Year Alliance. Accessed August 28, 2023. https://www.serviceyearalliance.org/about#:~:text=Service%20Year%20Alliance%20was%20formed,the%20National%20Conference%20on%20Citizenship.
12. “Our Work.” Service Year Alliance. Accessed August 28, 2023. https://www.serviceyearalliance.org/our_work.
13.  Rott, Nathan and Scott Detrow. “Reaching Back To the New Deal, Biden Proposes A Civilian Climate Corps.” NPR. May 11, 2021. Accessed August 28, 2023. https://www.npr.org/2021/05/11/993976948/reaching-back-to-the-new-deal-biden-proposes-a-civilian-climate-corps.
14. ^[1] “Our Work.” Service Year Alliance. Accessed August 28, 2023. https://www.serviceyearalliance.org/our_work.
15. “Our Board.” Service Year Alliance. Accessed August 28, 2023. https://www.serviceyearalliance.org/our_board/.
16. “Stan McChrystal.” The McChrystal Group. Accessed August 28, 2023. https://www.mcchrystalgroup.com/people/stan-mcchrystal/
17. “Kristen Bennet: Chief Executive Officer.” Service Year Alliance. Accessed August 28, 2023. https://www.serviceyearalliance.org/staff.
18. “AmeriCorps VISTA.” AmeriCorps. Accessed August 28, 2023. https://www.americorps.gov/serve/americorps/americorps-vista.
19. “Leadership Council.” Service Year Alliance. Accessed August 28, 2023. https://www.serviceyearalliance.org/leadership_council.