Peter Frumkin Projects
Volunteering for America
Peter Frumkin and JoAnn Jastrzab are working on a book focusing on the effectiveness of national service programs. The project will draw on two major new data sources.
The Longitudinal Study of Service in AmeriCorps is the largest study of national service ever undertaken. The study examines the effect of participation in AmeriCorps on program participants, referred to as "members." Relying upon a quasi-experimental design, the study includes over 2,000 AmeriCorps members from a nationally representative sample of over 100 programs along with a control group of almost 2,000 like minded individuals who expressed interest in AmeriCorps but who did not actually join the program. Outcomes assessed by the study include numerous measures of civic engagement, as well as employment, education and other life skills. Data were collected through three rounds of data collection, corresponding roughly to members entry and exit from AmeriCorps and a follow-up period two years later.
The Retrospective Study of VISTA Outcomes looks at the long-term effects of participation in VISTA on members' life trajectories. Participants in the study include a nationally representative sample of approximately 800 VISTA members who enrolled in the program from 1973 through 1993. Again, we will have the benefit of a quasi-experimental design, in that we have a comparison group of a similar number of individuals who enrolled in VISTA, but who did not complete the pre-service training, or who dropped out very early in their VISTA experience. Quantitative data are currently being collected through telephone interviews with study participants, complemented with 2-hour in-depth, in-person interviews with a subsample of individuals included in the study. The in-person interviews are designed to support a life course analysis that will help identify the long-term impact of VISTA. The outcomes assessed in the retrospective VISTA study include, among others, civic engagement, education, employment, family and friendship formation, political orientation, and intergenerational transfer of values. These two unique datasets will help shed light on the plausibility of the competing claims and visions of national service that now exist. This project has been supported by the Smith Richardson Foundation and the Surdna Foundation.
