An item in this morning’s Daily News says that the four New York schools participating in the Experience Corps program will likely lose city funding to renew it this year.  The program places people over age 55 in schools to tutor children with reading. Apparently private money has been hard to get as well, so the New York schools will probably lose their tutors soon. According to the Daily News article,...

Earlier this week New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a series of initiatives to help nonprofit organizations weather the economic downturn. Noting that the nonprofit sector employs nearly 500,000 New Yorkers, the mayor said it was important to take what he called “concrete steps to strengthen the sector and make it thrive.” These measures include an expansion of the city’s loan...

More volunteers on the horizon for Brooklyn.... There are 450 Americorps volunteers serving at 25 organizations in Brooklyn, and soon that number may grow. On Thursday, the House of Representatives passed a bill to increase funding to the Corporation for National Service and similar organizations. I’ve been wondering how the Obama administration would tackle this, and I’m not surprised to hear the...

(AP Photo/Susan Walsh) Appearing before the House Committee on Education and Labor on February 25, singer Usher testified about his experiences with community service and why he believes the government should do more to encourage involvement. The multimillion-record-selling, Grammy-winning artist founded New Look, a nonprofit organization that helps disadvantaged youth gain skills useful for careers in the...

In his speech to Congress last Tuesday, President Obama tied together the idea of service with increased access to education: “I know that the price of tuition is higher than ever, which is why if you are willing to volunteer in your neighborhood or give back to your community or serve your country, we will make sure that you can afford a higher education.” Obama also called on Congress to pass the...