Pete Buttigieg proposes plan to boost national service, volunteerism

Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg on Wednesday rolled out a plan aimed at bolstering volunteerism among young people across the U.S., with a goal of building a network of “national service members” by 2026.

Mr. Buttigieg, who plans to discuss the plan during a campaign stop in Iowa, said that the country is divided right now and one of the best things that can bring people together is to work collectively on a challenge.

“Part of what national service, true national service, can do is it can invite people to move past their backgrounds or divisions, to move past an urban-rural divide or a left and right political divide, to overcome racial barriers to understanding,” Mr. Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, said in a video released by his campaign.

Mr. Buttigieg, who served in Afghanistan, said he trusted his life to people who held “totally different” political views, but that people shouldn’t have to go to war to have those sorts of experiences.

His plan would increase the number of service opportunities in programs like AmeriCorps from 75,000 to 250,000. It would also create new service organizations, like a Climate Corps and Community Health Corps.

The plan would focus on targeting high school students, as well as young people who aren’t working or attending school, and students at community colleges, vocational schools, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and Minority-Serving Institutions.

The plan would also create competitive grant funding for cities and counties. to create local “ecosystems” of service.

His campaign said the overall goal is to create a pathway toward a “universal, national expectation of service” for 4 million high school graduates every year.

Other 2020 contenders such as Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, former Rep. John Delaney of Maryland and Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts have also rolled out plans aimed at bolstering opportunities for national service.