Senator Dodd Introduces Community-Service Bills

Sen. Chris Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, announced that he and two colleagues have introduced two bills to provide new incentives to encourage high school students and people age 55 and over to volunteer or work for the public good.

The Semester of Service Act would allow juniors and seniors in high school to earn academic credit by spending at least 70 hours over 12 weeks on community service. Federal grants would be available to school districts or nonprofit groups to oversee the projects.

The Encore Service Act would offer stipends and education grants to people 55 years and older who work to help “high-need communities.” It would also create an Encore Fellows Program to place older Americans in one-year management or leadership posts in nonprofit groups or public agencies and a Silver Scholarship Program to offer scholarships of up to $1,000 to older Americans who volunteer for such groups.

The bill would also expand the number of people who qualify for the federal government’s existing volunteer programs for older people — Foster Grandparents, Senior Companions, and RSVP. It would lower the age limit for Foster Grandparents and Senior Companions from 60 to 55 and open the programs to people whose incomes are 200 percent above poverty level (up from the current 125 percent).

Senator Dodd drew up the bill with Sens. Thad Cochran, Republican of Mississippi, and Edward Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts.

Senator Dodd, who speaks often about his experience as a Peace Corps volunteer, announced the two bills at the ServiceNation Summit, a two-day conference on public service that took place in New York at the end of last week.

He said his bills complemented the Serve America Act, legislation announced last week by Sens. Orrin Hatch and Edward Kennedy that would expand the country’s national and community-service programs.