Peace Corps Empowerment Act

President John F. Kennedy founded the Peace Corps in 1961 to challenge Americans to go forth and promote the cause of peace by helping developing countries. According to PeaceCorps.gov, "Since that time, more than 190,000 Peace Corps Volunteers have been invited [to volunteer in] 139 host countries". The Peace Corps is a great opportunity for Americans from all walks of life to help the less fortunate, but the system does need some revisions. The Peace Corps Volunteer Empowerment Act seeks to improve some of the current problems with the Peace Corps system. The purpose of this act is to motivate more volunteers to sign up and to create a more efficient system. This act will fulfill the goals by revising the system for obtaining funds for volunteer projects, recruiting more experienced volunteers, and giving substantial weight to site selection.

The Peace Corps Volunteer Empowerment Act states that, to more efficiently allocate funds for Peace Corps projects, "The Director of the Peace Corps shall determine at the beginning of each fiscal year the amount of funding that will be available as seed money for demonstration projects for that fiscal year". The awarded money for a project will not exceed $1000 and the recipient of the awarded money will submit, before the end of their volunteer term, a report regarding the project they took part in as a result of receiving the awarded money. This plan will ensure that the process of receiving funds will be more efficient and it will make it easier to begin and complete new projects. Since Peace Corps Volunteers serve two-year terms, the first year can be spent completing any unfinished projects from the previous volunteers and the second year can be used to begin a new project. Thus, ensuring that new ideas for projects will be put into effect, and it will provide incentive for new volunteers to quickly finish any projects left incomplete.

The act will also seek to improve the recruitment of more experienced volunteers. The findings under the Peace Corps Volunteer Empowerment Act are that, "the vast majority of volunteers have recently graduated from college". Therefore, the new recruitment goal is to attempt to recruit more volunteers with at least 5 years of relevant work experience. This plan will make the Peace Corps a more efficient organization. If recruiters can bring in more experienced volunteers, they can then help to train younger volunteers, as well as serving their own terms.

Currently, the Peace Corps takes into consideration three regions that the volunteer wants to work in. The recommendations are not weighed heavily and instead, the volunteer is placed wherever they are needed the most. Although, this is a great way to build a base of strong workers who will complete projects that are relevant to their designated fields, it does not empower more volunteers to join if they know they are unlikely to go to their number one choice region. For this reason, the Peace Corps Volunteer Empowerment Act plans to give more weight to site selection than they currently do. While, some may say that it is unnecessary to attempt to cater to volunteers, I argue that it is, in fact, very important to keep volunteers motivated. If status quo is kept, surely, less people will volunteer for fear of being sent to some region that they personally consider undesirable.

The Peace Corps provides great volunteer opportunities to Americans, but there are some features that need to be modified. Therefore, the Peace Corps Empowerment Act will end many problems with the current Peace Corps system through revision of the system for obtaining funds for volunteer projects, recruiting more experienced volunteers, and giving substantial weight to site selection.

Works Cited
About The Peace Corps. Online. 29 Jan 2008.
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"Peace Corps." Peace Corps Volunteer Empowerment Act. The Library of Congress. 29 Jan 2008. Keyword: Thomas.