Posted on Feb 16, 2022

On February 16, for our noon Zoom meeting, Ted Adams, the US Peace Corps Director of Strategic Partnerships & Intergovernmental Affairs, joined us to talk about the ongoing and evolving relationship between the Peace Corps and Rotary.  Stacy Plemmons gave a brief overview of the history of the Peace Corps and its relationship with CSU by way of introduction. Mr. Adams then outlined the many present and future strands of the strategic partnership between the Peace Corps and Rotary, especially focusing on the efforts by returning peace-corps volunteers (RPCVs) to have a broader and more formalized contribution to the mission of the Peace Corps and its relationship with other world-wide service organizations. 

Using his own beginning experiences with the Peace Corps in 1998 – 2000 as a launching point, he talked about how the Peace Corps works.  Volunteers receive some three months of training in both language and procedures followed by some 24 months of service in remote locations in their assigned countries.  The volunteers are aimed at addressing the three goals of the Peace Corps:  help people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women; help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served; and to help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.  The actions of volunteers on the ground are guided by Peace Corps principles: people to people (they are embedded in the local communities); capacity building and long term vision (the results should last long after the volunteer is gone); the process is the product; all of the effort should be participatory and inclusive (the volunteer is not there to do something, but rather to enable the locals to move forward); and bottom up (the efforts should focus on the needs of the local community as identified by that community).  Although most of the effort goes into the two-year volunteer program, the Peace Corps Response program is more technically focused for shorter spans of time, typically by older volunteers.  Although in the time of Covid there are no volunteers, typically there are some 7000 volunteers active at any one time for a total of some 240,000 volunteers to date in some 142 host countries. 
 
Which leads to the Rotary connection.  Rotary, like the Peace Corps and the RPCVs, is widespread and has significant interest and effort in abundant countries – and many RPCVs are interested in fostering opportunities to serve and participating in continued involvement across the world.  A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been established between Rotary and the Peace Corps to facilitate cooperation, an active partnership, in focusing on education, health, youth in development, agriculture, community economic development, and the environment across many of the countries of the world.  At the local, in-country level, there are abundant opportunities for volunteers to partner with local Rotary clubs and, at the US level, there are opportunities for local Rotary clubs to foster volunteering for the Peace Corps.  One of the developing areas of cooperation is Partnering for Peace, one of Rotary’s current areas of focus. 
 
Having outlined all of those activities, Mr. Adams pointed out that there have been some dramatic changes, both for the present and into the future, due to Covid-19.  Almost immediately after identification of Covid as a pandemic, all Peace Corps volunteers were evacuated to the US, completed before any of the widespread shut-downs were in place.  Much of the administration effort is now devoted to planning for return to service, including development of a five-year strategic plan.  As an example of possible future plans, whereas in the past assignments tended to be in remote areas of the host countries, future assignments may be nearer to available medical or evacuation facilities.  As Volunteers are redeployed to countries of service, supporting communities addressing Covid-19 will be a priority across all Peace Corps programming. A virtual services pilot, available currently to Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs), may be expanded in the future. and the administration is looking for RPCVs to volunteer for that sort of program. More information available here: (https://www.peacecorps.gov/faqs/virtual-service-pilot/).  There will probably be on ongoing and expanding effort to encourage local governments/societies to create local volunteer programs, perhaps somewhat like our own Americorps program.  There are some 60 Peace-Corps programs worldwide with local staff who continue during Covid restrictions – how will they continue without US volunteers?  There is already some effort to return to the field, starting with Zambia and the Dominican Republic. 
Mr. Adams closed by suggesting that members might be interested in looking over the website partneringforpeace.org and doing a general search for Rotary International and Peace Corps Partnership Guidance.  After his presentation, Mr. Adams added two thoughts.  For those interested or know of others interested in Peace Corps service, please follow up directly with Peace Corps Recruiter Corbin Johns (who was also on the call) at cjohns@peacecorps.gov.   Also,  all are invited to attend a keynote address and forum entitled “Peace Corps Reimagined” on Thursday, March 3, 2022, 2:00-3:00 p.m. EST.  This will be one of the main events of Peace Corps Week where Chief Executive Officer Carol Spahn will provide a keynote address and other agency representatives will present the efforts of the agency to reimagine service, advance equity, and deliver quality during three, subsequent forum sessions.  Register Here: (https://peacecorps.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_VAx1AaDVTi2LDAuXUzYgcA) and use passcode: peacecorps (note that you must register for this public event). 
 
Two other RPCVs participated in the meeting and both had some additional remarks, both focused on the relationship between Rotary and the Peace Corps.  Charles Hunt suggested that Rotary programs that are to be started up in a country might benefit from conversations with RPCVs who had worked in that country before starting the program.  Peace Corps volunteers in that country might be beneficially connected with that project.  Peace-Corps Response volunteers (the older, more technically focused volunteers) might be brought in to supervise such projects.  And finally any Rotary club might benefit if a satellite group of only RPCVs were formed.  Stephen Werner, another RPCV, pointed out that all RPCVs are still volunteers, but just returned, and that the population of RPCVs might be a great reservoir for recruiting new Rotary members. 
 
Questions: 
Discuss funding for the Peace Corps and the level of volunteer staff vs. need.  Although somewhat uncertain about the funding, it appears that the Peace Corps budget is around $485.8 million for 2022.  It is an independent government organization that is focused more on pathways to service than on funding or numbers of volunteers.  There is some focus on encouraging countries to evolve toward volunteering across borders or within their own borders. 
 
Would it be possible for Engineers Without Borders to interface with Peace Corps volunteers for in-country projects?  The main office of the Peace Corps would be happy to facilitate those conversations – anything that might serve to grow the impact of the Peace Corps. 
 
Has there been any effort for the Peace Corps to connect with the Rotary Peace Center in Uganda?  That sounds like a good idea and Mr. Adams suggested that such a connection might be possible in the future. 
 
Given the large load in student debt shouldered by many recent grads, making the Peace Corps look like a rich-kids club, is there any effort to make volunteering a viable choice for a broader range of new grads?  Headquarters is apparently looking into military-style benefits.  They recognize that equity is a huge driver for the future.  Volunteers receive a stipend that is sufficient for life in their assignment locations and they receive a readjustment allowance on return.  They also get non-competition eligibility for some federal jobs.  There are continued efforts to provide robust ways to track skill-building for more desirable positions after volunteering and for documenting acquired competencies.