Saving the World … and Measuring the Progress

A recent book by Peter Frumkin and Joanne Jastreb, Serving Country and Community, examines national service programs in America.  In particular, it examines the efficacy of programs such as Americorps, or, rather, the lack of evidence, evaluation, and measurement that we have of such efficacy, according to Chris Jarvis’s review here.  These authors are experts on the topic, having published an evaluation of Americorps in APPAM in 2009.  Yet, at least in the APPAM piece, they examine the impact on participants – not on recipient communities.  Jarvis wisely notes that we still do not know who benefits from national service.  Is this a matter of an evaluation waiting to be done?  Is it that the cost-benefit analysis has not occurred?  Or, are there inherent benefits to Americorps that cannot be examined or measured against its raw costs? 

Somewhat similarly, the New York Times reported recently on service at the international level – in particular, service in the form of individual entrepreneurship.  Greg Mortenson’s girls’ schools in Pakistan brought to our national consciousness a new form of service to the poor in unsafe corners of the world.  Yet, I suspect there are benefits unfolding through these forms of service that we aren’t quantifying.  As is frequently the case with the rapid growth of new movements, our evaluation expertise and measurement abilities will take a bit to catch up.