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The California Experiment: Can Government Use Community Service to Fix Work and Heal Society? | Josh Fryday
00:55:06
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- [00:04]
A
Leaders, business leaders, state leaders. I think we need to ask, and we are asking, what kind of society do we want to live in in government? I think we have a special responsibility to answer this question. And the truth is right now, many of us feel it. We live in a very disconnected, polarized, divided society. What we're trying to say and show and lead on in California is that it can look different. We can live in a society where we care about each other again, where we're not polarized, where we respect each other's differences, but we don't tear each other down. We help each other. We take care of each other's needs. If that's the kind of society we want to create, we actually have to build that. And that's a unique role that I think government does have.
- [00:52]
B
Welcome to the Work for Humans podcast. This is Dart Lindsley. The transition from college to work is tough, especially for students without networks, mentors, or the right experience on their resumes. But what if the answer to that challenge wasn't just another internship, but something deeper, Something that could also rebuild communities and help solve our biggest challenges? When a 9.0 earthquake and and tsunami hit Japan in 2011, Josh Friday's wife was evacuated, but he stayed behind. As a Navy officer, he joined Operation Tomodachi, one of the largest humanitarian relief missions in history. And what he witnessed there stayed with him. People from vastly different backgrounds coming together around a common mission to do something extraordinary. Today, Josh is bringing that same spirit to his work as California's first ever chief service officer. As a member of Governor Gavin Newsom's cabinet, he's leading California volunteers. It's a bold experiment that's not only tackling climate change, food insecurity, and education gaps, but is also paying thousands of students to serve their communities while at the same time gaining the connections and skills they need to launch their careers. In this episode, we talk about how service is creating new pathways into work, why social capital is the hidden key to opportunity, and how service can heal divides and reshape the future of work. If you enjoyed today's conversation, be sure to hit subscribe so you never miss an episode. And now, my conversation with Josh Friday. Josh Friday, welcome to Work for Humans.
- [02:43]
A
So fun to be here.
- [02:44]
B
So, as I explained before we got on, one of the themes that we're exploring on the show in general, it's about the experience of work. But there's also this thread I've been following, which is the experience of work as it is affected by government. And so I'm very excited to have you to talk to us today because as a member of the Governor Newsom's cabinet in California, you have a big influence on a state that has a big influence on the country. And so there was a sociologist who said that California is America, but sooner. And so I want to hear what that looks like. And so let's start there. Which is what is the history of California as a leader in the nation and how does the office of the government see itself and its responsibility in that role?
- [03:34]
A
Thank you for starting there. It's a question we ask ourselves every day and a topic we grapple with every day. That sociologist mirrors something that my boss, the governor, says all the time. His way of framing that is California is America's coming attraction. Obviously an allusion to our Hollywood story, but California has always been a special place and has held a special place, I think in the mind of the American coming back from the gold rush to the beginning of Hollywood to Silicon Valley. It's a place where people like my parents could go and try to pursue their dreams and can try to do something new and innovative and often quirky and different. But it's where people could push the envelope and really try to see what's possible, what can we as a society accomplish. And we've seen incredible things. Everything from the industries that I just mentioned to being the fifth biggest economy in the world, not just biggest economy in the country, but one of the biggest economies in the world pushing climate and policy and environmental policy that has literally shifted entire markets. There's issue after issue where California has led. And you hit the nail on the head. With that comes a great responsibility. I think it comes a responsibility to think not just how do we stand up for the values that California's represent, but how do we show what society can do? How do we show what a thriving society can look like. And we think about that question every single day knowing that the world is looking at us.
- [05:12]
B
I've definitely seen California lead and really set a standard, for instance, for air quality control and has led the automotive industry into completely different standards. I remember and different governor at the time. But I remember when federal funding for stem cell research was banned and Arnold Schwarzenegger came forward and put forward a billion dollar bond to fund stem cell research in California. And as a result of that, near my house there is a stem cell research foundation. And I feel like California thinks of itself as a growth company and invests in itself as a growth company. Like we're going to make big investments into the future. Of the state. And I really admire that, really admire that.
- [06:04]
A
If I can react to that. I think it's not a mistake that places like Silicon Valley popped up in California. It's not a mistake that we're the entrepreneurial capital of the world. And I think it's because it's embedded in our culture that we're willing to take risks and we're willing to fail. Failure is not a bad dirty word in California. Innovation requires us to push the envelope and be willing to do things that others, other states, the federal government, other places are not. And that's something I think that we hold with deep pride as a culture. And I think it's what it's allowed us to lead on things like stem cell. It's what it's allowed us to lead on climate policy. It's what it's allowed us to lead on social issues like gay marriage is because we're willing to take risks to do what we think is right. And we are humble enough to say, we may not get it exactly right, but we're going to keep trying.
- [07:02]
B
How did California decide to create a cabinet level position, your position, committed to service?
- [07:09]
A
Well, elections have consequences. And Governor Newsom happens to be very passionate about this. Passionate about service, passionate about engaging people. He often talks about Sarge Shriver, who created the Peace Corps and worked with JFK when JFK asked the country to ask themselves what they can do for their country. Governor Newsom's very passionate about this. And when he got elected, he looked at the world around him and we saw how polarized our country is, how divided our country is, how isolated people feel, how disconnected people feel. And this was pre the COVID pandemic. And I think he said to himself, we have got to find a better way and California needs to lead. California needs to show what's possible. When we engage people in service, we try to create a society that's compassionate and takes care of each other, and we're going to invest in it. Which is why he created a cabinet position for service and has invested so much in the work that California Volunteers has done since then.
- [08:08]
B
When did you start getting involved in that conversation that there might be this cabinet level position and you might lead it?
- [08:17]
A
It actually really started during his campaign for governor. He was running for governor and we had been lucky enough to know him for a long time, since he was mayor of San Francisco. And I asked him how the campaign was going and he said, you know what? Honestly, it's really troubling to me how polarized the Campaign trail is how divided it feels, how vitriol people feel in this country, and broken down bipartisanship. And so we started talking about the role that service can play in actually bringing people together and actually dealing with some of these divides. And that's my experience. The power of service to bring people from very different backgrounds, very different perspectives, who think differently, grew up differently, likely vote differently, but can come together around a common mission, a common purpose, and have a shared experience. And so I think the governor got very excited about the idea that if we can create shared experiences for people again in our country, that we can actually start to deal with the division and the polarization that we all know is ripping our democracy apart. And so he and I actually rolled out during the general election when he was running for governor. The only policy that he rolled out during the general election was a service plan for California, which in that service plan talked about, if we're going to really take this seriously, we have to elevate and put service at the same level as everything else that the government's doing. And that includes having someone serve in his cabinet.
- [09:45]
B
I'm just going to say what some of the other cabinet level roles are. Health and Human services, huge organization. Business and economic development. Must be huge. Food and agriculture, California Environmental Protection Agency, corrections. These are big, big posts. And to have that at the cabinet level. Service at the cabinet level is really a powerful idea. And you speak of it as something that can bring people together. And one of the stories that you told that I read was about your experience at Fukushima. Can you tell that story and how you feel it relates to bringing people together?
- [10:25]
A
Yeah, absolutely. I'll try to tell the short version. I was stationed overseas in Japan as an officer in the Navy. It was a Friday afternoon and a 9.0 earthquake hit. 9.0 serious earthquake. There was immediately a tsunami that instantly killed tens of thousands of people, displaced hundreds of thousands, and within a few days ended up leading to the Fukushima nuclear disaster. My wife actually was three months pregnant at the time. We were about to tell our family that the first grandchild was on their way, and she was immediately evacuated and sent home. And I was sent out to the ship with the admiral that was overseeing the entire humanitarian aid and disaster relief effort ultimately became known as Operation Tomodachi, one of the largest military humanitarian aid and disaster relief missions in military history. And what I really experienced during that time is a little bit of what we were talking about earlier, which is I had the chance to work with people that were very different than me, that came from different backgrounds, came from different places, thought differently than I did, saw the world differently than I did. And it was during that time that we all though had a common mission, which was the relief effort and to take care of people. And what I learned was what I saw, what I internalized is when people come together around a common mission or a common purpose, you can accomplish amazing things. And that's what we did. That's what I had a chance to experience. And so I tell that story not because I was the hero. In fact, I actually played a very, very small role. But that's not the point. The point was I got to be part of something and I got to be part of something with people that were different than me. And I feel very proud about that. And the challenges, the challenge that we find ourselves now and as a country is very few Americans get to have an experience like that. You can read Bowling Alone by Bob Putnam and learn about how people are joining organizations. Less and less. Less than 1% of us served in the military since 9 11. There just are not the opportunities, the chance in our society built in for people to come together around a shared purpose and a shared mission. And so our hope is. And the reason I'm so passionate about this work, and I think the Governor's so passionate about it, is that we get to, through our service programs, create those kinds of experiences that I got to experience in Japan.
- [12:53]
B
Let's talk about the California Volunteers. What, what's the scope? What's in it?
- [12:59]
A
The mission of California Volunteers is to engage Californians in civic engagement and in volunteerism and in service to tackle some of our biggest needs. And so we've created service programs with our California Service Corps that right now is over 10,000 paid service positions. The governor loves to talk about how we're now bigger than the Peace Corps. And these are service positions, everything from the country's first Climate Corps, where we have Climate Corps organizers all throughout the state of California who are getting paid in a scholarship for college to organize in their communities around climate change. We have a youth jobs corps that's providing service opportunities for our low income youth, our formerly incarcerated, our foster youth. Those are having a hard time gaining the labor market, but through this program, get to experience the joy of serving their community, who get to feel valued and get to be part of something bigger than themselves. We have our AmeriCorps programs, which run through our office, and we have tutors and mentors all throughout the state. And then we also have a college Corps program I call it California's GI Bill. It's a simple concept. If you're willing to serve your community, we're going to help you pay for college. So altogether, these programs create the California Service Corps, which is providing service opportunities and economic opportunities in a real way for thousands of Californians right now. We also have other volunteer initiatives. We have a neighbor to neighbor effort to try to engage neighbors. And really the idea is that we can create in our society opportunities for people to make a difference in their community, to build social networks, to learn skills and bring people together. But we can also do it while solving some of our biggest problems, like climate change, like homelessness, like poverty. And we're doing it. It's really inspiring and exciting.
- [14:46]
B
The one I want to talk about in particular, and it's partially because on the show a couple of times we've spoken about the very tough transition between college and work. And honestly, I've spoken to people about this in multiple countries on the show, where one person in the UK was talking about the real challenge of making it from college to work in the uk and so in particular, the College Corps. So first of all, it's a collaboration between AmeriCorps and the California Volunteers. And I don't know what AmeriCorps is.
- [15:20]
A
AmeriCorps is a federal service program created 30 years ago under President Clinton to provide service opportunities federally. AmeriCorps funding comes down through the federal government, through our office, and then we grant out and provide organizations, mostly nonprofits, the chance to bring on service members, to pay service members to serve in their community. College Corps is a new program that we actually launched here in California that's unique to California, although the idea is starting to spread to other states, which we're very proud about. And it's really this idea that if you are willing to serve your community, we're going to help you pay for college. And the way it works is we partner with universities. We're now working with 46 universities throughout the state of California. These include our community colleges, our CSUs, our UCs, and some of our private schools. And for students who sign up for college corps, they commit to serve for 450 hours while they're in school. And for those 450 hours, they can receive up to $10,000 towards their education. Now, that $10,000 is an important number. It's not arbitrary. In California, every Pell Grant student, so student, a low income student who has to receive financial aid has to come up with something that's called a parent or student. Contribution has to come up with that $10,000. And they generally do it by either taking out loans, which is why we have a student debt crisis in America, or by working. So when I was a Pell Grant student at a California college, I worked at a golf course and washed golf carts. Now for thousands of members of College Corps in the state of California, these students get to tutor and mentor in our low income schools. They get to work at food banks and support the food insecure, they get to take climate action and do environmental conservation work, they get to help their community, they get to build skills, they get to build social networks while they're in school. And what we're seeing is not only are we accomplishing some of our goals that we set out, which is to create connection and community and belonging, but what we're seeing is that's the experience that people are getting while they're receiving their degree that is helping with the transition to work. So it's because they get to work in professional capacities, doing very challenging work, learning how to work in a team, how to communicate, how to be flexible, how to be adaptive. Because they get to learn that through their service experience. It's making them more competitive for the workforce. And employers are telling us it's making better employees because that transition is difficult. And so we're seeing this program as a huge win win. It's a huge for the college student who gets to participate and graduate with less debt and learn all these skills and have these experiences. It's a win for the community because these, over the last couple of years, these College Corps fellows have served two and a half million hours of service in our communities. So we're lifting up entire communities throughout California. And then it's a win for the whole state of California because not only are we training the future workforce and preparing the future workforce, but we're also teaching a whole new generation the skills and the tools to actually solve problems together. It's been very inspiring so far.
- [18:43]
B
You know what I think you're also doing is you're de risking early career employment for employers. Now one of the really hard things about hiring people right out of college is they haven't had a lot of practice. And so to see that people have had practice lowers essentially the activation energy for a company to make a hire like that. Do you know anything about what it takes to qualify for a Pell Grant?
- [19:13]
A
It's generally just your income level or your parents income level. So Pell Grants are generally for our low income students who have real financial need in order to go to college.
- [19:25]
B
And so 68% of the college corps is Pell Grant eligible. So that's over a million hours of experience that they have gotten.
- [19:35]
A
Absolutely. And that experience is invaluable. One student I met, Rocco from the Inland Empire, told me that if it wasn't for college corps, he was going to be working at Jack in the box. And now he gets to do something while getting his degree that is meaningful and purposeful for him and gives him direction. And we get to do that now for thousands of students across the state of California. And not only, I think, is it giving the students the skills that is going to make them transition to the workforce. I think what it's doing is it's creating a pipeline. It's creating connections for thousands of low income and students from underserved communities who would otherwise never have access to these labor markets and to these jobs. So what we're really investing in, I think at the end of the day, and what we're really creating is social capital for these students. We are creating social capital. If you're working at Jack in the Box or Starbucks or at the golf course that I had to work at, you're not building social capital. We feel very proud that we get to actually build that for a whole generation while they're helping the community. That's why this is such a win win for everybody.
- [20:52]
B
Yeah, I remember now. I remembered who I was talking to. I was talking to David Obsfeld, who works at Cal State Fullerton, and he was talking about the real challenge where he sees his students who are especially first to college. They get to the end of their university degree. They may have gotten straight A's in marketing, but they've never met anybody in marketing. And so he's actually set up a program and we talked about it on the show of how to make those connections, the social capital connections.
- [21:23]
A
I would love to talk to him. And I think he's onto something. And quite frankly, I'm going to be candid here. I think there's a lot of people in the Democratic party, I'm a Democrat and in government, who are uncomfortable with the idea that this is how the world works. The world works through connections and who you know. Although the best book I read in college was called Hardball by Chris Matthews, and he had a great chapter in there. And it was titled it's not who you know, it's who you get to know. And I find that very empowering as someone whose family. I don't come from a family. Of political connections or business connections. But the idea that if you can make connections and get to know people, you can pursue whatever dream you have, we don't talk about that enough. And we have certainly have not built that into our institutions where we're ensuring that when we are graduating people, whether it's in high school or college, that we are actually first and foremost helping them with those connections of the places that they're actually going to work, in addition to the skills that they need to work. I'm so glad to hear that you had that conversation and I hope we more and more as a society continue to have this conversation.
- [22:42]
B
Hey everyone, I want to let you know about some upcoming speaking events. If you happen to be in the Great Lakes area on September 30, I'm keynoting the HR track at the UWEBC 27th Annual Emerging Best Practices in Technology Conference in Madison, Wisconsin. The conference pulls in some fabulous speakers to discuss topics across all of business, not just HR. Also in Oakland, California, September 17th and 18th, two of our past guests at Work for Humans will be speaking at the Responsive Conference. Brie Grof will be talking about her sparkling new book Today Was Fun. And Simone Stolzoff will be talking about his next book. So check it all out@revolutionive.org use promo code elevenfold. That's eleven fold to get a substantial discount. All right, hope to see you there. So we're going to go on to some broader questions about government. I could go into details here about the benefits that it produces, which maybe we should do. So it benefits communities and it helps with food insecurity and tutoring and climate action and creates a future pipeline of teachers for those communities, which I think is really powerful.
- [23:57]
A
Absolutely. It's one of the reasons that we know this program's working. I was recently with one of our College Corps grads, Devin, down in Southern California, who participated in College Corps, served as a tutor in a low income school, and as a result of that, decided that she wanted to pursue her degree in education so that she could become a teacher. And now she's working in the classroom as a teacher's aide. Another story of a young man, Abelardo, I met, who told me that because of his service experience in the classroom, he realized, and this is something that was personal and motivating to him, he realized that there needed to be more men of color in the classroom for our boys. And so he decided after his service was over to go get his teaching credential and become a teacher. We have a teaching shortage of 10,000 teachers in the state of California. And I know it's real because my wife is an elementary school teacher. I know the pressures that our teachers are under, and I also know the challenges that we're having recruiting teachers. And so the idea that we can take now a whole generation of young people and we can expose them to the classroom, and we can expose them to what it means to be a teacher, what it means to be an educator, how they can motivate the next generation, that's empowering. But it's only because they have that exposure to the classroom that some of these young people are deciding to even become teachers. And if we never expose them, if we never give them the chance to understand what it means to have that connection with a younger student, to be able to bring knowledge and inspiration to someone else, I don't know how we expect people to want to go into teaching. And so what we're finding in this specific example is that because students are having the experience through College corps, and they're able to do it because they're getting paid with our service program, that it's actually helping them decide what. What they want to do, and it's encouraging many of them to become teachers.
- [26:00]
B
And how have the universities embraced it and why?
- [26:04]
A
Universities are thrilled with this program and they're our best partners. The program's been a success because the universities have embraced this so wholeheartedly. I think for a variety of reasons. I think one, universities are looking for what they call, this is an academic term, high impact practices, which are practices or ways to engage students when they're on campus, to keep them involved in school, to make sure that they don't drop out. And programs like College corps, where you're connected to your community, you're actually part of something. You're not just going to class, taking your class, and then driving home 20 miles away, and you have no other connection in the community. These kinds of connections and community building activities are high impact practices that keep students both on campus and on track to graduate. And I think that's another thing that we're seeing that because of the economic incentives that we're putting in place, we're keeping students who otherwise would have too many pressures and are susceptible to having to drop out because of the financial pressures. We go to college, stay in school. So for the university, they're able to achieve their goals, which is to keep students connected and then to keep them graduating on time. And then I think, honestly, most fundamentally, some of our best partners have been community colleges, just Think about that. It's so obvious, but it took the head of the community colleges to explain this to me. Community is built in their name. The whole reason they exist is to support the community. So the idea of having students on their campus who are actually helping and lifting up and improving the community is so core and fundamental to their entire mission that for them this is a total no brainer. The challenge is we, I would argue for generations have not invested in service and we haven't invested in creating opportunities for people to do this kind of work. And so places like community colleges haven't had the chance to give their students the opportunity to make a difference in their community, to truly live up to their mission of serving the community. So I think there's many, there's practical reasons that the universities have embraced this program and I also think there's very much mission oriented and philosophical reasons that they see this type of program as being essential to their entire work.
- [28:32]
B
Now I'm going to get to the big general questions. One of those where does the money come from?
- [28:37]
A
The money comes from the state. This is an example where the governor and the legislature have prioritized this program and service more generally as a critical and necessary function of what the state should be doing. So the state's providing these resources. We think the ROI to the taxpayer is incredible. But it took again back to our conversation about California. It really took California and strong leaders like Governor Newsom to take a risk to say we're going to try something new, we're going to try something different, and we're going to invest in it in a big way. And I think we're seeing the dividends pay off.
- [29:15]
B
Did you face resistance in its formation and what was the nature of that resistance and if there was resistance? And the reason I ask is that there's still a lot of animosity, for instance, toward the New Deal in the United States. And for international listeners, the New Deal was huge investments that were put into starting up the country, the whole economy after the Great Depression. And lots of people liked it, but there were lots of enemies of it. And the people who were enemies of it had a tendency to be people who did not want to see wealth redistribution. So that's for international listeners. So I'm wondering in this particular case if you faced any resistance and what was the nature of the resistance, if any?
- [29:59]
A
Yeah, it's a great question. The key to truth is yes, we did. And on the New Deal point specifically, what I would say is the one exception to what you described is probably the Civilian Conservation Corps, which still holds, I think, a special place in the American mind as actually a program that was really beneficial for everybody, that we were able to build national parks and plant millions of trees and put young people back to work. And so I think people on both sides of the aisle understood the impact and the importance of the Conservation Corps, which is very much the spirit of the California Service Corps. We learned some lessons from that. For instance, the Conservation Corps, the initial original Conservation Corps into Roosevelt was exclusionary. It was largely only white men who were allowed to participate. We made very sure that when we created the California Service Corps, that it really represented the entire state of California. So one of the things, for example, we're most proud of in creating this program is that we include our dreamers. We make sure that our AB540 students, our undocumented students who are in school in California have the chance to serve, just like everyone. Because our message is to everyone is you have something important to contribute, and we want you to contribute. So we worked very hard to make sure that this was equitable, that it was accessible to everyone. And then I think we also to your question about the resistance. I think when it comes to service and civic engagement and volunteerism, no one's against it. No one's against asking people to serve and asking people to volunteer. The question is, why should it be a priority for government, which is a totally legitimate question. Why should we be investing in it? And the point that I have to constantly make, and I had to make early on, I'm making less and less now because I think people are seeing the value, the real value it's bringing our state. But the point that I had to make is I volunteered to serve in the military, and I got paid for it because it's something that our country values. And so if we're, as a society, going to value people understanding how to work together, people understanding the value of giving back, of taking care of each other, of being compassionate, of having real world experience so that when you transition to work, you actually have some skills and experience. If we're going to value those kinds of things, we have to invest in it. We have to put resources behind it. And so because California, as you say, does have a growth mindset when it comes to how we invest, we were willing to take a risk and invest creating these new service programs, put real resources behind them and build it out. But that took a leap of faith by the governor and by the legislature. And I think there were those that were skeptical. There may be Some that are skeptical today, but the truth is we're seeing enormous results, incredible results. And I think we're going to see continued investment because of what's been built so far.
- [33:07]
B
It is really fundamentally different. Because if you were to say somebody besides the government should do this, it's not that this is a bad idea, but somebody besides the government should do it, well, you'd have to ask who that would be and whether whatever body that was would be as inclusive, would be as state spanning, would create the kind of social capital that. That crosses boundaries. And I really do think that the state does play a very special role in its ability to do that.
- [33:38]
A
Yeah. No, I appreciate that and thank you for saying that. I think the way we think about it, and maybe this is back to some of the origins of why Governor Newsom wanted to create this and invest in this, is we as leaders, business leaders, state leaders, I think we need to ask, and we are asking, what kind of society do we want to live in? And in government, I think we have a special responsibility to answer this question. And the truth is, is right now, many of us feel it. We live in a very isolated, disconnected, polarized, divided society. And I think what we're trying to say and show and lead on in California is that it can look different. We can live in a society where we care about each other again. We can live in a society where we take care of each other, where we're not polarized, where we respect each other's differences, but we don't tear each other down. We help each other, we take care of each other's needs. But what we also recognize, if that's the kind of society we want to live in, if that's the kind of society we want to create, we actually have to build that. We have to invest in that. And that's a unique role that I think government does have.
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B
Yeah. The phrase reconstruction of our society and the preservation of our democracy. You ever get discouraged in the quest to bring Americans together?
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A
Not really. It's not because I'm delusional. At least I hope I'm not delusional. I try to be pretty sober about this work and humble about the task that we are taking on, that we're facing. But I try to have, I think, some perspective on it in terms of. I draw a lot of my inspiration historically from the civil rights movement. I love studying civil rights leaders. I love studying not just what they did, but their courage and the faith that they had when they set out to dismantle things like Segregation, which was so deeply ingrained in our society. And when Thurgood Marshall set out. He famously talks about this in Eyes on the Prize. When Thurgood Marshall set out to dismantle segregation, he had no idea how long it was going to take. He had no idea that there was going to be a Supreme Court case 20 years later in 1954, called Brown v. Board of Education. But he knew the work had to be done, and he had a vision, and he knew that he could wake up every single day working towards that vision. And I think it's with that inspiration, with that courage, and with that belief that if we do the work, if we do the hard work, and if we truly try to bring people together and we do it with humility, that we're going to get there.
- [36:22]
B
A wise person once said to me that change comes in like the tide. If you look short term, you might see a wave receding, but overall, the tide is coming in. And so you have to look at longer timescales if you really want to understand the nature of real social change. We're getting more and more general, by the way, into government, because it's a really interesting question. Everybody talks about government. A lot of us talk about government in the third person because we're not in it. And we say a lot of things that are not nice. And I think that in particular, Silicon Valley, which has a good relationship with government. I mean, an example is, I don't know how this happened, but there's a reason why California has all sorts of automated cars, driverless cars, driving around. It's partially because we made the legal structure for that to happen. Are there categories of things that you just don't feel can be left to market forces that government has a special role in? And I guess the question is, when do you know?
- [37:22]
A
Really deep question.
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B
It is. I know. I told you. They're going to get harder, deeper, broader.
- [37:27]
A
It's good. It's good. I like it. I do. I appreciate the challenge. I'm humble enough to know that I'm not smart enough to fully answer your question. Maybe what I'll share is, I think, how we think about it as a framework that may or may not suffice as an answer. But I love studying and restudying Maslow's work around the hierarchy of needs that we have. And I try to think about what is our role as leaders and as government in addressing these needs. And at the bottom is taking care of basic, Making sure people have their basic needs met. Food, water, shelter. And I Think about that in the sort of creating economic opportunity, then government's role in creating economic opportunity. Next level up in Maslow's hierarchy of needs is physical security. Are we keeping people safe? It's why I think the military has a unique role. It's why we should be investing in law enforcement and we should be making sure that we're keeping our communities safe. It's why safety matters. But if you go one level up in the hierarchy of needs, there's a category that most people don't talk about, and that's love and belonging. It's community. That we as human beings, as much as we need food and water and shelter and safety, we also need to feel like we're part of a community. We also need to feel like we're connected to other human beings. It's actually our competitive advantage as a species that we coordinate and we collaborate and we work in a village and we have a division of labor and we support each other. That's our uniqueness. And yet somehow we've created a society where we're very individualized and we're very isolated and we're very disconnected from each other, and we feel like we're at each other's throats. Not that our job is to take care of each other and work together. So when I think about what are the bounds of government engagement and government involvement, I think we have to be very clear. Government cannot solve all of these issues. And maybe we shouldn't try. We just can't. But I do think we have a responsibility as government to try to make sure that we're at least meeting people's basic needs. That's why I think this service work and this community building work is so important, in addition to everything else we're doing to meet people's basic needs.
- [39:49]
B
One of the things that I can't remember if you wrote it or if I read it someplace else, but that California Volunteers is designed to be an antidote to the crisis of isolation. And one of the things I can very much see as a very important role of government is to make sure that we continue to think of ourselves as one people. One people. I hadn't expected to ask this question. Would you recommend working in government to young people that might listen to this?
- [40:18]
A
Absolutely. Absolutely. I would. What I would say is we actually need you to. We need young people to step up and to serve and to help us solve these issues. If you care about creating change, if you care about dealing with the many injustices we have in this world and the many Inequities. Government is the system that we have created to address it. And sometimes it addresses it and sometimes it doesn't. But the way you actually try is by being engaged, by going to workforce. So I would absolutely encourage any young person to be a part of it, which actually, it makes me think about. That question, makes me think about a comment you made earlier, which is that most people don't feel like they are part of government. And that's a problem, especially in a democracy. In a democracy that relies on and depends on people being engaged. The fact that we've created, and we as leaders are guilty of this, we have created in too many instances, a separation where we've said government's going to fix it all. You don't worry about it. You go on with your life and live your life. We've sent the wrong message. The message that we should be sending is you, Californian, wherever you are, whoever you are, however you grew up, whatever you think and whoever you voted for, we need you. We need you to step up and be engaged and help us solve some of these big problems, because that's what a democracy is. So I actually not only would encourage any young person to be involved in government, I would hope that through, and it starts, I think, through our service programs, by calling on young people, by saying, we need you and we're engaging them, that that starts a lifelong journey of service. That doesn't all have to be government. There are many ways to serve in the private sector. There are many ways to serve in your community as a volunteer. But the notion that we need people and that everyone, every California has something of value to contribute is something that I think is fundamental to make sure that California continues to thrive.
- [42:34]
B
I have a bunch of where is California going? And I ask these questions, well, as a citizen of California, but also as a compass that might point towards toward the future. So, like an example is the California College Corps. Did it go national? Did it start to get traction nationally?
- [42:58]
A
Yeah. So our College Corps program, recently, the governor of Minnesota, we now know Tim Walsh, last year put money in the budget to create the Minnesota College Corps. The governor of New York announced in her state of the state that they're creating a program modeled after California's College Corps program. So we are seeing the program go national. Our Climate Core program is now in 12 other states have their own Climate Core. And this last year, the White House created the American Climate Core based off of our model. So we are absolutely seeing some of these models start to go national.
- [43:32]
B
You know, one of the things I noticed with these questions is that some of them, it's not fair to ask you them because there's a whole other cabinet role that should answer some of them. The last one wasn't one of them. Are there any other ways that you're helping members of California transition to work from not work?
- [43:51]
A
One of the things we're most excited about is we've launched a program called Corps to Career, where we are right now being very intentional about making sure we're connecting our service members to careers that they're passionate about and employers that they want to work with. And what we're finding is by focusing on this effort to help our service members connect to employers, that not only is it very useful because we're creating connections, we're actually building these connections that are so critical to get hired, but it's very helpful for the employers because employers are now have a pipeline to a whole generation of people that are coming to the workforce prepared with what we used to call soft skills, but are now actually the hard skills of our economy. The ability to work in a team, the ability to communicate, the ability to adapt, the ability to show up on time and look someone in the eyes. These are all skills that our service members are learning through their service. And so with our Core to Career program, we are now not only helping our service members, but we actually think that we're helping provide the future workforce for California. And we're excited to continue to scale this program. We launched Core to Career to help our California Service Corps members, our College Corps members, our Climate Corps members, our Youth Service Corps members, our AmeriCorps members, to help them connect to employers here in California.
- [45:17]
B
Well, that will speak to the hearts of many of my listeners, because if I was going to characterize my listeners, there's a lot, a lot, a lot of people who hire in California. Where is that in its creation at this time?
- [45:33]
A
We launched the pilot for it in Los Angeles, so in Southern California. But our hope is in the coming year to scale that statewide.
- [45:41]
B
That's terrific. What's it called?
- [45:43]
A
Corps to Career. So you serve in the California Service Corps, and then we're going to help you launch your career by connecting to employers.
- [45:51]
B
I'm curious if in California we are conscious of our ability to attract talent in general and creating an environment that can do that. I say that we've had a couple of conversations on the show about shifting demographics and how there's just not enough people of the next generation to cover all of the work that needs to get done. And so it's a real shortage of people. And so being an attractive place to live and an attractive place to have a career is something that's really important to the California economy. And I think that's one of the reasons why you mentioned that we need to focus on housing costs. But are there other things that we're looking at to ask ourselves that question of how do we make ourselves, how do we become the most attractive place to work in the United States or in the world, really?
- [46:53]
A
We're constantly asking ourselves that question, and we need to ask that question, which is why we need to. And we are so aggressively dealing with the cost of housing because it is a real issue. It's also why I think the work that we're doing to build communities and to connect people is so important. Because just as shelter and a place to live and a safe place to place to live is absolutely critical to live a thriving life, so is feeling like you're part of a community. And so for the people that we want to attract, we can't continue to go down the road of creating a society where people are isolated and disconnected from each other and don't feel like they're part of anything. So as we address the affordability issues and housing and public safety, which are absolutely fundamental to a thriving society, we also have to build community and make California a place where people feel like they belong and they can find meaning and purpose.
- [47:57]
B
I think belonging is one of the things that California has done quite well in terms of opening its arms to a real variety of people. I also think that the investment in the university system. So when you're thinking about where you might raise a family and where your kids might be in state and whether or not there's going to be a college system to support them, this is one of the best places in the world. By the way, investment by Pat Brown actually in the 60s created the university system, or at least wildly expanded the university system to create Irvine, University of California, San Diego, which is where I grew up. And we continue to expand our education system to create a whole bunch of new Cal states. So it's big dynamic thing. It's a big dynamic thing to be doing. I have a few questions that I ask at the end of every show, and I don't know if you're prepared for them, but you don't need to know anything special. It's not hard questions like, how's high speed rail going in California? Because on the show we start from the premise that work is a product that Every company sells. And because we start from that premise, we ask marketing questions that we might ask if we were designing a product. And one of those marketing questions is, what do you hire this product to do for you? And so I asked that question about work, which is, what do you hire your job to do for you? Governor Newsom hired you to do something for the state of California. What do you hire this job to do for you?
- [49:38]
A
I think I always wanted to have an impact on other people's lives. I always wanted to, from a very young age, make a difference in the world and change the world. And I've just been very, very fortunate in my life that I've had a chance to serve. I had a chance when I was 17. I went and volunteered for an organization called Amigos in the Dominican Republic, where I worked in a small village with no running water, no electricity, doing community health work and building an aqueduct. And it was probably one of the most formative, if not the most formative, experience of my life because I got to taste what it's like to give back, to be connected to others, especially others that are very different. I had the privilege to serve our country as an officer in the military. I've had a privilege to serve as a local elected official in my hometown, as mayor of Nevada. And for me, the opportunity to create that chance, to have that kind of experience that I've been privileged to have for now, tens of thousands of other people in California, is just a dream come true. It's an opportunity of a lifetime, because I know that the impact that service has had in my life, that I found my purpose in life through service, and now I get to give the gift of purpose to 10,000 other young people a year in the state of California. And I'm just very, very lucky to have that chance.
- [51:07]
B
Helping others is actually one of the most common answers I get to that question. There's different styles of that. One of the styles is I want to help individuals, and I want to see the difference I make directly. And the other one is I want to make the world work better. There's something that's not working right in the world. And most people who say that don't get both. And I think you do get both. And most people who say that don't have the chance to create that effect as broadly as you do. So I think you've hired the right job. What does it cost you?
- [51:45]
A
What a great question. Other than time with my family, when I travel around the state to help run and oversee these programs and engage with communities around California. It's time away from my three young boys who I love more than anything in the world and who motivate me every day to get up and do this job. Other than that, I don't know that it cost me anything. It fills me. It gives me purpose, it gives me meaning in life. And I think one of the great lessons for those who have had the opportunity to serve and volunteer or help others is you realize you always end up getting back more personally than anything you can give to others. That service is actually not a sacrifice. There's a sacrifice of time, and there's a sacrifice of maybe you could make more money in the private sector or maybe you can have other perks. But the truth is to be able to live a life of meaning and purpose, that's a true gift. And so I don't feel like it cost me anything. And now my only goal, my motivation, my inspiration is can I try to give more people in the state of California the same opportunity?
- [53:00]
B
How can people learn more about California Volunteers?
- [53:05]
A
They can go to californiavolunteers.ca.gov it's our website. We want you to sign up to serve. We want you to be part of one of our programs. Whether you have a year to give as one of our fellows or you have an hour to give, to be part of our Climate Action Counts campaign, or our Neighbor to Neighbor Initiative, or many of the other ways we've created for you to be involved in your community, we want you to be involved.
- [53:29]
B
What is the Neighbor to Neighbor Initiative?
- [53:32]
A
The Neighbor to Neighbor Initiative is a program that we launched, and right now we're piloting in several communities around the state to just try to bring neighbors together, to just try to create social cohesion, rebuild that social fabric that I think so many of us feels like is eroding. And so we're doing everything from encouraging and investing in neighborhood events, to beautify your neighborhood, to take on climate action together, to making sure that people are prepared for natural disasters. So we're finding ways to bring neighbors together through this initiative. And we're seeing a lot of success because people are thirsty. People are thirsty to just have human connection again. And we're finding the Neighbor to Neighbor Initiative to be a very powerful way to do that.
- [54:18]
B
That's great because we didn't talk about that before and then you mentioned it at the end as a way to potentially get involved, and it seems very accessible. So thank you so much for taking time to take this call. I know that we were sort of dodging meetings with the Governor today and we managed to make it work. So I thank you for that.
- [54:40]
A
This is very fun.
- [54:45]
B
Thanks for joining me for another episode of Work for Humans. If you enjoyed this episode, please give us a five star rating. Wherever you listen to podcasts and share the show with one person you think would get value from it, believe it or not, this really helps us grow the show and reach more people who want to build the kind of work that people really want. As always, thank you to my producer Jason Ames at 9th Path Audio for his insights into content and his high standard for quality. Final note, the opinions shared here are my own and not the views of Google or Cisco Systems. Thanks again for listening. See you next time.