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California expands paid service programs to connect students to college and careers
Summary
California has built a statewide suite of paid service programs — including College Corps, Climate Corps and a Core to Career placement pilot — that state officials say are creating community services, easing student debt and helping employers hire job-ready graduates.
California is investing state money to expand paid public-service programs that place students and other young people into community-facing roles — tutoring, food-bank work, climate projects and more — while helping them pay for college and gain job experience, Josh Friday, chief service officer for California Volunteers, said in an interview on the Work for Humans podcast.
Friday said the California Service Corps now includes more than 10,000 paid service positions and programs that aim to combine civic engagement with workforce preparation. "If you're willing to serve your community, we're going to help you pay for college," he said, describing the flagship College Corps program.
State officials say the College Corps partners with 46 colleges and universities across California, including community colleges, California State University and University of California campuses and some private schools. Students who enroll commit to serve roughly 450 hours during school in exchange for up to $10,000 to apply toward their education; Friday said about 68 percent of participants are eligible for Pell Grants. Since the program began, College Corps fellows have logged about 2.5 million hours of service, according to Friday.
The office runs other initiatives under the California Service Corps umbrella. The state launched one of the nation’s first Climate Corps programs, and Friday said similar Climate Corps models now exist in 12 other states and helped inspire the White House’s American Climate Corps. The office also administers AmeriCorps-funded placements and runs a Neighbor to Neighbor pilot to increase local social cohesion and disaster preparedness.
Friday described an explicit workforce goal for the service programs: exposure to professional settings and on-the-job skills that make early-career hires more attractive to employers. He said Core to Career, a pilot program launched in Los Angeles, is aimed at connecting service members to employers and scaling statewide. "We're now not only helping our service members, but we actually think that we're helping provide the future workforce for California," he said.
The programs also include targeted inclusion measures. Friday said the state deliberately made College Corps accessible to AB 540 students and others who might be excluded from federal benefits so the program is “equitable” and “accessible to everyone.” He also cited examples of participants who chose teaching careers after serving as tutors, saying the program can help address shortages in fields such as education.
Funding for the programs, Friday said, comes from the state budget after a deliberate decision by Governor Gavin Newsom and the Legislature to prioritize service. "The state's providing these resources," he said. Friday acknowledged there was early skepticism about making service a government priority but said evidence of outcomes is persuading continued investment.
Dart Linsley, the podcast host, summarized one employer-facing benefit: the programs reduce the hiring risk for entry-level roles by providing supervised, team-based experience. "To see that people have had practice lowers essentially the activation energy for a company to make a hire like that," Linsley said.
Friday directed listeners who want to learn more or sign up to California Volunteers' website: "They can go to californiavolunteers.ca.gov."
