42 U.S.C. § 12639a — Civic Health Assessment and volunteering research and evaluation
submitted 17 years ago by Pub. L. 101-610 to r/title-42-THE-PUBLIC-HEALTH-AND-WELFARE · 1,038 words · no verdicts yet
A partnership between the Corporation and the National Conference on Citizenship must develop and report a Civic Health Assessment. It must also support research and independent evaluation of domestic and international volunteering, without creating a Federal database of participants’ personally identifying information.
(a) “Partnership” means the Corporation* working with the National Conference on Citizenship under their agreement to carry out this section. This section does not define “civic health.”
(b) The partnership must establish the Civic Health Assessment by identifying data sources, choosing indicators, obtaining data, analyzing it, and reporting it.
(c) It must identify public and private sources, explore cooperation with similar national-indicator efforts, and may sponsor expert recommendations. At its request, the Census Bureau Director* and Labor Statistics Commissioner must give technical advice. The partnership must periodically evaluate and update the Assessment and may expand or change its indicators as needed.
(d) It may sponsor data collection about volunteering and community service; voting and other political or civic engagement; charitable giving; connections to civic and faith-based groups; interest in public-service employment and careers in government or nonprofits; knowledge of United States history and government; and social enterprise and innovation. The Census Director and Labor Commissioner must collect useful data annually when practicable, considering privacy and response rates, and report it to the partnership. The partnership must consider public and private data and data from the Current Population Survey or Labor Statistics Bureau. It must seek data that can be analyzed by age, race and ethnicity, education, and other demographics. It may also gather information about Internet technology, particular programs, new citizens and immigrants, and other civic matters.
(e) At least yearly, the partnership must report detailed data and practicable analyses. It should aggregate indicators by community, State*, and nation and present them so communities and States can assess and compare their measures. It must send the report to the authorizing committees* and post it on the Corporation’s website.
(f) It must identify opportunities for public discussion and input and hold conferences and forums about the data and analyses.
(g) It must arrange baseline research and tracking of domestic and international volunteering and related indicators, considering Census, Labor Statistics, and other public and private data. It must sponsor an independent evaluation of volunteering’s impact, best practices*, and ways to improve volunteering through cooperation among volunteer organizations, higher-education institutions, and research institutions.
(h) Nothing in this chapter authorizes developing, implementing, or maintaining a Federal database of personally identifiable information about people taking part in data collection under this section.
In this section, the term “partnership” means the Corporation*, acting in conjunction with (consistent with the terms of an agreement entered into between the Corporation and the National Conference) the National Conference on Citizenship referred to in section 150701 of title 36 to carry out this section.
The partnership shall facilitate the establishment of a Civic Health Assessment by—
after identifying public and private sources of civic health data, selecting a set of civic health indicators, in accordance with subsection (c), that shall comprise the Civic Health Assessment;
obtaining civic health data relating to the Civic Health Assessment, in accordance with subsection (d); and
conducting related analyses, and reporting the data and analyses, as described in paragraphs (4) and (5) of subsection (d) and subsections (e) and (f).
The partnership shall select a set of civic health indicators that shall comprise the Civic Health Assessment. In making such selection, the partnership—
shall identify public and private sources of civic health data;
shall explore collaborating with other similar efforts to develop national indicators in the civic health domain; and
may sponsor a panel of experts, such as one convened by the National Academy of Sciences, to recommend civic health indicators and data sources for the Civic Health Assessment.
At the request of the partnership, the Director* of the Bureau of the Census and the Commissioner of Labor Statistics shall provide technical advice to the partnership on the selection of the indicators for the Civic Health Assessment.
The partnership shall periodically evaluate and update the Civic Health Assessment, and may expand or modify the indicators described in subsection (d)(1) as necessary to carry out the purposes of this section.
In identifying the civic health indicators for the Civic Health Assessment, and obtaining data for the Assessment, the partnership may sponsor the collection of data for the Assessment or for the various civic health indicators being considered for inclusion in the Assessment, including indicators related to—
volunteering and community service;
voting and other forms of political and civic engagement;
charitable giving;
connecting to civic groups and faith-based organizations;
interest in employment, and careers, in public service in the nonprofit sector or government;
understanding and obtaining knowledge of United States history and government; and
social enterprise and innovation.
The Director of the Bureau of the Census and the Commissioner of Labor Statistics shall collect annually, to the extent practicable, data to inform the Civic Health Assessment, and shall report data from such collection to the partnership. In determining the data to be collected, the Director and the Commissioner shall examine privacy issues, response rates, and other relevant issues.
To obtain data for the Civic Health Assessment, the partnership shall consider—
data collected through public and private sources; and
data collected by the Bureau of the Census, through the Current Population Survey, or by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in accordance with paragraph (2).
The partnership shall seek to obtain data for the Civic Health Assessment that will permit the partnership to analyze the data by age group, race and ethnicity, education level, and other demographic characteristics of the individuals involved.
In obtaining data for the Civic Health Assessment, the partnership may also obtain such information as may be necessary to analyze—
the role of Internet technology in strengthening and inhibiting civic activities;
the role of specific programs in strengthening civic activities;
the civic attitudes and activities of new citizens and immigrants; and
other areas related to civic activities.
The partnership shall, not less often than once each year, prepare a report containing—
detailed data obtained under subsection (d), including data on the indicators comprising the Civic Health Assessment; and
the analyses described in paragraphs (4) and (5) of subsection (d), to the extent practicable based on the data the partnership is able to obtain.
The partnership shall, to the extent practicable, aggregate the data on the civic health indicators comprising the Civic Health Assessment by community, by State*, and nationally. The report described in paragraph (1) shall present the aggregated data in a form that enables communities and States to assess their civic health, as measured on each of the indicators comprising the Civic Health Assessment, and compare those measures with comparable measures of other communities and States.
The partnership shall submit the report to the authorizing committees*, and make the report available to the general public on the Corporation’s website.
The partnership shall—
identify opportunities for public dialogue and input on the Civic Health Assessment; and
hold conferences and forums to discuss the implications of the data and analyses reported under subsection (e).
The partnership shall provide for baseline research and tracking of domestic and international volunteering, and baseline research and tracking related to relevant data on the indicators described in subsection (d). In providing for the research and tracking under this subsection, the partnership shall consider data from the Supplements to the Current Populations Surveys conducted by the Bureau of the Census for the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and data from other public and private sources, including other data collected by the Bureau of the Census and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The partnership shall sponsor an independent evaluation of the impact of domestic and international volunteering, including an assessment of best practices* for such volunteering, and methods of improving such volunteering through enhanced collaboration among—
entities that recruit, manage, support, and utilize volunteers;
institutions of higher education; and
research institutions.
Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to authorize the development, implementation, or maintenance of a Federal database of personally identifiable information on individuals participating in data collection for sources of information under this section.
Source credit: (Pub. L. 101–610, title I, § 179A, as added Pub. L. 111–13, title I, § 1608(a), Apr. 21, 2009, 123 Stat. 1534.)
- 2009Enacted · Pub. L. 101-610 · 123 Stat. 1534
A history note hasn’t been published yet. The record shows enactment by Pub. L. 101-610 on 2009-04-21.
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