School of Public Policy

Rachel Strausman: 
Thank you so much for joining us today, Mr. Fryday. We are so glad to have you here as the most populous and one of the most diverse states in the country. What happens here in California has national and global impacts, which is why we are so grateful to have you here today, Mr. Fryday, to discuss some important California volunteer programs and their large scale implications. Going straight into it, you have had a profound career of service, serving in the military, and later becoming a council member and eventually Mayor of the City of Nevado. And now you're the Chief Service Officer for the State of California. What led you to this position and what does it entail?

Josh Fryday: 
I appreciate that, first of all, I want to be with you all today. I do request and demand that you call me Josh, not Mr. Friday, first and foremost. But I'm super thrilled to be able to talk to you all about something that I'm passionate about and the Governor's passionate about really exciting stuff that's happening in the state of California, which is around service and civic engagement. And thinking about how we empower what we actually think about as our most important asset here in California, the 40 million people who call California home. How do we empower everyone to be part of the solution and helping us solve some of our biggest challenges? We have really big issues facing California, facing our country, facing the planet, which I'm sure we're going to get into some of those. But I feel very strongly that if we're going to actually tackle some of these big issues, we have to figure out how to bring everyone to the table. How do we make everyone part of the solution? How do we engage everyone? How do we bring people together so that they can solve problems in communities together? That's why I'm in this position. The governor created a cabinet position for service because he's very passionate about service, around civic engagement, in thinking about this, and he's invested a lot of resources and thinking about to your point, how California can be a model and thinking about service differently. And it's why I'm here and it's why I'm so excited about what we're doing. 

Dinara Godage: 
Great, thank you. Community service is something I think we've all really needed to get more in tune with. That's something that I think the school public policy does a ton of community service. And I'm glad that we're all pushing towards that. Especially, I know there's a lot of initiatives through the younger schools, like elementary and middle school, to really understand what community means as chief service officer, you've launched so many impactful and groundbreaking initiatives, such as the Californians for All Volunteer Initiative. Why is volunteering so important? And what impact does it have? Not only on the organizations that get the help they need and the community as a whole, but also the individuals who put in the time to do so. 

Josh Fryday: 
Yeah, thank you. I love that question and I also love the focus on how service and volunteering can transform not just communities, but also individuals. Because that's really what we're focused on. We think about the need for volunteering and serving on a few different levels and the importance of it. One is, as we talked a little bit about, we think it's absolutely critical for us to solve some of the biggest challenges facing our society. Let's take Climate Change for example. Existential threat facing, not just Riverside, not just California, but our entire planet. We think this is an example of an all hands on deck moment. If we're going to solve it, we need everyone to take action. And that means everybody. But the challenges that we've seen are on an issue like climate, often people feel like it's such a big issue, it can feel so big that it becomes paralyzing. What we've tried to do in California by creating the country's first statewide climate core is to say we can actually create opportunities for people, for everyone to have something to do. We can empower everyone in their community, whether you have an hour to give as a volunteer on a Saturday and being part of one of our climate action days that we're doing throughout the state, or you have a year to give, to be a Climate Action Corps fellow. Where you get paid and you get a scholarship to serve in your community, to engage your community, and to do climate 24/7. We're going to create the opportunity for you to be part of the solution. That's one example of why and how we think about volunteering in service as a way to really tackle some of our biggest challenges. But we also know that we're facing a lot of other issues. The Sergeant General just put out a report in the last few months where he said, the biggest public health crisis that we have, the public health crisis, is loneliness. This idea that we are now in a society where people feel so isolated from each other, so disconnected from each other, that is actually impacting our health. And it's our physical health. And we know what isolation does to our physical health, but it's also our mental health. We have a huge mental health crisis facing, especially young people we're seeing in our young people who are feeling very disconnected from each other, very isolated. And these were challenges before covid, before the pandemic, they've just been exasperated. And we think that there's sometimes nothing more powerful and impactful. And bringing people together than volunteering, then serving side by side with other people around something that you're passionate about, about having a common experience. Again, whether it's on a Saturday or Tuesday night, or for a whole year through one of our service programs. That it's actually a way to reconnect people, to bring people back together. It's helpful with health, it's helpful with both physical and mental health. It's helpful in dealing with our loneliness crisis. Then we've also seen that anyone who turns on the news for 5 minutes can see how divided we are as a country. How politically divided and polarized. We've come to the point where we're even seeing extreme things like January 6 incidents. We have to do something that deals with the division and polarization in our society. I've seen through my experience in the military, serving in the military, and through other experiences. The power that service has to bring people together from very different backgrounds and perspectives. We need to do that. We need to create shared experiences again in this country. We need to create a sense of we're all in this together because we are, but we have to build that. We have to be intentional about that. That's why we and the Governor has put so much into investing in creating these programs. We can tackle these multitude of issues that we see in our society. 

Rachel Strausman: 
Actually, it is very interesting that you bring up service as a form of empowerment in addition to the actual effects service has on climate change or whatever homelessness, whatever you're working to resolve. Is this something that you've seen as a more new thing? Like reflecting back on the pandemic, noticing how people are even more distant than they were to begin with. And as climate change keeps getting worse and worse, people feel like they can have less and less of an impact. And we're trying to show people now how volunteering can empower them all and unite them. Or is this something that's been happening for a while and just hasn't had light shed on it? 

Josh Fryday: 
Yeah. It's a really good question. I'll say that I got appointed before Covid started. Before Covid started, the Governor recognized that we need to think about civic engagement differently. We need to think about how we engage people. How do we call on Californians to take action, to work together in communities in recognition that we are facing a more divided and polarized society. A more isolated society. I think what Covid did though, was accelerate dramatically, the recognition we are in real crisis mode across a variety of issues. We have to figure out new ways to engage people. It's why during Covid, we launched the Californians for All initiative. We launched a neighbor to Neighbor Initiative to call people to check on their neighbors, which we're continuing to build out. It's when we created Climate Core. We launched our college program to help young people pay for school by serving in their community. We launched a Jobs Core program during Covid to give service opportunities for young people who also needed help getting into the labor workforce and launching their career. So Covid was certainly an accelerant, but there's a recognition, I think for quite a while now, that there's almost a spiritual crisis facing our country. Where people, I think, are looking for purpose, they're looking for meaning, they're looking for ways to do something positive in their community. It's one of the things I've been working on, climate change for a long time, a big part of my career. One of the things that I hear most often, and have heard for a long time is that I know that climate change is a crisis. I know that it's real. I just don't know what to do. I think a lot of us can relate to that. A lot of us can relate to one feeling like we don't know how to be part of the solution. How we can make a positive difference. We're trying to change California volunteers. We're trying to make taking action and doing something positive accessible to everybody. So that it doesn't matter what your socioeconomic background or where you came from or who you are, we're going to create an opportunity for you to be able to give back meaningfully in your community. I think the results are incredible. The reaction for our programs of people wanting to serve and stepping up to serve has been huge. The number of volunteers that we've had sign up has been huge. We're really encouraged. But we also recognize we have a lot of work to do and a long way to go. 

Rachel Strausman: 
Yeah, I think it's very reassuring that you're mentioning that these programs are helping the state and they're also helping the people who are putting that work in and they're going back and benefiting them. Going off of that. You also have a Californians for all youth jobs core, which you briefly mentioned, which is for Californians 16 to 30 years old. A lot of volunteer programs that get the spotlight tend to focus more on individuals who are at a later stage in life or who have at least obtained a college degree. What added impact does this program have by expanding the opportunities it provides to younger Californians? And why is it important to foster volunteer experiences like this to younger age groups? 

Josh Fryday: 
Yeah, thank you. With our new Job Core program, I think what we're able to do is simultaneously provide economic opportunities, real opportunities for young people to have a good paying job. To build social networks. To build social capital, to build job skills that they could use for the rest of their career, and to help launch them into a successful career. We're really focused on this program, underserved communities. We're focused on foster youth that are transitioning out of the foster character system, formerly incarcerated youth. We're going to start in the coming year because the budget that was just signed by the Governor and the Legislature are going to be focusing on tribal youth and also on our AB 540 eligible dreamers. With this program, we're providing real economic opportunity. But what we're also saying is that you don't have to decide between pursuing your passion, something you're passionate about, or a paycheck that you can actually do both. That you don't have to decide between whether you want to launch a career and be able to feed your family or help your community, that you can actually do both. That's what we're trying to inspire and create opportunities for people to really live a life of dignity and a life of meaning, and a life of purpose, while also being able to provide for themselves and their families and hopefully launch on a successful career. We think that we can invest in both. We're doing that, we're proving that. We're showing that we can create both economic opportunity but also opportunity for life of meaning and purpose. 

Dinara Godage: 
Going off of that, talking about like younger individuals and you had mentioned a spiritual crisis going on. I think that's big. Being someone who just started college and going through that uncertainty a little bit going off the topic of programs. But what advice would you have? I wouldn't say kids, but young adults who are in this range of not really sure, but  between the two and what kind of steps they can take to figure out their passions and also still finding a career. 

Josh Fryday:
Yeah, so, it’s one of the reasons that we are focusing on young people with these programs is that it's a formative time period for anyone who's college age, whether you're in college or not. I had my first experience, service experience when I was 17. I had a chance to live and work in the Dominican Republic, in a small village with no running water and no electricity. It was an unbelievably informative time period. And what I learned from that was, not only did I get to have an impact and make a difference in the lives of others, but it was an unbelievably meaningful time for me. It's where I grew. It's where I was challenged. It's where I discovered a lot about myself. That's the power of service and the power of doing it at a young age. And it's also where I learned how much meaning and purpose it gave me, and it inspired me to want to pursue service for the rest of my life. Our hope is that by having these programs focus on young people, that we're also inspiring the next generation of Californians to want to serve as well in terms of advice, which I'm always reticent to give advice to anyone, But I would say that, especially for young Californians, this is a time to be courageous. It's a time in your life to have the courage to push the envelope and do things that you may not have the opportunity to do when you're older or have a family and have obligations. Part of courage is about being uncomfortable. One of the things that I love about service, one of our college core members said this last year to a group of her peers. She said the power of the college core of serving is about becoming comfortable with the uncomfortable. And when you're uncomfortable, when you're put in situations, and I don't mean uncomfortable like where your safety is at risk or anything of that sort. But when you're put in situations around people who maybe think differently than you are from different backgrounds than you are from, come from different places that you're coming from. And you have to solve hard issues or tackle hard issues together like climate or inequality, or poverty, or homelessness. That's where we grow, that's where we find ourselves. Gandhi said the best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. I think for young people it's the opportunity to find yourself by serving others. My advice is be courageous in doing that. If you're passionate about climate, if you're passionate about inequality, if you're passionate about racism, if you're passionate about tackling some of these really big issues that we have, then do it. And we're trying to create opportunities for you to be able to do that and get paid and get economic opportunity at the same time. But this is the time for you to be courageous. And I'll just maybe end by saying on this question, we actually need you to be courageous, if we're going to solve climate, if we're going to solve these really big challenges that we have. We need young people to step up in a very big way to help us tackle and be part of the solution. It's not just for your own benefit to grow and experience and learn by being courageous. We actually need young people in California to be courageous. 

Dinara Godage: 
In the way that being courageous is something that ages California is really diverse and getting to. I'm being uncomfortable with something that isn't the same or as something familiar as usually is. California is a very large and beautifully diverse state. That's something that we all appreciate, and I think it's something that's really commendable in such a state that's a major impact on the US as a nation. How do these state level programs ensure benefits on the local levels that cater to each city or counties, individual needs? 

Josh Fryday:
Yes, we're very proud of the fact that our programs, they're statewide, and they're also receiving a lot of national attention. We're going to be expanding Climate Core to several other states. Other states are already looking at creating their own college core. We're proud about that. But the reality is that the work happens at the local level. That's where the service is happening. We've designed these programs to make sure that they're actually meeting community needs. For instance, in our Jobs Core program, we work with mayors offices, where the mayors get to decide and pick what are the big issues facing their community that they need the young people to be working on. Same thing with College Cores as an example. While we've set some basic guidelines as a state, we've prioritized climate change and food insecurity and education disparities as being broad buckets of things that we're passionate about. We know that each community is different and they define their challenges around climate is different. One community fire may be a concern, another community drought may be a concern. There's different needs for each community. We've designed the flexibility, but the truth is that's where the work happens at the local community. That's where the service happens. And it's really important that the work that our service members are doing meet the needs of the local communities. 

Rachel Strausman: 
Yeah, that's a very good point. That it starts locally and it grows to a state level thing. Going off of that, I know there are a lot of opportunities to work on specific local issues. Are there opportunities within volunteer programs to unite people beyond their cities borders? Or not even necessarily across from California, but people from different counties to get to unite over common shared interests through volunteering. 

Josh Fryday: 
Yeah, I love that you asked that question. Something we're trying to be very intentional about. It's hard, but it's something that we care deeply about. We've done a couple of things. One is with our College Core Program, which expands over 46 campuses with thousands of students across the state of California, including UC's, CSU's, community colleges, and private schools. We created regional hubs to actually bring students and service members together by region. We're breaking down some of those city barriers and even county barriers to make sure that students are coming together. And then we've also done events where we actually bring people together virtually across the entire state. You really feel like you're part of something bigger and are meeting students across the state. We're experimenting with some new programs around actually bringing all of our programs together in one place to do days of service. We did one in Oakland a couple months ago where we had college corps members, climate corps members, Americorps members, and jobs corps members all coming together to serve and get to know each other. It's something that we're trying to be very intentional about. But I do think that there's something about service and volunteering that creates an instant bond and a connection. And our hope is that we want to create more of this around a culture service. But if you do climate cores in Riverside and you meet someone who's part of climate core, taking climate action in San Francisco or Humboldt or San Diego, there's an instant connection. There's an instant sense that we have a common experience and we have a common passion. And we're both doing something about it and that's powerful. And what we want to do is forge those bonds and those relationships across the entire state of California. 

Rachel Strausman: 
The timeless network that you bring up really goes past anyone volunteer opportunity or one volunteer program. I think that's very special. But even going back to boundaries, what would you say then would be the biggest boundary you have to cross to have programs like these and achieve such high service programs here in California? 

Josh Fryday: 
Yeah, that's a good question. I think the challenges within this work, it takes real investment in real intentionality to create an opportunity for everyone to be able to serve and give back. It doesn't just create a culture service or creating a culture where people feel empowered to actually be engaged in their communities and they feel like they have something to contribute and actually have the opportunity to contribute doesn't just happen by telling people you can go do it. We actually have to create the opportunities for people to do that. That takes real investment. What we find in talking about these issues across the state, and then the legislature in Washington DC is no one's against volunteering, no one's against service. But when it comes down to actually investing in the civic infrastructure that gives everyone the opportunity, to be able to have a meaningful experience, to be able to give back, that's where the rubber meets the road. I think that's what's so extraordinary about what Governor Newsom has done since he got elected is he's invested and really prioritized this work by saying we're going to invest in creating these opportunities. That's part and then we have to build it. I think one of the challenges over the, even prior to covid, I would say generations, is our leaders haven't invested the civic infrastructure necessary to engage all of our people. That's what we're trying to change in California. That's the boat we're trying to turn. We're making really good progress, but we also know we have a long way to go. 

Rachel Strausman: 
It's very interesting that you bring up that it's all about investing in the volunteer programs that people can volunteer in going in that direction. Looking beyond California, what are the implications state level programs like these can have on the national, and even looking further than we've been looking so far, like the international level, what impacts can those have? 

Josh Fryday: 
Yeah. When we launched our climate court program, the governor said in the press, his hope is that we create a model for scaling climate action. Not just for the country, but for the entire planet, what we've seen so far. As I mentioned earlier, other states are starting to create their own climate corps. We think in the coming year, several more states are going to be coming online and creating their own climate corps, which we're very excited about. But we've also started conversations with other countries who are thinking about how to create a force or an army of people as residents willing to take climate action because we need to. That's an example of where we're starting to see the influence of these programs really start to scale and expand around the country. Our College Corps program, the governor of Minnesota, put money in his budget to help design and research what would it take to create the Minnesota College Core based off of the California College Core Model. We're starting to see some of these seeds get planted across the rest of the country, which is very exciting. But I think just to maybe bring it, take this philosophical or meta, what makes us as unique as human beings and also what our competitive advantage has been as a species ability to collaborate, to coordinate with each other, to support each other, to build community together. That's our competitive advantage. Unfortunately, in too much of our societies, including not just in America, around, around the world. If, if you come to value only making money on producing, only looking out for your individual self, then we start to lose what makes us human, which is living in community together and supporting each other and helping each other. I think part of what we're trying to think about is how do we, through these programs, start to recreate a society that once again values compassion, values collaboration, values coordination, values caring about each other. Because that's ultimately what, as human beings, I think all of us are looking for. We're all looking to belong to a community. We're all looking to be loved by our community and we have to actually create a culture once again that values that. That's why we're so inspired and passionate about the work that we do. 

Rachel Strausman: 
Going off of that, again, talking about the replicability of these programs and the ability they have to inspire other places. Would you say that that's limited by the fact that For example in California, and we talked about a lot here at the School of Public Policy, is that we have a lot of solutions here in the region that can be applied to the world and globally. Would you say that the replicability comes from the fact that California as a diverse state has a lot of diverse problems. Or that other places like California have individuals who are also inspired and also community driven or want to become community driven. As such, they have the ability to create similar volunteer programs that can thrive. 

Josh Fryday: 
I think there's a desire everywhere in the world. As humans, we want to be connected and we want to be loved. Like I said, we want to be in a community that's supportive and compassionate. I think that's universal. That's a universal value. I think what's unique about California, what's unique about the inland region where you are, is that we have a culture where we're willing to innovate and we're willing to try new things, and we're willing to fail, and we're willing to try again. That's built into our DNA, that's built into our culture as Californians, We get to try new things. We get to try new things in the inland region, which we're doing around a lot of these service programs. We get to try new things around climate change. We get to try new things because we have a culture and a political system, and political leaders who are willing to push the envelope and are willing to test new models. But I think the reason California is viewed as a leader, not just of the country, but of the planet, is because a lot of the values that we hold dear are universal. The value of making sure that people are included. The value of embracing diversity. The value, the values of taking care of our environment. These are things that are not unique just to California. I think it's what allows though, because of our culture's willingness to innovate and try new things and invent new things. It's very compelling and it becomes scalable across the rest of the world. 

Rachel Strausman: 
That's a great place to end. Tying it back to where you started, how the biggest asset the state has is its people. I think it brings a new light, the work that's being done here in California to volunteerism. And that volunteerism benefits the state, but it benefits the people, which then in turn benefits the state. And then you create this continuum of constantly helping everyone. Even if you start with five people and you grow to ten and then 15 and slow growth, it still has big impacts. Think stuff like this gives, like you were saying, hope that we can solve these big issues that seem scary, like climate change and homelessness and the housing crisis. There is a solution. And fostering that sense of community while working towards fixing those problems is exactly what California and the rest of the world needs. 

Josh Fryday: 
I'm going to send you out on the road. Could not have said it better myself. Thank you and thank you for this opportunity to be with you both and have this conversation. We love the work that's happening at the School of Public Policy.

Rachel Strausman: 
Of course. Thank you so much.