To Serve and Grow: Catholic and Protestant Youth Volunteering in America, 1934-1973

This project explores the development of youth volunteering in the United States in the twentieth century. Although this phenomenon is most closely associated with the Peace Corps, it was pioneered much earlier by a constellation of Catholic and Protestant organizations starting in the 1930s. In addition to charting the growth of youth volunteer programs, this project shows how the development of the volunteer was always as important as the actual service work he or she provided.