Archive - August 1, 2013

PEACE CORPS UPDATE ON IMPLEMENTATION OF THE KATE PUZEY PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEER PROTECTION ACT Posted on August 1, 2013 by Peace Corps The health, safety and security of Volunteers are Peace Corps’ highest priorities, and they underlie each and every aspect of the agency’s reform efforts over the last few years. Peace Corps has made extraordinary progress in establishing new policies and practices that reflect an absolute commitment to reducing risks for Volunteers and responding effectively and compassionately when crime does occur. There has been nothing short of a broad culture shift at Peace Corps, and the agency’s new approach is Volunteer-centered every step of the way. Peace Corps has worked with leading experts to develop a comprehensive Sexual Assault Risk Reduction and Response program, which includes more than 30 policy changes; extensive sexual assault risk reduction and response training for both volunteers and staff; and new, clearly defined procedures . . .

Being published this coming October is Camelot’s Court: Inside the Kennedy White House by historian Robert Dallek, author of the  previous Kennedy book, An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963 and Nixon and Kissinger, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, among other books. This new book offers, according to the press release, “a penetrating look at the inner circle or brain trust that defined the Kennedy administration.” As we know, the Peace Corps in 1960 was Kennedy’s experiment in international development that others called a wacky and dangerous idea. The Daughters of the American Revolution warned of a “yearly drain” of “brains and brawn…for the benefit of backward, underdeveloped countries.” Former President Eisenhower declared it a “juvenile experiment,” and Richard Nixon said it was another form of “draft evasion.” Not everyone among Kennedy’s ‘best and the brightest’ were keen on the Peace Corps idea. Kennedy’s staff had been thinking of . . .