Research for Social Welfare

Over the coming years, the U.S. military will continue its post-Cold War drawdown. During this reshaping of the military, the following question arises: Is it possible to reinvest some of the military's resources to strengthen young people? The Navy asked CNA to do a full assessment of reuse options in Oakland and Alameda, California. We collected data only on the three Navy installation and their surrounding communities that are closest to Oakland and Alameda although we did take a broad look at military and community resources throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Our assessment has two sides, the demand or 'need' side--the community-based part--and the supply or 'resource' side--the part in which we surveyed selected military facilities. We wanted to know specific details about community needs and potential military resources and how to connect one with the other. We performed four major research efforts, and for each one we have published a comprehensive report detailing the supporting analyses. The first effort outlines the political context of defense conversion and its implications for youth and youth advocates. The next two are Bay Area youth organizations and how they might benefit from freed-up military resources. The other, Service Opportunities for Youth, assesses the many ways youth are serving their communities and how military resources could be used to further those efforts. The fourth research effort is an assessment of military buildings, people, and property items that should become availabl

As our Nation's military continues to draw down and reshape itself, important resources can be strategically reinvested to strengthen youth. These resources include personnel, equipment, and facilities. The CNA Corporation examined the potential use of these resources within its Veterans Transition and Defense conversion project which was completed in 1993. This preliminary study produced the framework for an assessment process designed to match military resources with the needs of youth and their communities. Admiral William A. Owens (who at the time was Deputy Chief of Naval Operations, Resources, Warfare Requirements, and Assessments) sponsored a follow-up research project in which we were asked to apply our preliminary work in communities where the Navy has had a long-standing presence but is now preparing to reduce that presence by closing bases. He saw these closures, while initially devastating in economic terms, as an opportunity for the Navy and the country as a whole to help strengthen youth. Specifically, he was concerned that not enough was being done to help young people become better citizens. The analysis plan called for a full application of the assessment process in Oakland/Alameda and a more limited effort in the Charleston, South Carolina area. The Charleston effort, which we describe here, was to be done quickly and to focus on facilities only.

This briefing serves as the Phase I Summary Report of the Veterans Transition and Defense Conversion Project, and presents CNA's analysis of the concept 'Strategic Reinvestment to Strengthen Youth.' The issue addressed is how best to reinvest--in a strategic sense--Cold War resources to strengthen America's youth. In other words, the study investigates the idea of infusing the nation's youth-services system with some of the military resources being freed up by the ongoing defense drawdown, looking primarily at personnel transitioning out of service and base facilities undergoing shrinkage or realignment into the civilian sector.

This paper investigates workers in an old and declining industry--steel--and in several new and growing high-technology industries. It analyzes the relationship between employment and technology in steel by focusing on plants that adopted new technology and compares their employment experience with non-innovating plants. The adjustment of workers forced out of either steel or hi-tech industries is studied by focusing on where they went and how their earnings changed.