Online at: http://politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/8422/

Obama Signs Landmark Community Service Bill

By Joel Wendland
Archives - Dates and Topics 2009 online April 1 – 30, 2009 click here for related stories: democracy matters

4-21-09, 4:31 pm

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President Obama, today, April 21st, signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act into law. This landmark national service law will expand federal funding to the Corporation for National Community Service (CNCS), a federal agency that oversees such community service programs as AmeriCorps, Senior Corps and Learn and Serve America.

In signing the bill, President Obama told a gathering at The SEED School in Washington that community service helps people find a sense of purpose in their own lives. "I would not be here today if not for the service of others or for the purpose that service gave my own life," he said.

President Obama recalled that First Lady Michelle Obama ran an AmeriCorps sponsored program in Chicago in the 1990s.

The president also again called on Americans to make an enduring commitment to serve in their communities. "Help change history's course, put your shoulder up against the wheel," he said. "If you do I promise you your life will be richer."

At the ceremony, Sen. Edward Kennedy, for whom the bill is named, compared the moment to when his brother President John F. Kennedy's made his own call to service and launched the Peace Corps and added, "Now another young president has challenged another generation to give back to this country."

According to White House domestic policy advisor Melody Barnes, the bill will reauthorize the federal CNCS for another eight years and boost its funding by $1.1 billion. Barnes touted the bipartisan support for the bill and its passage just three weeks after President Obama last February asked Congress to send it to his desk.

"It was a big bipartisan victory," Barnes told reporters on a teleconference Tuesday afternoon. "We think that happened because there are so many people who believe in the impact of national service."

The primary goal will be to expand community service programs through AmeriCorps and the number of people who join that program from the current level of 75,000 to 250,000 by 2017. In addition, the education award to AmeriCorps volunteers will be increased to equal the Pell Grant, currently at about $5,300, to help cover the cost of college tuition.

According to Alan Solomont, chair of the CNCS, AmeriCorps alone has placed some 570,000 volunteers for some 718 million hours of service since its founding in 1993. Education awards for this service has totaled $1.6 billion over those years, he said. AmeriCorps volunteers help build homes for low-income families, education programs, environmental clean-up and much more.

About 500,000 seniors volunteer through Senior Corps each year. Thousands of high school aged students volunteer through the Learn and Serve America program as well.

Solomont pointed out that President Obama has had a special influence on Americans to volunteer in their communities. "We know that people want to serve as witnessed by the 'Obama effect,'" Solomont said.

According to the CNCS, some 14,000 national service projects took place on Martin Luther King Day as a result of the president's appeal, breaking past records of about 5,000. AmeriCorps appointments are up 234 percent since Obama took office in comparison to the same time last year. This growth of community service work has been attributed to the "Obama effect."

CNCS Vice Chair Stephen Goldsmith stated that the bill is a "shot in the arm for civic America." The bill provides the resources for programs like AmeriCorps and Senior Corps and others to become a community service infrastructure to mobilize millions of other Americans to join locally to help improve their communities, Goldmsith said.

"One of the things that we are very focused on here," Barnes added, "is not just the number of people who participate and not just the number of hours that are committed, but impact and transformation." Barnes noted that President Obama campaigned on the idea that government alone could not fix the country's problems, and that the people would have to work together to bring change.

The White House also announced the president's intention to nominate Maria Eitel to be Chief Executive Officer for the Corporation for National and Community Service. This position must be confirmed by the Senate.

Learn more about AmeriCorps and related service programs at WhiteHouse.gov.


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