President Obama has always been clear about his commitment to fostering a spirit of volunteerism in this country. On the campaign trail, he talked about energizing Americans of all ages and backgrounds to volunteer in their communities, saying that "Loving your country shouldn't just mean watching fireworks on the Fourth of July... Loving your country must mean accepting your responsibility to do your part to change it." In April, he signed into law the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, an expansion of national service initiatives like Americorps, which had strong bipartisan backing in Congress.

Today, Pres. Obama announced the launch of an exciting new community service initiative, "United We Serve," a summer service initiative which will kick off on June 22 and continue through September 11, the National Day of Service and Remembrance. "United We Serve" will galvanize Americans across the country to serve their communities, whether it's by picking up trash at a local park, reading to children at a neighborhood library, or pitching in at a local food bank. The serve.gov site will serve as a clearinghouse for service project ideas.

The project will fall under the auspices of Corporation for National and Community Service (CNC). We got the word about "United We Serve" from John Kelly-- a strategic advisor for Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships at CNC. Considering the fact that more Americans volunteer through religious organizations than through any other type of organization, this is an integral component of CNC, and of "United We Serve."

(In a college class with John DiIulio, former head of the White House's faith-based office, I read a book called The Other Philadelphia Story: How Local Congregations Support Quality of Life in Urban America. In it, Ram Cnaan and his team of researchers estimated the overall "replacement value" of the social care provided by congregations-- how much it would take to "replace" the vital contributions of the faith community there. The estimate was staggering--a quarter of a billion dollars dollars per year!) There's really no way to know the tremendous extent to which faith-based groups contribute to their communities, but studies like this shed some light on how vital they are.

Clearly, the faith-based element of national service is critical, and John's definitely up for the task, with his background as a longtime Catholic advocate on a range of social-justice issues. Not only is it exciting to see another service-oriented project get off the ground, but it's also great to know that the administration takes the role of faith-based volunteer groups so seriously and have put faith-based outreach in such capable hands!