Presidential Hopefuls Have Links to Charity That Urges Public Service

By Suzanne Perry

Sen. Barack Obama has promised to significantly expand the country’s national-service programs

if he is elected president — a plan his wife, Michelle, says was influenced greatly by her work with Public Allies, a charity that works across the country to train young people for nonprofit or public-service jobs.

“He saw me work in that environment,” she said in an interview. “Of all the jobs I’ve had, if I were to do anything again at the drop of a heartbeat it would be to work on this kind of program. I was really passionate and engaged; this was like a family, there was drama, everyone knew everyone.”

Ms. Obama, the founding executive director of Public Allies’ Chicago program from 1993 to 1996, said her husband also learned about the “ups and downs” of getting money from AmeriCorps, the national-service program that helps finance Public Allies.

Throughout his political career, she added, Mr. Obama has been impressed by graduates of Public Allies and other AmeriCorps programs. “They’re the ones who are most likely to run for office, to work on a campaign, to lead an organization or run a foundation,” she said. “What he knows is that you can harness this energy in a phenomenal way.”

AmeriCorps Plan

Senator Obama has vowed that as president he would triple the number of AmeriCorps volunteers, double the number of Peace Corps volunteers, and create a Classroom Corps, a Health Corps, a Clean Energy Corps, and other new programs.

Ms. Obama said stipends for national-service work, like those offered by Public Allies, are essential so the programs aren’t limited to “the kids of wealthy folks” — and can help nonprofit groups attract leaders and board members from a variety of racial, economic, and geographic backgrounds.

When Public Allies leaders approached Ms. Obama about setting up the Chicago program (at the suggestion of her husband, who served on Public Allies’ founding board), she was working as assistant commissioner of planning and development for the city of Chicago and not looking for another job. However, she said, the idea of channeling young people into nonprofit work appealed to her.

As a Harvard Law School graduate, Ms. Obama said, she had struggled to get off a path that was leading her toward becoming a partner at a corporate-law firm.

“I figured if I didn’t know about it, what about all the other young people in the world who would be fabulous program directors at nonprofits, or who would go into foundations, or be great working with kids in a youth program, but they don’t even know those jobs exist?” she said.

Recruiting Strategies

In looking for potential leaders, Public Allies still uses techniques that Ms. Obama pioneered in Chicago. Paul Schmitz, the group’s chief executive — who worked with Ms. Obama after he started a Public Allies program in Milwaukee in 1994 — recalled that she looked for leaders in unconventional places, like in the city’s poorest neighborhoods.

“In her first class, she had a Harvard graduate, she had a Northwestern [University] graduate,” he said. “But she also had people who’d been incarcerated, she had women on welfare, people who’d been homeless, who’d been in gangs.”

Public Allies still holds that people from all backgrounds can show leadership, even without traditional credentials, Mr. Schmitz said. “A white college student from a private college goes into a poor neighborhood and volunteers four hours a week, and that’s considered exemplary,” he said. “A poor kid who lives in that community and takes care of all the kids in that neighborhood four hours every day is not seen as a volunteer.”

Ms. Obama, who served on the Public Allies board from 1997 to 2001, is on leave from a job as vice president for community and external affairs at the University of Chicago Medical Center. She maintained ties with Public Allies after leaving the board, bringing apprentices to work with her and hiring Public Allies alumni.

While the Obama influence on Public Allies is strong, the group also made an early connection with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Senator Obama’s challenger for the Democratic presidential nomination. Vanessa Kirsch, co-founder of Public Allies, recalled that Mrs. Clinton attended a Public Allies event in Washington during her husband’s 1992 presidential campaign and promised to invite the group to the White House if he won.

Ms. Clinton kept her word, inviting Public Allies to a reception in the Rose Garden in 1993.

In fact, the Clintons, who made national service a centerpiece of the campaign, urged Public Allies to expand quickly, Ms. Kirsch said.

All three major presidential candidates, including Sen. John McCain, the Republican contender, have expressed strong support for AmeriCorps and other national-service programs.

And while Senators Obama and Clinton are engaged in a sometimes bitter race, Michelle Obama praised the former president Bill Clinton for creating AmeriCorps in 1993.

“In my opinion it’s one of the best things that came out of the Clinton administration, and it should be continued,” she said.