Coalition to Push Ahead on National Service After High-Profile Event

By Suzanne Perry

A coalition of groups pushing Americans to use their time and energy to help solve the nation’s social problems is hoping to build on the momentum generated by a national-service conference here that drew the presidential nominees John McCain and Barack Obama and a host of other luminaries.

The two-day ServiceNation Summit generated pledges from both presidential contenders to expand the country’s service programs — and set the stage for Sen. Orrin Hatch, Republican of Utah, to unveil bipartisan legislation to do just that.

ServiceNation, the coalition of more than 100 groups that planned the New York conference, is now focusing on its goal of getting one million people to sign a Declaration of Service that calls on Americans to “work together to create ample opportunities for citizens to serve their communities, their country, and the world.”

“We need to take the energy that’s here and say, How do we change the culture of the country?” Alan Khazei, founder of Be the Change, a group that promotes civic engagement, told the gathering. Mr. Khazei, one of the event’s main organizers, said the time is ripe to get people more involved in civic life because polls show a large majority of Americans think the country is on the wrong track.

A Bipartisan Bill

National-service advocates will also be lobbying for the Serve America Act, which Senator Hatch drew up with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts.

The bill would increase the number of participants in yearlong national-service programs like AmeriCorps — which provides money to charities and stipends to their volunteers — from 75,000 to 250,000, creating a variety of new “corps” to focus on issues like poverty, health care, and the environment.

It would also create fellowships for people age 50 and older, set aside money to help nonprofit groups recruit more volunteers and spread innovative programs, and create a commission to study ways the federal government, nonprofit groups, and businesses can work together to meet national challenges.

The presidential rivals, who were questioned separately at a televised forum, both said they favored increasing the number of participants in national-service programs. But there were nuances in their answers.

Senator McCain did not make any specific proposals, but he called AmeriCorps “one of the astonishing successes” and noted that after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, he had introduced legislation to expand the program. The Arizona senator said he was wary, however, about too much government involvement in charity efforts.

“I want to be careful about expanding it when my philosophy is, Let’s not have government do things that the private sector can do,” he said.

Senator Obama last year proposed a detailed national-service plan that included increasing AmeriCorps slots to 250,000 and doubling Peace Corps slots to 16,000; a $4,000 tax credit a year for college students who perform community service; and expanded programs for volunteers age 55 and above.

The Illinois senator told the forum that both government and charities have roles to play in solving the country’s problems, saying for example that it was important to have a well-functioning Federal Emergency Management Agency to fight disasters like Hurricane Katrina.

“That does not crowd out the Red Cross,” Senator Obama said. “That doesn’t crowd out the thousands of church groups that went down there.”

He added, “I would distinguish between a government assist in providing people avenues for service and a government bureaucracy in which the notion is that the only way you can serve is through some defined government program.”

After the forum, Senators McCain and Obama said they had agreed to serve as co-sponsors of the Kennedy-Hatch bill.

Senator Hatch told the conference that he introduced the legislation because the “renewed spirit” that brought Americans together after the September 11 attacks was fading. “We needed to remind all Americans that they can join the culture of service and improve the lives of others,” he said.

The conference attracted more than 700 nonprofit, business, political, military, and academic leaders, along with the musical performers Usher and Jon Bon Jovi. Speakers included the first lady, Laura Bush; Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York; and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, of New York.

Sen. Christopher Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, who unveiled legislation of his own to create new service opportunities for high-school students and people age 55 and older, recalled how exhilarated he was when he heard President John F. Kennedy’s famous plea, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country” — which prompted him to join the Peace Corps.

“I can tell you honestly,” he told the conference. “I haven’t felt that strong emotion over the last number of years as I feel it today.”