COMMENTARY
Now more than ever, a call to public service
By Stephen Goldsmith and Harris Wofford
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The start of the holiday season brings anguish for many families across the country. More Americans are struggling to make ends meet. They will be in need of support and services just at the time when the nonprofits who can help meet those needs are facing precipitous drops in giving. Food banks' supplies are set to reach new lows. Yet this year we will see millions of citizens reach out in record numbers to assist those in need — offering food, special care, and compassion.
As the government seeks to deal with the economic crisis and relieve the distress felt by millions of families, we should not overlook the great American tradition of service. More than 60 million citizens are every year providing service to their neighbors and their communities.
Lawmakers who will soon consider a financial stimulus package should also consider a "service stimulus." Repairing the roads and bridges of our physical infrastructure is urgently needed, but we also need to dramatically expand our civic infrastructure.
President-elect Barack Obama has vowed to make service a central cause of his presidency. In his call to service outlining plans for a large expansion of citizen service, he said he would reach out to Republicans, Democrats and independents alike, young and old, and ask all of us for our service and active citizenship. "We need your service, right now" he said.
Here are a few examples of what We the People can do right now and in the year ahead:
As two who support national and community service from different sides of the political aisle, we look to President Obama and Congress to shore up the civic infrastructure in order to help meet some of the most pressing human needs, build common cause, and strengthen the union's civic purpose.
More than a million new mentors and tutors are needed to help young people succeed in school, gain admission to college, and find work. Our new president demonstrated that millions of volunteers can be actively engaged in a political campaign. Now is the time to show that a call to service from the president utilizing powerful new Internet means of communication, can engage millions of Americans as citizens working together to meet the urgent needs of our communities.
Last year 75,000 AmeriCorps members recruited over 1.7 million local volunteers. One of the best examples of this is AmeriCorps' relationship with Habitat for Humanity, where members don't just build homes, but most of all recruit, train and manage the community volunteers on whom Habitat relies. AmeriCorps members serving with Habitat for Humanity helped mobilize approximately 200,000 community volunteers to build 1,700 homes.
In the can-do, civic spirit that is the true strength of America, let's not wait for the Congress and the new president to strengthen our civic infrastructure. In this holiday season, let's begin a new era by offering service on a scale not seen since WWII. And on January 19, the day before the inauguration of the 44th president of the United States, let's honor Martin Luther King's day — as Congress in 1994 directed us to do — not as a day off, but as a day-on for service.
Stephen Goldsmith is the chairman of the Board of the Corporation for National and Community Service. Harris Wofford was a U. S. Senator from Pennsylvania from 1991-1995 and CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service, 1995-2001. He was one of the founders of the Peace Corps.
