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Budget promotes volunteerism and funds new senior service initiatives(WASHINGTON D.C.) - Today President Bush released his 2002 budget, requesting $733 million for the Corporation for National Service to promote volunteerism, expand opportunities for seniors to serve their country, and support 50,000 AmeriCorps members.
The budget requests funding for several of the President's campaign proposals to expand citizen service including "Silver Scholarships" for older Americans who tutor and mentor youth, increased funds for the Senior Corps, and a new effort to engage veterans and retired military personnel as youth mentors. The budget also supports 50,000 AmeriCorps members - the same number as this year -- to serve in local projects such as teaching children to read, making neighborhoods safer, building affordable homes, and responding to natural disasters.
The plan released today, A Blueprint for New Beginnings, contains the broad outlines of the President's budget. The full budget with line items will be released in early April. Highlights include:
-$203 million for the National Senior Service Corps, a $14 million increase over 2001 and the first step in the President's strategy to increase the annual funding for the Senior Corps to $250 million over five years.
-$20 million for Silver Scholarships, a program to allow older Americans to volunteer 500 hours of tutoring and mentoring for youth in exchange for a $1,000 scholarships that can be deposited in an education savings account for use by their children, grandchildren or another child.
-$15 million for the Veterans Mission for Youth program that provides grants to community organizations that connect veterans and retired military personnel with America's youth through mentoring and tutoring programs.
"This budget is a significant investment in America's most important resource - the energy and creativity of our people," said Wendy Zenker, Acting CEO of the Corporation for National Service. "Throughout America faith-based groups and nonprofit organizations are working to improve lives in some of the hardest pressed communities in America, and this budget will enable the Corporation for National Service to help support those efforts," Zenker said.
President Bush has made citizen service and civic renewal a priority of his Administration. In his Inaugural Address, he called on Americans to be "citizens, not spectators; responsible citizens, building communities of service and a nation of character." In his second week in office, he unveiled a major effort to renew communities and meet social needs by tapping faith-based and nonprofit organizations, and named Stephen Goldsmith, his top domestic policy advisor on the campaign, to serve on the Corporation's board of directors. The Corporation has a long track record of supporting faith-based organizations in meeting community needs, with some 5,000 AmeriCorps members and 45,000 Senior Corps volunteers currently serving with these organizations.
Created in 1993, the Corporation for National Service engages more than 1.5 million Americans annually in improving communities through service in AmeriCorps, Learn and Serve America, and the National Senior Service Corps. For more information, visit www.nationalservice.gov.
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