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(WASHINGTON, D.C.) —The Corporation for National and Community Service—which oversees the Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and Learn and Serve America programs—today released its Strategic Plan for 2006 to 2010. The plan, which received extensive public input over the past year, was unveiled by Board Chairman Stephen Goldsmith at a public meeting of the Corporation’s Board of Directors.
“I’m very pleased to release this plan, which provides a vision for service in America and a blueprint for using our resources wisely to build a new culture of citizenship, service, and responsibility.”
The plan was drafted over the course of the past year and was informed by more than 700 comments from Corporation grantees, project sponsors, staff and participants. A full version of the plan, along with a complete listing of national and Corporation targets for the next five years, is available at www.nationalservice.gov.
Chief elements of the plan include:
- Revised Mission Statement. The Corporation’s revised mission statement reads, “Improve lives, strengthen communities, and foster civic engagement through service and volunteering.”
- Statement of Guiding Principles. The plan articulates 10 principles, including putting the needs of local communities first and strengthening the public-private partnerships that underpin all of our programs.
- Identification of Four Focus Areas. The plan identities four focus areas where the Corporation intends to make a significant difference in the next five years: 1) Mobilizing More Volunteers; 2) Ensuring a Brighter Future for All of America’s Youth; 3) Engaging Students in Communities; and 4) Harnessing Baby Boomers’ Experience. Each focus area requires that the Corporation’s programs and initiatives work together to achieve common objectives and measurable targets.
- Blueprint for Managerial Excellence. The plan outlines ways to create and foster shared values that strengthen service delivery and ensure workforce accountability.
“By setting priorities and providing a focus for the future, the plan helps our thousands of grantees, sponsors, and stakeholders plan for the future while also giving them the flexibility to determine and respond to needs in a local manner,” said David Eisner, CEO of the Corporation. “The hard work begins now, as we turn this into a living document in which we work together to achieve important and measurable goals.”
The plan is different from past strategic plans in that it goes beyond programmatic goals to embrace broad national goals in each of the fours focus areas. For example, under Mobilizing More Volunteers, the Corporation intends to help increase the number of Americans who volunteer each year by 10 million in five years, reaching some 75 million in 2010. Similarly, the plan calls for: providing mentoring services to 3 million additional children and youth living in disadvantaged conditions; engaging more than 3 million youth from at-risk environments in service; engaging 5 million college students in service; and engaging an additional 3 million baby boomers in volunteering.
“In the years ahead, volunteering and service will be critically important to meeting a wide range of challenges, from ensuring that all children be given the opportunity to success to enabling the growing numbers of older Americans to remain independent in their own homes,” said Eisner. “Volunteer activity on the part of Americans from all backgrounds and life stages is an important part of the solution – and an important part of building a healthier and stronger America.”
In addition to embracing national goals and priorities, the plan reaffirms the Corporation’s commitment to achieving and maintaining the highest standards of management excellence and of financial, grant-making, and other organizational accountability and effectiveness. The plan spells out a series of measure and goals to expand program and project quality; cultivate a culture of performance and accountability throughout the Corporation and its various grantees; deliver exemplary customer service; and build a diverse, energized, and high-performing workforce. Among other targets, the Corporation intends to meet 100 percent of internal management metrics, increase to 80 percent the percentage of employees and grantees who report they are satisfied with their dealings with the agency, and leverage a total of $2.5 billion in non-Corporation funds in the next five years.
The Corporation for National and Community Service provides opportunities for Americans of all ages and backgrounds to serve their communities and country. Together with the USA Freedom Corps, the Corporation is working to build a culture of citizenship, service, and responsibility in America. For more information, visit www.nationalservice.gov.
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