FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, January 30, 2003
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The White House - USA Freedom Corps
Lindsey Kozberg
202-456-7381
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President Bush Celebrates USA Freedom Corps One-Year Anniversary |
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Announces New Presidential Council and Spells Out
State of the Union Compassion Agenda
"Last year, I called on my fellow citizens to participate in the USA
Freedom Corps... Tonight I ask Congress and the American people to focus
the spirit of service and the resources of government on the needs of
some of our most vulnerable citizens – boys and girls trying to grow up
without guidance and attention, and children who have to go through a
prison gate to be hugged by their mom or dad."
– President George W. Bush, 2003 State of the Union
Today’s Presidential Action
- President Bush joined young people, their mentors and teachers, and leaders of volunteer
service organizations to celebrate the first anniversary of the USA Freedom Corps – his
initiative to engage all Americans in service to their neighbors and their Nation.
- Following up on his State of the Union address, the President also laid out his vision
for two programs that will use almost half a billion dollars over the next three years to
match disadvantaged children with caring mentors who can help them find hope and opportunity.
- The President announced that he is forming a new President’s Council on Service and Civic
Participation,
and introduced the first members of the council, charging them with leading a massive nationwide
effort to recognize the dedicated service of Americans and to engage more individuals in volunteer
service.
New Ways to Make a Difference
- To mobilize individuals to meet pressing community needs around the
country, the USA Freedom Corps will begin focusing on some of the needs
that can be uniquely addressed through volunteer time and talents. Each
calendar quarter, the USA Freedom Corps will offer research, toolkits,
and other information regarding one "volunteer service action priority,"
and will announce new and expanded efforts by the agencies that are a
part of the USA Freedom Corps to enhance volunteer efforts in that area.
The 2003 priorities include: youth achievement, parks and open spaces,
healthy communities, and homeland security.
- The first area of need to be addressed in 2003 is youth achievement.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau (2001), one out of every ten
children in America is at great risk of failure because he or she
experiences four or more factors that adversely influence their future
prospects, such as: not living with two parents, having an underemployed
parent, living below the poverty line, having a parent or guardian who
is a high school dropout, not having health insurance, and/or receiving
welfare benefits. Any one risk factor increases the likelihood of
negative outcomes for children, but the presence of four or more places
the child at a tremendous risk of failure. The Census Bureau has
identified 7.1 million children who fall into this high-risk category.
- Research shows that having a mentor decreases the likelihood that
disadvantaged youth will engage in violent behavior and drug use, while
improving the chances that they will attend school regularly and improve
academically. According to MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership, 2.5
million young people in the United States are enjoying mentoring
relationships with caring adult volunteers. Unfortunately, millions more
disadvantaged young people have not found mentors.
More Than One Million New Mentors
- To offer more of these disadvantaged youth access to a mentor, the
President announced that he will support new mentoring opportunities by
investing $450 million in federal funds over the next three years in the
nonprofit, community, and faith-based organizations that train volunteer
mentors and pair them with youth in need. Today he shared the details of
how those funds will be spent to offer young people hope and
opportunity.
- The President announced that he will invest $300 million over three
years in a program at the U.S. Department of Education to support the
development, expansion, and strengthening of exemplary mentoring
programs targeted at disadvantaged middle school students in order to
cultivate mentors for these young people. These new funds will be used
as grants to nationally-affiliated youth-serving organizations,
independent community and faith-based organizations, and local education
agencies that will link one million students with disadvantaged
backgrounds to adult mentors through school-based programs. The program
will build on the Mentoring for Success Act passed as an amendment to
the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.
- Through a new program, the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services will help more than 100,000 children of prisoners between the
ages of 10 and 14 over the next three years to find an adult mentor.
They will work with the U.S. Department of Justice and a network of
other agencies with a budget of $150 million over three years to offer
grants to nationally-affiliated youth serving programs, as well as
independent community and faith-based organizations, to support school
and community-based mentoring programs. The program will further the
goals of the Safe and Stable Families Amendment of 2001, which called
for the expansion of services to strengthen families, including creating
and expanding mentoring programs for these children through networks of
community organizations, including religious organizations.
- Grantees of both programs must fulfill the essential features of
successful mentoring programs: screening and matchmaking, orientation
and training, and ongoing support and supervision. And the grantees will
be rigorously evaluated according to their outcomes both in terms of
inputs (volunteer hours, youth served) and outcomes for youth (academic
achievement, school attendance, juvenile crime, and the avoidance of
risky behaviors, such as substance abuse).
Engaging Millions – the President’s Council on Service and Civic
Participation
- President Bush announced that he has formed a new President’s Council
on Service and Civic Participation modeled on the President’s Council on
Physical Fitness and Sports, and introduced the first members of the
25-member council who include: entertainers, athletes, retired elected
officials, business and media leaders, leaders of nonprofit and
volunteer service organizations, and community volunteers.
- The council members will work with a small professional staff. Darrell
Green, former Washington Redskins cornerback, will serve as the chair of
the council, and retired Senator Robert Dole and retired Senator John
Glenn will serve as honorary co-chairs of the council.
- The council will oversee the creation of a nationwide recognition
program called the President’s Volunteer Service Awards. The awards will
be given to millions of individuals engaged in a variety of volunteer
services who have made a sustained commitment to service over the course
of a one year period.
- Youth can earn a President’s Volunteer Service Award by serving 50 or
more hours a year, while adults can earn the award by serving 100 or
more hours in a year. President’s Volunteer Service Awards will also be
available for families, for individuals who have served more than 4,000
hours since the President’s call to service in 2002, and
community-serving groups. Organizations such as businesses and schools
will be eligible to receive awards on the basis of supporting a large
number of their employees or members in receiving the individual
President’s Volunteer Service Awards.
- The awards will be available in the spring of this year, and will be
used to recognize the dedication of those who earn them and to celebrate
excellence in volunteering.
A Year of Accomplishment
- In July, President Bush launched the USA Freedom Corps Volunteer
Network – the largest clearinghouse of volunteer opportunities ever
created. It includes millions of opportunities to work with more than
60,000 organizations in all 50 United States and around the world. At
the same time, he unveiled public service announcements that send
viewers to the network. An estimated 2.7 million people will search for
ways to get involved through the USA Freedom Corps Volunteer Network
during its first year of operation.
- When President Bush issued his call to service last year, there was no
nationwide measure of volunteer behavior to use for setting goals and
standards for the USA Freedom Corps. Working with the Census Bureau and
Bureau of Labor Statistics, the USA Freedom Corps has helped to develop
a new measure of volunteer behavior based upon a massive nationwide
sample that includes 120,000 individuals 16 and older. The results of
the first survey tell us that more than one in four Americans – 59.1
million people – volunteered their time through a local organization
between September 2001 and September 2002.
- In the past year the national service programs that are part of the
USA Freedom Corps have touched millions of lives at home and abroad.
- 6,678 Peace Corps volunteers worked in 70 developing countries around
the world.
- The Peace Corps opened or re-opened programs in countries such as East
Timor, Peru, Bangladesh, Macedonia, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan,
and 38 countries have requested Peace Corps volunteers.
- AmeriCorps members taught and tutored hundreds of thousands of students,
maintained thousands of miles of trails, collected hundreds of tons of trash,
and immunized thousands of children.
- More than 500,000 Senior Corps members gave more than 100,000 children
preschool and daycare services, collaborated with hundreds of police and
community safety organizations, participated in thousands of environmental
education programs, and supported other seniors and adults in need of
long-term care with meals and other services.
- Since the launch of the USA Freedom Corps, interest in all of these
programs has grown significantly:
- The AmeriCorps program filled its enrollment goals faster than ever before
and measures of online applications show a more than 60 percent increase.
- Demand for information on Senior Corps programs for Americans age 55 and
over is also up.
- More than 115,000 potential Peace Corps volunteers requested applications in
2002, a more than 30 percent increase over 2001.
- The new Citizen Corps launched in 2002 is already supporting local volunteer
efforts that help communities prevent, prepare for, and respond to emergencies.
- More than 300 Citizen Corps Councils of first responder, local government
officials, and volunteer service organizations are up and running around the
country.
- Almost all 50 U.S. states and territories are supporting state or territory-wide
Citizen Corps Councils.
- Volunteers are working with police departments through more than 320 Volunteers
in Police Service programs.
- Doctors and nurses are joining Medical Reserve Corps units across the country.
- The number of registered Neighborhood Watch groups has more than doubled.
- Twice as many individuals have been trained to teach emergency response skills
through Community Emergency Response Teams.
- Businesses and schools are engaging employees, customers and students in volunteer
service. More than 160 businesses and business organizations that employ more than 2
million individuals have joined Business Strengthening America, and thousands of K-12
schools and after-school programs are using resources such as the USA Freedom Corps’
Students in Service to America guide and materials to engage young people in developing
lifelong habits of service.
- To help our young people develop a better understanding of our democratic
traditions and institutions, and create a better informed and more involved citizenry,
the USA Freedom Corps has helped to create new "We The People" and "Our Documents"
initiatives, and will host a White House Forum on American History, Civics, and Service
in February 2003.
For more information on today’s Presidential Action items or on the USA
Freedom Corps, please visit www.usafreedomcorps.gov.
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