President Obama established this new Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships because he recognizes a truth that you all know well: that we are facing some pretty big challenges as a country. If we are going to meet all of these challenges, the President knows that we will not do so in Washington, D.C. alone. Instead, we need to partner with you - with faith-based and community organizations that are working every day to solve these challenges and strengthen our nation.
United States Department of Agriculture Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships
The USDA Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships is a resource to help connect you to USDA resources, so together we can meet President Obama's priorities: Strengthen the Role of Community Organizations in the Economic Recovery; Promote Responsible Fatherhood and Healthy Families; Support Maternal and Child Health; and Foster Interfaith Dialogue and Cooperation.
Note: President Obama's Executive Order of February 2009 changed the name of the White House office from "The White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives" to "The White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships".
The White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships builds partnerships between government, faith-based and neighborhood organizations to better serve individuals, families, and communities.
The White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships will focus on four key priorities: Strengthening the Role of Community Organizations in the Economic Recovery; Reducing Unintended Pregnancies, Supporting Maternal and Child Health, and Reducing the Need for Abortion; Promoting Responsible Fatherhood and Healthy Families; and Fostering Interfaith Dialogue and Cooperation.
Centers for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships
Efforts associated with these key priorities are carried out by working closely with the President's Cabinet Secretaries and the eleven agency Centers for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, as well as the Strategic Advisor at the Corporation for National and Community Service: Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Homeland Security; U.S. Agency for International Development, Veterans Affairs, Agriculture; Commerce, Education, Corporation for National and Community Service; Justice, Labor, Small Business Administration
President's Advisory Council
The President's Advisory Council is made up of 25 religious and secular community leaders serving one year terms. The Council, after conducting its research, reviews, and deliberation, will submit a written description on how the federal government can more effectively partner with community-based organizations in 6 specific areas: Reform of the Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships Office; Economic Recovery and Domestic Poverty; Fatherhood and Healthy Families; Inter-religious Cooperation; Environment and Climate Change; Global Poverty and Development
Biography:
Max Finberg, Director, USDA Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships
Max Finberg has dedicated his career to serving others, especially hungry people. He has a wide range of experience in the government, non-profit, and political arenas.
In May 2009, he was appointed by Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to direct USDA's Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Contained in the Office of the Secretary, the Center's mission is to build partnerships between USDA and faith-based and neighborhood organizations to better serve individuals, families and communities. The USDA Center works closely with the President Obama's White House Office on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. USDA administers programs that benefit one in five Americans with nutrition assistance, contribute to rural development, promote environmental stewardship and feed hungry people around the world.
Previously, he was the first director of the Alliance to End Hunger, a non-profit organization that engages diverse institutions in building the public will to end hunger, both in the United States and worldwide. The Alliance connects U.S. businesses, religious bodies, charities, foundations and individual donors to change the politics of hunger.
Prior to joining the Alliance, Mr. Finberg served Ambassador and former Representative Tony Hall (D-OH) for 12 years in a variety of capacities. He was special assistant to the ambassador at the U.S. Mission to the UN Agencies for Food and Agriculture in Rome, Italy, where he lived for almost three years. The U.S. Mission relates to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Program (WFP) and the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD).
Mr. Finberg was also senior legislative assistant covering domestic hunger and poverty issues for Representative Hall. He worked on the successful passage of The Hunger Relief Act and the Community Solutions Act with a variety of anti-poverty and faith-based organizations.
Mr. Finberg was the founding director of the Mickey Leland Hunger Fellows Program at the Congressional Hunger Center. He helped to start this unique fellowship program that fights hunger by developing leaders through a combination of direct service and public policy experience. The Program is now in its 16th year.
In 1990, he was selected as a Harry Truman Scholar from New York for his commitment to public service. He is an Eagle Scout, is involved with the Third Street Church of God and has been active with various initiatives around racial and religious reconciliation. He has traveled to almost 50 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.
Mr. Finberg graduated with honors from Howard University's School of Divinity with a master's degree in Social Ethics and with bachelor's degrees in Political Science, German and International Relations from Tufts University, where he met his wife Katherine. Their daughter, Eliana, was born in Rome in March 2005 and son, Matthias, was born in Washington, DC in July 2008. Max was born and raised in the Catskill Mountains of Upstate New York.
, a non-profit organization that engages diverse institutions in building the public will to end hunger, both in the United States and worldwide. The Alliance connects U.S. businesses, religious bodies, charities, foundations and individual donors to change the politics of hunger.