National Service Agency Launches
3 New Initiatives to Enhance Citizenship
(Washington, D.C.)— The Corporation for National and Community Service is sponsoring
three new initiatives to enhance citizenship education and preserve important stories about
American history, national service chief Leslie Lenkowsky announced today.
The new projects are part of a nationwide series of programs focusing on civics and history,
announced by President George W. Bush in a Rose Garden ceremony today, the 215th anniversary
of the signing of the Constitution. (View President's remarks.)
"As the federal agency that administers national and community service programs, the
Corporation has always had a special responsibility to increase civic responsibility among
all Americans," Corporation CEO Lenkowsky said. "In the wake of September 11,
there is no better time to focus on what it means to be an American citizen and what all
of us ought to know about our history and government."
He added, "Through our three main programs-Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and Learn and Serve
America-we offer Americans of all ages opportunities to serve their communities and their
country, while also acquiring the knowledge and habits of being a good citizen. These new
initiatives will increase the contribution our service programs make to fostering civic
responsibility, while preserving an integral part of American history."
The three projects are:
• A partnership between Senior Corps and the American Folklife Center at the Library
of Congress to promote and extend the Veterans History Project. Senior volunteers will help
identify and locate veterans and those involved in significant home front activities, conduct
interviews, collect documents, create veterans history archives in local communities, and help
preserve and present veterans' stories to students and the public as a whole. Senior Corps
volunteers will be working with veterans of World War I, World War II, and the Korean,
Vietnam, and Persian Gulf Wars. More than 500,000 Americans 55 and older serve with Senior Corps.
• AmeriCorps members will participate in an expanded civics training program that will
focus on the responsibilities of American citizenship as seen in classic works of American
history. As part of the program, each AmeriCorps member will receive a selection of basic
documents, including the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Gettysburg
Address, which set out the nation's democratic principles, and will reflect on and discuss
the principles that define us as a country and the role service to our communities and our
nation plays in achieving them. Each year, 50,000 AmeriCorps members participate in service
to their neighbors and our nation.
• In its upcoming round of grants through Learn and Serve America, the Corporation
will focus on service and service-learning programs that seek to improve the teaching of
civics and American history. As a first step, the Corporation, in conjunction with the
Department of Education and the Points of Light Foundation, released "Students in
Service to America," a guidebook for teachers that emphasizes ways of connecting
service and citizenship. AmeriCorps and Senior Corps members will assist schools and
community groups in the civics instruction. Learn and Serve America engages more than
1 million students, from the elementary through college level, and community groups, in
service activities that are connected to academic coursework.
Created in 1993, the Corporation for National and Community Service engages more than 1.5
million Americans annually in community service through three programs: AmeriCorps, Senior
Corps, and Learn and Serve America. For more information, visit
www.nationalservice.org.
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