Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act

The following is a letter about the what's going around the national service movement. 

Sadia --

One year ago today, President Obama signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act into law.

This landmark bill signaled the largest expansion of national service since FDR.

After just one year, we're already seeing great progress. Congress approved more than $1 billion in funding for the Corporation for National and Community Service -- a historic increase that will help fund new programs like the Summer of Service and the Social Innovation Fund. At this very moment, the Corporation is processing hundreds of grant applications and will soon release many millions of dollars to service organizations nationwide.

With the support of the Serve America Act, the service movement is really taking off across the country. More and more people are learning about the many benefits of volunteering, and they're getting more and more opportunities to participate.

Help keep this momentum going and tell everyone you know about the one-year anniversary of the Serve America Act. Click here to spread the word through email or on Facebook and Twitter (hashtag #ServeAmerica):

Recently, we at ServiceNation heard some wise words from one of our supporters in Texas. Emily wrote,

I am so proud of my country for passing the unique and momentous legislation that is the Serve America Act. Yet there is much work to be done.

I couldn't agree more.

That's why today, on this one-year anniversary, a group of top service leaders are meeting in a series of "Solution Sessions" to develop a plan to expand service even further. We will put special emphasis on fostering new service opportunities to support the economic recovery, build job skills, and help soften the blow of government service cuts.

At the same time, ServiceNation supporters across the country are holding their own meetings to plan new service efforts in their communities.

We're not resting on the success of the Serve America Act. Instead, we're using it as inspiration to ratchet up our efforts even more. I hope you'll be part of this -- spread the word about today's anniversary and our plans for the future of service:

Spread the Word

Yours in service,

Greg Propper
Executive Director
ServiceNation

AGENDA PLANNING!

Remembering Forward

April 23, 2010

 
 Introduction + NAMES + Partner Portraits

 Goals:

1.   To introduce program participants to Remembering Forward

2.   To assess the needs of students/seniors in community program

3.   Facilitate a beginning discussion of cultural and age difference between seniors and youth

4.   To begin community building process using service learning model

(About 2 hours of prep time before session begins--which includes shopping for supplies, picking up food order, prepping the room, collecting paperwork, and calling all students and seniors!) 

2:00-2:30	Set up.  Sign in. Lunch/Snacks.
2:30-2:45	Welcome. Introduction to Remembering Forward
2:45 -3:05	Icebreaker: Name Wave
3:10-3:20	Community Guidelines (if necessary let this go)
3:25-3:35	Warm up Activity: THE INTERVIEW- Introduce your partner to group using questions around her Name
3:35-4:00	Partner Portraits
4:00-4:20	Sharing your Portraits
4:00-4:20	Evaluations I recognize there is a huge time crunch towards the end, during which I am doing basically two distinct activities at once. This is a problem. I must shorten the time somewhere else, but where? I know evaluations are CRUCIAL for future program development, but I need to find a way to make it super fast and easy. Or alternatively, move some of the items off my agenda.