ServiceNation Summit, Sept. 11-12 in New York city, brought together 500 leaders of all ages and from every sector of American life —from universities and foundations, to business and politics—to celebrate the power and potential of citizen service, and lay out a bold policy blueprint for addressing America’s greatest social challenges through expanded opportunities for volunteer and national service.
The Summit began with a presidential candidates' forum the evening of September 11, where Senators McCain and Obama spoke in depth about their views on the role of citizenship and service in post-9/11 America. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg opened the proceedings continue the following day, and the summit concluded with keynote addresses by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who earlier this year became the first governor to create a cabinet post dedicated to service and volunteering, and Senator Hillary Clinton.
The ultimate goal of the ServiceNation Summit, is to kick off the movement to inspire an America in which, by 2020, 100 million citizens will volunteer time in schools, workplaces, and faith-based and community institutions each and every year (up from 61 million today), and that increasing numbers of Americans annually will commit a year of their lives to national service. that engages one million Americans a year in full-time service by the year 2020.
At the Summit, leaders stepped up to the challenge. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Caroline Kennedy (in place of her uncle, Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA)) announced the bipartisan Serve America Act, which creates strong governmental support for service through programs in the private and public sector. Other attendees, from university presidents to bank executives, made a variety of commitments to service; you can view them here. You can watch video from the event on SNTV.
The ServiceNation Summit was co-chaired by Caroline Kennedy, Alma Powell (Chair of America’s Promise Alliance), TIME’s Richard Stengel, Vartan Gregorian (President of Carnegie Corporation of New York), and Bill Novelli (CEO of AARP). It was underwritten by a grant from Carnegie Corporation and presented by TIME, AARP and Target.
View the Summit Program.
For more information, download our Frequently Asked Questions.
