National service, not lip service

ONE THING Barack Obama and John McCain agree on is that each would make a new call for citizen service central to his presidency. Indeed, last night the two contenders were scheduled to appear (separately) at a televised forum to promote greater civic engagement as part of a Sept. 11 remembrance called the ServiceNation Summit. Done correctly, national service slices across partisan lines, appealing both to the self-reliant "thousand points of light" volunteerism favored by conservatives and the communitarian "it takes a village" ideals that animate liberals.

Today, Washington's favorite bipartisan couple, Ted Kennedy and Republican Orrin Hatch of Utah, will file legislation to dramtically increase opportunities for Americans to volunteer, making it as integral a part of citizenship as voting. Using the model of AmeriCorps, the bill establishes five new "corps" for volunteers, including areas such as international service, disaster relief, and a green energy corps, as well as the traditional focus on education and poverty.

The bill creates tax breaks for businesses that give workers paid time off for service, and sets up "encore fellowships" for baby boomers seeking alternative retirements. In all, the goal is to expand the number of Americans who do regular service work to 100 million from the current 61 million.

Kennedy is an ideal champion of this cause, since he wrote the first National Community Service Act in 1989, and since so many successful service models, from City Year to Citizen Schools, started in Boston. Alan Khazei, co-founder of City Year, who now runs the national group Be the Change, said volunteerism needs to be woven more intricately into the national fabric. "This is really going to bring it to scale," he said.

Vast majorities of Americans say they want to volunteer but don't know where to start. It is this social infrastructure that national legislation can fund and support - even though some may feel government involvement in volunteerism is a contradiction in terms. Someone needs to train and coordinate volunteers, and get them linked to projects that match their interests and skills. And the bill would provide grants to volunteer start-ups, encouraging the kind of social entrepreneurship that created City Year, and measuring their performance.

To get people to take the first step, ServiceNation is sponsoring a National Day of Action on Sept. 27, with over 2,300 service events scheduled across the country; 109 within 50 miles of Boston alone.

After Sept. 11, most Americans yearned to be tapped to do something larger for their country. It's not too late to start.