USA Freedom Corps
Encyclopedia
Executive Office of the President of the United States
The Executive Office of the President consists of the immediate staff of the President of the United States, as well as multiple levels of support staff reporting to the President. The EOP is headed by the White House Chief of Staff, currently William M. Daley...
under George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
, who as President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
served as its chair. Bush announced its creation in his State of the Union Address
State of the Union Address
The State of the Union is an annual address presented by the President of the United States to the United States Congress. The address not only reports on the condition of the nation but also allows the president to outline his legislative agenda and his national priorities.The practice arises...
of January 29, 2002, and it was officially established on January 30, 2002, the next day. It described itself as a "Coordinating Council... working to strengthen our culture of service and help find opportunities for every American to start volunteering."
A USA Freedom Corps Network and online clearinghouse promoted individual volunteer service opportunities within the United States and abroad and connected Americans to opportunities to serve in federal programs, such as AmeriCorps, Peace Corps and Senior Corps or to find local service opportunities by zip code and interest. The council and office were also involved with U.S. federal government
Federal government of the United States
The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...
service programs and provided new support for existing programs such as the Peace Corps
Peace Corps
The Peace Corps is an American volunteer program run by the United States Government, as well as a government agency of the same name. The mission of the Peace Corps includes three goals: providing technical assistance, helping people outside the United States to understand US culture, and helping...
, AmeriCorps
AmeriCorps
AmeriCorps is a U.S. federal government program that was created under President Bill Clinton by the National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993 and later expanded by 50 percent under President George W. Bush...
and Senior Corps
Senior Corps
Senior Corps is a United States government agency under the authority of the Corporation For National and Community Service. Its stated mission is to provide aid to senior citizens in communities while promoting a sense of community...
. AmeriCorps grew from 50,000 to 75,000 in 2004. The Peace Corps reached its highest levels in more than 30 years. Freedom Corps also created new programs such as the Citizen Corps for homeland security, Volunteers for Prosperity for international volunteering, and a President's Council on Service and Civic Participation, which promoted the new President's Volunteer Service Award.
Henry C. Lozano
Henry Lozano
Henry Lozano is a non-profit executive and grassroots organizer. His years of public service culminated in his post at the White House as Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of USA Freedom Corps...
was Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of USA Freedom Corps from September 11, 2007 until July 25, 2008. He was preceded by Desiree Thompson Sayle and succeeded by Alison T. Young. The first director of the program was John Bridgeland
John Bridgeland
John M. Bridgeland is President and CEO of Civic Enterprises, a public policy firm in Washington, D.C. and vice-Chair of Malaria No More, a non-profit launched at the White House Summit on Malaria that is creating a grassroots, global movement to engage the private and non-profit sectors in...
, previously director of the Domestic Policy Council on George W. Bush's White House staff.
The USA Freedom Corps also announced it has begun to work "with educators and others to help increase civic awareness and participation" across the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and hosted a White House Summit on American History, Civics and Service, resulting in new initiatives to support civic education at the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Archives. In his 2003 State of the Union Address, President Bush also announced that his USA Freedom Corps would provide new support school-based and community-based mentoring, including mentoring children of prisoners, working in partnership with his faith-based initiative. The goal to reach 100,000 children of prisoners with mentors was met.
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
, the body sought in part to encourage volunteer participation in homeland security
Homeland security
Homeland security is an umbrella term for security efforts to protect states against terrorist activity. Specifically, is a concerted national effort to prevent terrorist attacks within the U.S., reduce America’s vulnerability to terrorism, and minimize the damage and recover from attacks that do...
.
USA Freedom Corps put in place the first annual measurement of volunteer service at the Census Bureau. Volunteering rose from 59.8 million Americans from September 2001 to 65.4 million Americans by September 2005, sustaining the wave of volunteering that occurred after the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
In a commentary on the right-wing
Right-wing politics
In politics, Right, right-wing and rightist generally refer to support for a hierarchical society justified on the basis of an appeal to natural law or tradition. To varying degrees, the Right rejects the egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics, claiming that the imposition of equality is...
website NewsMax.com, Miguel A. Faria Jr. attacked the program as statist and collectivist, a "bureaucratic boondoggle" that might evolve into "compulsory service," and the name "USA Freedom Corps" as an instance of Orwellian
Orwellian
"Orwellian" describes the situation, idea, or societal condition that George Orwell identified as being destructive to the welfare of a free society...
Newspeak
Newspeak
Newspeak is a fictional language in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. In the novel, it refers to the deliberately impoverished language promoted by the state. Orwell included an essay about it in the form of an appendix in which the basic principles of the language are explained...
. Meanwhile, in a piece on the left-wing
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
magazine American Prospects site, Jeremy Lott
Jeremy Lott
Jeremy Lott is an American writer, editor, and pundit. He is currently editor of and associate editor of . Lott has written several books and hacked out maybe a thousand articles on everything from conservatism to lawn mowing...
critically linked the announcement of the Corps' creation to the controversial Operation TIPS
Operation TIPS
Operation TIPS, where the last part is an acronym for the Terrorism Information and Prevention System, was a domestic intelligence-gathering program designed by President George W. Bush to have United States citizens report suspicious activity...
, a program encouraging citizens to report 'suspicious activity'.
The Corps came to international attention on January 3, 2005, when George W. Bush named former presidents George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
and Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
to lead a major campaign, through the Corps, to raise funds
Fundraising
Fundraising or fund raising is the process of soliciting and gathering voluntary contributions as money or other resources, by requesting donations from individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies...
from private individuals and businesses to provide humanitarian support
Humanitarian response to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake
The humanitarian response to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was prompted by one of the worst natural disasters of modern times. On 26 December 2004, the earthquake, which struck off the northwest coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, generated a tsunami that wreaked havoc along much of the...
for victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunamis
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake
The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea megathrust earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on Sunday, December 26, 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The quake itself is known by the scientific community as the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake...
. President Obama followed the USA Freedom Corps model by tapping Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton to lead the fundraising efforts in the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti in 2010.
Key components of the USA Freedom Corps have been continued under the administration of President Obama, including the Volunteers for Prosperity program that was authorized under the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act and signed into law by President Obama; the Citizen Corps for homeland security and its component programs (Volunteers in Police Service
Volunteers in Police Service
The Volunteers in Police Service is a volunteer program that provides volunteer assistance to local police. The program is managed by the International Association of Chiefs of Police in partnership with the White House Office of the USA Freedom Corps and the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office...
, Medical Reserve Corps
Medical Reserve Corps
The Medical Reserve Corps is a network in the U.S. of community-based units initiated and established by local organizations to meet the public health needs of their communities. It is sponsored by the Office of the Surgeon General of the United States...
, Community Emergency Response Teams
Community Emergency Response Team
In the United States a community emergency response team can refer to* one of five federal programs promoted under the umbrella organization Citizen Corps, which is funded in part by the Stafford Act;...
, Fire Corps and Citizen Corps Councils); the President's Volunteer Service Award; and the White House USA Freedom Corps office, now called the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation. The USA Freedom Corps online clearinghouse was also continued and is now found at serve.gov. The volunteering survey that was put in place by USA Freedom Corps was authorized into law by President Obama's signing of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act. The White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, which was under the USA Freedom Corps, has also been continued by President Obama under a different name.
External links
- USA Freedom Corps Celebrates Two Year Anniversary, 2004 press release from the Republican National CommitteeRepublican National CommitteeThe Republican National Committee is an American political committee that provides national leadership for the Republican Party of the United States. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Republican political platform, as well as coordinating fundraising and election strategy. It is...