Reaching for the Top: ServiceNation Summit (Part II)

Some of the best and brightest in the world of national service are getting together for the much-anticipated ServiceNation National Summit on Sept 11-12 in New York City.  The summit seeks to bring together powerful political, community, and corporate leaders from around the country in support of creating opportunities for all Americans to serve our country and solve the critical issues that face our nation today.

NPCA President Kevin Quigley, MorePeaceCorps Coordinator Rajeev Goyal and NPCA Board President Jan Guifarro will be representing the NPCA and the Peace Corps community.

The chance to speak out about increasing national service is not one we could pass up.  In fact, the goals of the Service Nation   movement align with many of the goals of our MorePeaceCorps campaign.  In an article about the value of and real need for "ten times the Peace Corps" (which we blogged about here) by NPCA President Keven Quigley with Lex Rieffel, highlights the positive effects increasing the size of the Peace Corps and service would have both nationally and internationally.

One of the great things about the ServiceNation movement is that while it focuses on national (American) service, it recognizes and celebrates the strong relationship between domestic and international service.  In its declaration, ServiceNation emphasizes that all communities help "build upon the strength of our nation’s diversity of ideas, experience, and perspectives as we unite to serve."  We've seen the correlation between service at home and service abroad and know that the unique perspective that service abroad brings enriches the service we do at home, and vice versa.

ServiceNation stresses the important point that service is essential to citizenship.  "By engaging individuals in a lifetime of service," ServiceNation says in its vision statement, "we will make service a defining ethic of what it means to be an American."  In supporting this movement we also know that service creates more than just state-bound citizens, it creates global citizens who are ready to meet the world's challenges with open minds and high spirits. 

Stay tuned to hear more about the ServiceNation Summit and the great things that happen when we all put our minds to making making a difference a priority!