NCJ Number
190929
Date Published
January 2001
Length
26 pages
Annotation
This paper sets out President George W. Bush's policy and strategy for increasing Federal assistance to grassroots faith-based and community-service organizations involved in serving the poor, renewing families, and rebuilding neighborhoods.
Abstract
The paper notes that as part of welfare reform and efforts to address community problems such as drug addiction, the Federal Government and State governments have already begun to collaborate with community and faith-based groups. President Bush announced in this paper an intention to expand this collaboration by offering individuals and families more choices for services in a manner fully compliant with the U.S. Constitution. The proposed Federal policy was based in the belief that faith-based and grassroots groups that achieve good results should be eligible to compete for Federal funds. Further, the Federal Government should do more to encourage private giving from individuals, corporations, foundations, and others. The policy presented in this paper includes an outline of the agenda to enlist, equip, enable, empower, and expand the works of faith-based and community groups. The building blocks of the effort are two Executive Orders, already signed, that call for the creation of a high-level White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives and that instruct five Cabinet departments to establish Centers for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. The texts of these Executive orders are presented in this paper.