Background

On April 21, 2009, President Obama signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America

Act (SAA), the most sweeping expansion of national service in a generation. This 

landmark law is making America stronger by focusing service on key national issues;

expanding opportunities to serve; building the capacity of individuals, nonprofits, and

communities to succeed; and encouraging innovative approaches to solving problems.

Fulfilling the promise of the Act has been the top priority of the Corporation for

National and Community Service, the federal agency that leads the nation's service

and voluntary sector. One year after its enactment, volunteering is up, momentum is

strong, and a new vision for service is taking effect, one based on growth, innovation,

and targeting resources on our nation's pressing problems.

2011 - 2015 Strategic Plan

Every five years, Congress requests each

federal agency to adopt a strategic plan

that defines its missions, goals, and the

means by which it will measure its

progress. The Serve America Act is helping to shape the Corporation's Strategic

Plan for the next five years. Given the

breadth of the social impact focus areas

that are outlined in SAA, the

Corporation has many opportunities to

make significant progress in addressing

issues of critical concern to the nation. 

We began the strategic plan planning

process by defining our Key Objectives,

which summarize the Corporation's

impact that we intend to accomplish over

the next five years. We concentrated on

getting to "the root of the problem"

while ensuring that we kept our Key

Objectives broad enough to address

national challenges and needs. In 

addition, we sought to include Key

Objectives that would be aligned with

our strategic priorities, as outlined by our

CEO. These priorities include:

■ Service as a Solution

■ Expanding Opportunities to Serve

■ Build Enduring Capacity

■ Embrace Innovation

Interviews with industry experts and

thought leaders in the field were extremely

helpful in assisting our staff in honing in

on those Key Objectives that present the

most strategic opportunities in addressing

the focus areas outlined in the SAA. In

addition, we explored key objectives that

would allow us to deploy "place-based

strategies" and address multiple federal

agencies and initiatives. Finally, the Key

Objectives should be informed by our

past work, hold relevance in the years

ahead, and enable facilitation of community members serving their communities.

1201 New York Ave., NW 

Washington, DC 20525 

202-606-5000 

NationalService.gov

Five-Year Strategic Plan
1201 New York Ave., NW ★ Washington, DC 20525 ★ 202-606-5000 

NationalService.gov

September 2010

The Key Objectives

In light of these criteria and conversations with industry experts, thought leaders and stakeholders, we are

proposing the following themes for the Key Objectives:

The themes of the Key Objectives will continue to

be refined with experts and stakeholders through the

public input sessions and additional outreach efforts.

Once the Key Objectives are finalized, the staff will

propose a set of metrics and indicators to provide

additional specificity that will be used by the board

and the CEO to monitor the Corporation's performance. The result will be a "chain of outcomes" that

directly links the work of grantees, partners and service participants to the Key Objectives. 

We are on a collective journey and together, we can

provide opportunities for people to serve in a meaningful way. We genuinely want to hear from you.

The Corporation wants and encourages both 

current and potential new partners and grantees to

provide input and feedback on our strategic plan.

Opportunities for you to provide feedback include

the following:

■ Face-to-face Community Dialogues with our

CEO and Board of Directors

■ Numerous webinars for the general public

■ On-line message board

The feedback and input from our Community

Dialogues, webinars, and message board will be synthesized and shared with everyone whom we have on

record as participating. In addition, a summary

report will be posted on our website and disseminated broadly through our various listservs and other

communication mechanisms. 

Finally, the Strategic Plan itself will be posted on our

website in the fall of 2010 and we will share the plan

widely to ensure that you have a chance to examine

the plan that you helped to create!

Next Steps

Education •Improve graduation rates for students

•Improve grade-level performance

Healthy 

Futures

•Improve the health and wellness of individuals in the areas of obesity 

prevention, aging in place and access to health services

Environmental 

Stewardship

•Reduce consumption of fossil fuels 

Veterans •Increase economic, education and health opportunities for veterans and military 

families by leveraging national service, including veterans serving veterans 

Opportunity •Improve financial stability, access to affordable housing and employment 

opportunities for economically vulnerable families

Disaster

Preparedness

•Increase capacity of communities to serve vulnerable populations in the 

event of a disaster 

•Improve communities in disaster-affected areas

Focus Areas as Outlined in SAA Service as a

Solution

Expand Opportunities 

to Serve

Build Enduring 

Capacity

Embrace

Innovation