Every day in communities across the nation, volunteers work to help solve critical social problems. Their efforts effect real change in their own neighborhoods and communities and in the nation as a whole.
Volunteers give our country hope for the future.
These millions of volunteers come from diverse backgrounds and use their unique talents and experiences to address unmet human, educational, environmental and public safety needs in their communities. They join family members, friends, neighbors and co-workers in service. And they volunteer through their workplaces, schools, places of worship, civic clubs and community organizations. The President's Service Awards, formerly called the President's Volunteer Action Awards, were created in 1982 to honor outstanding individuals and groups engaged in voluntary service to help solve serious social problems. Over the last 17 years, there have been 320 recipients of the President's Award.