A new coalition of more than 100 organizations will kick off a campaign for national service with a ServiceNation Summit in New York this September. The summit has heavyweight sponsorship from Carnegie Corporation, AARP and Target. The campaign emphasizes service by older Americans, including a proposed Encore Service Corps that would provide opportunities in education, youth development, family and aging services, community and economic development, public health, and safety and environment. Celebrity political appearances are slated for New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger; Barack Obama and John McCain have been invited to a presidential forum to discuss their views on citizenship. Via Encorecareers.org.

ServiceNation is part of a broader move to inspire a national service movement, and plays very much to the Boomer-oriented theme of career reinvention and giving back:

The ultimate goal of the ServiceNation Summit, which will also promulgate a Declaration of Service that all Americans will be invited to sign, is to inspire an America in which, by 2020, 100 million citizens will volunteer time in schools, workplaces, and faith-based and community institutions each and every year (up from 61 million today), and that increasing numbers of Americans annually will commit a year of their lives to national service. that engages one million Americans a year in full-time service by the year 2020.

The organization’s sponsor list includes AARP, Time magazine and Home Depot; a full list is here.

Tags | volunteering