wfn.org | President's Summit

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3521 notes).

Note 3520 by UMNS on March 27, 1997 at 15:42 Eastern (3394 characters).

Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT:  Linda Bloom                            166(10-71B){3520}
          New York (212) 870-3803                   March 27, 1997

Mission agency will add
to commitments at summit

                 by United Methodist News Service

     The United Methodist Board of Global Ministries will join
with other nonprofit organizations and businesses in making
commitments for America's children.
     The commitments are part of an April 27-29 event in
Philadelphia called "the Presidents' Summit for America's Future."
President Clinton and the former U.S. presidents are co-chairmen
of the summit.
     According to Robert Walton, the board's executive secretary
for volunteer personnel, the idea for the summit originated with
the late Gov. George Romney of Michigan and became the joint
effort of two service organizations: The Corporation for National
Service and The Points of Light Foundation.
     The summit is organized around the premise that America's
children and youth must have access to five fundamental resources
to have healthy, fulfilling and productive lives. Those resources
are an ongoing relationship with a caring adult or mentor, safe
places to learn and grow, a healthy start, a marketable skill
through effective education and an opportunity to give back
through community service.
     Walton said that premise is "very consistent" with the
denomination's position on the needs of children and youth.
     During the event itself, Presidents Clinton, Bush and Ford,
along with First Ladies, will join in the call to commitment and
action. Then, local and national leaders from all sectors will
announce their organizational commitments to action. Finally,
delegates from about 100 communities in all 50 states will work
together to develop a concrete action plan.
     Examples of commitments already made are a pledge of $2
million from Kimberly-Clark Corporation to support building 
community playgrounds in 1997 and a plan by Columbia/HCA
Healthcare Corporation to immunize one million children by the
year 2000.
     For the board -- which currently is putting together its own
commitment for the summit -- "the goal is to get more volunteers
at work for meeting the needs of children and youth," Walton
explained.
     The board's task force on children and youth recently has
created a workbook for local congregations, "Putting Children and
Their Families First," to encourage community involvement. The
initial goal is to have 20,000 congregations use the resource and
establish their own teams on children and youth.
     Mission institutions and congregations also are being
encouraged to participate in three other initiatives -- President
Clinton's initiative on reading, work-study programs for students
and job placement for welfare recipients.
     Walton currently is writing a proposal through the National
Council of Churches that would allow volunteers in church-based
community programs to receive government educational awards.
     The AmeriCorps program, he explained, offers an educational
voucher of $4,725 for 1,700 hours of volunteer service that can be
used for educational fees or toward retiring a student loan.
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