wfn.org | Lutheran Services in America Welcomes Towey Appointment

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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

February 1, 2002

LUTHERAN SERVICES IN AMERICA WELCOMES TOWEY APPOINTMENT
02-021-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The president and chair of Lutheran Services in
America (LSA) expressed their pleasure that James Towey will head the
White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.  Jill
Schumann, LSA president and CEO, Baltimore, and the Rev. Nelson C.
Meyer, LSA chair and president of Lutheran Social Services of Central
Ohio, Columbus, Ohio, were on hand when President Bush announced the
appointment Feb. 1 at the White House in Washington, D.C.
     "There has been a groundswell of people wanting to help the
country in some way since last September," said Schumann.  "While many
Americans are serving the country overseas, LSA has long known the equal
importance of the foot soldiers here at home who serve in the army of
compassion," she said.
     Schumann said it was imperative that the White House and Congress
move quickly to ensure adequate funding, because so many of the nation's
people desperately require the partnership between the government and a
wide range of faith-based organizations.
     "Last year, there were LSA services that were simply overbooked,
and we could have helped so many more people," Schumann said.  "Even
more people will need help during this recession."
     Towey is an attorney who founded Aging With Dignity in 1996 to
promote better care for people facing the end of life.  He was legal
counsel for Mother Teresa of Calcutta for 12 years and served one year
as a full-time volunteer in her home for people with AIDS in Washington,
D.C.  Prior to that he directed Florida's health and social services
agency.
     LSA is the largest human service network in the United States and
Caribbean.  Its 280 social ministry organizations, in alliance with the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and Lutheran Church-Missouri
Synod, form a national network of hospital, social service and long-term
care programs, providing $6.9 billion in services in 3,000 communities
each year.
     "Lutheran health and human service organizations and congregations
form a patchwork quilt of local organizations that are regionally and
nationally linked, so some can offer coordination and technical skill,
while others are the sorts of faith-based groups the administration is
hoping to engage through these new initiatives," said Schumann.
     "It is clear that the government plays the key role in addressing
the acute and chronic needs for service and justice in our communities,
but we are pleased to build on a long history of faith-based
organizations assisting in that work," she said.  "We are encouraged to
think that many types of services, including mentoring, prison programs
and services to pregnant teens will receive the attention and funding
they need truly to  make a difference."
     In his State of the Union address Jan. 29, Bush announced the
creation of a "USA Freedom Corps" to bolster the number of AmeriCorps,
Senior Corps and Peace Corps volunteers and to initiate a Crisis Corps.
The next day, he appointed John Bridgeland as executive director of USA
Freedom Corps.
     "Given the numbers of people in need, we applaud the president's
call for a greater level of volunteer participation in communities and
believe that faith-based organizations can be effective channels for
that energy," Schumann said.  "We see the range of faith-based
organizations as remarkable community assets."
     "We support the development of new and creative approaches to
mobilizing all of the people and resources in communities to solve
problems," Schumann added.
     One year earlier, Bush created centers for Faith-Based and
Community Initiatives in the Departments of Health and Human Services,
Housing and Urban Development, Labor, Justice, and Education, ordering
each to identify all existing barriers to the participation of
faith-based and community organizations in federal social service
programs.
     Bush appointed John J. DiIulio Jr. as the first director of the
White House Office on Faith-Based and Community Initiatives,
coordinating the work of the five centers.  Dijulio resigned in August.

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