wfn.org | NCCCUSA Commits to Expand Ecumenical Service

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org]

Contact: Wendy S. McDowell, NCCCUSA, 212-870-2227
NCC4/30/97 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Program, Develop Communications System at 
Presidents' Summit

 PHILADELPHIA, April 30 ---- Answering the 
challenge to increase volunteer services issued at 
the Presidents' Summit for America's Future held 
here April 27-29, the National Council of Churches 
(NCC) has made two commitments.

Through its delegate the Rev. Dr. Joan Brown 
Campbell, General Secretary of the NCC, the NCC has 
committed to quadrupling the number of full-time 
volunteers in its model Ecumenical Program for Urban 
Service (EPRUS) from 1,700 to 7,000 by the year 
2,000 as well as to developing a communications and 
networking system for volunteer resourcing to 
increase ecumenical volunteer programs throughout 
the country by 25 percent.

 "We have accepted the President's challenge.  
We will expand a national volunteer program that has 
already proven itself in several cities and develop 
a network among successful local volunteer 
programs," said Dr. Campbell.  "Churches, synagogues 
and mosques have always provided a reliable source 
of volunteers and will meet this challenge for the 
future."

The NCC's expansion of EPRUS will generate 
11,900,000 volunteer hours.  The EPRUS program was 
the pioneer education awards programs which provides 
vouchers and a stipend to AmeriCorps volunteers who 
serve children and youth in five cities throughout 
the country (see two additional stories).  EPRUS was 
one of the model programs at the Philadelphia 
Summit.

 Additionally, the NCC will include its 33 
Protestant and Orthodox communions, 350 local 
ecumenical agencies and the Council of Religious 
Volunteer Agencies in a communications and 
networking system designed to increase already 
extensive volunteer programs for children and youth 
sponsored by these organizations.

 The Rev. Dr. Robert E. Walton, Managing 
Director of EPRUS, pointed out that the 7,000 
volunteer figure "compares with the 10,000 that 
President Clinton talked about in his speech at the 
Summit."  The commitment will be carried out through 
the NCC's 33 partner denominations, he explained, 
and will include Black, Latino/Latina, Native 
American and Asian churches.  "This is a very multi-
racial program," he stressed.

 EPRUS has a national pool of 40 trainers and a 
field staff of 12 people who help coordinate the 
program.

 The NCC will waste no time in working towards 
the commitments made at the Summit.  Plans are 
already in place to expand the EPRUS volunteer corps 
to 5,000 by 1997-1998.

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