"From Obama’s Cairo Speech to Action: A Discussion of Interfaith Initiatives in the Obama Administration"
 
Rob Lalka
 
Rob offered an important distinction at the start of his opening remarks. He emphasized that diplomacy can no longer be defined as government to government relations. Rather, it is critical to engage countries – including our own – from the ground up. He asked "How can we, as diplomats, utilize mobile and networking technologies to engage the world community?" He also said that as a civil servant, this administration is doing a phenomenal job going back to the text of the Cairo address and taking very specific and intentional steps to move towards those goals.
 
Mara Vanderslice
 
President Obama has made the theme of interfaith service and cooperation a central tenet of his presidency. Of the four priorities laid out for the Office of Faith Based and Neighbourhood Partnerships, one of these is explicitly interfaith dialogue and cooperation. On the day of his Cairo speech, some of the main themes that emerged in the address have their roots in the recommendations of groups like IFYC and the advisory board. The office will also begin to look at how the government can partner with religious and specifically interfaith organizations to promote their goals. It is an absolute priority to engage the work that these groups to promote productive outcomes, utilizing central themes from all religions such as the oneness of humanity and a universal call to service.
 
John Kelly
 
The Corporation for National Community Service, though its name would suggest otherwise, is a branch of the federal government that encompasses organizations like AmeriCorps, VISTA, and Senior Corps. John said that currently, not only is interfaith service a priority for the president, service in general has become a major priority for the president. In his joint address to congress this year, President Obama said that we need to reinvest in service – and this has come to fruition. By April, Obama had signed legislation called the "Kennedy Serve America Act" to more than triple the size of federal government support for service by 2017 through programs such as AmeriCorps. For nstance, AmeriCorps currently has 100,000 members. By 2017, the organization will have 250,000. For such a large expansion of such a program, it is entirely necessary that federal programs partner with private non-profits. In addition to these expansions of existing programs, the government will implement new programs, such as "Summer of Service" and "Semester of Service," both focused on youth. Also, the government intends to expand and create programs that assist and provide resources to non-profits.
 
Question and Answer:
 
How can people in this audience interact with these offices and organizations run by government?
 
The government is interacting with new people and businesses and new ways. There is much more flexibility today to go through perhaps unused lines of communication. That said, there is still a long way to go to make it easier for people to engage in partnership with federal offices and programs. Individuals are the ones who will make the difference through relationship building and community organizing.
Visit Whitehouse.gov/partnerships and Serve.gov/partnerships
 
How can organizations that are known to be interfaith in nature be more attractive to grants and business who do not want to get into the "sticky business of faith?"
 
The interfaith emphasis of the White House should help with this. This is something that with which interfaith organizations can help themselves. If you let the government know of your interfaith service efforts via serve.gov, they will be promoted and highlighted. The more interfaith service efforts that are publicized, the more "mainstream" interfaith will be. Interfaith as a societal norm is the end goal to get away from this challenge.
 
 
 
Lucas Artaiz
Interfaith Youth Core Intern
October 25th, 2009