Speeches by Secretary Elaine L. Chao

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Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao
Public/Private Ventures Volunteer Mentoring Project
February 12, 2002

Thank you, Reverend Isaac, I'm delighted to be here today.

Thank you Bennett Gamble and the DOL Choir …

I want to thank the clergy, police, and citizens who are here today as well …we have some exciting news to announce.

We gather in a house of hope. This is a place that changes lives, and I cannot think of a better place to share some good news.

Good news has been rare thing in Southeast Washington. These neighborhoods had some of the city's highest rates of homicides, teen pregnancy, and educational failure.

But then something happened. A concerned community created The East of the River Clergy-Police-Community Partnership. 30 churches, 5 law enforcement entities, and 25 community and social service groups came together with only one thing in mind: get results.

So they went to work. They didn't study the problem. They didn't form committees. They invested their lives into the neighborhood, mentoring and loving young people, and reclaiming a generation - and a community -- one person at a time.

And it's working. The murder rate among teens dropped 80%. Crime, violence, and drug abuse have been replaced by a new worldview of family, morality and spiritual values.

The police give this group the lion's share of credit. Why? Because the partnership started in the neighborhood, not at city hall or in the halls of Congress.

It's a simple idea -- an idea that we take seriously at the Department of Labor: give someone a little help, and you give them a lot of hope.

That's why I'm here today - to see how we can give faith-based and community groups a little help. We are here to learn, not to lead. And let me say that it's a real lesson in love.

To encourage these efforts, I am pleased to announce a new partnership between the Department of Labor and Public/Private Ventures. This is the Department's first test in linking one of our most important programs - Job Corps -- with a community collaboration of faith-based organizations, community organizations, police and local officials.

Job Corps helps thousands of young people each year. They earn an education. They learn job skills. It works, and so President Bush has proposed a large budget increase to expand its reach into more communities across the nation.

But Job Corps only goes so far. We want to see if good federal programs can be strengthened and improved by adding to them the important role of mentoring.

To do this, we are partnering 5 Job Corps Centers with 5 community initiatives that are helping at-risk youth. The East of the River Partnership is one of the sites.

The Department is also providing money - a $100,000 grant to P/PV to find out what works and what doesn't as well as provide some additional support to make this initiative succeed.

This is all part of President Bush's belief that compassion is the work of a nation, not just a government. When a program like East of the River succeeds, we should applaud and find ways to make it better.

When I was head of United Way of America and the Peace Corps, I saw first-hand what the President calls "the armies of compassion." I saw how caring citizens transformed lives and neighborhoods. I didn't forget their work when I got to the Labor Department.

Government does play a part - and I believe one of our roles is to lead by example. At the Department we are taking the President's challenge of volunteerism seriously. I am pleased to announce today that the Department will work to:

• remove all impediments to volunteer activities;
• encourage Department employees to increase their volunteerism; and
• review workplace legislation to make sure it does not harm volunteers or the organizations they serve.

We want to unleash a new spirit of volunteerism across America. And we can begin today by joining two wonderful programs together.

Thank you so much for your service. And thank you Rev. Isaac for all the work you are doing to bring hope to the lives of young people in Southeast Washington. I now want to turn this over to Gary Walker, President of Public/Private Ventures.

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