howcanihelp.gov - My Idea for Obama
Oddly enough, seemingly out of nowhere, I got home from work today and felt the need to send an email to the White House about an idea I had while sitting in traffic on Peachtree Road: howcanihelp.gov. I jumped on the new whitehouse.gov site, went to the Contact Us page and cranked this out:
Greetings!
I have an idea. In our current national environment, it seems to me that there are plenty of local/state/federal government agencies who may benefit greatly from volunteer support from the citizenry. I was watching a clip of Kennedy’s famous speech today and the “ask what you can do for your country” quote really struck a chord.
The web gives us an incredible ability to deliver the volunteer needs of our government to many millions of citizens instantaneously. I propose that you start a new website named “howcanihelp.gov” that will serve as the country’s portal and central repository of government-related volunteer needs. The site would provide an area for government agencies to login and post their volunteer needs. This information would be posted to the website, which would feature many searching options, automatic notification of new needs in a citizen’s area and rich tie-ins to major social networking hubs.
The types of needs posted on the site could be as simple as beautification of local parks. All over the country, there are many agencies who could benefit from volunteer help. There are also hundreds of thousands of people who would love to help the country out in any way they can. People love making an impact, but many may not know how they can best serve their country.
As the director of product management at a web-based software company that provides web solutions for non-profit associations, this seems like a very inexpensive operation to run and would only require a small team to operate effectively. Assuming that there are about 300 million people in the US, even if we only had .01% participation we would still have 30,000 people. If those people averaged 5 hours of volunteer time a year, we would have 150,000 hours.
Independentsector.org estimates that the dollar value for volunteer time in 2007 was $19.51 per hour. (Looking at the trend, the 2008 value will be slightly higher when results are released later in the spring.) With 150,000 volunteer hours, we just created 2.9 million dollars in value. The cost of designing, programming and hosting the solution as well as employee costs would be significantly less.
I would love to see something like this get off the ground as it would be valuable to all Americans. If you have any questions or would like further clarification on my ideas, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thanks for your time!
Best Regards,
Kevin Patrick
What do you think? Does howcanihelp.gov sound like a good idea, that can be easily deployed and make an impact on communities all over the US? Light up the comments section with your opinions and ideas.
Well, at least I got a response:
Good afternoon,
You are receiving this email because you signed up at WhiteHouse.gov. My staff and I plan to use these messages as a way to directly communicate about important issues and opportunities, and today I have some encouraging updates about health care reform.
The Vice President and I just met with leaders from the House of Representatives and received their commitment to pass a comprehensive health care reform bill by July 31.
We also have an unprecedented commitment from health care industry leaders, many of whom opposed health reform in the past. Monday, I met with some of these health care stakeholders, and they pledged to do their part to reduce the health care spending growth rate, saving more than two trillion dollars over the next ten years — around $2,500 for each American family. Then on Tuesday, leaders from some of America’s top companies came to the White House to showcase innovative ways to reduce health care costs by improving the health of their workers.
Now the House and Senate are beginning a critical debate that will determine the health of our nation’s economy and its families. This process should be transparent and inclusive and its product must drive down costs, assure quality and affordable health care for everyone, and guarantee all of us a choice of doctors and plans.
Reforming health care should also involve you. Think of other people who may want to stay up to date on health care reform and other national issues and tell them to join us here:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/EmailUpdates
Health care reform can’t come soon enough. We spend more on health care than any country, but families continue to struggle with skyrocketing premiums and nearly 46 million are without insurance entirely. It is a priority for the American people and a pillar of the new foundation we are seeking to build for our economy.
We’ll continue to keep you posted about this and other important issues.
Thank you,
Barack Obama
P.S. If you’d like to get more in-depth information about health reform and how you can participate, be sure to visit http://www.HealthReform.gov.
Just got this today in my email… this sounds pretty close to what you suggested!
Dear Friend,
Last week, I announced United We Serve – a nationwide call to service challenging you and all Americans to volunteer this summer and be part of building a new foundation for America.
And when I say “all,” I mean everyone – young and old, from every background, all across the country. We need individuals, community organizations, corporations, foundations, and our government to be part of this effort.
Today, for the official kick off of United We Serve, members of my administration have fanned out across America to participate in service events and encourage all Americans to join them.
The First Lady is rolling up her sleeves and getting to work too. But before she headed out today, she asked me to share this message with you.
Our nation faces some of the greatest challenges it has in generations and we know it’s going to take a lot of hard work to get us back on track.
While Michelle and I are calling on every American to participate in United We Serve, the call to service doesn’t end this fall. We need to stay involved in our towns and communities for a long time to come. After all, America’s new foundation will be built one neighborhood at a time – and that starts with you.
Thank you,
President Barack Obama