Since the launch of the Faith-Based and Community Initiative in January 2001, its purpose was clear: to lead a determined attack on poverty, disease, and other social ills in partnership with faith-based and other community organizations (FBCOs).
These committed organizations the "armies of compassion." They include small and large service organizations, all-volunteer charities, international nonprofits, faith-based institutions and groups with no religious affiliation. With a vast diversity of styles and approaches, these organizations meet the needs of the distressed and downtrodden every day, one life and heart at a time.
The Initiative shared many goals of previous Federal efforts to help those in need, but past government attempts often functioned in bureaucratic ways that were disconnected from the communities they served. These compassionate intentions frequently failed to produce compassionate results.
The FBCI took a different approach. It offered no single national solution or new one-size-fits-all program designed in Washington. Instead, it turned Washington's focus toward collaborating with the effective organizations and activities already working in local communities to built opportunity and hope.
Over the past eight years, this vision has transformed the way government addresses critical human needs. The FBCI has made the creativity, local engagement, and personal touch of FBCOs central to nearly every Federal effort to solve the social ills of our time.
Expanding the role of local nonprofits in addressing need was not an entirely new idea. But never before had it been applied as a national strategy for combating deep needs across America and around the world. Under this new vision, the resources of government are consistently paired with the compassion and ingenuity of FBCOs.
The process of reforming government is difficult and slow. Over time, however, a Federal culture accustomed to large, bureaucratic programs has been opened to localized, community-driven solutions through the efforts of the FBCI. Regulations and practices that previously discouraged faith-based groups from partnering with government were changed to allow a level playing field for all capable organizations. New models for partnership between government and grassroots groups were created, tested, and refined.
As a result, an ever-growing array of faith-based nonprofits and other community groups have joined in the FBCI's work, partnering with government to engage needs from homelessness, substance abuse, and vulnerable youth to malaria and global HIV/AIDS.
Together, these nonprofit partners possess many strengths that complement the size and resources of government. These include close cultural connections and credibility within communities, innovative approaches to meeting needs that are well-suited to local situations, large numbers of dedicated volunteers, and, perhaps most importantly, a level of human engagement, care, and personal accountability that government alone cannot provide.
Through critical government reforms and countless acts of service, the vision championed by the FBCI has taken root and the impact of the armies of compassion has grown. Most importantly, lives of the hurting and destitute have been provided real help along the road to hope and new beginnings.
The rest of this website describes in more detail the results from the first eight years of the FBCI's work.
Print 
Download Reader 
