Citizen Corps Grows Strong in America's Communities

The President's Citizen Corps initiative that he announced on January 30, 2002 to involve Americans in service activities that will make their communities safer and better prepared to respond to emergencies has been met with strong interest in our Nation's communities. Today, the President will travel to Knoxville, Tennessee to discuss his Citizen Corps initiative. The President will announce that:

• More than 40 local leaders in cities and counties around the country have launched Citizen Corps Councils to offer citizens opportunities to help make their communities safer, stronger, and better prepared for preventing and handling threats of terrorism, crime, and other emergencies and disasters. Fourteen of those local leaders joined him in Knoxville to demonstrate their commitment to coordinating, expanding, and creating volunteer opportunities through Citizen Corps.
• America's mayors, local government leaders, and governors will today receive the comprehensive Citizen Corps: A Guide for Local Officials. This guide will instruct them on how to start Citizen Corps Councils in their communities to build upon their existing crime prevention, disaster preparedness, and public health response activities through volunteer service.
• To support the Citizen Corps programs and the creation of Citizen Corps Councils, so communities can get them up and running as soon as possible, he has requested $50 million for Citizen Corps in his supplemental budget request to Congress for fiscal year 2002. He has already requested $230 million for the Citizen Corps initiative in his fiscal year 2003 budget.
• The Federal Emergency Management Agency and other federal agencies have begun examining ways to include Citizen Corps activities as a factor in awarding grants to local and state governments from existing and proposed emergency preparedness and response programs.

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