TO:_. - The Black Vault

Talking Points for AFTA Board of Directors Conference Call-July 13, 2009,4 p.m.
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The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to participate in the White House's United We Serve
initiative and partner with the White House, the Corporation for National and Community Service, and
the arts community. The United We Serve initiative is an initial 81 days of service from June 22 to
September 11, 2009 but will grow into a sustained, collaborative, and focused effort to promote service
as a way of life for all Americans.
The National Endowment for the Arts celebrates the creativity, commitment, and generosity with which
the arts community regularly serves the public, and we encourage the arts community to seize this
opportunity to further strengthen your communities.
Here are some ideas for getting started:
1. Post your volunteer opportunities
Managed by the Corporation for National and Community Service, the United We Serve website,
http://www.serve.gov provides a hub for organizations to register their service projects and where the
public will seek out local volunteer opportunities. Please consider registering your organization's
volunteer events-both new and existing-on serve.gov. This high-visibility online volunteer
clearinghouse can help you build new connections, collaborations, and cooperation between your
organizations and the communities in which you work, play, and raise your families.
2. Apply your talents to community projects
Serve.gov can also be a valuable resource for artists looking to share and utilize their creative talents
through volunteer opportunities. Artists can both contribute their skills to an existing volunteer
project-such as donating graphic design or photography skills to promote or capture a volunteer
event-or use their skills to develop a new volunteer project. For instance, artists can develop
community murals and theater troupes can perform and teach at local senior centers.
3. Document successes to inspire others to act
As projects take place, we encourage you to document your activities through photos and video and
submit them to serve.gov, where select photos and video will be displayed. For reference, see the
United We Serve story template here. [LINK NOT ONLINE YET] This record will celebrate your artistic
contributions and the real-time impact of the arts on local communities.
We invite you to participate in this call to action, and show the country the positive effects the arts can
have on the strength and vitality of a community.