White House Partnerships with Faith-Based Organizations: What Should the New Administration Do?

Nine days after George W. Bush took office in 2001, he issued an executive order calling for the establishment of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Since its inception, that office has drawn unprecedented attention to the issue of social service partnerships between government and religious organizations. President-elect Obama has said he wants to continue these partnerships but reform the way they are carried out.

On December 5, Brookings will release a report, Serving People in Need, Safeguarding Religious Freedom, which suggests ways the next president should approach partnerships between the government and faith-based groups. Co-authors E.J. Dionne Jr., Brookings senior fellow, and Melissa Rogers, director of the Center for Religion and Public Affairs at Wake Forest University Divinity School, will present their findings. A discussion with Stanley Carlson-Thies of the Center for Public Justice and The Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance and David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, will follow.

After the program, panelists will take audience questions.

The paper will be available for download here on December 5, 2008 at 9:00am.