Undivided

The Aspen Strategy Group promotes national service and civic participation.

Give NowA nation as bitterly divided as the United States is today cannot aspire to be the global force it will need to be for the next decades. In the summer of 2020, as the country faced an unprecedented set of crises, the Aspen Strategy Group—a resolutely nonpartisan group of Republican and Democratic foreign policy professionals—met virtually to seek solutions to help the country unite and recover. After two days of discussions, one of the group’s central conclusions was that expanded access to national service would offer life-shaping shared experiences to help young Americans of all party affiliations and all economic, ethnic, racial, and religious backgrounds better understand and respect each other.

Group members and participants called on Congress and the White House to support a major national service initiative to build the next generation’s commitment to a robust American future, reinvigorate democracy, and heal political and racial divides. The statement, signed by over 40 experts, garnered public interest and was highlighted in several news outlets, such as Bloomberg and Politico. And since the statement’s release, the American Rescue Plan was passed—including $1 billion in additional funding for AmeriCorps, which provides public service opportunities for adults across the United States in line with those advocated for in ASG’s call to action.