ServiceNation Summit, Sept. 11-12 in New York city, will bring together 500 leaders of all ages and from every sector of American life —from universities and foundations, to business and politics—to celebrate the power and potential of citizen service, and lay out a bold policy blueprint for addressing America’s greatest social challenges through expanded opportunities for volunteer and national service.

The Summit will begin with a presidential candidates' forum the evening of September 11, where Senators McCain and Obama will speak in depth about their views on the role of citizenship and service in post-9/11 America. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will welcome the attendees when the proceedings continue the following day, and the summit will conclude with a keynote address by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who earlier this year became the first governor to create a cabinet post dedicated to service and volunteering.

The ultimate goal of the ServiceNation Summit, which will also promulgate a Declaration of Service that all Americans will be invited to sign, is to inspire an America in which, by 2020, 100 million citizens will volunteer time in schools, workplaces, and faith-based and community institutions each and every year (up from 61 million today), and that increasing numbers of Americans annually will commit a year of their lives to national service.  that engages one million Americans a year in full-time service by the year 2020.

The ServiceNation Summit is being co-chaired by Caroline Kennedy, Alma Powell (Chair of America’s Promise Alliance), TIME’s Richard Stengel, Vartan Gregorian (President of Carnegie Corporation of New York), and Bill Novelli (CEO of AARP). It is underwritten by a grant from Carnegie Corporation and Presented by TIME, AARP and Target.

View the Summit Program.

For more information, view our Frequently Asked Questions.