[Update 22 February 2008: the Obama plan is outlined in full on the site. Barack Obama's Plan for Universal Voluntary Public Service.]

In a 5 December 2007 speech in Mount Vernon, Iowa, Senator Barack Obama outlined an ambitious plan for a voluntary national service plan. Building on many of the existing programs, and proposing several new ones, Obama's plan follows the outline of a series of volunteer programs proposed by Chris Dodd in June.

As a nonprofit booster, I am pleased by the emphasis on nonprofit organization and their social innovations. I wish Senator Obama made his plan mandatory in some way, but see the coherence of this call for voluntary effort and his own campaign.

Below are excerpts of Obama's speech with the specific proposals.

AmeriCorps

AmeriCorps, our nation's network of local, state and national service programs - has 75,000 slots. As President, I will increase that to 250,000, and make that increased service a vehicle to meet national goals like providing health care and education, saving our planet and restoring our standing in the world, so that citizens see their efforts connected to a common purpose. People of all ages, stations, and skills will be asked to serve. Because when it comes to the challenges we face, the American people are not the problem - they are the answer.

Classroom Corps

To help every American receive a world-class education, we will create a new Classroom Corps. We'll have college students, recent graduates and retirees mentor young people; engineers and scientists will help make sure the next generation of innovators is educated here in America; civic, business and faith leaders will develop new after school programs for our kids.

Energy Corps

To free ourselves from energy dependence and to confront climate change, we will create a new Energy Corps. We'll ask you to work on renewable energy projects, to teach folks about conservation, and to help clean up polluted areas. And we'll send talented American engineers and scientists abroad to help developing countries promote low-carbon energy development.

Peace Corps

To restore America's standing, I will call on our greatest resource - not our bombs, guns, or dollars - I will call upon our people. We will grow the Foreign Service to renew our commitment to diplomacy. We will double the size of the Peace Corps by its 50th anniversary in 2011. And we'll reach out to other nations to engage their young people in similar programs, so that we work side by side to take on the common challenges that confront all humanity.

Military

I will expand our military, while offering those who serve the promise that they will get the training, equipment, and care they deserve - and that they can trust we will never, ever, send them to fight in a misguided war. And we'll enlist veterans to help other veterans find jobs; to counsel vets who are confronting homelessness, mental health and substance abuse problems; and to pitch in at VA hospitals and nursing homes.

Senior Corps

We'll expand and improve Senior Corps programs to attract new retirees with substantive service opportunities, so that service becomes a core part of active retirement.

Using Technology

And we'll use technology to connect people to service more extensively and effectively. We turn to websites like craigslist to find apartments and jobs. So we'll expand USA Freedom Corps to create an online network where Americans can browse opportunities to volunteer. You'll be able to search by category, time commitment, and skill sets; you'll be able to rate service opportunities, build service networks, and create your own service pages to track your hours and activities. This will empower more Americans to craft their own service agenda, and make their own change from the bottom up.

Investing in Nonprofit Innovation

I'll do is invest in ideas that can help us meet our common challenges, because more often than not the next great social innovation won't be generated by the government.

The non-profit sector employs 1 in 12 Americans and 115 nonprofits are launched every day. Yet while the federal government invests $7 billion in research and development for the private sector, there is no similar effort to support non-profit innovation. Meanwhile, there are ideas across America - in our inner cities and small towns; from college graduates to folks making a career change - that could benefit millions of Americans if they're given the chance to grow.

As President, I will launch a new Social Investment Fund Network. It's time to get the grass roots, the foundations, the private sector and the government at the table. We'll invest in ideas that work; leverage private sector dollars to encourage innovation; and expand successful programs to scale. Take a program like the Harlem Children's Zone, which helps thousands of kids in New York through after-school activities, mentoring, and family support. We need to make that model work in different cities around the country. And I'll start a new Social Entrepreneur Agency to make sure that small non-profits have the same kind of support that we give small businesses.

Service in Education

The third part of my plan will be integrating service into education, so that young Americans are called upon and prepared to be active citizens.

Just as we teach math and writing, arts and athletics, we need to teach young Americans to take citizenship seriously. Study after study shows that students who serve do better in school, are more likely to go to college, and more likely to maintain that service as adults. So when I'm President, I will set a goal for all American middle and high school students to perform 50 hours of service a year, and for all college students to perform 100 hours of service a year. This means that by the time you graduate college, you'll have done 17 weeks of service.

Middle and High School
We'll reach this goal in several ways. At the middle and high school level, we'll make federal assistance conditional on school districts developing service programs, and give schools resources to offer new service opportunities. At the community level, we'll develop public-private partnerships so students can serve more outside the classroom.

College
For college students, I have proposed an annual American Opportunity Tax Credit of $4,000 to make tuition affordable. To receive this credit, we'll require 100 hours of public service. And we'll amend the Federal Work-Study program, so that nearly $250 million will help more than 200,000 college students work in part-time public service jobs each year.

Green Job Corps

And we will not leave out the nearly 2 million young Americans who are out of school and out of work. Instead, we'll use service to tighten their bond to the American family, and to put them on a pathway to success. We'll enlist them in a Green Job Corps, so that disadvantaged young people can find useful work and gain skills in a growing industry. And we'll expand the YouthBuild Program, which puts young Americans to work building affordable housing in America's poorest communities, giving them valuable skills and a chance to complete a high school education. Today, there are 8,000 YouthBuild slots - we'll expand that to 50,000.

It's quite a list with a number of interesting possibilities. Let's hope its detail encourages other candidates to explore this subject in detail. Now we have Dodd and Obama, the door is open for candidates Clinton, Edwards, Guiliani, Huckabee, McCain, Romney, and others.