Jobs for Change is being launched at a time of both crisis and opportunity.

The crisis we face is rooted not only in our faltering economy but also in our national failure to confront major challenges, from education to energy to health care. At the same time, President Obama has inspired renewed interest in public service, providing a historic opportunity to mobilize people to address problems that have been ignored for too long.

The mission of Jobs for Change is to help take full advantage of this opportunity by recruiting a new generation of leaders into the nonprofit, government, and social enterprise sectors.

We believe

• People are the most important factor in advancing social change. To address the social and environmental problems we face, we need to attract a diverse range of people and the most promising leaders from across the country to work on issues both local and global in scope.
• To attract these people, we need to enhance the social sector's ability to recruit, develop, and retain talent. Too many people interested in a career in service do not end up or remain in the sector because of a range of obstacles that include misperceptions about work and compensation, insufficient information about how to take the first steps, or limited recruiting resources from budget-strapped organizations. We need to address these issues.
• Innovative businesses should join as partners with nonprofits and government in the pursuit of social good. One of the most promising movements in social change is the use of business as a vehicle for advancing the common good, and the rapidly expanding social enterprise sector should be embraced and encouraged.

This is a moment of incredible potential. If together we harness the renewed interest in public service by recruiting and developing the next generation of leaders in the social sector, we can overcome the challenges we face and build a better future for us all.