About the Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships
"The particular faith that motivates each of us can promote a greater good for all of us. Instead of driving us apart, our varied beliefs can bring us together to feed the hungry and comfort the afflicted; to make peace where there is strife and rebuild what has broken; to lift up those who have fallen on hard times.
The White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships forms partnerships between government and non-profit organizations, both secular and faith-based, to more effectively serve Americans in need. The Office does so in ways that are consistent with the guarantees of the U.S. Constitution and other laws.
The White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships coordinates Centers for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships in various federal agencies. Each Center forms partnerships between its agency and faith-based and neighborhood organizations to advance specific goals. For example, the Department of Labor (DOL) Center forms partnerships between DOL and community-based groups to better integrate those groups in job training and workforce development programs. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Center helps to link DHS with community-based groups to address disaster response. Similar efforts are being implemented through Centers at the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Justice, and Veterans Affairs as well as the Small Business Administration, Corporation for National and Community Service, US. Agency for International Development and the Environmental Protection Agency. Connect with Federal Centers.
The White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships also coordinates the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. This Advisory Council is a group of leaders from both faith-based and secular organizations. The Advisory Council makes recommendations on how the Federal Government can more effectively partner with faith-based and neighborhood organizations. Learn more about the Advisory Council.
About the Director
Melissa Rogers serves as Special Assistant to the President and Executive Director of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Rogers formerly served as Director of the Center for Religion and Public Affairs at Wake Forest University Divinity School and as a nonresident Senior Fellow in the Governance Studies program of The Brookings Institution. Prior to her time with Wake Forest University and Brookings, Rogers was the Executive Director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and General Counsel of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. In 2008 Baylor University Press published a casebook co-authored by Rogers, Religious Freedom and the Supreme Court. In 2009 President Barack Obama appointed Rogers to serve as Chair of his inaugural Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. In 2011 she was named to a subgroup of the State Department’s Religion and Foreign Policy Working Group. Rogers has testified before subcommittees of the U.S. Senate and House Judiciary Committees. She earned her law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Baylor University.