Immediately upon taking office in his first term, the President established the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, which rests on a basic principle: when it sees social needs, the Federal Government will look to faith-based programs and community groups as partners to help those in need. The President signed an Executive Order to end discrimination against faith-based groups, helping to bring down barriers that had prevented faith-based organizations from being considered in the Federal grants process. As a result of the President's efforts, more than $1.1 billion in competitive grants administered by the Federal Government were awarded to faith-based groups in 2003.

The President will continue to support the good work of community and faith-based groups in the following ways:

• Breaking Down Barriers - President Bush will continue to fight to ensure that faith-based and community charities can participate in Federal, state, and local programs.
• Promoting Access to Recovery - President Bush's Access to Recovery program, a proposed three-year, $600 million drug treatment voucher initiative, will give recovering addicts expanded access to a full range of faith-based and community providers.
• Providing Mentoring for Children of Prisoners - In 2003, the President made a commitment to mentoring children of prisoners by calling for grants for faith-based and community organizations to provide mentors to children of prisoners. This three-year, $150 million initiative is focused on providing 100,000 new mentors for some of the two million at-risk children with one or more parents in prison.