On Tuesday, April 21, President Barack Obama signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act! This groundbreaking piece of legislation ushers in a new era of national service. In addition to expanding opportunities for Americans of all ages and backgrounds to serve, the bill supports high-impact, results-driven organizations through the creation of a Social Innovation Fund.

The bill was named for Senator Edward M. Kennedy, a life-long champion of national service and a strong supporter of social innovation. Senator Kennedy spoke at the historic bill-signing, recalling the call to service “another young president,” John F. Kennedy, issued more than 40 years ago, before introducing President Obama.

In his remarks, President Obama emphasized the transformative potential of high-impact service organizations.

Programs like these are a force multiplier; they leverage small numbers of members into thousands of volunteers. And we will focus their service toward solving today’s most pressing challenges.

We’ll invest in ideas that help us meet our common challenges, no matter where those ideas come from. All across America, there are ideas that could benefit millions of Americans if only they were given a chance to take root and to grow — ideas like the one that Eric Adler and Raj Vinnakota had that led to this school and expanded its model to others.

That’s why this bill includes a new Social Innovation Fund that will bring nonprofits and foundations and faith-based organizations and the private sector to the table with government so that we can learn from one another’s success stories.

We’ll invest in ideas that work, leverage private-sector dollars to encourage innovation, expand successful programs to scale and make them work in cities across America.

The signing of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act was a watershed event for champions of service and social innovation across the U.S.

America Forward would like to join the President in thanking everyone who made this exciting moment in the history of national service possible.

Read the full transcript of President Obama’s remarks here.

Watch Senator Kennedy and president Obama speak at the bill-signing here.