Yesterday, President Barack Obama’s “United We Serve” campaign began. From June 22 to September 11, the Obama administration is urging Americans to engage in volunteer efforts in their local communities.

Facilitating this drive for increased volunteer work, the administration has set up a website, Serve.gov, that will maintain an online database of volunteer projects, searchable by location and cause. Further, individuals and organizations can submit their own projects to the database, exposing their work to a broader group of possible volunteers.

Promoting the new effort, Michelle Obama and Obama’s cabinet secretaries fanned out across the United States for volunteer efforts. Michelle Obama joined California First Lady Maria Shriver to help build a playground in San Francisco, Attorney General Eric Holder visited a Philadelphia Police Athletic League Center, and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis helped paint a house at a Labor Department YouthBuild site in Los Angeles.

United We Serve is an effort that aims to take a grassroots-approach to economic recovery. By involving more people in a variety of charitable causes across the country, Obama hopes to build “America’s new foundation… one neighborhood at a time”.

Watch Michelle Obama’s United We Serve kickoff video below: