President Obama upped his call to service last week as the White House launched United We Serve, an initiative encouraging Americans to lend a hand in their communities.

The Corporation for National and Community Service is leading the coined Summer of Service to engage citizens in helping the country recuperate–an effort riding on the tails of a $5.7 billion national service and volunteerism bill Obama signed in April.

The legislation, named for Senator Edward M. Kennedy, expands the government’s role in promoting and paying people to volunteer, notably tripling the size of AmeriCorps service-program positions by 2017. It’s the first time AmeriCorps will be reauthorized–or revamped–since President Bill Clinton created the program in 1993.

“Today another young president has challenged another generation to give back to this nation,” Kennedy said at the ceremony.

In a rare show of bipartisanship, the House of Representatives passed the formerly titled GIVE Act in March–the largest expansion of government-backed service programs since John F. Kennedy proposed a national community corps in 1963.

When the Senate passed the bill under the new moniker Serve America Act, Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement:

“In times of great challenge, Americans always rise to the occasion. In these times, our economy, our health care system and our schools need the help of the generous Americans who are willing to serve. And in so doing, our volunteers will save lives, heal disease and create brighter futures for our children.”

With 75,000 people currently participating, AmeriCorps’ 2009 expenses total $927 million. Under the new legislation, the program’s workforce will swell to a quarter million, increase its education subsidies and create volunteer programs central to education, health care, veterans and energy.

Obama has proposed $1.1 billion for AmeriCorps in his 2010 fiscal budget plan–25 percent more than last year. The expansion could cost nearly $6 billion during the next five years.

The act will expand similar existing programs, like Teach for America, and authorize new ones. The Social Innovation Fund to invest in new initiatives that would “make a dent” at community problems is slated to get $50 million, said Sandy Scott, the director of media relations at the CNCS.

Who and what will qualify for subsidies is still up in the air, as the CNCS fleshes out its application guidelines and decides how the federal money will be implemented before the law goes live on Oct. 1. Congress has yet to pass an appropriations act that will determine funding.

Students in 6th-12th grade could earn college funding in $500 or $750 educational awards for completing 100 hours of service. Volunteers 55 and older who work 350 hours could earn a $1,000 education award–transferable to a child or grandchild.

But opponents are skeptical.

Lee Cary, a writer at the conservative publication American Thinker, suggested Obama, oft-scorned for beginning his career as a community organizer in the South Side of Chicago, was “turning America into one giant community organizer’s sandbox at enormous cost to taxpayers.”

U.S. News and World Report blogger Mary Kate Cary scoffed at the prospect of paying volunteers. Others have expressed fears that civic service would become forced labor under the new legislation, and criticized the bill as too expensive.

Cary, who fears the act will hurt charities, writes:

I’m all in favor of reimbursing volunteers for travel costs like bus fare or parking–heck, I could even be talked into paying for their lunch–but this is far different than that. This bill would pay volunteers generous stipends to fund college educations. We all know what the cost of college educations are these days, and it’s a lot more than bus fare.

Scott dismissed the criticism, calling AmeriCorps “a very powerful shot in the arm to nonprofits” and an important pipeline for volunteers to reach them. Last year, AmeriCorps volunteer managers nationwide recruited 2.2 million volunteers for the organizations they partnered with.

“Looking at most of the major nonprofits in the U.S., they value their partnership with AmeriCorps,” he said. “There are more than 4,000 nonprofits, from Habitat to Humanity to the Boys and Girls Club, that staunchly support AmeriCorps.”

Full-time AmeriCorps volunteers receive a modest stipend–about $11,000 per year. And sixty percent of them go on to work in the nonprofit sector.

Public service is a top priority for Michelle Obama, who kicked off Summer of Service last week. She was the founding executive director of Public Allies Chicago, a leadership development program that helped young adults prepare for civic careers, while President Obama helped register 150,000 African-American voters in Chicago with Project Vote.

It’s been one year today since President Obama announced his campaign-trail plan to create volunteer and service opportunities that would address the country’s “most pressing national challenges,” which included combating climate change, improving health care and schools, and redefining how the U.S. is perceived overseas by strengthening its presence with the Peace Corps, for example, which he hoped to double in size.

“This won’t be a call issued in one speech or one program–I want this to be a central cause of my presidency,” Obama said last July in a speech at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs.

Independent of the Serve America Act, Summer of Service and United We Serve are joint initiatives Obama hopes Americans will use to bolster, specifically, education, health care, energy and environment, and community renewal projects.

“Obviously challenges we face won’t be changed in one summer,” Scott said. “This is the first phase of United We Serve, a call to service during the summer and beyond.”