Government-funded community service programs, such as the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps, are seeing a huge boost in applications at the same time that the recession has made the need for services soar. The stimulus package includes $200 million to help meet demand. Additionally, lawmakers are circulating a bipartisan proposal that would encourage community service by offering tax incentives for employers to allow workers time off for service activities, as well as funding to help nonprofit groups recruit more volunteers.

Signaling a major cultural shift within the intelligence community, the National Security Agency is joining a secure social network that will allow its analysts to share information with intelligence professionals from other agencies. Analysts will be able to post their photo, phone number and e-mail address on a secure, Facebook-like page accessible only to senior analysts. The online network will allow them to identify and consult with experts, post drafts of reports for informal interagency comment, as well as use the system to text-message suggestions, tips, and professional gossip.

As the economy slides and food safety concerns persist, victory gardens are coming back into fashion. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has announced that a community garden will be planted at the department's headquarters, and he wants gardens to be added to each of the department's offices around the world. At the state level, Arkansas communities are placing victory gardens in school grounds and backyards. Some gardens focus on preserving heirloom varieties, and several demonstration projects are serving as community models. Victory gardens became popular during both world wars when the nation faced food shortages.

Many educators are equipping their classrooms with small keypads that allow students to instantly and anonymously answer questions. According to teachers, these clickers help measure how much students are absorbing the material, which leads to improvements in the quality of education. At the end of class, a teacher can determine how each student voted on certain questions, allowing the teacher to determine who might need extra help.

Garland, Texas, has set up two temporary worker pools to staff vacant municipal jobs. One consists of former or retired employees and the other consists of Garland residents. The move is expected to minimize fees that the city currently pays to temporary employment agencies, utilize individuals already familiar with municipal operations, and allow some citizens and retirees to make some extra money without committing to a full-time position.

The Foreclosure Intervention Program in Jacksonville, Florida, assigns counselors to work with local banks, mortgage companies, lawyers, and local funding organizations to help homeowners make alternative payment arrangements or negotiate loan modifications to avoid foreclosure. The program, which began last May through a partnership between the city and the Jacksonville Area Legal Aid and Family Foundations, has also provided funding in the form of a no-interest mortgage of up to $5,000 per household, which is forgiven if the homeowner stays in the home for five years. The surprising challenge has been getting at-risk homeowners to make use of the program.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has called on the banking sector to partner with the city through the underwriting of a low-interest loan program to boost residential and commercial solar energy purchases and energy efficiency improvements. Officials envision that the Clean Energy Loan Program will create a multimillion dollar funding pool, financed by the banks and co-administered with the city, to issue loans to residents and businesses to upgrade their solar systems.

Community members and local governments in the Detroit area are fighting to protect vacant properties and the crime that comes with them. Neighbors of some buildings are buying and renovating them. Dearborn offers free trees to residents to beautify their front lawns. Volunteers in other areas guard foreclosed and empty houses from burglars through patrols, and combat blight by making minor repairs and mowing lawns. Foundations have also provided mini-grants to community groups to pay for paint, light bulbs, security cameras, and other equipment to fight the negative effects that decaying buildings have on neighborhoods.

The Austin City Council has approved a proposal to build and operate a 300-acre solar array, one of the largest arrays in the world. While critics charge that the $250 million project is too costly, supporters argue that the project will both make the city more eco-friendly and attract employers that want to work with a city at the forefront of the solar power industry. It is hoped that the plan will work on an opt-in basis in which customers volunteer to buy the array's power and pay its higher monthly bills.

Louisiana has chosen 540 at-risk public school students to participate in a pilot program that hopes to combat the state's high dropout rate. Students enrolled in Educational Mission to Prepare Louisiana's Youth, or EMPLoY, will be taught with a new curriculum; trained at technical colleges; and will benefit from paid job experiences, adult mentors, and job placement assistance. Currently, about 19,000 students in the state drop out each year. Many educators feel that earlier efforts were too narrow in scope to adequately address the problem.

The village of Wellington, Florida, has launched a citywide wireless network to increase the efficiency of its city services. The installation of the network was prompted by the opportunity to change how the city reads its water meters. Currently, an employee must drive by a resident's water meter to detect its signal. Now, the meters will be read from a centralized location on a daily basis versus a monthly basis. These readings will not only save time and money for the city's employees, but will also allow them to more quickly identify suspected water leaks and notify homeowners.

Last week, the Obama administration launched its foreclosure prevention program. The complex and controversial initiative provides incentives to borrowers, servicers, and mortgage investors to modify eligible loans. Under the plan, the government will also subsidize interest rate reductions to help borrowers avoid foreclosure by offering more affordable monthly payments.

Government Technology has assembled a comprehensive resource list for those who wish to follow developments regarding the economic stimulus bill, also known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.