Peace Corps

Peace Corps
Peace Corps
	Peace Corps Logo
Agency overview
Formed	1961
Annual budget	$325 million
Website
	http://www.peacecorps.gov/

The Peace Corps is an independent United States federal agency. The Peace Corps was started by Executive Order 10924 on March 1, 1961, and allowed by Congress on September 22, 1961, with passage of the Peace Corps Act (Public Law 87-293). The first president of the Peace Corps was Sargent Shriver. The Peace Corps Act says the purpose of the Peace Corps is:

“to promote world peace and friendship through a Peace Corps, which shall make available to interested countries and areas men and women of the United States qualified for service abroad and willing to serve, under conditions of hardship if necessary, to help the peoples of such countries and areas in meeting their needs for trained manpower.”

Since 1960, more than 190,000 people have served as Peace Corps volunteers in 139 countries.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Peace Corps Media

John F. Kennedy greets volunteers on August 28, 1961
The former Peace Corps headquarters at 1111 20th Street, NW in downtown Washington, D.C.
Executive Order 10924, Establishment and Administration of the Peace Corps in the Department of State March 1, 1961, 03/01/1961.
Peace Corps trainees swearing in as volunteers in Madagascar, April 26, 2006.
Countries served by Peace Corps volunteers as of 2019 Countries formerly served.
Prime Minister George Cadle Price and a Peace Corps volunteer, Belize, 1976
Recruitment advert placed in a 1990 issue of State Magazine
Sargent Shriver 1961 (cropped 3x4)
Jack Vaughn (5574738012) (cropped)