The Medicare program has successfully offered health insurance coverage to all Americans over age 65, as well as many people with disabilities, for more than 40 years. While the health reform debate has focused on changes to the health insurance market to offer a choice of private and public health plans, and Medicare exemplifies a universal, public approach to coverage, Medicare nevertheless offers a number of key lessons for health reform.

According to a paper by Marilyn Moon, which will be released at the event, Medicare's successes and its shortcomings highlight promising directions and potential pitfalls for the nation's latest effort to control health care costs and provide affordable coverage for all.

Please join a distinguished panel of experts and the Center for American Progress to consider how the Medicare program can inform this year's health care reform debate.

On April 3, the Center for American Progress will host an event to discuss the implications of the Obama administration's strategy for Afghanistan and the region announced on March 27.

The event will also serve as the release of the Center's Afghanistan strategy, “Sustainable Security in Afghanistan: Crafting an Effective and Responsible Strategy for the Forgotten Front.” The report is the product of the Center’s review of U.S interests, goals, and strategy in Afghanistan and the region.

Since 2002, the New Jersey State Department of Education has partnered with city school districts in an attempt to close the achievement gap between poor, minority students in urban districts and their counterparts in the predominantly white, affluent suburban districts. Created as a result of the landmark New Jersey Supreme Court case Abbott v. Burke, the program provided generous funding to improve educational outcomes in poor districts. Many of the state’s poorest school districts made dramatic progress by focusing on high-quality instruction and introducing effective early literacy practices.

Please join the Center for American Progress and The Century Foundation for a discussion of the book In Plain Sight, Simple, Difficult Lessons from New Jersey's Expensive Effort to Close the Achievement Gap by Gordon MacInnes. The author and our expert panelists will discuss the lessons learned by these districts as well as the implications for state and federal policy.

On April 13, the Center for American Progress and Middle East Progress at the Center will host a discussion with Stuart Bowen, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, and Major General Arnold Fields, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.

The lessons from Iraq reconstruction efforts are particularly relevant today, with the Obama administration unveiling a new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan last month that includes large increases in development assistance to both countries, as well as a tripling of nonmilitary aid to Pakistan over the next five years. Stuart Bowen and his team produced a series of reports and recently published a book, Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience, with important recommendations on how to avoid waste, fraud, and abuse. Major General Arnold Fields (Ret.) was appointed Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction by President Bush in the summer of 2008 and reports directly to both the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State.

Copies of Hard Lessons will be available for purchase at the event.

Ever since the 1989 publication of The End of Nature, Bill McKibben has been in the top tier of public ambassadors on the science, policy, ethics, and urgency of climate change. Now, 20 years later, he has emerged as one of the most important on-the-ground organizers on this issue as well. He is now working with 350.org to call global attention to the need to forge an international agreement to decrease carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million. According to NASA's Jim Hansen, this is the concentration target essential to "maintain the climate to which humanity, wildlife, and the rest of the biosphere are adapted."

Join us for a conversation between McKibben and CAP Senior Fellow Andrew Light on the current state of McKibben's campaign and the upcoming deadlines for forging an international agreement on climate change.

While some nonprofits are chronically underfunded and understaffed, others can raise a million dollars at a single event. Their boards are full of energetic, knowledgeable, and connected people, they have grown steadily over the last decade, and they are the go-to groups on their issues.

The reason for the success of these nonprofits is not charismatic leadership. Not every charismatic leader runs a successful organization, and not every successful organization has a charismatic leader. Rather, nonprofit boards and staff through careful design and active outreach can build an organization that is both effective and enduring.

At this book event, co-authors Shirley Sagawa and Deb Jospin will share their research on "charismatic organizations" and how to apply these lessons even during an economic downturn.

Copies of  The Charismatic Organization will be available for purchase at the event.

In 2006, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg created a Commission for Economic Opportunity to analyze the causes, scope, and consequences of poverty in New York City. In response to the Commission's report, the Mayor established a Center for Economic Opportunity (CEO) to test and implement an ambitious set of initiatives to address poverty, combined with rigorous evaluation. The wide range of initiatives particularly target the needs of young adults, the working poor and children.

On April 21, 2009, the Center for Economic Opportunity will release its 2nd Annual Report, describing progress to date, highlighting the initiatives that are and are not working, and describing its future plans. Mayor Bloomberg will discuss the lessons and insights from New York City's initiatives, as well as New York City's proposal for a Federal Urban Innovation Fund to fight poverty. After he speaks, a panel will explore the New York City experience in greater detail, and discuss its relevance for addressing urban poverty and federal poverty policy in the Obama Administration.

Introduction by:

Shirley Sagawa, Visiting Fellow, Center for American Progress

Performers include members of congress, the local Sitar Art Center's Saints Band, and Josh & Cora Dunham, the husband & wife rhythm section for Prince.

The Music National Service Initiative (MNS) is a new 501c3, social enterprise that uses music as a strategy to address civic and social needs. In the fall of 2009, MNS will pilot MusicianCorps, a "musical Peace Corps" that recruits, trains and places musicians in under-resourced public schools and low-income neighborhoods in 3-5 cities nationwide.

Since MNS's event at CAP with Governor Mike Huckabee and Congressman Joseph Crowley in September, the Serve America Act has passed with the inclusion of an Artist Corps. While the bill awaits President Obama's signature, let's thank Mr. Crowley, co-chair of the new Congressional Musicians Caucus, and other congressional supporters who made it happen by enjoying their performance as well as D.C.'s Sitar Art Center’s Saints Band - both backed by Prince's rhythm section.

MusicianCorps is a first step that should be replicated in all artistic fields and scaled rapidly across the nation. Come celebrate progress for music and the arts in America and join the discussion of how we plan to move forward.

For more information visit The Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage

In the summer of 2004, the United States Congress unanimously declared the conflict in Darfur, Sudan to be genocide. Following the passage of this historic resolution, a massive grassroots movement formed in the attempt to stop the atrocities in Sudan and influence elected officials to make addressing this situation a top priority. Ever since this anti-genocide movement formed to address these complex foreign policy issues, there has been a debate about how this constituency and others like it can best use their power as citizens to influence foreign policy.

With the recent issuing of an arrest warrant for Sudan's President, some commentators have gone so far as to suggest that U.S. activists are making it harder, not easier, to resolve the conflict in Darfur. Does foreign policy "activism" do more harm than good? How can an active and engaged citizen constituency positively influence U.S. foreign policy?

Join the Enough Project and the Center for American Progress for a lively dialogue on activism, intervention, and Sudan. John Norris, Executive Director of the Enough Project, and Rebecca Hamilton, author of an upcoming book on the Darfur activism, will share their views and engage in a town hall discussion with the audience.

The current debate over the scope of conscience regulations in health care raises important questions for all of us. How broad should conscience refusal rules be for health care providers who object to providing medical treatment on religious or moral grounds? Should conscience refusal rules apply to institutions as well as individuals? What are the consequences of refusal rules for patients—and their conscience? How do we resolve conflicting issues of conscience in a diverse democracy?

Please join us for a lively and enlightening conversation on this important issue.

"The Age Of Stupid" is the new cinema documentary from the Director of "McLibel" and the Producer of the Oscar-winning "One Day In September." This enormously ambitious dramadocumentary- animation hybrid stars Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite as an old man living in the devastated world of 2055, watching "archive" footage from 2008 and asking: why didn't we stop climate change while we had the chance?

Please join the Center for American Progress for a provocative discussion immediately following the film.