SSVT's commitment to this future is already in evidence. In 1997, it launched the Children's Fund in an effort to develop youth and education programs and meet the needs of a fast-growing Hindu population in Washington. In 1998, SSVT is developing a new initiative on community service and volunteerism, focusing on Hindu families as well as the broader community.

As the Hindu community has grown, its needs have diversified, and increasingly, more families need help in dealing with illness, coping with grief, mentoring young people and assisting seniors. SSVT will draw on its greatest resource -- its volunteers -- to tackle some of these new problems. In a new project with other like-minded groups, SSVT volunteers in Mitra Mandala, or Circle of Friends, will provide a compassionate ear to those in need and assist them in obtaining relief from service organizations in the area.

SSVT will undertake service projects beyond the Hindu community, offering help through local charities such as soup kitchens and shelters. Youth will play an important role in this effort to fully embrace the needs of the Hindu community and its role in the community at large: Just as SSVT began in 1976 in the minds of a few recent immigrants from India, its future lies in the hands of younger generation and its vision for a Hindu community in America.