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Obama's first act as a citizen: launching a new website

Obama's first act as a citizen: launching a new website

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Barack Obama has stepped down as president and is heading off for a brief vacation as a private citizen. But that doesn’t mean he’s done working. In the hours before today’s inauguration, Obama and his team launched a new website, Obama.org. The site was created by the Obama Foundation, which is overseeing the creation of the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, and its stated mission is to provide a forum for those looking to work with the Center to improve the lives of American citizens.

“The center will be based on the South Side of Chicago, but it will have projects all over the city, the country, and the world,” said Obama in the site’s announcement video. “More than a library or a museum, it will be a living, working center for citizenship. That’s why we want to hear from you.”

“We want to hear from you.”

The nonprofit Obama Foundation was founded back in 2014 to manage the creation of the site, and the center is expected to be completed by 2020. In the meantime, the now-former president and first lady plan on listening to and working with community leaders to create what the site calls “the next generation of citizens.”

While all this is fairly vague for the moment, Obama has already stated that he will be active in public life after he is done taking a break. Earlier this morning, he tweeted that he’ll continue to work beyond the White House: