President-elect Barack Obama has asked Americans to join in the work of remaking the nation “block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.”

And he appears to be ready to match that rhetoric with concrete steps to expand national service and social entrepreneurship opportunities for people of all ages.

“This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change,” Obama said in his election-night victory speech. “So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism; of service and responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other.”

Indeed, Obama’s ability to summon shared service may be his greatest strength, Harvard University Professor Michael Sandel told Thomas Friedman of The New York Times. The new politics of the common good is about “a new patriotism – about what it means to be a citizen,” Sandel said, adding that Obama has “tapped a dormant civic idealism, a hunger among Americans to serve a cause greater than themselves, a yearning to be citizens again.”

As a senator, Obama is a co-sponsor or the Serve America Act, to increase national service participation to 250,000 people per year. The act includes provisions for “encore fellowships” to help older adults make the transition to jobs as teachers, nurses, green-collar workers and other encore careers.

The president-elect’s new website, Change.gov , reiterates Obama’s campaign promises. “President-Elect Obama will expand national service programs like AmeriCorps and Peace Corps and will create a new Classroom Corps to help teachers in underserved schools, as well as a new Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, and Veterans Corps,” the site says. “Obama will encourage retiring Americans to serve by improving programs available for individuals over age 55, while at the same time promoting youth programs such as Youth Build and Head Start.”

In addition, Obama has called for a “Social Entrepreneurship Agency” in the Corporation for National and Community Service, to help generate venture capital for socially conscious startups, and a “Social Investment Fund Network” to steer public and money to cities with innovative solutions to pressing social challenges.

As First Lady, Michelle Obama is also poised to play a key role in expanding national service opportunities. Michelle Obama has been active with Public Allies, which trains young people to become leaders of community groups and nonprofits.

“What AmeriCorps showed me, during the time that I worked on it, is that all these resources of young people, and not-so-young people, as I call them—because AmeriCorps is not just for young adults but people of all ages—you can fill a lot of gaps with the help of community-service hours,” Michelle Obama told Newsweek. “The notion of AmeriCorps is that service doesn’t have a degree or race or an age on it. With training and opportunity, everyone is a potential community leader.”

Americans are ready to roll up their sleeves and tackle some of our nation’s biggest problems, according to New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, who surveyed his readers about their reactions to the election. “The obvious way to institutionalize that kind of excitement is a national service program, not only for young people but also for graying baby boomers considering ‘encore careers,’” Kristof wrote in his column, “The Obama Dividend.”

Kristof’s readers support the notion that experienced Americans want to work for the greater good. “Utahreb” of Fort Mohave, Ariz., wrote, “President Elect Obama cannot do it by himself. We who voted for him and those who opposed him need to put our energy and our talents behind him in order to bring our country back to its former status in the world.

”As a senior citizen, I will do all I can to promote any program that will involve not only the seniors but all who can work toward the goals of peace and prosperity. If this means giving up some free time to mentor, to work in a center for seniors or for children, to volunteer in a national park, volunteer in a non-profit group, to do anything that will involve more of our own people then I am all for it. Even if we don’t have much money to spare – if any – we do have time and talents that can be utilized.”