Joe and Jill Biden launched The Biden Foundation on Wednesday, telling supporters in a video that “as long as he has a breath in it” the former vice president will be working on issues that matter to him.
The foundation is an effort to further the work the Bidens did over eight years in the Obama administration and cement the former vice president’s more than four decade legacy in public life.
In the video posted to the foundation’s website, Biden says the endeavor will work specifically on violence against women by focusing on college campuses.
“We have got to change the culture,” said Biden, who authored the Violence Against Women Act and eventually ushered it to passage in 1994.
Biden also notes in the video that he will continue his “cancer moonshot,” an effort kicked off by the Obama administration and approved by Congress last year. The effort is a personal crusade for Biden, whose son Beau died after a long fight with brain cancer.
“We are at an inflection point in the fight against cancer that didn’t exists four or five years ago,” Biden said. “We can change people’s lives.”
In total, the foundation will have seven areas of focus: Foreign policy; Biden’s cancer initiative; community colleges and military families; protecting children; equality; ending violence against women; and strengthening the middle class.
“We look forward to this new chapter where we will continue our work to ensure that everyone — no matter their income level, race, gender, age or sexuality — is treated with dignity and gets a fair shot at achieving the American Dream,” Joe and Jill Biden said in a joint statement.
The foundation will be staffed by a number of former Biden aides, including former Sen. Ted Kaufman, Mark Gitenstein and Valerie Biden Owens, the former vice president’s sister and political adviser.
The Biden Foundation will be funded by tax-free donations, according to the website.