Chris Evans receives the Spirit of Service Award for his work “A Starting Point”

Chris Evans attends the Vanity Fair Oscar Party at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills on March 10, 2024.

Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images for Vanity Fair

Captain America, actually.

Chris Evans, the veteran actor and one of Marvel Cinematic Universal’s most popular stars, was selected alongside his A Starting Point partners Mark Kassen and Joe Kiani for a Spirit of Service Award, the same honor bestowed in past years on leaders such as former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Darren Walker of the Ford Foundation and former PBS NewsHour anchor Judy Woodruff.

The Spirit of Service Award is presented by the Partnership for Public Service and will be presented at the nonprofit’s Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals ceremony, scheduled for Sept. 11 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. According to the organization, the annual event is designed to honor “outstanding federal employees for their achievements and contributions to the public good.” The Spirit of Service Award is an outlier, however, as it “recognizes individuals outside of government whose work is critical to the goal of better government and a stronger democracy.”

Evans and his partners Kassen, a filmmaker, and KIani, a technology entrepreneur, co-founded A Starting Point in 2020 as a video-based civic engagement platform. Their mission is simple and best described by the group itself: “To create a non-partisan communication and connectivity channel between Americans and their elected officials, with the goal of creating a more informed electorate.”

For example, in the past week, A Starting Point’s Instagram account has posted updates on FEMA’s response to extreme heat, a debate over whether Washington DC should become a state, and controversial Supreme Court rulings like the Chevron decision and granting presidents absolute immunity from prosecution. A Starting Point focuses its work on high school and college-aged youth to better inform the next generation about how government works and to encourage civil discussion about important policy issues and the democratic process.

“Today, only 7 percent of federal employees are under 30 years old, and young people’s trust in the federal government is low. By engaging young people, A Starting Point is helping to build a more civic-engaged society, an effective government that looks like the people it serves, and ultimately a stronger democracy,” said Max Stier, president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service. “We are honored to recognize Chris Evans and his co-founders for their achievement in establishing A Starting Point and supporting its important mission.”

In a joint statement, Evans, Kassen and Kiani thanked Partnership for Public Service and said they were “so proud” of their talented team at A Start Point. They added, “We founded ASP to encourage civic engagement and make it accessible to all, so we are truly proud to see ASP receive this recognition alongside so many incredible federal employees who share the same goal within the government.”

In an earlier interview with PeopleEvans explained his desire to get involved by helping people become more engaged in American democracy. “As an actor, there’s a lot you can do with your name,” he said. “I could make alcohol – I don’t discourage anyone from doing that, I love alcohol – but there’s no denying that I played a certain character (as Captain America), and that’s just part of my nature, which is to be someone who is politically engaged and who cares about the well-being of the people of this country.”