Youth Engaged in Service
Steps in developing a program
Keeping an eye on your goals
Linking to National Days of Service
Special days and weeks set aside for community service offer excellent opportunities for youth to volunteer with others on a long- or a short-term basis. They can also allow you to tap into existing efforts when you are just starting out. Some of the best-known, in chronological order, include:
- Martin Luther King, Jr., Day
- Global Youth Service Day
- National Volunteer Week
- United Way Day of Caring
- Make a Difference Day
Major events have Web sites where you can learn what's going on in your area. For a list of events and links, visit: www.servicelearning.org/events_jobs/service_days
If you are interested in designing a long-term project that lasts over the course of several weeks, consider participating in a Semester of Service. This is a great avenue to sustain your service work and to dig deeper into some of the crucial issues addressed in your projects. The Semester of Service was launched to link Martin Luther King Jr. Day with Global Service Day yet provides an opportunity for long-lasting service year-round. For more information go to: http://ysa.org/Programs/SemesterofService/
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You've decided that engaging youth from all backgrounds in service supports your organization's mission. Or perhaps some youth have approached you with an idea. So, now what?
The first step is to identify the goals of your service project. Setting goals with clear expectations is essential to producing good results and being able to evaluate your work. In addition to the project goals, a universal goal of youth service programs is building positive youth outcomes (remember the "Five Cs") for the young people involved. It is important to outline how your project will foster such results.
In setting goals, consider the following steps:
- Gather a team of adults who are committed and have time to invest
- Identify a team of young people who are willing to plan the project with your help
- Survey the community to determine assets and needs
- Involve the community who will be served so that they can identify their wants and concerns!
- Identify, research, and analyze the issue at hand
- Select and plan your project—making sure that this decision is youth-centered with input from the service recipients.
The voice of experience…
"Our service projects are youth-driven; each of our sites chooses a different project. I discourage them from choosing highway clean-up projects because it's not the only thing kids can do, and it's not a huge social problem. The project should address a significant and critical need."
—Tammy Vega, Texas Youth Commission, Austin, TX
In many ways youth are not seen as changemakers or leaders in today's society, which is why involving youth in the decision-making process may feel awkward. However, one of the primary goals of youth engagement is to shift the way youth are perceived so that adults begin to see them as assets of and contributors to all phases of a program. The primary way to support this change is by including youth voice at every stage and making sure that the project is not adult-centered. Some strategies for engaging youth voice include:
| Strategy: | What young people can do: |
|---|---|
| Engage young people as planners | • Identify community needs • Determine objectives • Recruit volunteers • Develop action plans |
| Enlist youth as evaluators | • Assess program effectiveness • Survey service recipients |
| Develop youth advisory councils | • Make decisions • Address specific issues |
| Tap into youth as resource developers | • Raise money • Review proposals • Write and review grants |
As you and your team select a project, look at ways to build on your group's current work in the community and forge partnerships with other organizations. Identify the resources you have and those you still need. Establish training needs for both youth volunteers and the adults who will guide them. Find ways to sustain the project and retain volunteers by recognizing and rewarding them. And, build in an evaluation component to document your successes or failures, share lessons learned, validate the need for the program, and help you identify ways to improve.
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