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Why serve?

Learning skills, building trust, increasing aspirations

Youth who volunteer gain valuable experience and skills for school and work. They're more apt to avoid risky behaviors, such as drug and alcohol use, crime, and promiscuity. And, they feel more empowered and connected to their community.

The last benefit is especially significant. Surveys show that only 10 percent of youth from disadvantaged circumstances feel they can make "a great deal of difference in their community"; 41 percent describe their effect on the community as "a little, almost none, or no difference at all." They are also significantly less likely to believe "people can be trusted."

The voice of experience…

"In general young people's opinions and ideas are not valued by our adults in our society, so we guide them through a variety of well intentioned adult-controlled activities until they start in the world of work. At this point in their lives we then expect them to be proficient at making the community a better place. We have found through our United Way Youth Venture Program that young people are eager to become engaged and be part of the solution to our communities' problems. The reason that we have an unprecedented number of young volunteers in our community is that our program unleashes their entrepreneurial spirit. We let the students create their own agenda … so there is a sense of ownership and energy that is almost limitless."
—Phil Grzewinski, United Way of North Central Massachusetts, Fitchburg, MA

Through service, youth can see how their actions make an impact; they're exposed to positive adult role models; and they become vested in organizations that make social and civic contributions to their neighborhoods and communities. Many programs use service-learning framework as a way to engage students.

What is Service-Learning?

Service-learning is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities. Typically, service-learning projects include the following steps:

  1. Consider the assets and needs of your community and select one or more needs to address through the service-learning project
  2. Identify what you already know
  3. Find out more
  4. Develop a plan of action
  5. Implement your plan
  6. Reflect on what you learned and celebrate achievements

For more service-learning ideas, visit the Project Planning Tools section of this toolkit.

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