The Power of the Young: Youth Participation Fighting Environmental Oil Spill Woes

While BP is still currently attempting to make amends, others have taken the situation into their own hands. With each piece of tar that washes up onto Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, and now Mississippi shores from the Gulf oil spill, comes concern and fear about how severe future ecosystem devastation will be, and the severity of economic downturn for the residents.

Every day, CNN reports on the oil spill in the Gulf, and offers five different ways to potentially end this environmental disaster. From using different high tech robots to stop the leak, to detonating a nuclear bomb, all sorts of suggestions have been offered in response to this crisis.

Sometimes, while watching the latest oil spill news, many of us at one time or another probably feel a sense of helplessness. Since many of us cannot simply take time off of work to go directly to the Gulf and volunteer our time, many may feel that they cannot do as much as they would like in this time of environmental distress.

What is often overlooked however, is that some of the most inspiring work to save the wildlife in the Gulf coast is being done by young people.

For example, fifth-grader Olivia Bouler has raised $60,000 through her sketches and paintings of different birds. She sends a picture to anyone who donates to: The Audubon Society, The Sierra Club, The Weeks Bay Foundation, The Mobile Bay Estuary Program or The National Wildlife Fund.

A Facebook group titled "Save the Gulf: Olivia's Bird Illustrations” has also been created, in order to inspire other young people, and show them that they can directly impact their neighborhood.

So what’s the lesson learned? Perhaps it’s that young people have a chance to truly create change in their communities. This illustrates how important civic engagement can be in these types of circumstances. More focus could being going into encouraging the younger generation and recognizing their efforts to bring change. I bet there’s a lot more Olivias out there, and by supporting youth participation in society, we can find those kids, and allow them to express themselves through their remarkable gifts.

Do you have any inspiring stories of young people responding in their own innovative ways to the Gulf oil spill? Please share them in the comments below!

image courtesy of http://audubonoffloridanews.org

A Day of Service

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once poignantly stated, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’” There were over 10,000 opportunities for Americans to answer this question and honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy on January 18, 2010. Established as a national day of service by Congress 16 years ago, volunteers all over the country spent their holiday serving others in their communities, marking the day as a “day on” rather than a “day off.” In light of the nation’s economic situation and in the wake of the earthquake in Haiti last week, service opportunities were varied and plentiful for thousands of Americans to spend a day as King dreamed: working for and with each other.

In the weeks leading up to MLK Day, elected officials and organizations alike promoted this national day of service. On January 13^th, the U.S. House of Representatives released a statement, calling on Americans to participate in the community service projects organized throughout the country. To make finding a volunteer opportunity simple, Serve.gov and service organizations such as the HandsOn Network set up search databases for volunteers to enter in a zip code and search for the service project that most interested them. There was a variety of different ways for people to get involved and serve, from activities such as painting murals on elementary school walls to working in a soup kitchen, serving lunch to the homeless. No matter what the project, Americans of all age, race, and creed worked together to improve their communities.

The National Day of Service, lead by The Corporation for National and Community Service, successfully brought out thousands of Americans to lend a hand, and a record number of elected officials and corporate companies contributed to the King Day effort. Nine members of Congress and 27 Mayors participated in the day’s events, working on events such as area school beautification, making toiletry kits and fleece blankets for those in need, and making and distributing food to senior citizens. Corporate companies used their money, supplies, and resources to give back to their communities by sponsoring community service projects or having employees offer their expertise and services pro-bono. All in all, all factions of society proved the validity of Dr. King’s statement that “everybody can be great because anybody can serve.”

Here are some highlights of great National Day of Service projects around the country:

• The President, Mrs. Obama, and their children visited So Others Might Eat, and served food to the homeless and hungry men, women and children.
• Philadelphia – Over 70,000 volunteers participated in over 1,000 different service projects, making it the largest citywide service effort in the country.
• Chicago – ChicagoCares brought together corporate, community and civic volunteers created better school environments for children by painting murals, designing mosaics, and rejuvenating libraries.
• Shell Oil Company offered employees paid time off from the normal workday to volunteer in the corporate sponsored efforts, which include sorting and packing food at the Houston Food Bank and offering a day of activities for youth and seniors at a Houston neighborhood center.
• Wisconsin – About 50 students at the Racine Unified School District persuaded their administrators to close school on Monday and organized a daylong event with 14 different service projects, a peace march, social justice workshops, and a banquet.
• New Jersey – JerseyCares, along with 1,000 volunteers from ages as young as four years old to adult, participated in service projects in 10 counties. Projects included opportunities such as rejuvenating parks and schools, financial literacy workshops, and tutoring.
• Accenture employees worked on web strategy at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC, and undertook simulation and testing activities for AidMatrix Online Food Bank and Warehouse Distribution System, to help the organization distribute goods and services more effectively.
• Maryland – 2,500 volunteers of all ages came out in Rockville, MD to participate in service projects including designing bookmarks for children with terminal illnesses, packing snow-day baskets for Meals on Wheels, learning how to donate bone marrow, and attending sessions by the Conflict Resolution Center of Montgomery County.
• Seattle – Seattle Works set up classroom discussions about the importance of community and community service. Cameras were given to the students, who then photographed and interviewed their families about their roots and what community means to them. The students then made collages of they backgrounds and presented them to their class.

What did you do on MLK Day of Service? Please share your stories of service and why it was important to you in the comments section below.

Photo: CNCS photo by Cade Martin, Cade Martin Photography

© 2009 Corporation for National and Community Service, Office of Public Affairs

A Civically Engaged Generation

A couple of recent studies have painted an impressive picture of American young people as a generation that is engaged in service to a remarkable degree:

* The Corporation for National and Community Service found in their recent "Volunteering in America" research that young adults (ages 16-24) showed the most significant increase in volunteer numbers, with young adults making up almost half of the increase in the number volunteers from 2007 to 2008. According to this research, in 2008 21.9% of young adults in the United States were involved in volunteer activities.

* The Volunteer Family recently commissioned a report that found that 73% of U.S. teenagers (ages 12-17) have engaged in volunteer activities.

IANYS Global Conference Update

As the Secretariat for the International Association of National Youth Service (IANYS), Innovations in Civic Participation would like to invite all of our blog readers, national youth service advocates, and youth service volunteers around the world to attend IANYS’ 8th Global Conference on National Youth Service in Paris, France on November 19-22! Along with ICP, Unis-Cité and the Association of Voluntary Service Organizations (AVSO) will be hosting this international conference for all professionals involved in youth development and service. The conference will include four days of training sessions on policy and programming, workshops given by experts on policymaking, research, and volunteerism, site visits to local youth development organizations, networking, and receiving the latest materials on youth development.

Here at ICP we are very excited to announce that one of the conference’s keynote speakers is Kumi Naidoo, the current CEO and Secretary General of CIVICUS, a Rhodes Scholar, an appointee on the UN’s Persons Group on United Nations-Civil Relations, and former South African anti-apartheid activist. CIVICUS is an international coalition of over 500 organizations promoting civic engagement around the world. He has been a civilian activist against since the age of 15 when he protested apartheid in South Africa which he was later imprisoned and since then, he’s been active in several campaigns promoting social justice and fighting global poverty. He also writes extensively.

Past IANYS conferences have had participants from 48 different countries amongst the on-average 50 participants. However this year, we are hoping for these numbers to grow. All IANYS members are invited as well as anyone interested in learning, researching, or implementing national youth service policy or programs. For more information on the conference, including registration and accommodations for the conference, please visit ICP’s website.

Teach for America Goes Global

Namaste!

Last September Teach for America announced the launch of Teach for All, a new organization that will support entrepreneurs in other countries who are pursuing the development of the Teach For America model locally. Funded by the Clinton Global Initiative, the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, and the Amy and Larry Robins Foundation Teach for All is to be the international "franchise" of the TFA model. The basic model is for local organizations to channel the talent and energy of their countries’ top recent college graduates against educational disparities facing tens of thousands of children in their high-poverty communities. Initially Teach for All will support programs in India, South Africa, Estonia, Israel, and Germany. The program will raise $25 million over three years.

The Dell Foundation provided $2.5 million to support the initiative in India. According to Michael Dell, “India, with its 400 million children, stands to benefit greatly from the development and training of top leaders who can present the wonders and advantages education has to offer. We are pleased to support the international expansion of Teach For America, as its proven approach to placing effective teachers on the ground will ensure that more children in India are given the educational opportunities they deserve.” In addition to the support of these foundations, Teach for All is heavility supported by pro bono consulting from McKinsey & Company.

And the results of this effort are already being felt. Teach for India, in cooperation with the Times of India, is preparing a major roll-out this fall. According to the new Teach India website,

"Teach India is a nation-building initiative (or social initiative) from the Times of India that brings together children in need of education and people who can contribute a little time towards teaching them. It is based on one simple principle: If you have the desire to teach, we will put you in touch with underprivileged children who are willing to learn. With over sixty of India’s committed NGOs, corporates, schools and social organizations already supporting our cause, we now look for selfless individuals to come forward and help change the future of a child forever, by giving just a few hours a week to Teach India"

So far the program is proving to be wildly popular. A variety of companies have signed on as sponsors. The initiative is receiving virtually daily coverage in the Time of India. According to a report on July 31st, Teach India had over 55,000 volunteer applications--way above the 10,000 that were anticipated. So great has been the interest that Teach India has had to expand the program, seek new partners, and find new opportunities to involve volunteers.

Teach for All is an amazing initiative that ICP wholeheartedly embraces and supports. We have long known and seen the benefits of youth civic engagement and are happy that others in the field are taking an increasingly international approach. The time is right to invest in youth civic engagement in South Asia. That's why ICP is following Teach for All's example and launched our own South Asia program. Look for details in a future post!

Youth Service in the EU

In a recent article from the Times of Malta, the European Commission’s plans to expand international youth service within the EU were announced. There are already several existing programs to do volunteer work, but most lack the ability to volunteer across national borders. In light of the potential for volunteer work to act as another dimension of education, this has struck an especially positive note. The article elaborated on the plans:

Thus, volunteering is being taken one step ahead as a cross-border opportunity to offer "young people a special experience that can have strong beneficial effects on their personal development."

In fact, earlier this month the European Commission launched a proposal with the aim of "encouraging member states to improve the interoperability of national youth volunteering schemes in order to make it easier for a volunteer from one country to participate in the volunteering schemes of another."

The initiative targets people under the age of 30 who wish to carry out voluntary work in another country rather than in their home country.

"Such voluntary activities differ from formal employment, since they are usually unpaid (except for some pocket money and expenses) and cover a limited period of time, typically several months. Volunteers are active in a whole range of areas, from civil protection and social inclusion to cultural preservation and the environment."

This type of program is incredibly valuable, as it allows youth an opportunity to gain a sense of solidarity with their peers across the European Union. Not only will this benefit the host countries, but the volunteers themselves stand to reap considerable rewards for their efforts. The consequences of their work could include increased proficiency in foreign languages, breaking down cultural barriers, and the acquisition of marketable skills in an increasingly competitive job market. Once this program is established and running, it will be exciting to see the results unfold.