Martin Luther King, Jr.
Day of Service - January 16, 2012

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "Life's most persistent and urgent question is: 'What are you doing for others?'" Each year, Americans across the country answer that question by coming together on the King Holiday to serve their neighbors and communities. Learn how to plan, serve, and report impact at www.MLKDay.gov

YSA's MLK Day Lead Organizers - funded by the Corporation for National and Community Service, the federal agency that strengthens communities through service - are organizing at least 130 projects in 13 states. See who the 17 YSA MLK Day Lead Organizers are at: http://bit.ly/vqbLt1

Connect with YSA

YSA Funding Partners

Corporation for National and Community Service

News From the Field: Special MLK Day Edition

America's Sunday Supper

Inspired by the legacy of Dr. King, America's Sunday Supper invites people from diverse backgrounds to come together to share a meal, discuss issues that affect their community and highlight the power each one of us has to make a difference. Bring together your family or community for dinner and dialogue in a restaurant, coffee shop, community center, faith-based organization or your home and take action to make a difference on MLK Day of Service on January 16, 2012. Register your America's Sunday Supper to receive the MLK Day of Service toolkit and the opportunity to win one of hundreds of FREE $25 restaurant.com gift certificates. http://bit.ly/uHNl89

Drum Majors for Service

As you plan your MLK Day activities - whether a service project, holiday celebration, or prayer breakfast, we encourage you to honor those who serve others to reinforce the lessons of Dr. King's life by including the presentation of Drum Major for Service Awards. MLK Drum Majors for Service are volunteers who perform extraordinary everyday acts of service with reliability and commitment, but who seldom receive recognition. Now you can recognize extraordinary volunteers with a special Presidents Volunteer Service Award called the Drum Major for Service Award. In order to receive your award by MLK Day, order your award no later than December 23. http://1.usa.gov/slIZVh

10 Easy to Plan MLK Day Projects

Are you still thinking about how you might serve on MLK Day? Here are 10 projects that you can still plan and implement for MLK Day. Some of the projects might also serve as overflow projects if you have too many volunteers. Write letters to troops, hold a Sunday Supper, create easy (kid-friendly) no-sew blankets for a local senior center or VA hospital, create a neighborhood safety patrol, donate blood, be green, hold a canned or non-perishable food drive, prepare for a disaster, start a community walking group, or hold a resume building workshop. For more details and resources for all 10 project ideas, visit http://bit.ly/vwTJIl

Students and Teachers - Begin a Semester of Service on MLK Day

Celebrate MLK Day of Service as part of a Semester of Service, an extended youth-led experience of at least 70 hours of learning and service. Through this YSA school-focused strategy, students address issues of local, national, or global importance as they connect intentional learning goals and academic standards with substantive service. Teachers and students: find out how you can connect what you are already teaching and learning with a service project for MLK Day. YSA's Education team is ready to help you enrich your class with a Semester of Service. Download the Semester of Service Strategy Guide at www.YSA.org/resources

Grants & Awards

Captain Planet Environment Grants

Deadline: January 15

The Captain Planet Foundation primarily makes grants to U.S.-based schools and organizations with an annual operating budget of less than $3 million. Grants are made for activities that promote and support high-quality educational programs that enable children and youth to understand and appreciate our world through learning experiences that engage them in active, hands-on projects to improve the environment in their schools and communities. Preferential consideration is given to requests seeking seed funding of $500 or less and to applicants who have secured at least 50% matching or in-kind funding. http://bit.ly/tusfjb

Sodexo Youth Grants

Deadline: January 17

YSA will award 100 Sodexo Youth Grants of $500 each to support youth-led service projects in the United States that address the issue of childhood hunger on Global Youth Service Day (April 20-22, 2012). We're looking for projects that engage your peers, friends, families, neighbors, Sodexo employees, and other community members in creative, youth-inspired solutions to ending childhood hunger in your community. Over 17 million children in the United States - 1 in 5 children - live at risk of hunger. YSA and Sodexo are calling on young people, ages 5-25, to help make sure your peers don't have to worry about where their next meal will come from. Learn more at: www.YSA.org/grants/sodexoyouth

YSA List: The 25 Most Powerful and Influential Young People

Deadline: January 31

YSA is launching the inaugural YSA List of "The 25 Most Powerful and Influential Young People" in celebration of our 25th Anniversary. The YSA List will recognize 25 young people (ages 5 - 25) around the world that have made significant, large-scale change in Health, Education, Human Service, Human Rights, and the Environment. We will announce the YSA List on Global Youth Service Day 2012 (April 20-22). The 25 winners will receive $1,000 awards to support their ongoing efforts to change the world. Learn more and nominate a young person at www.YSA.org/25/list

The NEA Foundation - EarthEcho Water Planet Challenge Grants

Deadline: February 1

The Water Planet Challenge grants support service-learning programs that improve the health of our water planet. Grants are in the amount of $2,000. Interested applicants must cite specifically how they are utilizing EarthEcho's Water Planet Challenge Action Guides in the classroom with their students. From conserving energy and improving the quality of drinking water to understanding the impact of the Gulf Oil Spill, the Water Planet Challenge's extensive collection of Action Guides, videos, lesson plans, and service-learning materials will help educators connect with students and jumpstart student awareness and involvement in affecting change. http://bit.ly/vNLHIU

Everyday Young Heroes

Joshua Williams

Miami, FL

YSA recognizes ten year old Joshua Williams of Miami, Florida, as an Everyday Young Heroes for his work to fight hunger in his community and around the world.

Joshua started Joshua's Heart when he was just four and a half years old. One Sunday morning, he saw a commercial for Feed the Children on TV. He had no idea that there were children his age who were starving and he wanted to help them so badly. Prompted by Joshua's call to action, his family started to feed the homeless and they did this until we were told it was against public health laws to distribute food to the public without proper permits. With the help of his mother, an Aunt and a consultant, Joshua decided to start his own foundation.

The primary objective of this foundation is to "Stomp Out Hunger". Joshua's Heart Foundation empowers needy people to improve their quality of life by providing items of basic necessity and effectively engaging and educating communities at home and abroad about committing to fight hunger and poverty. Joshua's Heart distributes food at a different community church each month, and has procured sponsorship from groups like the Daily Bread Food Bank and Costco. The foundation also works to recruit local youth as volunteers to fight hunger and poverty in the Miami-Dade area. Since it's founding, Joshua's Heart has donated over 300,000 pounds of food to over 7,000 families in South Florida and has raised over $90,000 to fight hunger.

For his commitment to ensuring that people in his community do not go hungry and his efforts to engage others in his fight against hunger, we honor Joshua as an Everyday Young Hero.

To nominate a young person who has improved their community through service to be recognized as an Everyday Young Hero, please visit www.ysa.org/awards/hero.

Resources & Trainings

New Water Planet Challenge Action Guide: "What's On Your Fork?"

Does what you eat really have impact on our planet? Could mealtime choices actually help promote clean drinking water? "What's On Your Fork?" is a new, free downloadable Action Guide and collection of supplementary educational tools from EarthEcho International designed to help educators and students explore the environmental and community impact of daily food choices. This new resource is part of EarthEcho's Water Planet Challenge, a web-based interactive program exploring a myriad of topics that engage and empower middle and high school-aged youth to design, create and implement service-learning projects in their communities. Rich in academic connections, the What's On Your Fork? step-by-step Action Guide includes stimulating content, student organizers for discussions and planning, and examples of youth taking action. http://bit.ly/rRbv3X

First-Ever "State of the World's Volunteerism Report" Released

The very first State of the World's Volunteerism Report (SWVR) by the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) program was launched on International Volunteer Day (December 5). The report examines important contributions of volunteerism in diverse fields such as sustainable livelihoods, social inclusion, social cohesion, disaster risk reduction, governance and political participation. The State of the World's Volunteerism Report shows that, in most societies around the world, volunteers make significant contributions to economic and social development. Through their voluntary actions, millions of people are contributing to meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Download the report at http://bit.ly/rH0IpA

"Youth Civic Engagement in the United States, 2008-2010: Understanding a Diverse Generation"

CIRCLE recently released an in-depth study analyzing the political behaviors and civic engagement of young voters ahead of the 2012 presidential election. The findings of the study shatter stereotypes and dispel conventional myths about the ways in which young people ages 18-29 are involved in the United States political system. The study uses U.S. Census data on young voters from across the United States and compares youth engagement in the 2008 and 2010 election cycles. According to CIRCLE Director, Peter Levine, this analysis illustrates important opportunities to increase the civic engagement of young people in 2012. The full report and findings are available at http://bit.ly/stMXTi

New State Map with Data about Young Voters

Want to know more about young voters in your state? CIRCLE recently added a state map to our Web site with information about young voters in past presidential elections. The map provides state specific information including:
* young voters' political party identification, ideology, and vote choice from presidential elections 1996-2008;
* estimates of voter turnout for 18-to 29-year-olds and those age 30+ from 1972-2008;
* And, estimates of the number of young people eligible to vote in 2012.
To see the map and to learn some more amazing statistics - like the fact that there are more youth ages 18-29 eligible to vote than there are eligible voters over age 65 - visit http://bit.ly/sz7hlJ