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December 22, 2011
Volume 18, No. 50
Circulation: 39,950
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Happy HolidaYs!
Thank you for giving the gift of service!
Every day of the year, you inspire young people to be community change-makers. Thanks to your passion, partnership, and support, in 2011, YSA gave more than $1 million in grants, and with our partners, engaged youth in 102 countries on six continents.
We look ahead to 2012 with hope and gratitude, knowing that many of you are already preparing projects for Global Youth Service Day. This holiday season, YSA thanks you for giving the best gift of all: your service.
With warmest thanks,
YSA Staff, Youth Council, and Board of Directors
Happy new Year!
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Connect with YSA
  
YSA Funding Partners
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News From the Field: Special Year-End Edition
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Top 10 Service Stories in 2011
1. Young people responded to disasters around the world with service - the Japan earthquake and tsunami, tornado outbreaks in the U.S., and famine in the Horn of Africa.
2. Hundreds of thousands of volunteers made the 25th MLK Day "a day on, not a day off" and began the MLK 25 Challenge.
3. Several campaigns launched to use service as a solution - Be the Change launched the OpportunityNation campaign to restore economic opportunity in America, State Farm and America's Promise Alliance launched the 26 Seconds campaign to address the dropout crisis, and United Way launched a campaign to recruit 100,000 mentors, tutors, and readers.
4. Conferences and summits convened thousands of people - the National Service-Learning Conference in Atlanta, the National Conference on Volunteering and Service in New Orleans, the Department of Education National Youth Summit in Washington, DC, the IAVE World Volunteer Conference in Singapore, and the World Youth Summit in Barranquilla, Colombia.
5. The Obama Administration continued to support youth service - the First Lady made youth leadership the focus of her trip to Africa, White House staff hosted 100 youth roundtables around the country, and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan presented the All-America Service Team Awards.
6. With budget battles in DC, the Save Service campaign rallied all year long to protect funding for national service programs. While Learn and Serve America was cut, the fight continues to save AmeriCorps and Senior Corps funding.
7. Americans commemorated the 10th anniversary September 11th, 2001 with the 9/11 National Day of Service and Remembrance.
8. The service and youth development fields lost two visionary and powerful leaders - Sargent Shriver, who led the Peace Corps, the War on Poverty, and the Special Olympics; and Peter Benson, who led the Search Institute's efforts to make sure that all kids have what they need to succeed.
9. In addition to YSA's 25th anniversary, the Peace Corps celebrated its 50th anniversary and IBM celebrated their 100th anniversary with a year of service.
10. Young people react to major current events - the shooting in Tucson, the death of Osama bin Laden - and participate in others - the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street. TIME Magazine names "The Protester" Person of the Year. Building public awareness and advocacy - through protesting, and many other means - is an important form of service.
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Top 10 YSA Stories in 2011
1. On Global Youth Service Day 2011, over 550,000 young people strengthened their communities through more than 3,500 service or service-learning projects reported to YSA in 102 countries on 6 continents.
2. First Lady Michelle Obama served as Honorary Chair of Global Youth Service Day. Miss America participated in a GYSD service project in New York City. President Bill Clinton keynoted a GYSD event at the Clinton Presidential Library. Dozens of governors and members of Congress supported GYSD with proclamations and resolutions. Major publications around the world featured GYSD.
3. YSA celebrated our 25th anniversary on November 21. In November, we hosted a TEDx conference with speakers offering "ideas worth sharing" about the past, present, and future of youth engagement. In December, we began accepting applications for the inaugural YSA List of The Most Powerful and Influential Young People. Our 25th anniversary celebrations will continue through the 25th anniversary of GYSD in April 2013.
4. For the first time in our 25-year history, YSA distributed over $1 million in grants in a single year to youth, schools, and organizations around the world.
5. The Sodexo Foundation announced a three-year, million dollar partnership with YSA to support and create new, innovative youth-led approaches and solutions to ensure that the 1 in 5 children in the United States facing hunger grow up with dependable access to nutritious food to lead healthy, productive lives.
6. With State Farm's support, YSA expanded the number of GYSD Lead Agencies from 75 to 100 for GYSD 2012.
7. Schools using YSA's Semester of Service program - including our STEMester of Service grantees - continue to see strong results in improving student outcomes while also strengthening communities.
8. YSA continued to update our resources, including the Semester of Service Strategy Guide, the Global Youth Service Day Toolkit, and First Responders: Youth Addressing Childhood Obesity through Service-Learning.
9. The 8th Annual Youth Service Institute convened 300 YSA partners and grantees in Philadelphia, PA for three days of learning, networking, and inspiration.
10. YSA celebrated the 10th anniversary of our partnership with State Farm. Over the ten year period of YSA's partnership with State Farm, YSA has awarded over 1,700 grants worth over $3 million total from 2002 through 2012.
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Grants & Awards
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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
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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
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Everyday Young Heroes
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Albion Future Farmers of America
Albion, NY
YSA recognizes the student members of Albion Future Farmers of America from Albion, New York, for their work to ensure that community members in need have access to food. On December 10, Albion FFA students delivered 9,000 pounds of produce to Community Action of Orleans & Genesee, a nonprofit organization that provides services for low-income and disadvantaged families. The FFA delivered 3,000 pounds of food to Community Action last year, and this is the first time the group tried to connect food from Orleans farms to local food pantries. The FFA set a goal to double that output this year. FFA students asked local farms to donate some of their produce and several farmers showed their generosity, surpassing the FFA goal. For their commitment to supporting local food pantries and engaging local farmers in the fight against hunger, we honor the Albion FFA members as Everyday Young Heroes. 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. |
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Resources & Trainings
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Holiday Book List
Whether you're looking for some stocking stuffers, eight nights of candlelit reading, or just a good book to curl up with while Mother Nature lets it snow, NCoC's Holiday Book List has something for all the civic-minded boys and girls.
Be sure to check out:
"Heart of the Nation" by John Bridgeland
"The Heart and the Fist" by Eric Greitens
"From Command to Community" by Cynthia Gibson and Nicholas Longo
"The Gardens of Democracy" by Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer
"What So Proudly We Hail" by Amy and Leon Kass
"Teaching America: The Case for Civic Education" by David Feith
"Everyone Leads" by Paul Schmitz
"KaBOOM!" by Darell Hammond
We've made our list and checked it twice, but we want to hear from you - add your favorite civically minded reads to our list. http://bit.ly/sFGiXr
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YSA's Favorite Resources & Trainings
MLK Day of Service Webinars
NYLC's webinars and resources
CIRCLE's civic engagement research
WKCD's voices and work from the next generation
Cities of Service Service as a Strategy Blueprints
Earth Echo International's environmental service-learning resources
The Institute for Global Education and Service-Learning's resources and trainings
Cathryn Berger Kaye's books and trainings
National Service-Learning Clearinghouse
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Service Calendars
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Conferences & Events
National Youth Service Summit March 30 - April 1, 2012 - Cincinnati, OH National AfterSchool Association Conference
April 2-4, 2012 - Dallas, TX National Service-Learning Conference April 11-14, 2012 - Minneapolis, MN Best Of Out-of-School Time Conference April 25-28, 2012 - Palm Springs, CA National Conference on Volunteering & Service June 18-20, 2012 - Chicago, IL See more events on the Conference Calendar. |
Seasons of Service
December 2011
World AIDS Day - December 1
International Day of Persons with Disabilities - December 3
International Volunteer Day - December 5
Human Rights Day - December 10
January 2012
National Mentoring Month - January
MLK Day of Service - January 16
Semester of Service - MLK Day to GYSD
No Name Calling Week - January 23-27
See more important dates on the Seasons of Service Calendar.
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Quote of the Week
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"General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. ... If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around."
- Love Actually
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The Editors
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 Mike Minks Director of Outreach
and Innovation
Editor-in-Chief @michaelminks |  Danielle Miranda Manager of Outreach
Associate Editor |  Mike Man Manager of Outreach
Associate Editor |
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