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February 23, 2012
Volume 19, No. 8
Circulation: 40,100
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How Are You Serving and Learning This Election?
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ServiceVote is YSA's U.S. election-year campaign to engage young people, ages 5-25, in the electoral process. ServiceVote challenges young people to learn more about our government and political system and to think critically about how they can affect the issues that they work to address through service during elections.
Since 2012 is a presidential election year in the United States, Global Youth Service Day 2012 is a great opportunity for U.S. project organizers to plan a ServiceVote 2012 project.
There are a variety of ways for both voting age and non-voting age youth to get involved in the elections and to make a difference on GYSD:
Raise public awareness about and advocate for the issues you care about.
Organize debates and town halls
Host a Service Stop
Educate voters
Develop voter guides
Engage candidates
Lead issue awareness campaigns
Become a citizen journalist or generate your own media
Learn about the political process and serve during the election.
Organize Get-Out-The-Vote activities
Conduct voter registration drives
Host debate watches
Hold mock elections
Serve as poll workers
Volunteer for campaigns
Prepare to vote
Find ServiceVote 2012 resources at www.GYSD.org/ServiceVote
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Connect with YSA
  
YSA Funding Partners
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Global Youth Service Day - April 20-22, 2012
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Host a Great American Bake Sale on GYSD. In addition to the leap year launch (see News from the Field below), the Great American Bake Sale will hold its National Challenge Weekend April 20-22, with a goal of hosting 500 bake sales - at least 10 in every state - in one weekend. The first 300 bake sale hosts to submit $275 or more from bake sales held on National Challenge Weekend will receive a Jay at Play's Little Miss Muffin Pop N Flip™ toy.
www.GreatAmericanBakeSale.org
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Register your GYSD project or event at www.GYSD.org/register
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News From the Field
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Ninth Annual Great American Bake Sale Season Launches February 29th
Share Our Strength®, the nation's leading nonprofit working to end childhood hunger, encourages bakers everywhere to take their extra day in 2012 - Leap Day - and make it count by committing to host a bake sale to help end childhood hunger. Individuals and groups sign up to host bake sales in their local communities and send the funds they raise to support Share Our Strength's No Kid Hungry® Campaign. The ninth annual Great American Bake Sale, presented by Domino Sugar®, C&H Sugar® and Duncan Hines®, officially launches on February 29 and runs through the end of the year. The online Bake Sale Resource Center provides tools and ideas for making every bake sale as successful and fun as possible. Bakers will find planning checklists, templates for flyers, tips on location, pricing and photography and more all online. www.GreatAmericanBakeSale.org
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Read Across America Day - March 2
NEA's Read Across America Day takes place each year on March 2, the birthday of Dr. Seuss. Across the country, thousands of schools, libraries, and community centers participate by bringing together kids, teens, and books, and you can too! The theme is green for a very special 2012 Read Across America celebration. NEA's Read Across America campaign will showcase the Lorax book as well as NBC/Universal's The Lorax. Whether it's planting a Truffala tree forest, reading garden, or having the Lorax lead your reading parade, don't forget to share your plans for celebrating NEA's Read Across America. http://bit.ly/xpfJ2c
For each test drive of a Mazda vehicle between Feb. 21 and April 2, Mazda will donate $25 toward public school libraries nationwide, up to $1 million. Administered by the NEA Foundation, this donation will provide vital funds to help the nation's struggling public school libraries. http://bit.ly/wCRutL
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March 1 to May 31
Keep America Beautiful's Great American Cleanup, the nation's largest annual community improvement program, brings the power of 3.8 million volunteers and participants to create local change. There are nearly 1,000 Keep America Beautiful Great American Cleanup participating organizations from coast to coast ... and internationally. Find the Great American Cleanup participating organization near you or learn how to organize your own Great American Cleanup event. http://bit.ly/z1OHs4
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Register Now - National Conference on Volunteering and Service
The National Conference on Volunteering and Service is the world's largest gathering of volunteer and service leaders coming together to learn, connect and be inspired through a wide range of exciting and informative plenary sessions, workshops, special events, service projects, exhibits, specialized tracks and more. In 2012, NCVS will offer programming designed specifically for adults who engage young people in volunteering and service, as well as a half-day summit for teens active in powering community change through volunteering. The annual event, convened by Points of Light, will be held in Chicago, June 18 - 20, 2012 and Conference registration is now open! http://bit.ly/imz3h4
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Grants & Awards
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Disney Friends for Change Grants
Deadline: February 29
Disney Friends for Change Grants offer young change-makers an opportunity to receive a $1,000 grant to help make a lasting, positive change in the world. Whether you are passionate about protecting the planet, providing meals to those who need it or giving kids just like you the resources they need to star in their own play, be an athlete or an artist, you can be a Friend for Change! Whatever your interests, a Disney Friends for Change Grant can help you make a difference for people, communities and the planet. Youth ages 5-18 located in all 50 states and the District of Columbia are eligible to apply for a $1,000 grant. www.YSA.org/grants/disney-friends-change-grants
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Eli J. Segal AmeriCorps Alums Entrepreneurship Award
Deadline: February 29
This year, AmeriCorps Alums, Points of Light's national network for all AmeriCorps national service alumni, will honor two AmeriCorps Alumni who demonstrate the essence of citizen service with the Eli J. Segal AmeriCorps Alums Entrepreneurship Award. This is the highest honor awarded by AmeriCorps Alums. Along with lifetime membership in the Eli J. Segal Citizen Leadership Program, winners will also receive $5,000 to be used to continue their citizen leadership efforts and/or community initiative, and be recognized at a special AmeriCorps Alums event. http://bit.ly/z6B8GQ
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2012 Hasbro Community Action Hero Awards
Deadline: March 6
generationOn and Hasbro Children's Fund are seeking nominations for the 2012 Hasbro Community Action Hero Award. This award recognizes five outstanding young volunteers, ages 5 to 18, who demonstrate that you are never too young to make a difference in your local or global community. Awardees will be celebrated for their extraordinary commitment to service at a special recognition event in New York City and will receive a $1,000 educational scholarship. http://bit.ly/zT6o7O
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Great American NO BULL Challenge
Deadline: March 14
The Great American NO BULL Challenge is a video contest with great prizes! Create a 2-5 minute video on the subject of cyberbullying, and submit it by March 14, 2012. Then rally people to vote for it online. Fifteen finalists will be selected and win a trip to the Teen Video Awards in San Francisco, California, where the winner will be announced. There are great prizes like a $10,000 video production deal, trips to the Sundance Film Festival, MacBook Pro laptops, and more! http://bit.ly/xzfgE9
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Everyday Young Heroes
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Alanna Wall
Dayton, OH
YSA recognizes 11-year-old Alanna Wall of Dayton, Ohio, as an Everyday Young Hero for her work to provide peer support to hospitalized girls and girls with special needs in her community. She wanted to combine her love of drawing and nail design with her desire to serve, and discovered her own way to motivate girls with special needs after being told she was too young to volunteer with other organizations in her community. Alanna created her own organization called Polished Girlz that promotes peer to peer support of children with special needs by polishing their nails while teaching them about hand-washing safety and how hand washing saves lives and reduces their infection rates. Alanna and over a 100 Polished Girlz volunteers serve children that are hospitalized, The Down Syndrome Association, the Muscular Dystrophy Association, and private clients. For her outstanding work, Alanna received a "Do Something Seed Grant Award" and the "United Way Volunteers of the Month Award." She has also developed partnerships with local businesses and recently partnered with Orly Beauty and OPI, among other cosmetic manufacturers. The Mayor of the City of Dayton presented Alanna with a Proclamation of the City for her work in changing the perception and care of children with special needs and encouraging other youth to serve in her community. For her dedication to providing support to her special needs peers and peers undergoing medical treatment, as well as for her efforts to create a culture of service in her community, we honor Alanna 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. |
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Resources & Trainings
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WKCD Special Collection: Youth as Knowledge Creators
WKCD just published a new special collection of small but strong examples of U.S. high school students, with the support of adult allies, acting as knowledge creators. Among today's calls for proficiency-based learning, the stories and student products WKCD shares are, they hope, both illustrative and inspiring. Chosen work not only engages youth in high level tasks, but also demands that they make meaning - and then make a difference. In this collection of stories, youth examine sushi, cyberbullying, college access, and more... http://bit.ly/yboEJZ
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National Service-Learning Conference Regular Registration Deadline Extended to February 29
Join the National Youth Leadership Council and youthrive, the Upper Midwest Affiliate of PeaceJam International April 11-14, 2012 at the Minneapolis Convention Center for the largest gathering of the service-learning community and the most comprehensive service-learning professional development opportunity in the world! The regular registration deadline has been extended to February 29. Learn more and register at http://nslc.nylc.org
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YOUTH-Turn It Around Toolkit
Has your school experienced a serious traffic crash recently? Are you planning activities to help prevent this from happening again? If so, you can make a difference and win cash prizes at the same time with the YOUTH-Turn Awards. Here's how it works: register your team by April 17, 2012, then use the YOUTH-Turn toolkit to plan and implement a traffic safety activity. Create and submit a PowerPoint presentation about your project, and you could win $2,000 for your chapter! The first 20 teams to enter will receive a free bonus toolkit with videos, giveaway items, and more: http://bit.ly/xzLdbG
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In CIRCLE Working Paper 74, Rebecca Jacobsen and Tamara Wilder Linkow construct a composite index of engaged citizenship indicators for young adults that incorporates 40 variables weighted according to the input of a panel of experts. The resulting Engaged Citizen Index reveals significant racial and ethnic gaps in young adult civic and political participation. Download this report at http://bit.ly/wOXAJW
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Service Calendars
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Conferences & Events
Building a Grad Nation Summit March 18-21, 2012 - Washington, DC 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 |
Seasons of Service
February 2012
National Eating Disorders Awareness Week -
February 26 - March 3
March 2012
Best Buddies Month - March
Youth Art Month - March
National Nutrition Month - March
Great American Cleanup - March 1 - May 31
World Book Day - March 1
Read Across America Day - March 2
Teen Tech Week - March 4-10
International Women's Day - March 8
Girl Scout Week - March 11-17
Absolutely Incredible Kid Day - March 15
Areyvut Make a Difference Day - March 16-18
National Wildlife Week - March 19-25
World Water Day - March 22
National Youth Violence Prevention Week -
March 19-23
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Song of the Week
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I've been on the road this week, traveling and visiting our GYSD Lead Agencies, Sodexo Lead Organizers, and MLK Day Lead Organizers in Georgia, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Since I'm in the South, I'm feeling a little bit country this week...
Randy Travis - "Point of Light"
"All it takes is a point of light
A ray of hope in the darkest night
If you see what's wrong and you try to make it right... You will be a point of light
There are heroes, whose names we never hear
A dedicated army of quiet volunteers
Reaching out to feed the hungry, reaching out to save the land
Reaching out to help their fellow man
There are dreamers, who are making dreams come true
Taking time to to teach the children, there's nothing they can't do
Giving shelter to the homeless, giving hope to those without
Isn't that what this land's all about?" |
The Editor
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 Mike Minks Director of Outreach and Innovation
Editor-in-Chief @michaelminks |
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