YSA DOES Nothing Alone...

We certainly don't celebrate GYSD alone. YSA is excited to celebrate our partners' events as part of GYSD, including: 

• Earth Day 
• Great American Bake Sale National Challenge Weekend 
• J-Serve - International Day of Jewish Youth Service 
• National Volunteer Week 
• Alpha Phi Omega's Spring Youth Service Day 
• Sigma Alpha Epsilon's True Gentleman Day of Service  
• H20 for Life's Walk for Water 
• Kiwanis One Day 
• National Day of Silence 
• National Environmental Education Week 
• National Park Week 
• National Student Leadership Week 
• Sodexo Servathon 
• World Malaria Day 

Celebrate one of these partner events, and register your service project or event at www.GYSD.org/register 

Connect with YSA

YSA Funding Partners

Global Youth Service Day - April 20-22, 2012

Last Chance to Order Official GYSD 2012 Apparel! Are you planning a service project or celebration event for Global Youth Service Day - April 20-22, 2012? Order your GYSD 2012 apparel today!  

The deadline to order GYSD 2012 apparel is 8am CST, March 6, 2012. All orders will be processed and delivered to you no later than April 13, 2012. 

Are you looking for items that feature your organization or sponsor? All of the items featured in the store are available for customization. http://GYSD.nationalservicegear.org    

News From the Field

World Water Day is held annually on March 22 as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. This year's World Water Day is focusing on the link between water and food security. http://bit.ly/AovU16   

National Youth Violence Prevention Week - March 19-23

This weeklong national education initiative involves activities that demonstrate the positive role young people can have in making their school and community safer. The campaign website, www.nyvpw.org, serves as the crossroads to the campaign and provides countless resources to prepare for the event, including the official campaign Action Kit that serves as a step-by-step planning guide, suggestions for how each sector of the community can support the campaign, a ctivity ideas, links to over 40 national organizations sponsoring the event, articles and interviews on violence prevention, and much, much more! Learn more: http://bit.ly/z1LGuG  

Revolution Hunger

Launched in 2011, Revolution Hunger is a service-learning site for young people to learn about hunger around the world and how they can fight it. The site guides users through statistics, facts, and research on the topic, then lists a number of ways youth can get involved with eradicating hunger in their communities. Providing a number of ways for youth to be involved, Revolution Hunger shows youth that no matter how they want to approach the issue, there are tangible actions they can take to make a difference. For more information, visit www.RevolutionHunger.org  

Walk for Water with H20 for Life

To celebrate Earth Day and GYSD, H2O for Life and YSA are asking youth of all ages to organize "Walks for Water" across the nation to support water, sanitation and hygiene education for schools in developing countries. Schools, youth groups, faith based groups and individuals are welcome to organize a 5K walk for water, raise funds for a school in need, and donate the funds to H2O for Life to support WASH in Schools projects around the world. H2O for Life has a walk for water tool-kit available on our website with everything you need to know to organize a walk. http://bit.ly/gAa91g  

Grants & Awards 

MADD Power of You(th) Video Contest

Deadline: April 27

The Power of You(th) is the power you hold to prevent some of the 6,000 deaths that result each year from underage drinking. Use your power to make a minute video or less for Mothers Against Drunk Driving and enter it into our contest.The top five finalists will each win an iPad and an all-expense paid trip for themselves and one guardian to Dallas in June 2012 for the Teen Influencer Summit. A Grand Prize Winner will also receive an all-expense paid trip for himself/herself and one guardian to Washington D.C. for MADD's National Conference in September 2012. http://bit.ly/Ag2znC  

ING Unsung Heroes

Deadline: April 30

Are you an educator with a class project that is short on funding but long on potential? Do you know a teacher looking for grant dollars? ING Unsung Heroes® could help you turn great ideas into reality for students. For 15 years, and with nearly $3.5 million in awarded grants, ING Unsung Heroes has proven to be an A+ program with educators. Each year, 100 educators are selected to receive $2,000 to help fund their innovative class projects. Three of those are chosen to receive the top awards of an additional $5,000, $10,000 and $25,000.  http://bit.ly/eSC2sv   

State Farm Youth Advisory Board Grants

Deadline: May 4

The State Farm Youth Advisory Board is currently accepting applications for service-learning projects between $25,000 and $100,000 that are designed to create sustainable change in local communities across the United States and Canada.  Applying organizations must be a public K-12, charter, or higher education institution; non-profit organizations are also eligible if they are able to demonstrate how they plan to impact student achievement within the public K-12 curriculum.  Projects must address the root cause of the following issue areas: Access to Higher Education / Closing the Achievement Gap; Financial Literacy; Community Safety and Natural Disaster Preparedness; Social Health & Wellness Issues; and Environmental Responsibility. http://bit.ly/yMI7gZ  

   

100 Best Communities for Young People

Deadline: May 17

The 100 Best Communities for Young People competition rewards and recognizes communities making extraordinary efforts to reduce dropout rates and provide outstanding services and supports to their youth. A grant of $2,500 will be given to every community that is named one of the 100 Best Communities for Young People.  The $2,500 grant can be used to help fund a local program or service, within certain parameters, or be used for a local event to celebrate the win. This grant is part of the winning communities' awards package that includes national and local media exposure, a commemorative trophy, road signs, a media relations toolkit and on-call support to help in announcing your win to the community, a one-year subscription to a leading online grant search service, and much more. http://bit.ly/wrAkCF   

Resources & Trainings

NYLC Webinar: Getting Started in Service-Learning

Thursday, March 8 at 5:00pm Central

Want to learn more about service-learning? Join NYLC for this free webinar to learn the basics! We'll give an overview of service-learning, share best practices, and discuss a step-by-step plan to help you get started. http://bit.ly/AfWbLq   

The Lorax Resources

With the movie version of Dr. Seuss's The Lorax coming to theaters Friday, youth can join The Lorax Project and protect the forests and endangered species of our planet. http://bit.ly/zghDmD   

Also, find environmental science lessons and activities for grades 3-5 and 6-8 from Scholastic, including how students can take action and serve: www.scholastic.com/thelorax  

GenerationsUnited Webinar: Youth Leadership Driving Positive Community Change that Supports All Generations

Thursday, March 15 at 1:00pm Eastern

Learn how you can engage and support youth to 'flip the script' and weave new narratives of strength that support young peoples' roles as active social change agents in our communities. In this webinar we will discuss the power of youth to effect social change that addresses issues across ages and across cultures. We will share how we have been working with an amazing group of youth in Antioch, CA that have shown us how they can be active social change agents in our communities.
 http://bit.ly/xLCNH2   

NY, MA, KY, FL Civic Health Indexes

The National Conference on Citizenship  is excited to announce the recent release of four Civic Health Index reports in New York, Massachusetts, Kentucky, and Florida:

• New York Civic Health Index: Striding Forward 
• Massachusetts Civic Health Index 
• Kentucky Civic Health Index: Shaping Kentucky's Future Together  
• Florida Civic Health Index: The Next Generation 

Learn more about the Civic Health Index program, and how you can partner: www.ncoc.net/CHI   

Service Calendars

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

 
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  

Song of the Week

This week, a reminder that while this generation of young people is volunteering more than any generation in history, every generation wants to change the world...   

Emerson Hart - "Generation"    

"We are the wind of change coming
We take a stand where so many never go
We will shout it out to let you know
This is my generation

We want to know the face of freedom
We want to make a place where we can learn to love
Build a world that we can be proud of
This is my generation

Everybody knows we have no fear
This is our generation." 

The Editor