Project Description

Mission: As a group, we are striving to advocate to our community for environmental concerns. By designing a kick-off of environmental action, we strongly believe that people simply need the knowledge! As the catalyst, we hope to benefit our lives and those of future generations.

Description: On April 26, 2008, we will be hosting a day of tree and flower planting at a local open space. Involving our school, inspiring our leadership, and envisioning our dream are ways we are taking the current problems into our own hands.
After the planting, we will host a BBQ in which we will relay information and ideas on how to keep up their conservation efforts. We hope the effects will stretch far across the community and inspire people to take action in their own backyards.
Personally, we also hope to learn from our project. We would love to transform our own daily routine to be more in tuned to the preservation and care of the world.

Project Description

About 10 months ago 2 of my friends (18 and 20 years old) and I started monthly potlucks that we host on the second Saturday of the month. We wanted to help the homeless community in our city. We are all either high school or college students and don’t have a lot of money, so we invited our friends to come with us and bring food. The result was a potluck picnic that did not resemble the feeding lines that the homeless were accustomed to. Our events average 100-150 homeless people and 100-150 students and families that come to the park and share the afternoon together. Through the relationships we have formed at the potlucks, we try to meet the needs of our homeless friends. We do this by helping them apply for food stamps, help fid them shelter, clothes, medication, transportation, and jobs. We try to meet their social needs by taking them to the movies, hosting a community Christmas show (live bands, choirs, dance numbers, and Christmas cookies). Also, by providing opportunities for people to serve, those serving are greatly impacted. We have told to over 5000 people about what we're doing in Orlando through speaking engagements, networking sites, and new releases. We have served over 2500 meals, have provided over 100 nights of shelter, have passed out over 80 backpacks filled will hygiene supplies. We have made countless friendships. Six people meet together to plan events and run the organization, but we have about 150 consistent volunteers.

For more info check out: www.hshomeless.com

Project Description

HELPRZ is a club of high school students from Steamboat Springs, Colorado going to Zambia, Africa to complete service projects. I am Lennae Jenkins, club leader and Steamboat High School graduate. I lived in Zambia twice: working at a chimpanzee sanctuary and building a school for the local kids who's families work at the sanctuary. I raised over $15,000 for the building of the school. While i was there, I worked with the people to build the school and I hired a local teacher to teach. Although I went with the funds for the school, the families all contributed to the building of the school. This is what defines it as a Community School. Part of the money I raised for the school was with the Steamboat Springs Middle School student counsel. Those students are now in high school but still just as excited to keep connected to Zambia. Their goal to bring people out of poverty through education is being pursued because of their financial contributions last year. Now they want to keep contributing by going to Zambia and working with the poeple there. These are the members of the HELPRZ Club. This group of students are not only going to be staying at the chimpanzee sanctuary and teaching at the local school, but also participating in service projects in the near by villages. They will learn to bake with the women of the near-by women's club, paint the walls at another primary school, sponsor field trips to the sanctuary for village schools, and work with the near by high school on English writing and art projects. I am only 24. I am organizing this trip to give back to the kids and community where I was so fortunate to be raised. Spending time in Zambia has chamged my life; I have a new appreciation for so many things. Time with the local people was truly transformational.

Project Description

New Leadership Institute

Our youth-led servant leadership model seeks:
1. To empower youth and communities through leadership development education, to become agents of positive change in their neighborhoods and abroad

2. To validate the youth perspective as a valuable point-of-view when analyzing social ills and designing and facilitating strategic solutions

3. To make service and service learning a common experience and expectation for all youth everywhere

Mission Statement
The New Leadership Institute develops youth as assets and resources to the global community through youth influenced leadership development education. NLI is dedicated to providing opportunities for youth to be instrumental in shaping a culture of servant leadership in their own lives and the human polity.

We accomplish this by:

1. Training youth and other groups in leadership development education, youth cultural competence, and activism

2. Affording mentoring and rites of passages for self discovery and character building in youth

3. Providing Internship placement and career shadowing with adult allies

4. Bridging generational gaps in youth, college students and young professionals through tutoring and academic support

5. Designing task force in different areas of community welfare as outlets for applied leadership development simulations

Programming Overviews
Capacity for this summer: Not determined

Target group: An opportunity for youth and young professionals ages 14-25yrs to participate in the first youth lead leadership institute.

Leadership Development Education Overview:

The New Leadership Institute was designed to give student leaders an in-depth understanding of leadership development education through self discovery, service and service learning, community & economic development, and advocacy through our six approaches of applied learning, experiential learning, field instruction, classroom instruction, workshops, and exposure. Youth leaders will use their new found skill set to analyze community problems and design and facilitate strategic solutions through participating in task force in different areas of interest and community welfare. Our four year logic model brings youth through an evolution of personal perspective. It is our goal that at the models end youth will have a formulated personal vision statement and purpose for their lives and see the importance of a community structure, thus contributing to its construction. All lesson plans and learning simulations are designed using the 4-H (Head, Heart, Hands, & Health) Program concepts and the Advancing Youth Development best practices.

NLI Summer Training Institute Description:

Our leadership Institute will consist of six components as follows:
1. Experiential Learning: On-the-Job work assignments with community development corporations, Initiatives, Associations, Economic Institutions, political offices, non-profit organizations

2. Classroom Instruction:

A. Leadership Education, Community Development
B. Entrepreneurship, Economic Empowerment
C. Service Learning, Advocacy, and Policy Making

3. Field- site Instruction
A. Task Force

4. Community Service
A. Peer tutoring/mentoring
B. Community mapping
C. Community clean- up

5. Workshops See curriculum
A. Esteem and Identity
B. Social Competencies
C. Cultural Competencie

6. Exposure
A. Current events
B. Humanities& Arts
Career Development & Internship Placement
As youth serve and explore the world around them… agencies and college exploration coordinators will train youth in job readiness as well as explore career interest. Youth have partnered with community development corporations, initiatives, and associations, economic institutions, non-profit organizations, human services agencies, political officials, and interest groups etc to provide on-the job, applied training through internships adult allies to the youth leadership.

1.Mentoring and Rites of Passage
2.Academic support and Tutoring
3.Task Force Descriptions

Summary:
Valuing and recognizing the potential benefit to the community as a result of each youth’s successful participation in this summer's training institute can be significant and well worth the investment. Youth will be equipped to make a positive impact on their own individual lives and the lives of countless others both within and outside of their community.
Their continued participation and active membership in the New Leadership Institute will reap long-term rewards for this community as the fundamental skills acquired will be enhanced and ultimately mastered by each individual. The New Leadership Institute will capitalize on the investment made in these individuals this summer, and will actively plan post activities that incorporate the talents of each individual in the future endeavors and projects. Having these individuals serve as role-models will undoubtedly inspire their continued participation and serve to motivate other community youth to become members of the Institute.

Project Description

Project Description

Harvard College Alliance for Africa (HCAA) works with both local African partner agencies and international organizations to implement sustainable programs for education in Africa’s remote rural areas and urban slums. HCAA’s goal is to enable African communities and families to support HIV/AIDS orphans and other vulnerable children through our initiatives which will ensure the underprivileged an improved quality of life. HCAA’s African program participants benefit from an increased sense of self-reliance and the ability to ensure themselves and their children an improved quality of life. To HCAA, the goal of development is to ensure the future generation the freedom to exercise their capabilities in full.
HCAA has begun our work in the East African nation of Tanzania where our supported sites include schools, orphanages, vocational training centers, and libraries.
HCAA achieves its aims by: a) collecting books, computers, bikes, and other appropriate items for donation to our initiatives, b) by pursuing ongoing fundraising campaigns, and c) by sending an envoy of volunteers to Africa to visit HCAA-sponsored programs at least once annually.
Some details about HCAA's programs:
- The Orphans Program
HCAA and our partners on the ground are able to reach over 6,000 children orphaned by HIV/AIDS. Each child is provided with education through secondary school.
- The Vocational Training Program
The Vijiana Vocational Training Center in Arusha, Tanzania promotes literacy and technical skills. Among the Center’s offerings are courses in computer programming, bicycle repair/maintenance, and English as a second language.
- The Library Program
The primary aim of the library initiative is to promote literacy and access to educational resources for village communities, especially for those who do not have the means to get a formal education.
Learn even more at HCAA's website - http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/hcaa

Project Description

Actually, Catholic Kids Need Love Too!, involves a variety of causes that range from drug and alcohol abuse to peer pressure, all of which teens encounter daily. Public schools are required by law to have properly trained student councillors in the facility. School psychologists are needed now more than ever as young people struggle to shape themselves and their places in the world, but in private schools, specifically parachocial schools, school "advisors" put kids in classes without ever actually speaking to them about anything going on in their lives. The state doesn't mandate that we have access to the same councillors as other schools, nor does it provide us with funds to do so (a typical teacher at my school is paid ten thousand dollars less than a state paid educator). Just because I go to a Catholic High School does not mean that I have peers that don't struggle with typical teen issues everyday.

In my junior year I founded the Psychology Club, or The Psychos as we prefer to be called. This club provides students with peer listening services, that take some of the weight off of our saintly psychology teacher (the schools acting confidante). Our administration does the very best it can for us; vast improvements are being made to school each year. But next year I will leave (I'm a senior) and I fear my club will die when my time at the school ends. I want people, especially young women, to not only speak out about the negativity they endure, but to seek to better their futures.

I believe that people need to know that just because kids are religious and may lead more private lives, that they have the same horrible issues as everyone else. Some times (as in our case) with less help, or places to turn. Next year I will be going off to college, I hope to get a degree in psychology to make a difference. I will double major, as has my mentor and good friend, in journalism and psychology, so that I can educate the people. I believe that change is founded on awareness. I hope to promote awareness and unity between teenagers.

I will set a positive example, by detailing my plans for college and being open to helping others with theirs so that they can learn that everyone has a chance at higher education. Help me raise the money for tuition and show young men and women that helping each other is easy as going to college! Too many young women today don't know their options.

Project Description

Students are invited to “Make it a Day On, Not a Day Off!” by attending the MLK Day of Service “Bowl for Warmth”. This event will raise money for the Community Action Agency to assist local needy with utilities costs. Norton Country Lanes will be open on Monday, January 21, from 1:00-4:00. Students will enjoy unlimited bowling with shoes included, and pizza and soda for only $10. Parents of younger students (K-5) are encouraged to bowl with their children for only $5. Additional donations are gladly accepted and should be made out to the Community Action Agency, with “Walk-Albion” in the memo.

Project Description

www.AfricaDreamProject.org

Please visit the site for the full-story, video, photos, and contacts.

Africa Dream Project (ADP) exists to eliminate poverty and empower lives.

We are a not-for-profit group founded and run by students. As students, we understand the immense value of education. We also see the extreme poverty in our world. And so, ADP members utilize passion and education to empower otherwise highly vulnerable individuals who live amidst extreme poverty. In doing so, we give them a chance to overcome desperate conditions and positively impact our world!

Our Current Projects exist in Kibera Slum, Kenya. Kibera is known as Africa's most-densely populated slum. It is, by definition, extreme poverty.

ADP takes American students into the slum for hands-on interventions. In doing so, our members gain new depths of compassion and dedication as they experience life with the people they seek to help.

Our two long-term projects in Kibera:
1. Construction of the FIRST world-class high school for Kibera's orphans.
- The high school will allow orphans to accomplish their dreams as connect from middle school to University. There are an estimated 50,000 orphans in Kibera alone! Currently, most have no access to any high school. We’re changing this!
2. Micro-Enterprise business for widows in Kibera.
- Widows are marginalized and vulnerable. There are thousands in Kibera, a place where 1 in 5 people is HIV-infected! As a result, many widows must resort to commercial sex just to provide food for their children. ADP is helping to take women out of prostitution and supply them with noble small-scale business.

ADP also intensely engages the American community by actively creating awareness about poverty and HIV/AIDS in Africa and the world. We paticpate in national events and local events year-round.

We currently have one official chapter at the University of Southern California.

Project Description

The event is about helping the YMCA build healthy kids. It includes a showcase YMCA programming that helps children to live a healthier lifestyle, raise the public’s awareness on the importance of a healthy lifestyle, and support the community strategies to improve the health of youths and their families. The YMCA participates in this national event every year. It can take place wherever the YMCA is located. Weather in a small town or a big metropolitan area, the feeling that one gets off of helping inform a community about healthy eating is undeniably rewarding. Helping the little ones grow up strong and healthy is the best thing any one can do for them.