Today’s guest post comes from Sally Hallingstad. Sally is Director of Events & Marketing at Metro Volunteers, a HandsOn Volunteer Action Center in Denver. Through generationOn’s What Will You Bring to the Table? initiative, Sally and her team are engaging youth in taking action against child hunger. Today, Sally offers four ways adults can support youth in tackling hunger through hands-on volunteer projects.
Create Partnerships.
Often-times, in a youth/adult relationship there is an unspoken rule that the adults make all the decisions of where to go, what to do, etc. Many times, this is needed in order to be productive and efficient; however, in order for a youth to find his/her passion for community, adults need to learn to let go of the dictatorship and allow them the option to explore different ideas and ways to make our world a better place. Brainstorming is a great opportunity to let the youth have their voice while allowing the adult to show support while implementing a certain amount of guidance.
Create Awareness.
Child hunger is a prominent, global topic that is relayed with television ads and billboard campaigns raising funds for children in developing countries. What many youth don’t realize is how close to home hunger really is. Take the time to research facts about child hunger in your community; this ultimately will make it a more “real” issue to them if they understand that child hunger is local and could easily be affecting someone they know.
Create Action.
There are a number of hunger-focused organizations across our nation that do an amazing job of engaging volunteers in their mission. Because of them, volunteerism can come in many forms, whether it’s giving time to a food pantry, serving a meal at a soup kitchen or participating in a national campaign like What Will You Bring to the Table? By encouraging youth to give their time to a cause, adults are helping them understand that no matter how old they are or how much time/money they have they are able to fight hunger in their own way.
Create Voices.
The most powerful tool an individual has is their voice. Encourage youth to talk about their experiences to their families and classmates. The more people that become aware of the needs in their community, the greater chance we have of engaging people in the fight against child hunger.
Through April 30, you can engage youth in tackling child hunger through generationOn’s What Will You Bring to the Table? Through hands-on projects, food drives and advocacy, 1 million meals will be generated for children who are hungry. Click here for GenerationOn’s age-appropriate resources to educate youth about hunger and guide them in taking action through easy-to-implement projects.
Change Notes: What will you bring to the table?
Friends,
The flyer a colleague sent me lists the facts:
More than 16 million children in America are at risk of hunger. That’s more than 1 in 5.
1 in 2 children in the City of Detroit face hunger. That’s half.
But the flyer doesn’t stop there. A second column is titled “Solutions” and has just four words in it.
The solution is you.
Students at Loyola High School in Detroit, Michigan, created the flyer as part of What will you bring to the table? a national campaign led by Points of Light’s youth service division, generationOn.
What will you bring to the table? is empowering young people across the country to take action to help end child hunger in their communities.
Loyola High School students in Detroit collected 1,000 cans for food banks in their community.
At Loyola High School, students designed and constructed a community table that served as both a starting and a focal point for their project. They hosted a forum during lunch periods around the table, and shared materials they’d created – like the flyer that made its way into my hands. They also collected 1,000 cans of food for local food banks.
Over the next month, youth-led activities like this one are taking place in communities across the country to raise awareness, food and funds to help end child hunger.
What will you bring to the table? has another big goal: to generate 1 million meals for children in need. Thanks to generationOn’s partners – ConAgra Foods, Hasbro, Hilton Worldwide, Arby’s and the Arby’s Foundation, the Hub Network, C & S Grocers, and the National Turkey Federation – every action counts. If you raise awareness, write a blog, convene a group discussion — when you report those actions on the campaign website your efforts will be matched with a meal donation by the campaign partners.
Change Notes: Points of Light and the Pursuit of Happiness
Friends,
When I first met President George H. W. Bush, the honorary chair of Points of Light, six years ago, I was struck by three things: his deeply felt sense that a meaningful life must include service to others, his gracious humility and the fact that he ordered dessert at lunch and encouraged all present to do the same.
When President Bush decided not to write a memoir, he was talked into publishing a book of letters, beginning with a letter he wrote to his parents as an 18-year-old Navy pilot in World War II. All the Best, George Bush: My Life in Letters and Other Writings was published originally in 1998. This month, Scribner released a new edition.
My favorite letter in the new volume was written by President Bush in 2001 to journalist Carl Cannon for his book, The Pursuit of Happiness in Times of War. Here’s an excerpt:
You ask about The Pursuit of Happiness at a good time in my life.
I have pursued life itself over many years now and with varying degrees of happiness.
But now at 77, I find that I am perfectly content to let history be the judge of those things I got right, and of my mistakes in life as well.
All through those business and political years I was pursuing goals, trying to accomplish things, trying to have my life be one that would benefit others.
Now, I no longer pursue happiness. I have happiness – great happiness.
Some of my happiness still comes from trying to be in my own small way a true “point of light.” I believe I was right when I said, as President, there can be no definition of a successful life that does not include service to others. So I do that now, and I gain happiness….
For those not quite there yet I can say “Pursue happiness until you find it. The pursuit must include helping others, giving of yourself to a cause bigger than yourself, and it must surely include love of family.”
Some think there is no pot of gold at the end of that striking rainbow. Life is that rainbow and, having pursued happiness during my life, I have found it; and it will be mine until the day I die.
For more great letters, order All the Besthere. All author proceeds from this edition will go to the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University.
For more inspiration, celebrate the people in your life who find happiness through serving others. Nominate them for a Daily Point of Light Award here. I think it would make President Bush – who created that award more than 20 years ago – a tad happier.
In service,
Michelle Nunn
CEO, Points of Light
Change Notes: 125 Reasons to Celebrate Volunteer Service
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Friends,
I heard a story recently that reminded me of the often unexpected impact of volunteer service.
Faye Hendrix is a sales associate at the Belk department store in Fayetteville, Ga., a main-street town south of Atlanta that is in many ways like the Georgia town where I grew up. It’s a community with deep roots, where neighbors don’t just know each others’ names, they know their aunts’ and uncles’ names, too. It’s a town where volunteer service isn’t a “movement,” it’s just something you do.
For the past eight months, Faye has worked at Belk, a family-owned store founded by William Henry Belk in 1888 and run today by his two grandsons, Johnny and Tim. Belk has been a fixture in towns like Fayetteville – and in cities like Charlotte, Atlanta and Dallas — for 125 years. To celebrate its 125th anniversary, the Belk family announced that it would give back to communities across the South with 125 Days of Service.
Over the next 125 days, Faye and all 23,000 other Belk employees will have the opportunity to volunteer on service projects in partnership with Points of Light and its HandsOn Network affiliates to improve schools in communities that need help — painting rooms, building bookcases, cleaning playgrounds, planting seeds, organizing book drives.
When Faye heard about the Belk project at Kemp Elementary in Fayetteville, she cried. Kemp Elementary is her daughters’ school. Belk’s $2 million commitment to improving schools matters to Faye not only because it matters to her employer, but because it matters to her daughters. And because she will have a hand in making it all happen.
Last week, as a student at Montclair Elementary in Charlotte watched 200 volunteers painting, building and landscaping at his school, he said just one word: “Awesome.” I couldn’t agree more.
Please “like” Points of Light on Facebook to see photos from the kickoff project and to join me in congratulating Belk and its employees on their 125th anniversary. May there be many more.
Georgia’s HOPE scholarship is one of the largest merit-based college scholarship programs in the United States, but it could be so much more. By rewarding both good grades and volunteer service, the HOPE scholarship could teach the rest of the nation how to produce educated, engaged citizens who know how to give back.
By requiring service, the HOPE scholarship would build on the legacy of the G.I. Bill, arguably one of the most successful and popular government programs in U.S. history. By the end of 1956, roughly 2.2 million World War II veterans used G.I. benefits to attend college. Giving veterans an education in return for their service helped create the “greatest generation,” building our country’s unparalleled economic strength and enriching our communities.
We recently increased the academic requirements for the HOPE scholarship in response to our state’s fiscal constraints. Today, high school students in Georgia earning a 3.0 grade point average or better qualify for scholarships to colleges in the state. That’s a great reward for academic performance. But if we’re eager to turn out good citizens, we have to do more.
Since 1993, Georgia has awarded HOPE scholarships worth almost $7 billion to more than 1.6 million students. Think of the impact on our communities and our students if each of them contributed by serving others. Tying service to scholarships would teach students that citizenship is a two-way street – benefits, yes, but responsibilities, too.
The value of student service time would add up in many ways, not the least of them economic. Last year, 203,000 students received HOPE scholarships. If we required each of these young people to spend just 100 hours volunteering while they were in high school, they would provide time worth nearly $150 million. Add a requirement to volunteer 50 hours each year during college, and we’d see an additional economic impact of $74 million.
Today, local governments and nonprofits face the challenge of providing more services with fewer resources. Student volunteers would bring energy and enthusiasm. And who knows, maybe some of these young people will come up with innovative solutions to community problems.
Research shows that service requirements benefit students in a host of welcome ways.
Students who participate in community service are 22 percent more likely to graduate from college.
Students who volunteer just one hour a week are 50 percent less likely to abuse drugs, alcohol or cigarettes.
Youth who serve develop social and civic responsibility and are more likely to become lifelong volunteers, and to vote and participate as active citizens.
In addition, service learning motivates students to achieve and helps them develop leadership skills and self-confidence. Students who serve find mentors or career interests, encounter new worlds, beef up their resumes, and improve their chances of being accepted into the most competitive colleges and getting jobs.
Over the past few years, our legislators have been forced to change the HOPE scholarship’s eligibility requirements to maintain its economic viability. If we need to increase the requirements for eligibility again, let’s add a service requirement rather than continuing to increase the GPA. We need students who are committed to academic excellence and giving back to our state.
A service requirement for the HOPE scholarship would cultivate the next generation of civic leaders by keeping not only the brightest but also the best kids in Georgia.
GenerationOn and Scholastic Party With A Purpose
Today’s post is written by Jonah and Kayleigh, New York City Civic Corps members serving their terms as Service Coordinators with generationOn.
On Valentine’s Day, Scholastic store put on a 50th Birthday Bash for Clifford the Big Red Dog at their flagship store on Broadway. The iconic publishing house partnered with generationOn to throw an event that would celebrate a titan (in more ways than one!) of children’s literature and give back to the community at the same time.
As Service Coordinators with generationOn, we have the pleasure of meeting teachers who engage their students in service. Some teachers are exploring youth service for the first time; others are practiced veterans. For the Scholastic event, we partnered with Ms. Gen Berretta of PS 119, one such veteran, who regularly fuses service with academic instruction to create service-learning experiences for her students. She, along with Ms. Saby and Parent Coordinator Bernadette Slack, brought a class of first and second graders to the store, along with a select number of fifth grade student helpers selected for their leadership in past service projects. Scholastic provided a bus to transport the children – too young for the subway – to the event.
Once they arrived, students made Valentine cards for Clifford, listened to a story read by Clifford and friends, and then learned about homeless dogs in shelters. In order to help these animals, they designed and created bandanas for dogs in New York ASPCA shelters to wear in order to get adopted faster. Ms. Berretta infused the activity with elements of service-learning by pushing the students to think about spelling and grammar. The kids thrived on this call to action and came up with a number of clever slogans, including “I’ve been barking for a friend like you,” “I won’t eat your homework,” and “I won’t bite your leg, but I will bite robbers!” – to cite just a few examples.
This service project extended beyond the day of the event: Ms. Berretta brought the project back to her school, where several other classes completed it as well. With more time devote to the academic aspect of the project, students were able to practice skills related to spelling, grammar, drafting, and author’s purpose.
Learning takes on meaning when we apply it, and PS 119’s students applied it meaningfully as they used their intelligence and creativity to help out animals in need.
PS 119 invites you to read their blog, including updates about their service work.
Change Notes: Civic Accelerator Gives Today’s Start-Ups a Boost
Friends,
Twenty years ago, a group of friends and I started HandsOn Atlanta in a bar by passing a beer mug for donations. I can still vividly recall the energy and excitement of dreaming up something new, of being a part of creating a way for people to participate. So it’s a real thrill to be able to play a part now in supporting the development of the next generation of social entrepreneurs.
A few months ago, with generous support from the PwC Charitable Foundation, Inc. and Starbucks Foundation, Points of Light and Village Capital launched the Civic Accelerator – a 12-week boot camp dedicated to boosting early-stage ventures with missions that engage people as part of the solution.
Our goal in the year ahead: to invest in 30 organizations that will update – and possibly upend – what it means to volunteer.
The first 10 hard-driving entrepreneurs have just graduated from boot camp. They’re an ambitious lot with great ideas and amazing tools at their fingertips.
UBELONG is working to radically change how people volunteer abroad. Generation Citizen aims to revolutionize civics education. And MoneyThink wants to be the nation’s premier collegiate mentoring organization. No small goals here!
Each of the 10 start-ups was offered a $10,000 investment, and PGi donated terrific videos about each one. Two start-ups – Generation Citizen and UBELONG – were selected by their peers as “most ready to succeed.” These two were offered $50,000 investments.
As the largest organization in the world dedicated to volunteer service, Points of Light has the honor and responsibility of seeding innovation in our field. The Civic Accelerator provides a great opportunity for those seeds to grow.
We’re grateful that our founding corporate sponsors, the PwC Charitable Foundation, Inc. and Starbucks Foundation, have shared their deep experience and provided advisers and mentors to nurture the teams up to and beyond graduation.
Points of Light and Village Capital are now accepting applications for a second group of 10 entrepreneurs. The program will kick off this May. For details, visit the Civic Accelerator. If you have a big idea and are an early-stage for-profit or nonprofit organization that engages people to help solve a social problem, I hope you’ll apply
Reflections from a 2012 Hasbro Community Action Hero
In May 2012, six young people were honored as Hasbro Community Action Heroes and recognized for their achievements in volunteer service and contributions to their communities and the world. Each of the six young people, who ranged in age from 8 to 16, exemplified Hasbro’s commitment to the transformative power of service and embodied generationOn’s mission to inspire, equip, and mobilize youth to take action that changes the world and themselves through service.
In today’s post Nina Mahalingam, one of those six tremendous youth, reflects on her experience as a 2012 Hasbro Community Action Hero.
Several years ago, when I was just 3, my cousin invited me to help make plates and bowls for a shelter and soup kitchen. I thought it sounded fun and I wanted to play with the clay, but I was really surprised to find so many other people at the event. I was even more surprised that they were there to help other people without expecting anything in return.
Since then, I have discovered that most help comes from people who volunteer. At the beginning, I sometimes felt nervous about helping because I was so young but I really enjoyed doing something good for others- you get a feeling of happiness that I can’t really explain. I was impressed and inspired by my cousin Dylan so I started doing other projects like getting stuffed animals and books to children who never had much in their lives.
Two years ago, I heard about the tsunami in Japan and felt overwhelmed and sad with the news of so many children dying. I wanted to do something, something for the children whose homes and schools were destroyed. My dad encouraged me. With my cousin Aga’s help, we decided we would make paper cranes as a symbol of hope. At first, we thought our “Wish upon a Crane” idea would help us get many people to make a few hundred paper cranes. But we had so much love and support from people all over the world, and not just in the malls and libraries we went to. I was amazed to see the amount of inspiration that many other people got, and they donated their time — just like I had for the plates and books — for this project. We were able to make nearly ten thousand paper cranes and raise money from those who could give. We shipped the cranes to Japan and I was humbled to receive letters of thanks from children, teachers, and even the Japanese Ambassador and President Obama.
We all have time to spend, but we also can give time. With inspirations like my cousin and support from my dad, I feel happy when I do things for others. There are so many people and children in need and I’ve learned that even my small community help has made a big difference in many people’s lives.
It takes a little inspiration, a wish to make a difference, and a desire to help others, but we all have this inside us. I know that being a Hasbro Community Action Hero helped to inspire me to keep going and dream even bigger. I met other young people who were making a big difference and I knew that I wanted to do more. I worked with my cousins to create WalkingBooks, a program that helps bring books to children in remote areas without libraries. We’ve now distributed several thousand books and are still collecting!
I don’t think that I’ll ever stop giving. What will it take to inspire you to start?
Do you want to be a 2013 Hasbro Community Action Hero? The deadline to submit a nomination is 5pm EST today! Don’t wait, read more and submit a nomination.
Change Notes: The Presidential Citizens Medal goes to one of my heroes
Friends,
I’m happy to join a chorus of celebrants in paying tribute to our nation’s most passionate advocate for national and community service and one of my heroes, Harris Wofford.
Last week President Obama gave Harris and 17 others the Citizens Medal, the highest honor a civilian can receive. As the President explained, the medal honors “the courageous heart, the selfless spirit, the inspiring actions of extraordinary Americans.”
Harris, 87, has certainly lived an extraordinary life of service. A friend to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and an advisor to President John F. Kennedy, Harris fought alongside civil rights leaders to end segregation and advance the march of justice. He helped Sargent Shriver start the Peace Corps and served as its first director in Africa.
Harris served in the U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania and played a key role in drafting the legislation that created AmeriCorps, giving hundreds of thousands of Americans the chance to serve their country. He went on to be the CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service, a co-chair of America’s Promise Alliance for children and youth, and a Points of Light board member.
Harris endeared himself to me and hundreds of others when, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, he arrived at the HandsOn Volunteer Action Center in New Orleans without official title or responsibilities. He just wanted to help. The conditions were rough. Dozens of people slept on mattresses in an open hall, and Harris slept alongside them, without hesitation or fanfare or even the sense that this might be unusual for a former Senator in his 80s.
He traveled the region, rolling up his sleeves to build playgrounds to rally the embattled spirits of devastated communities and to rebuild the homes of those who had lost everything. This guileless idealism and undaunted commitment to repairing the world is the story of Harris’s entire life.
President Obama honored Harris for “giving generations of Americans the chance to serve their country” and for “upholding national service as one of the nation’s highest causes.”
My hat’s off to Harris – one of the most vital, most enlightened people I know – for helping to save the world with boldness, laughter and ingenuity. He is truly a point of light.
You can watch the entire awards ceremony here. And, if you’re inspired by points of light in your life, honor them with the President’s Volunteer Service Award today.
In service,
Michelle Nunn
CEO, Points of Light
Five Tips for Adults Working with Teen Volunteers
Today’s guest post comes from Michael LaRue, a Teen Volunteer Leader with HandsOn Suburban Chicago. This blog is reposted from the HandsOn blog on 1/31/13.
1) Let us know our boundaries: When you put teens in charge of something make sure you let them know their boundaries in the leadership. There have been many volunteer activities that I have participated in where I had no idea what I was supposed to do when it came to leadership. Whether it be overstepping my boundaries and giving instructions that the teen should not be giving. Or just standing there not knowing where to start because there have been people doing the jobs you thought were directed towards you.
2) Impact is most important to us! When thanking a Teen Volunteer know that most of us know we are doing a good job. If we weren’t happy with the progress or success of a program we wouldn’t be doing it. Therefore, if you’re going to thank us know that the only thanks we truly need is seeing the smile on the leader’s face or the smile of the people we’re serving (in my case the students I mentor).
3) Treat us with respect. Know that we are here to volunteer because we have passion for what we are volunteering for, As a teen leader I know that I don’t have full control and I would never expect that, what I do expect though is to be treated with respect for I am giving up time to help something that is important to me.
4) Don’t treat us like we are kids. We may not be adults, but we do have an idea of what is going on. Tell us what we need to do and allow us to ask for change in order to improve what needs to be done.
5) Don’t expect more out of teen volunteers than you expect out of yourself. We are a team; therefore we should be working together for a common goal, not separately.
Michael LaRue has been volunteering since he was a freshman in high school in his hometown of Arlington Heights, Illinois. In four short years, he’s worked with Riley Elementary School Homework Club tutoring students and helping them with homework. Through Buffalo Grove High School’s Interact Club, he’s helped to lead his peers in impacting their community in various ways. Most recently, he’s become a Teen Volunteer Leader with HandsOn Suburban Chicago, taking a key leadership role in the CHiL program, where he leads and supports 20 volunteers who work with middle school students to improve their grades through homework help as well by acting as role-models and mentors.
HandsOn Suburban Chicago is a partner and grantee of generationOn, Points of Light’s global youth service enterprise. Through a dynamic partnership called Ready-Set-Go!, generationOn and HandsOn Suburban Chicago have almost doubled the amount of direct service and leadership opportunities available to youth in northwest suburban Chicago. To learn more about Ready-Set-Go! and to access our free resources to train adults to be more effective managers of youth volunteers, click here.
You ask about The Pursuit of Happiness at a good time in my life.
