WHAT, WHO & WHERE
We are looking for a couple of partners for weekly community projects (service or community development projects) for a team of youth to meet community needs and to build youth civic engagement and skills development.
Serve!’s experiential and service learning programs are for diverse youth who are interested in gaining more experience/skills and participating in the community. As part of our programs, the youth are involved in weekly educational workshops, work on goals, build job skills, participate in several community projects, and engage in team building activities and initiatives.
A team is made up of youth with a range of skills, personalities, levels of education, and experiences (some youth participants may have some relevant experience and job skills while other participants on the team may just be starting to build jobs skills and learning about professional expectations).
Group size, ages, locations
A team is made up of 10 youth (17 to 24 yrs old). Please note that the number of youth may decrease by a couple of people over the weeks.
There would be one Serve! program staff usually accompanying the youth to provide support/supervision. Sometimes there may be a couple less participants on certain days if they are absent.
The youth could work as a team or could be split up in different rooms (but on the same site so our staff member can oversee the project). We are generally looking for projects that are near the downtown core or close to a subway station (as the team would need to commute from morning to afternoon activities and have lunch as well). Youth participants live in different parts of the city.
WHEN
Community projects would start end of January/beginning of February and run until May 2010 (on a weekly basis). Monday or Wednesday afternoons would be best (i.e. 1:30pm to 4pm/4:30pm). We are also looking for occasional one-time service projects for the team (probably for a Friday morning).
HOW
Wondering what kind of service/community projects could work? In the past, youth teams have supported activities with groups of seniors or people with disabilities, or have provided support to upper level adult ESL students to practice English conversation. Some teams have often worked towards planning and leading games/crafts/recreational activities with enough lead time. If something is not feasible where youth team members work directly with actual clients/community members, it could be a support service or community development project. For instance, youth have carried out various tasks to support drop-in centres (i.e. preparing for meals, cleaning up/sorting/organizing materials, etc.).
Community development projects (i.e. planning, researching, creating or producing something) have been implemented but does need a period of training and development first. Examples of past community development projects are research and development of resources for clients or being trained on an issue and then developing and delivering public education (i.e. peer educational workshops for youth or creating a video, zine or podcast).
A listing of recent community partners is posted on the website.
Some important things needed from partner agencies:
- An orientation to the project for the team (including a review of your agency and expectations)*
- Training if needed (dependent on nature of project)*
- Clear and realistic project roles/responsibilities for the youth
- Designated staff or a representative available during the duration of the project to check-in and provide regular or periodicsupport/direction/encouragement to ensure project success*
- An environment that is hopefully welcoming, understanding and supportive to diverse young people (and their capacity to contribute).
*These activities can be flexible in time depending on partner agency’s availability and project needs.
