Global Youth Service Day
Community Service-Based Learning

Families interested in participating in community service can use Global Youth Service Day as an opportunity to choose a cause and begin donating their time and efforts to it.

Every single day, kids are making a difference in their communities. Whether it’s through collecting donations for a food bank, volunteering to walk dogs at a local animal shelter, delivering meals to senior citizens, or helping to raise awareness and support for an important cause, kids can (and do) accomplish some really wonderful things through community service. Not only do such efforts benefit communities, they also help kids to learn important lessons about fairness and equality, community activism, and leadership.

This year, GenerationOn honors the efforts of youth around the world with Global Youth Service Day – an event designed to celebrate kid-lead projects and to encourage youth to become engaged in service within their communities. Taking place from April 11th-13th, 2014, Global Youth Service Day honors youth on six continents and in over 135 countries for their service. In addition to celebrating efforts that are already being made, Global Youth Service Day is designed to promote community service and to draw in youth as volunteers to support a wide variety of causes.

Families interested in participating in community service can use Global Youth Service Day as an opportunity to choose a cause and begin donating their time and efforts to it. Using GenerationOn’s Make Your Mark resources, families can identify local causes and choose one to support (anything from animal welfare to civic engagement), think about whether or not they’ll need others to support their efforts, and learn how to garner support for a cause within their community. There’s even a Service Report that can be filled out to share what you’ve worked on with GenerationOn! Don’t think you can create an organization or effort that’s all your own? No worries – there are also resources for finding pre-existing organizations and efforts, allowing families to choose an interest and jump on board with others’ service.

Families with older students can use Global Youth Service Day as an opportunity to exercise their own voice – in choosing a cause to support, they’ll need to promote their projects and gain support from the community, both of which are tasks that require confidence and good communication skills. Once they’ve succeeded in recruiting others to their cause, they’ll have learned important lessons about what it takes to accomplish service projects and, hopefully, they’ll have even more energy and enthusiasm for community service!