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Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Bench Mark: Some 200 Girl Scouts helped clean up Wildwood and El Quito parks after school on April 7.
Heart of the Community
A growing number of teen volunteers flex their giving muscles
By Sandy Sims
For a growing number of teens today, there's a lot more to life than the three B's: Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, and Bumming Around.
Many elementary, middle and high school students are part of a growing trend of community volunteerism sweeping the country. This fledgling effort may be signaling a small shift in the political heart of our youth--a shift from apathy and cynicism to belief that they actually can make a difference.
The flock of young community volunteers has been swelling. They are receiving awards from local and national government, and community service is becoming an integral part of classwork. Agencies are scrambling to provide places for them to serve. These youngsters are, in fact, becoming part of our infrastructure.
Lori Burns, personnel officer and volunteer coordinator for the city of Saratoga, says she doesn't know what she would do without the 50 or more youth volunteers who help the city every year. One high school student set up an Excel database for Burn's office; another showed Burns how to use "mail merge" on the word processor. "Before that we used to address form letters individually," Burns says.
These young volunteers work on projects like sanding and painting park benches and tables, filling sand bags for flood control or cleaning recreation equipment. Scouts have landscaped the front of the Saratoga senior center. On April 7, 200 Girl Scouts cleaned and weeded two parks.
Youngsters sort and hand out food for the homeless and create Christmas for those who wouldn't otherwise have one. They cheer the elderly, help in hospitals and veterinarian offices, and paint over graffiti. The list is endless.
Burns says overall, volunteers in Saratoga have decreased since the elimination of a part-time volunteer coordinator position. However, youth volunteers have remained constant.
Countywide, adult volunteer numbers have declined slightly, but youth volunteer numbers are rising dramatically. So much so that in 1998, Volunteer Exchange of Santa Clara County added a youth volunteer arm to its organization with its own full-time coordinator.
This focus on youth volunteerism is not happenstance. It's part of a bigger picture.
Private schools, such as Bellarmine College Preparatory, Saratoga's St. Andrews and Harker Academy, for years have required students to complete community service hours. Some public school districts copied this model. San Jose Unified School District now requires 40 hours of community service for graduation.
Others, such as Los Gatos-Saratoga High School District, decided against the required hours. They feel students would just put in hours with no reflection on what they were doing.
Required or not, the climate of volunteering is strong in schools. Campus clubs are incorporating service in their activities. Rotary and Kiwanis youth clubs have stepped up volunteer activities. College entrance boards give considerable weight to community service.
Students who volunteer for 50 or 100 hours in a 12-month period can also receive a silver or gold pin, a presidential certificate and a letter from President Clinton. And each high school in the country may select one junior or senior volunteer to receive a president's scholarship. However, the president's $500 must be matched by $500 from the community.
Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
The Big Squeeze: Argonaut School second-graders (from left) Madison Matusich, Alicia Blalock and Michael Wang handle the money drawer at the lemonade stand where the class sold fresh-squeezed lemonade last week to help raise money for a new dishwasher for the school. The students want the dishwasher so disposable Styrofoam trays now used in the cafeteria can be replaced with washable plastic trays, which students believe will be better for the environment.
Volunteering has even become popular among students. Last October 150 high school students countywide showed up at James Lick High School. They repainted all the planter boxes and planted 500 shrubs.
Educators have taken volunteerism a step further. They are weaving community service together with an old educational concept called experiential learning--students learn better through hands-on experience. This old concept with a new twist has been dubbed service learning.
Now there are national, state and local conferences on service learning. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin has set up a special task force for the purpose of "linking classrooms and communities." By the year 2004, she wants 50 percent of California school districts to offer all students at least one service-learning opportunity at each grade span (K-5, 6-8, 9-12).
San Jose State College has received a $1 million grant for Project Service Learning California, a program for college students who want to teach in high-need schools. These future teachers will volunteer in real settings, Eastfield Ming Quong for instance, where they can improve skills for working with difficult children.
According to federal guidelines, service learning follows these tenets: It meets the needs of the community, enhances academic curriculum, fosters civic responsibility and provides time for students to reflect on the service experience.
High school student Judy Ennis decided to go into social services after volunteering at Loaves and Fishes Family Kitchen for two hours and at the San Jose Family Living Center for a day. There she used her Spanish with the children as she helped them prepare a meal and clean toys. She wrote a letter to President Clinton asking for more outreach programs and halfway houses so homeless children could have more stability. She says she is aware now of the need for affordable housing.
Ennis has decided that being required to volunteer is a good thing. "You don't just say out of the blue, 'Hey, I'm going to clean toys at a homeless shelter.'" Research backs her up. Students who are told by parents, schools, or community that they must volunteer report back that they didn't know they could be so useful. They like meeting people who are different, and it makes them feel good about themselves.
Student Randy West says he found out homeless people "aren't like they are portrayed to be." He wrote a letter to U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer to ask for more funding for homeless programs. He says homeless shelters turn down people every night. "It's really sad. I hope I'll contribute to getting them off the streets some day."
Corine Milano volunteered in a severely handicapped special day class at Rolling Hills Middle School. "I was nervous and didn't know what to expect." Milano says. "I got to see people who are normally segregated from the rest of us," she says. "I loved it."
Nicky Ozer, youth service coordinator for Volunteer Exchange, says volunteering is very practical, too. Students learn marketable skills. They learn leadership, how to talk on the phone, organize and write, and about technology, people skills and more. The 15 high school students who volunteer for her office researched, designed and put together a Youth Service Guide booklet of 330 nonprofit agencies that use youth volunteers.
Students who don't do well in school can be outstanding volunteers. "These kids need to be part of the bigger picture," Ozer says. Volunteer Exchange holds a Youth Summit each year. This year 350 students, 150 of them high-schoolers, will gather to share what they do in the community. At one training session the students learned the three venues for addressing community issues: volunteerism, media and public officials.
Ozer says it's important for agencies who use these young volunteers to prepare for them, be sure the work is a good fit for the volunteer, create time to manage the young person and find them interesting work to do, not just bulk mailings.
Those working directly with young people are noticing a change.
"Young people are realizing the importance of being involved," says Kate Teague of Social Advocates for Youth, a Santa Clara County organization. Students who used to say, "What's the point?" are registering to vote. They're getting proactive. Teague says one of the teenagers she works with actually went out and found community services for a friend. "Instead of calling me, she did it herself."
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
