YSA envisions a powerful network of organizations committed to making service and service-learning the common expectation and common experience of all young people in America.
We work toward that mission through four core strategies:
• Organizing Public Policy and Awareness Campaigns
• Convening the Field
• Offering Incentives and Recognition
• Providing Information and Educational Resources.
ORGANIZING PUBLIC POLICY AND AWARENESS CAMPAIGNS: to encourage and mobilize the energy, commitment, idealism, and experience of young people while highlighting their community contributions. We work through public education events, the media, and with policy-makers to heighten awareness of the positive role of young people in our society:
NATIONAL AND GLOBAL YOUTH SERVICE DAY, the largest service event in the world, mobilizes youth to identify and address the needs of their communities through service and learning, supports youth on a lifelong path of service and civic engagement, and educates the public, the media, and policymakers about the yearround
contributions of young people as community leaders. An active consortium of more than 200 National and Global Partners organizes thousands of projects each year in the United States and 150 countries.
YOUTH VOICE is a national initiative to increase the quality and quantity of opportunities for young
people to serve as decision-makers in organizations and communities, establishing
a culture where youth engagement is a universal community principle. We mobilize and motivate youth volunteers to further their goals and impact by connecting their involvement in community service with the public policy process
and other forms of civic engagement. The centerpiece of this program is our National Youth Advisory Council of young people ages 14-22.
NATIONAL AND COMMUNITY SERVICE ADVOCACY calls for government partnership in creating opportunities for young people to serve locally, nationally, and globally. As an independent third party, Youth Service America advocates for national service initiatives including AmeriCorps and Learn and Serve America. Youth Service America works to educate elected officials about the importance of legislation and policies that recognize and support the engagement of young people in community service, service-learning, and civic participation.
CONVENING THE FIELD: to facilitate the exchange of information and learning among participants and
organizations in the youth service and service-learning field.
YOUTH SERVICE AMERICA'S PARTNER & MEMBERSHIP PROGRAM includes more than 6,000
organizations, representing over 60 million young people, and is the largest alliance in the United States of youth development and service organizations working to strengthen America’s local communities through service, service-learning, and civic engagement.
NATIONAL SERVICE-LEARNING CONFERENCE, a program of the National Youth Leadership Council in association with Youth Service America, is the largest annual gathering of service-learning
professionals, policymakers, and young people. YSA conducts an annual forum on Youth Voice, offers a number of skill-building workshops, and co-hosts an awards ceremony.
WORKING GROUP ON NATIONAL AND COMMUNITY SERVICE provides a cohesive voice for the youth service, service-learning, and civic engagement field. The Working Group is focused on three core discussion areas, including: Youth Civic Engagement, Service-Learning, and Youth Voice. These core Working Groups bring together national and community organizations, schools and faith-based programs, policymakers, academics, and others in order to produce innovative knowledge tools and
resources and to generate new strategies for making service, service-learning, and civic engagement the
common expectation and common experience of all young people in America. The results of the
Working Group are reported in The Youth Service Journal, Youth Service America's periodical.
OFFERING INCENTIVES AND RECOGNITION: to reward and encourage more young people, schools, and organizations to contribute to their communities through service and service-learning:
GRANTS AND AWARDS are available to motivate and help youth, teachers, and youth organizations, plan and carry out National & Global Youth Service Day projects and ongoing service throughout the year. Grants include the State Farm Good
Neighbor Service-Learning Award, the AT&T Cares Youth Service Action Fund, and the NEA-YSA Youth Leaders for Literacy Awards and DisneyHand Minnie Grants. The Harris
Wofford Awards recognize young people and institutions that help make service and service-learning the common expectation and common experience of all young people in America.
PROVIDING INFORMATION AND EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES: to develop and distribute tools to strengthen the capacity of youth organizations and individuals to increase the quality and quantity of their youth service and service-learning projects:
THE NATIONAL SERVICE BRIEFING was started in 1994 and has the highest circulation of any
newsletter in the service and service-learning field. As a weekly email publication, it highlights current information such as effective practices, funding, awards, legislation, corporate initiatives, calendar events, and “everyday heroes” – profiles of youth leading innovative service initiatives.
SERVENET.ORG is YSA’s award-winning website and the most comprehensive site on the Internet dedicated to service and volunteering. Supported by hundreds of SERVEnet Ambassadors nationwide, the site is home to Get Involved!, the
nation’s largest database of local volunteer opportunities; the Talent Bank of available volunteers; the National Service Calendar; service news; jobs; effective practices; funding opportunities; and inspiring quotes. SERVEnet matches organizations with volunteers who have the skills, experiences, locale, and enthusiasm to help them. Organizations and corporations can add SERVEnet’s Get Involved! Box to their website, providing visitors easy access to volunteer opportunities near them.
SERVENET CUSTOMIZATION is an innovative fee-for-service program that YSA offers to nonprofit, private, and public sector organizations. Through this process, SERVEnet is integrated into an organization’s website, allowing visitors to access
SERVEnet databases and receive volunteer opportunity reports in an environment that matches the look and feel of the client site.
TRAINING AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE, offered by YSA’s talented staff, ranges from one-on-one phone consultations to working groups, conference seminars, and workshops (based on a fee structure) on such issues as youth in decision-making, youth voice and civic engagement, international aspects of volunteer service, media
training, and employee volunteer management. YSA staff possesses dozens of years of institutional experience and recognition in the
youth development field - from youth media and public awareness campaigns to research and academia.
CURRICULUM GUIDES AND TOOL KITS help teachers, community leaders, and
young people plan quality service projects, recruit volunteers, identify costs, raise funds, generate media attention, and incorporate service-learning
practices into their community service projects. They are also available in Spanish.
TIP SHEETS assist organizations and individuals on various topics ranging from "How to Fundraise for
Your National Youth Service Day Project" to "How to Recruit Volunteers" to "How to Build Strong
Youth/Adult Partnerships." The tip sheets are formatted so that program directors and young people can easily use them to strengthen their organization’s effectiveness, sustainability, and scale. Youth Service America continually adds new tip sheets on this section of its website.
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