Empowering Youth Leadership Through Service

Format

Poster Presentation

Location

Harborside Center

Strand #1

Social & Emotional Skills

Strand #2

Safety & Violence Prevention

Relevance

Strand II- HEART: Social & Emotional Skills- Service has the ability to bring youth together across boundaries of race and economic status, allowing them to work within diverse groups, share experiences and unite over common goals. Service helps youth develop skills that help them to learn to work with diverse groups of people, overcome challenges, and work together for a common goal. Service also allows students to be empowered to take action.

Brief Program Description

This workshop will aim to provide youth development professionals with the tools to empower the youth they work with to become leaders not only in the classroom but also within their communities. By empowering young people to find solutions to the problems that their community is facing, they not only become the solutions but they also develop their leadership abilities and encourage other youth to do the same. Youth become more than just passive bystanders to violence and poverty but are empowered to be leaders and agents of positive and effective change.

Summary

The participants will be introduced to the IPARD(E) model of service learning and given some examples of how this has been an effective method of both positive Youth Development as well as Service Learning collaborations with schools in the inner cities across America. In this workshop we will discuss how our after school and weekend service programs connect with the classroom curriculum and provides a holistic model of civic engagement and academic development. We will also discuss how to encourage youth voice through things like community mapping and youth evaluations and how to connect their thoughts and ideas to leadership opportunities. We will provide a practical guide of how to connect what is done in the classroom to service and give examples, as well as give a guide of suggestions of service projects that youth can lead and can be done as stand-alone and are simple, safe, and effective. We will do some games and activities with the group to give them ideas on how to make reflection and the demonstration parts of service fun for students. We will also look at how to engage “high-risk” youth in service, getting them to not only commit to doing service but enjoy it and take ownership of the projects they do. Also I will give examples of how service has been used in high crime areas to deter violence and criminal behavior. We will look at how to change the mind set of service as a punishment into service as a solution.

Evidence

Service learning programs mobilize students in challenging urban areas to lift up their communities through intensive local service. We run service programs at 50 high schools in seven US regions: Chicago, Detroit, New York, the Bay Area, Philadelphia, Boston and Connecticut. We have proven student outcomes: Academic Engagement, Empowerment, Social and Personal Development, Expanded Sense of possibilities, and Civic Engagement. over 1,000 students in Chicago have completed over 280,000 service hours.

The IPARD (E) model of Service Learning is Investigation, Preparation, Action, Reflection, Demonstration and Evaluation. This is proven methodology of effective service learning. To guide youth professionals in developing meaningful youth lead service projects that develop skills for youth to grow in their leadership abilities and have meaningful experiences that connect to what they are learning

Biographical Sketch

Kimberly Carol Townsend has 14 years of experience as a Youth Development Professional. She recently took a position as a Program Coordinator for the International Non- Profit, buildOn. Her work with buildOn has allowed her to focus her skills and experiences by servicing the youth on the south side of Chicago, where she was born and raised. Kimberly works to engage 100 students per week in service learning opportunities as well as preparing and traveling with youth to build schools in developing countries around the world. She received her Global Masters of Art in International Relations from Webster University in 2010. Kim has traveled and lived in 5 of 7 continents. Through her experiences abroad, she realized the importance of education and service in eradicating poverty and building youth capacity globally. Kimberly is committed to ensuring access to quality education and leadership opportunities for youth worldwide.

Keyword Descriptors

youth, service, education, leadership, poverty, development

Presentation Year

2016

Start Date

3-8-2016 4:00 PM

End Date

3-8-2016 5:30 PM

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Mar 8th, 4:00 PM Mar 8th, 5:30 PM

Empowering Youth Leadership Through Service

Harborside Center

This workshop will aim to provide youth development professionals with the tools to empower the youth they work with to become leaders not only in the classroom but also within their communities. By empowering young people to find solutions to the problems that their community is facing, they not only become the solutions but they also develop their leadership abilities and encourage other youth to do the same. Youth become more than just passive bystanders to violence and poverty but are empowered to be leaders and agents of positive and effective change.