Youth Service America, or YSA, is a resource center that partners with thousands of organizations committed to increasing the quality and quantity of volunteer opportunities for young people, ages 5-25, to serve locally, nationally, and globally.
About Us
YSA website YSA has a reputation for supporting and promoting youth voice
Youth voice refers to the distinct ideas, opinions, attitudes, knowledge, and actions of young people as a collective body. The term youth voice often groups together a diversity of perspectives and experiences, regardless of backgrounds, identit ...
, youth service, and service-learning
Service-learning is an educational approach that combines learning objectives with community service in order to provide a pragmatic, progressive learning experience while meeting societal needs.
Service-learning involves students in service proje ...
through advocacy
Advocacy is an Action (philosophy), activity by an individual or advocacy group, group that aims to influence decision making, decisions within political, economic, and social institutions. Advocacy includes activities and publications to infl ...
, resource sharing, and handing out over $1 million in grants. Steve Culbertson was appointed the President & CEO in 1996.
History
Founded in 1986 with support from the Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...
, YSA’s mission is to expand the impact of the youth service movement with families, communities, schools, corporations, and governments. Founded and led by Roger Landrum and Frank Slobig for its first 10 years, YSA organized the youth service movement that led to the National and Community Service Acts of 1990 and 1993. YSA pioneered National Youth Service Day, New Generation Training Program, Working Group on National Youth Service Policy, National Service Leadership Seminar, Prudential Youth Leadership Institute, Fund for Social Entrepreneurs, and National Service SuperConference.
Programs
Programs include:
*Technology
YSA.org
to support the organization's outreach to partners; an
GYSD.org
to support Global Youth Service Day;
*Microfinance
Microfinance is a category of financial services targeting individuals and small businesses who lack access to conventional banking and related services. Microfinance includes microcredit, the provision of small loans to poor clients; savings ...
grants that use a teaching application process to encourage hundreds of high quality, measurable, service-learning projects by young people around the world;
*Government relations to encourage an ongoing Federal and State investment in national service
National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939.
The l ...
programs such as AmeriCorps
AmeriCorps (officially the Corporation for National and Community Service or CNCS) is an independent agency of the United States government that engages more than five million Americans in service through a variety of stipended volunteer work prog ...
;
*Youth Voice
Youth voice refers to the distinct ideas, opinions, attitudes, knowledge, and actions of young people as a collective body. The term youth voice often groups together a diversity of perspectives and experiences, regardless of backgrounds, identit ...
initiative to help young people influence adults and contribute to policies and problems that affect them;
*Communications to spread the word to media about young people as assets and resources.
YSA has also been a long-time partner supporting the National Service Learning Conference
The National Service-Learning Conference was first held in 1988 to serve as "the largest gathering of youth and practitioners from the service-learning movement" of the United States. The conference is a program of the National Youth Leadership C ...
, co-sponsored by the National Youth Leadership Council
The National Youth Leadership Council (NYLC) is a national nonprofit organization located in Saint Paul, Minnesota, that promotes service-learning in schools and communities across the United States. Founded in 1983 by Dr. James Kielsmeier, NYL ...
.
See also
*One World Youth Project
One World Youth Project (OWYP) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation founded in Massachusetts. Its goal is to create a more knowledgeable, compassionate, skilled, and understanding generation of global citizens while at the same time, inspiring y ...
* Youth service
*National service
National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939.
The l ...
*Community service
Community service is unpaid work performed by a person or group of people for the benefit and betterment of their community without any form of compensation. Community service can be distinct from volunteering, since it is not always performed ...
*National Service Learning Conference
The National Service-Learning Conference was first held in 1988 to serve as "the largest gathering of youth and practitioners from the service-learning movement" of the United States. The conference is a program of the National Youth Leadership C ...
*Service-learning
Service-learning is an educational approach that combines learning objectives with community service in order to provide a pragmatic, progressive learning experience while meeting societal needs.
Service-learning involves students in service proje ...
*Youth activism
Youth activism is the participation in community organizing for social change by persons between the ages of 15–24. Youth activism has led to a shift in political participation and activism. A notable shift within youth activism is the rise of ...
*Civic engagement
Civic engagement or civic participation is any individual or group activity addressing issues of public concern. Civic engagement includes communities working together or individuals working alone in both political and non-political actions to ...
* Steve Culbertson
* List of awards for volunteerism and community service
References
External links
Youth Service America
website
Global Youth Service Day
website
Non-profit organizations based in Washington, D.C.
Youth organizations based in Washington, D.C.
Youth empowerment organizations
Children's charities based in the United States
Social networks for social change
Youth-led organizations
Organizations established in 1986