Teens Respond to Poll's Challenge

In the spring of 1997, the Harry Singer Foundation, a private 501 C (3) organization, asked 2,000 students to rank pre-selected options as more or less desirable exchanges for volunteer services. Money was not offered as an option.

After listening to students for ten years, the Foundation was convinced that their energy and goodwill was an untapped resource. "Many adults did not believe us when we suggested that the oldest and youngest generations, instead of being problems, were the solution to many of our social ills. So we decided the best way to persuade the skeptics was to have these groups speak for themselves," said Margaret Bohannon-Kaplan, director of the Singer Foundation.

Polling is the first step in launching Another Way, a nationwide project which identifies, then overcomes obstacles to volunteering. It provides incentives for volunteers of all ages.

"When students poll the residents in their neighborhoods, it is a learning experience that benefits the community. The most pressing social problems are determined, not by academics, but by residents who are better equipped to come up with reality-based solutions," Bohannon-Kaplan explained.

Working with both action-oriented public and private nonprofits, other students compile wish lists, which if filled, will enable these organizations to focus more fully on their missions and free them from the expensive and time consuming chore of writing grants and seeking volunteers. There is another side benefit derived from the school-community-based learning exercises. The information obtained enables individual, and institutional grant makers, to target and leverage their social investments.

"Another Way is not a program," Bohannon-Kaplan insists, "It is a coordination and communication system which gives everyone access to new technology."

You may view an overall poll analysis, press releases for individual schools, and poll results for individual schools.