Luck Public Schools

Luck, Wisconsin

Teacher Barbara Petersen

 

 

Improving The Quality Of Living

By Christina Robbins

12 grade

 

 

 

The best way to improve the quality of living in our communities today is to get youth active when the are young.  Parents need to spend time with their children

and help them get involved in activities in the community.  Children are the future so they need to start out right. I try to help the community by being in as many extra

activities as possible.  I’m active in Red Cross Youth Corp. for the St. Croix Valley Chapter.  In this group I have helped with a blood drive, participated in a mock disaster, been in parades, and helped collect items for troops over seas at Christmas time. I have also been in band for eight years and choir for six years.  In these two electives I have provided entertainment for the community.  It makes me feel a part of the community to perform in front of the community.

 

Since I was confirmed in eighth grade, I have been involved in our senior high youth group.  This has also gotten me involved in the community.  I’m on the youth planning committee for my church, trying to provide ministry to and with young people.  With my youth group I have sung at the nursing home and provided gifts, crafts, and music to the patients at a children’s hospital. I have also taught bible school for three years.

 

Sports are another way to reach out.  It brings people of the community together to cheer on the youth.  It shows the teenagers that they have support from their community and it helps them to know they are part of it.  Sports also provide entertainment and keeps children and young adults off the streets.

 

Community service is a great way to reach out to the community.  Many schools require students to do a certain number of community service hours before they can graduate.  To complete my community service hours I aided teachers, taught Bible school, and helped the kindergarteners in the lunch- room.  Doing these community service hours I faced challenges, but I learned how to deal with problems.   This may help me in the future.

 

The members of the National Collaboration for Youth see youth as community assets and resources.  They believe one way to use the resources of youth is by increasing opportunities for their involvement in national and community service.  NCY’s definition of youth service is based on the value of giving to others.  Participating in activities to improve their communities empowers youth to make a difference and to connect with the civic life of their communities and country.

 

Most youth are eager to serve.  The total number of United States teenagers participating in volunteer service increased by seven percent from 12.4 million to 13.3 million between 1992 and 1996.  The amount of teen volunteer time in 1996 totaled 2.4 billion hours. Recent research conducted by Independent Sector reports that young people between the ages of twelve and seventeen are four times more likely to volunteer if they are asked to do so.  Ninety-three percent of teenagers asked to volunteer became involved in community service.  Youth who are involved in service just one hour or more a week were found to be half as likely to engage in a variety of negative behaviors such as alcohol and drug use, vandalism, and school truancy.  Youth involvement in community service is likely to be inversely correlated to youth crime rates.  Adult community service (including involvement in schools), as well as voter participation and other indications of community strength, are also mirror indices of youth community service involvement. Increasing numbers of youth in community service can significantly improve indicators of educational achievement, decrease negative effects of poverty and health problems, and improve environmental quality. Community service also builds a foundation for a lifetime of community activity, engaging the idealistic impulses of youth to make positive contributions to their community’s civic and social life.  It also helps young people develop positive self-concepts, proven skills, and social commitments that can create a sense of place in the community. Part of creating a sustainable society is to have a well-organized system for involving youth in an array of community activities.

 

The National Collaboration for Youth believes that youth community service experiences should begin at an early age and include planning and leadership opportunities.  They also believe community service programs should meet the needs of both the community and the person providing service. In 1996, the Search Institute conducted a survey of 3,400 ninth and eleventh grade students at all Seattle Public High Schools.  Students responded to questions regarding different “developmental assets” in their lives, including:  “serving in the community for one or more hours per week.”  The search has identified involvement in community service as one of forty key developmental assets that help youth succeed in school and life.  In the survey, forty-two percent of the responding high school students reported that they were involved in community service.  These results indicate that about 5,500 public high school students throughout Seattle are volunteering in their community.  Based on that same survey question, the national average for student involvement in service is thirty-seven percent.

 

The best way to help a community is to get the youth involved.  If they start out young helping people and doing community service, problems may eventually decrease.  Most studies show that community service helps youth be less involved in crime so the first step to make a community better is to get the youth involved.

____