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More About Youth Corps |
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How to Join
If your school or the nonprofit you
volunteer at has a chapter, you can join through them. Otherwise,
complete this application and
send it to VolunteerLEON.
Find out about existing chapters. |
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Who Are we? We are a diverse group of youth from ages 12 to 18, from schools in Leon County
and surrounding areas, representing every distinct culture and neighborhood of
our community. Some of us are in middle school and other in high
school, and some of us belong to other organizations both on and off of
campus. We work side by side with adults and are treated as equals.
Members are always asked for their input and are involved in making
every decision about the organization. Most importantly, we are
volunteers dedicated to making a difference through service. |
Why Do We Do It
By developing service projects, we are directly involved in solving
community needs, creating a vision, setting goals, developing action plans
and timelines. We then become a "VOICE" in our communities.
This is also a great opportunity to satisfy volunteer service requirements
for school and scholarships. |
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What Do We Do?
We meet each month to plan and organize group service projects. Some of us
do individual service projects at community-based organizations. We
have participated in many local and national days of service over the
years. We take an active role in aiding the Big Bend community.
We have fun doing what we do. |
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Benefits
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Positively impact your community while being a teen leader.
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Make a difference in your world and learn about the needs in
your community.
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Develop skill and stuff you need for college, scholarships,
and jobs.
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Make your resume look good and explore careers.
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Earn volunteer hours to meet school or club service
requirements.
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Grow to be a responsible teen and show off your skills.
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Beat boredom - meet new and interesting people while filling
your free time.
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History
In the Summer of 2000,
summer youth volunteers at VolunteerLEON received numerous phone calls
from youth and parents, complaining of a deficit of youth volunteer
opportunities. They began to search the VolunteerLEON's website for
existing opportunities and found very few. The teens started calling
local agencies and at the end of the summer twenty-six agencies had
opened up previously closed doors to youth volunteers. The three youth
volunteers then proposed to VolunteerLEON an organization for youth, by
youth, that would provide teenagers with the resources and volunteer
opportunities needed to take an active role in aiding our community.
The idea came to life in 2001, when an AmeriCorps
Promise Fellow working out of VolunteerLEON worked with the three teens
to develop recruitment strategies, as well as to establish meeting dates
and locations. The group of energetic youth grew to 20 members and
planned three national days of service in 2001. VolunteerLEON
received a grant to hire a full-time Youth Corps Coordinator from
Florida Alliance
for Student Service VISTA Initiative. With the hard work and
dedication of VISTA Youth Corps Coordinators and Youth Corps members,
the organization now has over 275 members, plans and participates in
dozens of events each year, and is being replicated by
Florida CHESP in
seven counties across the state of Florida. |
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Leon County Home Page
