In the News
March 26, 2013
United Way challenges students
Initiative would like 1,000 high school pupils to volunteer three hours apiece
The United Way has a simple request of the area’s high school students. Change the world. That’s the name of a four-week initiative run locally by the United Way of Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington in which secondary school students are invited to volunteer their time and energy to help better their community.
The Ontario Youth Volunteer Challenge will be held from April 21 to May 20, and high school students aged 14 to 18 across the province are being asked to volunteer at least three hours each during that time and then log the hours for local and provincial totals. The organizers are hoping 30,000 young men and women will take part.
The challenge, which starts at the beginning of National Volunteer Week, is held by the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration and the Ontario Volunteer Centre Network.
The event is run locally by the United Way’s volunteer centre, one of 23 such organizations taking part. A local goal of 1,000 students each donating three volunteer hours has been set, for a total of 3,000 volunteer hours.
This is the sixth year for the challenge and the second year the Kingston volunteer centre has taken part.
Last year, it set a modest goal of 90 students donating 300 hours of their time during a three-week period.
It ended up getting more than 830 students giving almost 2,500 hours.
And even that amount could have been higher had it had more time to reach more schools and get them to take part, said Bill Miklas, volunteer services manager for the United Way.
“So this year one of the big goals for us to get all the schools involved,” he said.
The volunteer centre itself only started up last year, filling the gap left by the folding of the city’s volunteer services agency several years ago. A community has to have its own volunteer centre to bring in the youth challenge.
“We thought this was a great way to encourage high school students to be active in their community,” said Bhavana Varma, CEO of the United Way of KFL&A.
“The ministry looked at it as a way to get high school youth more engaged in volunteering,” added Miklas, “but what I found is there is already a lot of them doing volunteering, and this is a great way for us to promote that.”
He doubts if most people in the community realize just how much volunteering the students actually do.
Varma agrees. She came to Kingston from St. Catharines and is surprised at the high level of volunteering here.
“It is a caring community,” she said.
There is a myth out there that the younger generation doesn’t care about volunteering, she said.
“Right from Day 1, I noticed it,” she stressed. “I don’t remember the youth (in St. Catharine’s) being as engaged. We are very fortunate in this area to have youth so engaged already, committed to helping out.”
That bodes well for the future volunteering needs, she said, as the youth are able to fill the gaps left by an aging volunteer population.
She said getting the youth to volunteer is a perfect way to maintain that same level of service.
“We are not saying it has to be with one agency. We are saying, whatever you do, just do something. Start giving back and you will find out how much you enjoy it, especially if you do it as a group.”
High school students are already required to put in 40 hours of community ser vice before they graduate, and some wait until right before the end of Grade 12 before they decide they had better start putting in the time.
The challenge will let them whittle down that number, since the students can put in their volunteer hours during school time.
Miklas cited an example of that from last year when students held a Pitch-In Day around their school and neighbourhood, cleaning up debris and litter.
There are many ways the students can take part, he added.
Those who already volunteer on a regular basis can report those hours to the student services department at their school.
He has been keeping in touch with high school student councils, and they may already have events planned for the four weeks of the challenge. For example, the annual food blitz by the city’s two Catholic high schools falls during the challenge.
“When I meet with the student councils, you can tell they are the driving force within the student body,” said Miklas. “They’ve got ideas coming all the time. They’re not about just getting 40 hours, they’re about getting as many hours and doing as much as they can.”
Miklas can offer some of his own suggestions for volunteer work. They might include a food drive, bake or craft sale, car wash, fashion show, graffiti cleanup or a student vs. teachers challenge of some kind.
They might visit a seniors centre and provide entertainment, work in a garden, read to them or show them how to use a computer.
Not- for- profit organizations could also benefit from some volunteer help, said Kim Hockey, the United Way’s director of community investment. The volunteer centre is part of her department.
The event isn’t seen as a contest among the different schools, even though some may challenge one another, she added.
For the students themselves, volunteering can go beyond donating a few hours of their time, Hockey explained.
“They may have found a passion for a future career,” she said.
Not only are they enjoying what they are doing, they are also making a difference for the non- profit agency where they may be working, she said.
“It is also helping them to learn and expand and grow for their future.”
The volunteer centres are encouraged to recognize the schools’ efforts locally, so Miklas presented last year’s participating schools with plaques to thank them.
“Last year, we had some schools participate. This year, I think all the schools are going to participate. And next year, I won’t even have to explain to the schools what the youth challenge is,” he predicts.
Source: Michael Lea, The Kingston Whig Standard
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