Youth Now! Collaboration

Volunteer Center of Southern Arizona
Dave Chandler
925 N. Alvernon
Tucson, AZ 85711
520-881-3300 ext 111
dchandler@volunteeroaz.org

The Volunteer Center of Southern Arizona(VCSOAZ) strengthens communities by mobilizing people and resources to develop creative solutions to community problems. Youth Now! is a collaboration of the Volunteer Center of Southern Arizona, United Way and six other partner agencies. The vision of the Youth Now! Collaboration is a community that is invested in its youth and committed to their successful development into productive, contributing adults.

Vision:

Our goal is to engage volunteers of all ages, including young people themselves, to enhance meaningful out-of-school activities for children and youth, and improve early childhood literacy programs.

Meeting Community Needs:

Methodology

The Youth Now! is focused on two critical community issues related to children and youth: school dropout rates and risky behaviors. The diverse programs of the eight Youth Now! partners use four fundamental strategies in an effort to steer children and youth toward the path of productivity and involvement and away from illiteracy and destructive behavior.

Those strategies are:

1) To improve early childhood literacy rates by promoting greater community investment in our youth through adult volunteerism;

2) To educate and engage youth in community issues using a service learning model; and

3) To increase the capacity and quality of meaningful out-of-school activities for children and youth.

What do AmeriCorps Members Do?

Youth Now! AmeriCorps members perform three primary roles:

1) Serve as team leaders to engage youth volunteers in service learning projects;

2) Facilitate the Volunteer Center's youth leadership program; and

3) Recruit and manage volunteers at partner sites to expand capacity and improve the quality of services to children and youth. The Volunteer Center shares its service learning expertise with each partner, collaborating to develop quality service learning projects as appropriate at host sites. Members at all sites are trained in service learning design and implementation. Youth served at the host sites are invited to apply to the Greater Tucson Youth Leadership Program and members at host sites will have the opportunity to assist that program as mentors and team leaders. Volunteer recruitment and management is an integral role that AmeriCorps members will play at every site. The Members use the Volunteer Center's sophisticated volunteer recruitment and management tools, and their host sites will be integrated into the Center's overall volunteer recruitment strategy.