Guest Posting By: Robyn Stegman, Learn & Serve AmeriCorps*VISTA
This past week I took a trip to Ionia to take a look at their service-learning programs. Among the many great things Ionia has done, I was most stunned by the work of their youth committee. The Ionia County Youth Advisory Committee (YAC) was originally in charge of giving out youth-related grants but has since blossomed into a power for change. Here is a look of some of the things the Ionia County YAC is up to:
- Project Ignition – YAC was featured in the paper last week for winning a State Farm Project Ignition Grant of $2,000! YAC was the first group in the state to get involved with Project Ignition which is an initiative by the National Youth Leadership Council to help promote teen driver safety. YAC was one of 25 schools in the country to receive the grant and will continue to compete to be part of the top 10 who receive $5,000, or perhaps become the number one school to receive $10,000 for their program this year.
- Facebook – YAC has created a Facebook Fan Page as part of their Project Ignition work to promote their work. To keep updated on the latest YAC events, become a fan at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ionia-MI/Project-Ignition/157171590987.
- Ionia County YAC Forum – YAC students are hard at work on their youth forum which will cover topics ranging from the achievement gap to leadership training to teen driver safety. The YAC students have some great ideas including one session with an ER doctor to talk about his experiences seeing the results of teen driver accidents and another session where they will show and discuss a popular YouTube video.
If you have a group of young people you would like to highlight in an upcoming blog, please email me, Robyn Stegman, at stegmanr@michigan.gov.
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