Learn and Serve – Michigan’s Youth Voice

Posting written by the Learn and Serve – Michigan Team

Over the past couple of weeks perhaps you have heard us talking about the Service-Learning Youth Council or SLYC (pronounced “slick”). If you haven’t heard of these amazing kids yet, well it is about time you do!

The Service-Learning Youth Council is an opportunity for students to lend their voice to Learn and Serve – Michigan. We get to hear their input and encourage them to become youth advocates for service-learning in their schools. At the beginning of the school year we send around applications to our grantee districts. This year we were quite impressed with the group of applications we received.

Students from across the state joined our team in Hersey, Michigan for the 2009-2010 SLYC retreat earlier this December. During that weekend they learned how they can become voices for the youth of their community and how they can plan a service event. With each other’s help they climbed a huge wall and hoisted their friends into the sky as part of their leadership building at the Eagle Village Adventure Center.

During this time all of the SLYC students proved themselves capable leaders. They met and exceeded every challenge. Here at Learn and Serve – Michigan we don’t often get to see the wonderful students who work with our grantee districts so it was a great opportunity to meet an excellent group of youth. By the end of the weekend everyone was tired but proud of what we accomplished.

This is just the beginning of this year’s SLYC. Members are expected to do three things during their term:

1. Participate in one 2010 MLK Day of Service Project.
2. Plan one statewide 2010 Global Youth Service Day event with other SLYC members.
3. Do one thing to promote service-learning in their community (i.e. a guest blog post, a Facebook campaign, a presentation, a YouTube video, etc.)

We are excited to see how they meet these goals! At the retreat they were just beginning to plan their event for the 2010 Global Youth Service Day and they have some great ideas.

We’ll keep you updated as the year progresses and look out for our SLYC member’s guest blogs when we come back in 2010!

Michigan Needs Recruits!

“I’m Robyn Stegman from the Michigan Community Service Commission and we want you to rethink Michigan’s future.

Service is the solution we need to move Michigan forward.

We all know what is holding Michigan back: a high unemployment rate, a low graduation rate, and a terrible economy. We hear that every day.

But do we know Michigan’s assets?

More young people volunteer today then any previous generation. Every day people are retiring and entering second careers in service.

These people are Michigan’s assets. They are the creativity of Motown, the innovation of the assembly line, and the social consciousness of the six hour work week.

Michigan needs Michiganders. In service we rediscover our power and reinvest in our community. We rethink our future.”

This speech was produced during the Communicators Institute held in Mt. Pleasant on December 10. The Institute allowed some of the staff at the Michigan Community Service Commission to think about our message. What should people take away from our efforts?

Empowerment.

John F. Kennedy, who started the VISTA program I serve with, famously said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” Service has always been about empowering people to change their community. It is about realizing you are the change maker in your community. With service you are the one who helps your neighbor instead of expecting someone else to come along.

The message at the MCSC is a call to action. It is also a call for the discovery of Michigan. The realization we have so many assets to help us get out of this rut and all of those assets lie in you, in the people of Michigan. To steal from Kennedy… it is not what your country can do for us but the realization that you are the country. You are Michigan. We are Michigan’s future, we the people.

It is time for us to think about service as more than just volunteering. It is about building a healthy community, a healthy state. It is about realizing there are more assets in our community then threats. It is realizing we already possess the tools to build a brighter future. For us at the Michigan Community Service Commission it means realizing all Michigan needs is Michiganders.

We’re accepting recruits.  Visit www.michigan.gov/volunteer today!