| May 21, 2015 | Volume 22, No. 20 |
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Spend the Summer Finding Your Voice, Taking Action, and Making an Impact!
As we celebrate the unofficial start of summer this weekend in the United States, we share 15 ideas from our partners to make it a Summer of Service. We'll keep adding opportunities all summer at www.YSA.org/summer
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NEWS FROM THE FIELD: SUMMER OF SERVICE IDEAS
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Hunger hits especially hard when kids are out of school for the summer. The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) ensures that low-income children continue to receive nutritious meals when school is not in session. This summer, USDA plans to serve more than 200 million free meals to children 18 years and under at approved SFSP sites. Promoting summer feeding sites in your community is one of the most important things you can do to ensure no child goes hungry this summer. You can find summer feeding sites and tools to help raise awareness at the USDA's website. Additional resources are available from No Kid Hungry, including a free texting service to help families find information about summer meal sites near them. Families in need can text 'Food' to 877-877, and receive a text back with the address and program information for sites closest to them, or information about how to find food resources in their area.
World Oceans Day is a celebration. Every June, people around the world take action to protect our ocean. The theme for this year is Healthy oceans, healthy planet. Explore the site to learn how you can hold an event for World Oceans Day, or take action for the ocean on your own. www.worldoceansday.org
Alex's Lemonade Days is Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation's (ALSF's) annual 3-day fundraiser where supporters from coast to coast hold lemonade stands to raise funds for childhood cancer research. Lemonade Days is held each year during the second weekend of June - the time of year when Alex always held her lemonade stand - to honor Alex and all of our childhood cancer heroes. Gather your family, friends, colleagues and neighbors, and join in the fight against childhood cancer.
 Help build awareness about the importance of teaching children to swim to help prevent drowning. On June 18, waterparks, pools and other aquatic facilities around the globe will host local WLSL lessons simultaneously at 10 a.m. wherever you are in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record. Swimming is a life-saving skill for children and a vital tool to prevent drowning, the second leading cause of unintended, injury-related death for children ages 1-14. Learn more and register to host an event at www.wlsl.org
Each year on June 21, communities around the world come together to harness the volunteer spirit and improve the conditions in which they live. United Way Day of Action is an invitation for people and organizations around the world to LIVE UNITED and take action to address a variety of challenges. It is a day that we ask you to help us put our mission into action by improving the building blocks for a good quality of life - education, financial stability, and health. Get involved.
 Summer Learning Day is a national advocacy day recognized to spread awareness about the importance of summer learning for our nation's youth in helping close the achievement gap and support healthy development in communities all across the country. Whether you're a community, summer program, school, or parent, there are many ways to celebrate Summer Learning Day!
National Wildlife Federation's Great American Campout is a summer-long celebration of camping as a way to connect with nature and wildlife. Take the pledge to camp -- in your backyard, your neighborhood, your local parks, state parks, and national parks, cabins, RVs, treehouses... you name it! -- and be a part of our nationwide event! Pledge to camp today!
This summer, as you celebrate warm afternoons and evenings, you can help end childhood hunger at the same time by dedicating your gathering to No Kid Hungry. Invite everyone you know to join your cookout and donate to help end childhood hunger in America. www.nokidhungry.org/cookout
Nelson Mandela International Day is in recognition of Nelson Mandela's birthday on July 18 and inspired by a call Nelson Mandela made for the next generation to take on the burden of leadership in addressing the world's social injustices when he said that "it is in your hands now". It is more than a celebration of Madiba's life and legacy. It is a global movement to honor his life's work and act to change the world for the better. www.MandelaDay.com
Summer is the season for hurricanes, wildfires, floods, and tornadoes... help make sure your community is prepared for a disaster this summer! There are easy ways to jumpstart your disaster prep. And the most fun way is to lead a Prep Rally - an event that educates children and families about emergency preparedness. Prep Rallies provide community members with the resources they need to get ready and be safety advocates. Get Prep Rally resources from Save the Children, including their new Prep Rally Youth Service Toolkit.
Your community is invited to join the over 37.8 million neighbors across 16,124 communities in celebration of the 32nd annual National Night Out. Begin your effort to promote involvement in crime prevention activities, police-community partnerships, and/or neighborhood camaraderie and send a message to criminals letting them know that neighborhoods are organized and fighting back. National Night Out events could include: block parties, cookouts, parades, visits from emergency personnel, rallies and marches, exhibits, youth events, or safety demonstrations and seminars. www.natw.org
International Youth Day is commemorated every year on August 12. Youth around the world are encouraged to organize activities that raise awareness about the situation of youth in their country and highlight organizations, programs, and policies that support youth leadership. YSA encourages you to use the day to plan a service project, an event to raise awareness about your organization, or a membership drive for the new school and program year about to start! Learn more here.
 WKCD (What Kids Can Do) has compiled three directories of summer programs:
The goal of 9/11 Day is to provide a positive way for all people to forever remember and pay tribute to the 9/11 victims, honor those that rose in service in response to the attacks, and remind people of the importance of working more closely together in peace to improve our world. Learn more at www.911day.org and www.Serve.gov
Save the date for Grandparents Day 2015 - September 13, 2015. But why not celebrate Grandparents Day all year long through intergenerational service programs? Generations United encourages youth to start, expand and lead intergenerational programs in their communities. To help, GU provides aYouth-Led Intergenerational Toolkit and the online interactive companion guide. Both of these resources outline the important steps for creating programs - prepare, plan, engage, implement, share and evaluate - designed to promote intergenerational solutions to societal challenges and build stronger communities.
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Deadline: June 10
Do you have a passion for helping kids? Have you worked hard to improve the lives of your peers or younger children, and now want to do more? Apply for the National Child Awareness Month (NCAM) Youth Ambassador Program, a year-long program for young leaders ages 16-22 to create change around issues facing youth today. Fifty-one NCAM Youth Ambassadors will be selected - one per state + DC. Ambassadors receive a $1,000 grant, an all-expense paid, three-day leadership training in September 2015 in Washington, DC, and ongoing training and networking opportunities. Apply at www.YSA.org/ncam
Each week, YSA honors a young person who has found their voice, taken action, and made an impact on an issue important to them and to their community. Winners receive a certificate and award letter, and are featured on YSA.org, on social media, and in the Youth Service Briefing. All youth ages 5-25 anywhere in the world are eligible. www.YSA.org/eyh_nomination |
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19 - Miami, Florida
Meet Jonathan Wynn. He founded 60 Minutes of Art in 2013 to take the visual and performing arts into inner city neighborhoods as an opportunity for children ages 5-13 to express themselves positively. Wynn came up with the idea when he was a sophomore in high school while experiencing homelessness and living in a car with his family. He began drawing and it helped him to feel positive about his situation. He knew that he wanted to give other young people struggling with difficult situations the same outlet to improve their outlook on life. ...» |
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Peace Week (11 Days of Global Unity, 9/11-9/21 International Day of Peace) Team 2015 seeks new members. 
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