After four years as our Content and Community Manager, Katelyn S. Herrygers is making a career change outside of Learning to Give. Many of you know her personally from trainings and communications, individual support and projects, or when she helped you tell stories of youth service. Others have come to know Katelyn's voice through this newsletter, professional articles, and social media. In her tenure she helped to grow the Learning to Give community, enhanced our outreach and communications, managed our team of LTG Ambassador Trainers across the U.S., and much more.
We will miss Katelyn's positive and creative impact. Learning to Give is better known and understood in its mission and vision because of Katelyn's skill, knowledge, and collaboration.
Katelyn is following her passion for writing and communications in a new position in a corporate setting. With love for her son Jay, Katelyn published the book I Am Me that is an inspirational picture book about inclusion and self-awareness for any family.
"I will forever be grateful to the teachers, nonprofit leaders, and parents I have had the chance to interact with over the last few years. Creating and sharing resources to help young people find their passions and community has been a joy. I have learned so much and will continue to recommend Learning to Give in my personal and professional networks. I wholeheartedly believe our world needs young people who see value and power in generosity, service, community, and inclusion, and Learning to Give is helping to make this happen."
All communications and inquires after October 22 may go to Betsy Peterson, Director of Learning to Give.
Election and Voting - Youth Knowledge and Action
The weeks leading up to the election are a good time to help youth understand their current and future roles as participatory citizens by facilitating conversations about voting and civic participation. These Current Events resources help youth gain knowledge and advocate for the issues they feel most passionate about.
Rather than avoid controversial issues young people want to talk about, teach them how to have constructive civil conversations. Our LTG Ambassador Trainers are creating a video series to give youth the tools and skills they need to have constructive conversations - coming soon. Looking for a resource now? Try Difficult Conversations with guidelines to establish a safe environment, promote respectful dialogue, back up arguments with facts, and talk about news and current events with young people.
Leading up to and on Election Day, November 3, youth can do this Simple Safe Service project, Get Out The Vote. After discussing the importance of voting and civic engagement, they chalk a simple positive message on the sidewalk to communicate the importance of using our voices through voter turnout in elections. #DoGoodFromHome while #LearningtoGive
Voting Toolkit: This toolkit includes lessons, service project ideas, and resources designed to spark awareness and volunteer action related to voting.
Civic Participation Toolkit: This toolkit facilitates a variety of civic participation-related issues—from examination of historical events to documents to actions students can take. These lessons and projects teach the strategies, rights, and responsibilities of citizenship.
Battle Creek Middle Schoolers in Service
Period Poverty Project by Katherine Adamonis:
On Friday, October 2, 2020, students from Mrs. Adamonis’ Learning to Give Service-Learning class performed their first project of the school year. Students put together kits to address period poverty.
First, students investigated "period poverty" by reading articles and listening to a TED Talk about the issue. Students discovered that women around the world and locally are impacted by this issue. Menstruation products are costly, and women in poverty have a hard time obtaining what they need. Not having the supplies can cause attendance issues, health problems, and even domestic issues. Once the need was identified, they wanted to do something about it.
Read the full article here.
November Service for Veterans Day
Veteran's Day is November 11. It is a great day to talk about the service of veterans. This toolkit of lesson plans, project ideas, and background information raises awareness of the role of veterans, military, and community helpers. With this resource, youth gain knowledge of military service as a form of philanthropy - giving their time for the common good. Here are a few suggested service-learning projects:
Host a breakfast to benefit local heroes, veterans or military members.
Write kind notes to people who provide a regular service.
Prepare care packages or make greeting cards for soldiers.
Involve youth as conversation partners for veterans at a local hospital or center.
We do better in learning, relationships, and career when we have opportunities to be generous and connected in community. Click an image above to incorporate teaching Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and Social Justice in remote settings.
After Black Friday and Cyber Monday comes GivingTuesday - a global day to celebrate generosity and giving. In a world that’s reeling from a global pandemic, a worldwide reckoning with systemic injustice, and economic uncertainty, we couldn’t be more in need of a moment of unity and hope.
GivingTuesdaySpark is all about empowering young people to lead the way in sparking generosity in communities all over the world! On GivingTuesday- December 1, 2020 - kids, teens, and young adults will lead volunteer projects, acts of kindness, and give back in the ways that matter most to them, creating something positive from the year 2020 and making a difference in the world. Check out the GivingTuesdaySpark website for sample projects, curriculum and lessons that you can use to help your students ignite sparks of change on December 1st. Register your project at GivingTuesdaySpark.org and join the whole world in giving back on December 1.
More service ideas from Learning to Give here.
