Leadership Training Curriculum

MN Campus Compact is now offering a day long leadership curriculum. The resource includes asset mapping material, conflict resolution role play scenarios and much more. The material can be adapted for many age groups and can be used a whole or broken up into shorter trainings. To access the curriculum, go to www.mncampuscompact.org/leadership and click on the Leadership Curriculum button. Questions, comments or suggestions about the material can be sent to Lucy at marincel@augsburg.edu.

Happy Monday!

This link won't connect you to a resource, a research study or a suggestion for a lesson, but it's definitely worth a read. Sometimes we get so caught up in meeting deadlines and "getting work done" that we forget how as youth service workers or educators we touch the lives of others every single day. I would encourage every one of you to read the article and take some time to think about an influential person in your life. And beyond that, think of how you can become that mentor and role model to a young person.

“Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us.” - Wilma Rudolph

Youth Sense Newsletter from the SEARCH Institute

Check out the Search Institute's newsletter called Youth Sense

It features an article from one of our very own Promise Fellows, Stacie Weeks.
to view it, click here

Youth Success in St. Paul Event

A free event being sponsored by Minnesota Campus Compact and the Center for Democracy and Citizenship. On Thursday, Nov. 4th, from 1:00-3:30 pm, we'll gather to learn about diverse St. Paul communities’ perspectives on youth success, to map our various efforts to support youth success in school and life, and to explore potential areas for collaborative action and assessment. The event is opportunity for colleges and universities in St. Paul to hear about what is already being done around youth success and to form new partnerships to promote youth success. For more info, contact Lucy at marincel@augsburg.edu. To RSVP: go to http://youthsuccess.eventbrite.com.

National Learn and Serve Challenge

The white house is kicking-off its Learn and Serve Challenge this week, which is a seven-month campaign to increase awareness and public support for service-learning. It begins this week and will culminate in April 2011 with a few key milestones along the way, such as engaging local media through Service-Learning Solution Media Days in January, showcasing and sharing effective strategies and activities to build support for service-learning at the 2011 National Service-Learning Conference and celebrating service efforts around the country in conjunction with Global Youth Service Day.

Check out this video for more information, watch the video

How to engage yourself: 

1.  SIGN-UP. Make sure your service-learning site is represented on the national map of voices for service-learning. Enroll as an individual, classroom, youth group, club, school/campus, school district, organization, or community-wide initiative. Accept the Challenge

2.  SHARE THE VIDEO. Visit the Learn and Serve Challenge online to share the video with friends and colleagues via email, Facebook, Twitter, your own blog, or other social networking tools. Share the video today.  

3.  BECOME A CHALLENGE PARTNER. List your school or organization as a proud supporter of service-learning and a partner of the National Learn & Serve Challenge. Become a Partner now.  

Great Stories and Pictures

Promise Fellows Will Grant from Parkview Center School in Roseville and Kaylie Burns from Prairie Seeds Academy shared with me some projects that they have recently engaged in at their sites.  Check out a short description and look at their pictures, maybe you'll even be inspired by them.

Will is involved in Parkview's out of school program Friendship Connection, a group made up of 4th - 8th graders from the school.  In their space, a large white wall needed some sprucing up, and the team leaders decided to spearhead a mural project for their members of the program to help complete.  Their theme was P.E.A.C.E, or Peace, Equity, Action, Community, Environment - an acronym that is also the school's motto.  Students were excited and actively engaged in the project, which produced a pretty cool end result.  Check out some pictures of the mural and its construction below.  

                                                               

    A work in progress

  

   Friendship Connection Member with Mural

    The finished product

Kaylie Burns had this to say about her service learning group:

The service learning group at Prairie Seeds Academy is in full swing! Tuesday, October 12 found the entire youth cohort of 50 kids and 15 adult volunteers packing meals at Feed My Starving Children in Coon Rapids, Minnesota. This year, the cohort is focusing on green concepts, zero-waste, and helping people through these ideas. The cohort saw an awesome opportunity to help children less fortunate than themselves and also think about how to remedy the waste that Americans create every day.  Many of the students (and volunteers) were touched by the event. In her post field trip reflection, 9th grader Bao Vang said, “I really liked it because I got to be a part of something big. Everyone was kind and encouraging.” Ginseng Thao, also a ninth grader, wrote, “I loved it! I wish to go there again. I only wished that it lasted longer. I never worked so hard in my life before. So this was a very good thing for me.” Sandwiches and drinks donated by local Subway restaurants and picked up by trusty volunteers rounded out the day. 

The effect of Feed My Starving Children’s message was not lost on any student. And many were grateful for the opportunity. Raymond Lee (sixth grade) felt “good, and excited, because lots of food was able to be packed with everyone’s help.” The staff and volunteers at FSMC helped everyone feel valued and important to the final product and created a wonderful service-learning environment for the 120+ adults and children participating on Tuesday. Though not the first service-learning opportunity the students have had, it might have been the most affective, Martin DeLeon asserted, “Our cohort is helping the world. I love saving lives and helping the environment.” 

Thanks for sharing your stories guys!  If you'd like to share YOUR story, contact Spencer (promisefellow@mnyouth.net) 

Happy MEA!

Suicide Prevention Lecture

In lieu of the recent suicides across the nation, it is time to getting talking about suicide awareness and prevention. Please join Dan Reidenberg who is the Executive Director of SAVE (Suicide Awareness Voices of Education), for a FREE lecture at 5:30pm on Monday, October 25, 2010 at Coffman Memorial Union, Mississippi Room.

SAVE is a national non-profit agency working to prevent suicide and help suicide survivors and those suffering with brain illnesses. He is also the Managing Director of the National Council for Suicide Prevention, serves on the Steering Committees for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and the Suicide Prevention Resource Center and the Advisory Committee of Reachout.com. Dr. Reidenberg is also the US Representative to the International Association for Suicide Prevention.

Suicide is the third leading cause of death among people ages 15-24, and the second leading cause of death in college students. Each year, 1,100 college students are lost to suicide. One in four college students struggle with a mental illnesses, such as depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, or eating disorders.

This event, free and open to the public, and is part of the Magraw-Fuller Lecture Series. For more information, contact Eva Widder at ewidder@umn.edu or by phone at (612) 626-5146.

If you end up going, let me know what you thought of the event!