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Jewish World Review Dec. 19, 2001 / 4 Teves, 5762

Larry Atkins

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Good news about today's teens!?


http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com -- TODAY'S young people didn't need Kevin Spacey or Haley Joel Osment to tell them to Pay It Forward.

Despite all of the lamenting about the apathy, narcissism, and decline in values and morals of today's young people, there is one sign that contradicts this stereotype. This generation of young people is more active in volunteering and giving than perhaps any generation that came before it.

According to figures from the Points of Light Foundation in Washington, D.C., 13 million teenagers, or 59 percent of America's teen population, volunteer more than 3.5 hours a week. A 1998 national survey reported that about one-third of students in grades 7-12 identified volunteering and helping others as very important goals.

According to a national survey of college students conducted by the Institute of Politics at Harvard University, 60 percent of the students said they preferred community volunteerism to political engagement as a better way to solve important issues facing the country.

In UCLA's Community Service Commission, which involves over 20 student-run community service projects and between 2,000 and 3,000 students each year, students participate in projects such as tutoring kids, working to fight poverty and homelessness, and improving the environment.

Students at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland are actively involved in volunteer projects such as Habitat For Humanity and Project Step-Up, in which students serve as tutors and mentors to poor and at-risk youth in Cleveland's elementary schools and junior and senior high schools.

At the 1997 national summit on volunteerism in Philadelphia entitled "America's Promise-The Alliance For Youth," President Clinton, Former Presidents Bush, Carter, and Ford, and General Colin Powell challenged adults and children to get involved in community service.

In April, 3 million young people nationwide participated in National Youth Service Day by engaging in over 10,000 community improvement projects in all 50 states. The number of AmeriCorps national service volunteers has grown from 20,000 in 1996 to 40,000 today and the number of City Year organization affiliates has grown from one city in 1988 to 13 today.

Over the past three years, over 100,000 young people have volunteered in the Washington, DC area to reduce homelessness through the "Housin' 2000" program sponsored by the Fannie Mae Foundation. Young volunteers made sandwiches for homeless people, held a Halloween costume drive for homeless children, and raised $5 million for homeless service providers in a Walkathon.

Kiwanis sponsors Key Club, a national service organization for high school students built around the concept of caring. Key Club is the largest service organization of its kind with over 16,000 members in approximately 4,200 clubs.

Examples of Key Club service projects abound. In Los Angeles, Torrance High School's Key Club collects toys and games for victims of pediatric trauma, plays sports with handicapped people involved in Special Olympics, tutors kids at the local middle school, cleans up the school campus, and cleans up the shores of Redondo Beach. Last year, students from Madison High School Key Club in Cleveland participated in a project to raise funds to provide free gun locks to local residents to promote gun safety. Students in the Gaithersburg High School Key Club in Maryland participate in clothing drives, school cleanups, and soup kitchen visits. The Key Club at William Tennent High School in suburban Philadelphia has 175 student members.

Society can't hold it against today's young people that there are no great social issues to get angry and protest about, such as the Vietnam War. Unlike the "Greatest Generation," they haven't had to live through crises such as the Great Depression and World War II. While the terroristic attack on September 11th has affected everyone in this country emotionally, it hasn't had a direct impact on young people's lives. While issues such as the environment, child labor abuse in foreign countries, and world hunger are very important, they don't have an immediate and mobilizing effect on young people's lives so as to cause mass protests in the streets and on campuses.

Engaging in volunteerism is the way this generation has seen fit to try to make a difference. When they volunteer, they get to see an immediate, positive impact on other people's lives--parks, schools, and recreational centers get cleaned up, a young child improves his reading skills, a nursing home resident gets a new friend, and money gets raised for various charities.

There's a lot more to this younger generation than tattoos, nose rings, and Limp Bizkit. They deserve credit for it.



JWR contributor Larry Atkins is a lawyer and writer who lives in Philadelphia. Comment by clicking here.

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© 2001, Larry Atkins