Teens who want to help other teens through volunteer work can gain skills that aren’t always taught in high school.
“I think it helps them to develop a sense of giving back to their community,” says Catherine Fusaro Stanley, a business teacher and former adviser of the School Store club at Pleasantville High School in New Jersey.
Students in the club organized a schoolwide drive last March to collect personal care items to donate to the Atlantic City location of Covenant House, which provides resources to homeless youth ages 18 to 21 in the area.
“They felt like it was really their responsibility to give back to their community and help others,” Stanley says.
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In Nevada, a teen has organized a similar drive in her community for the past several years.
Erica Korbel, 18, a senior at Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas, collects unwanted school supplies — that are usually otherwise thrown away — from her classmates at the end of the year for homeless youth through a group she started called Students United in Recycling School Supplies.
“I am so amazed when I see the abundance of school items I have collected that can be used by students in need, along with saving the environment,” she said in an email. The items are donated to the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth.
For teens who might not be as equipped to establish a volunteer activity on their own, many organizations nationwide offer volunteer opportunities for high school students to help other youth.
Peer-to-peer telephone helplines, such as the California-based Teen Line and Teen Link, in Washington, train teens to talk to their peers, who may be dealing with challenging issues such as sexuality, family issues and addictions.
Laura’s House, another California-based organization, provides assistance to people who have been affected by domestic violence. The organization’s teen arm addresses teen dating abuse and offers volunteer opportunities for youth to help their peers who may be affected by dating violence, the organization’s website states.
Some organizations, such as Virginia-based Touching Heart, give children and teens the knowledge and skills to design their own charitable efforts to help other youth.
Stanley’s students were required to complete a community service activity to participate in the club, she says, and the students collectively decided to help Covenant House because they could relate to it.
“Let the students do the research to identify the organization that they want to help,” says Stanley, the New Jersey teacher. “It helps them if they are a part of that decision-making process. There’s a lot greater commitment on their part to make sure that it is successful.”
Learn about [career-focused volunteer opportunities for high schoolers.]
They also conducted all advertising and communication efforts. When the drive was over, the students separated all the donated items — of which there were about 12 large trashcans’ worth — into boxes that were picked up by the organization.
Korbel, the teen in Nevada, said that through her volunteer work she has gained management and communication skills she can use for life.
“I had to explain to many volunteers what I needed them to do and how to do it,” she said. “I had to communicate with the directors of the charities about when we would deliver the items. The project has made me grow as a person.”
Even though many of the students at Stanley’s school are in need themselves, they still wanted to help others, she says.
“However good or bad their own personal situation is, there is always a need to help others and that’s really the lesson that I wanted them to learn,” she says.
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Teens Help Teens Through Targeted Volunteer Work originally appeared on usnews.com