MANDEL CENTER FOR NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS

ABOUT YOUTH SERVICE

Youth service is about young people serving the needs of their community. Quality youth service not only improves communities, it provides many aspects of quality youth development for the participants. Youth service can take many forms.

At YPS, we view youth service as a spectrum (not a hierarchy). Any way in which youth are engaged in serving their communities is beneficial. However, because service learning benefits the youth providing service in addition to the service recipients, YPS emphasizes the service learning approach.

In this section, we provide more in-depth information about service learning; how it is defined, its benefits, and its components. We also provide information on a specific form of service learning called youth grantmaking. Like service learning, this approach to engaging youth in their communities in a meaningful way has gained increasing prominence over the past twenty years. For each, we provide additional resources to help you better understand how to create and implement a quality program. And, YPS is always here to answer any questions you may have, help get you started, or help build your existing program.