Press Release: Youth Service Celebrated at Community-Wide Event

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Charlottesville, VA, April 27, 2005 – Thanks to a broad-based partnership initiative between area non-profit agencies, private and public schools, the University of Virginia and others, youth service in the Charlottesville-Albemarle community will be both celebrated and given a healthy boost at an event to be held on Thursday, April 28, 2005 from 4PM – 5:30PM at the new Albemarle County Office Building at 1600 5th Street Extended in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The event will include the launch of a new Youth Service Toolkit that outlines best practices in youth service, including the core components of meaningful youth service programs, roles of the major stakeholders, and tools and tips for making each phase of a service opportunity effective. Based on an extensive review of national literature and research on best practices in youth service, the toolkit is intended as a guide to help teachers, program leaders, and service site liaisons and staff provide consistent, meaningful and educational service experiences for youth that will reap long-lasting benefits for the community as well as the young people involved. Young volunteers, non-profit agencies, educators and others from the community will offer testimonials on the value of youth service at the event.

“Through this event and the launch of the Youth Service Toolkit, we hope to inspire even more volunteerism from the youth of our community,” says Saphira Baker, Director, Commission on Children and Families. “We hope that as youth are given opportunities to make a difference through service, they will say, as Marian Wright Edelman did, ‘I have always believed that I could help change the world, because I have been lucky to have adults around me who did.’”

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