Youth Corps Channels Teens’ Energy Into Work

Tue., Feb. 17, 1998

Maisy Fernandez Correspondent

While most kids were still sprawled out in bed on last month’s Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, five Spokane teenagers were up at 9 a.m., ready to work.

The teens spent the day at the Salvation Army Safe House, painting and fixing up a room for residents. The high school students are part of the Spokane Youth Volunteer Corps, an organization started by the Chase Youth Commission, Leadership Spokane, Citizen’s League and the United Way.

The program began last November to provide a central clearinghouse for youth volunteer opportunities, and to help schools teach the importance of community service, explained program director Michelle Carr.

A local offshoot of the national program, Youth Corps is open to kids ages 11 to 18.

The corps pairs students with volunteer opportunities that best suit them. Teens peruse a list that includes coaching and tutoring younger children, sorting food and clothing, clerical work, and planning activities for the disabled and elderly.

Teens can volunteer as groups. In fact, the same students will soon return to the Salvation Army Safe House to make additional improvements.

And this time they’ll have help. Ten more teens have volunteered the second time around.

“It was so neat to see what we were doing and how it would help the people there,” said Mollie Haines, who worked at the Safe House. “I really liked it because the project directly impacted people. It made the project a whole lot more worthwhile.”

Youth Volunteer Corps is planning its Earth Day project, which will require 30 to 50 student volunteers. The teens will collaborate with the Retired Senior Volunteer Program to do spring house-greening for seniors, said Carr.

Volunteers will remove and dispose of hazardous waste materials from homes of Spokane’s elderly.

The corps also will sponsor summer programs where young volunteers work together in groups of about 10 for two to four weeks, Carr said. The projects promote teamwork skills and an appreciation for diversity. A trained adult will be on hand to provide daily direction, supervision and reflection.

The Spokane Youth Volunteers Corps could use some help. What’s needed are agencies willing to provide volunteer opportunities for teens, ideas for summer projects, adults willing to be team leaders during the summer and, of course, volunteers.

For more information, call Carr at 838-6581.

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