A Glimpse at Local Service: Discovery Gateway

        The calendar year is rapidly closing in on us, but the Youthlinc year has just begun. In the past few months, members have been planning with their teams and putting in hours weekly of local service. We're each so absorbed in our our individual volunteer efforts that we're unaware of what other Youthlinc members are up to. While my main service is the Real Life in Salt Lake program, I was curious about others' volunteer endeavors. I talked to my fellow-Thailander Katelin Turner to learn about her volunteer experience at the Discovery Gateway.
        A few days a week, Katelin journeys down to the Gateway plaza to the local children's museum. At the Discovery Gateway, Katelin helps out by socializing and playing with the kids (and cleaning up after them!). Her volunteer experience has been rewarding because she gets to see how much fun the kids have at the museum. She also says she enjoys observing how the tots play with each other. Katelin remarked, "It really helps me be able to see how differently little kids work and think compared to older kids. Volunteering at Discovery has made me become better at working with kids of all ages by making me be more patient and understanding with the kids."
        Way to go, Katelin, and every Youthlinc member, for staying absorbed in the volunteer community in  rewarding ways! Go Team Thailand! ;)

Erin Grieve is our Youthlincer of the week!

Erin Grieve is our Kenya spotlight person of the week. She is very energetic and outgoing. She loves skiing and more skiing. She likes a wide variety of music. She has a lot of favorite movies and tv shows but with everything she is doing I don’t see how she finds time to watch anything! She loves to cook and eat. She will try anything once as long as it is vegetarian. She loves dark chocolate, especially if there is some peanut butter mixed in as well. She already has her dream cars (lucky!!!). Some interesting places she has visited are Liberia (very cool) and Barbados(this month). She wants to go to Kenya because the Lion King was so cool and she has always wanted to participate in service for third world countries. We are excited to have her as a member of our group!



Scott visited Erin Grieve’s service site this week, which was serving food to the homeless at the St. Vincent DePaul center on Thursday December 16th. Erin coordinates a monthly project where the employees of the company she works for (Skull Candy) go to the center and feed the homeless. Her company pays for all the food, which she goes out and purchases, and then she makes sure the food gets to the kitchen where it is prepared. She also arranges for her co-workers to come to the shelter and setup, serve, and then cleanup after the dinner. This week they fed over 400 people who are in need of their generosity. It would be great if more companies like hers would step up and make similar contributions to those less fortunate people of our community. Kudos to Erin for not only volunteering her time but getting others involved in serving the community.

Team Mexico: The Start of Something Superb!

Tripping over a limb and "breaking her teeth" is Angie Denison's greatest fear about our trip to Mexico, and E. Brown dreams of being a princess at Disneyland! At our team meeting in December, we learned many interesting--and random-- things about our teammates, thanks to Tiffani Erickson's fun get-to-know-you game. I think we can all tell that our time together here, and in Mexico, will be an absolute blast! We had conference calls going out-of-state, and to southern Utah, so we can't wait to get to know those teammates as well.
Along with our (somewhat confusing) telecommunication, our laughs, and our fascinating facts, we did learn a whole heap about what we will be doing as Team Mexico. Each committee was explained to us in more detail, which was very intriguing. And I'm sure we were all happy to hear that we will all be helping with every project, no matter what committee we end up on, which is good news because each committee is so influential that it is hard to want to only be involved with one.
We also heard some great ideas for fundraising from one of our team leaders, Mike Denison. He gave us examples of great fundraising ideas and got us all excited about getting fundraising started soon! So, Team Mexico, listen to Mike and get on that fundraising!
One of the most exciting parts of our meeting was finding out who our sponsors are and getting the information so that we can write them thank you cards. To all those sponsors who might be reading this: We cannot thank you enough for the opportunity that you have given us, and for being so generous! We are so excited about our trip to Mexico and we know that if it weren't for your generosity and support we would not have this amazing chance to help the people of Chiapas.
(Mexico teammates!!: make sure you get those thank you cards sent out to your sponsors, this is extremely important!)
We have all picked our local service sites and you could sense the excitement in the room as we talked about our local service activities. It is amazing that there is a program that focuses on local and international service as much as Youthlinc does.
Team Mexico is extremely excited about our Youthlinc adventure, and after our first team meeting in December, we can all see that this is truly the start of something superb!

Youthlinc volunteers mentor teen refugees through Real Life in SLC

This year's program started a few weeks ago and Jerika and I couldn't not be more pleased! We are truly so grateful to have such AMAZING Youthlinc Students involved in making this program a success.

For those of you who don't know about Youthlinc's, Real Life Refugee Teen Mentoring Program here is what it is.

For the past 3 years I have been working with the International Rescue Committee and have found a passion for helping refugees resettle into their new life in Utah. For those of you who don't know here are some facts about refugees in Utah.

• A refugee is someone who is forced to flee their homeland based on race, religion or ethnic minority. They flea to border countries and live in refugee camps which are over crowed, have a lack of food and supplies, and then they wait until they can be resettled to a safer new home.
  
• Some refugees can live up to 20-30 years in a refugee camp before being chosen to be resettled.
  
• There are over 30,000 refugees in Salt Lake City now.
  
• Each year the IRC and Catholic Community Service resettle about 1,200 new refugees into the SLC community.
  
• They mainly come from various African countries, Burma, Thailand, Nepal, and Iraq

Many people in Utah would never know that there are so many ethnicities and cultures around them but Salt Lake City is one of the top 5 cities for refugee relocation. These families are dropped into our city and expected to learn a new language, find jobs, and being self sustaining. They do receive a lot of support but there are so many and not enough resources.

This is where Youthlinc comes in. Last year I noticed that there was so much pressure being put on the Refugee Teens. They are expected to go to school, help out at home, find jobs, and translate for their parents all of this while trying to understand a new culture and going through all the normal drama of being a teenager. I wanted to create a program that would benefit the refugee teen population of Salt Lake and allow our Youthlinc students to serve. Then through a lot of discussion and attempts to form a partnership, we were able to create The Real Life Program. We currently are working with The Hser Ner Moo Community and Welcome Center and the City of South Salt Lake to run this program. We are so grateful for this partnership because we feel helping refugee teens is a large need that is not being met.

The goal of Real Life is to create a friendships between Youthlinc students and refugee teens to help them transition to their new lives. Our objective is to teach them "real life skills" such as financial literacy, teamwork, responsibility, and overall self respect.

This is how we reach our goal:

Program Details

• The program runs Mondays and Wednesdays 4-6 and Fridays 5-7
  
• Currently we have 30-50 refugee teens ranging from 13-1. Some have been here for 3 years some have been here 2 months.
  
• We have 25 dedicated Youthlinc Volunteers
  

Through hands on learning activities and lessons, field trips, and friendships we are able to create a safe environment for these teens where they know they are supported. Our Youthlinc Students take part in planning and implementing lessons, which allows them to take ownership in their service and gain leadership skills. Our first planning meeting was such a success, I love seeing these amazing Youth take charge and really see that they can make a difference.

In such a short time we have already created strong bonds with the refugee teens. On the very first day we played many getting to know you games that were completely silly and fun, and I just have to say that it fills my heart with joy to see kids that have come from horrible refugee camps finally get to relax and just laugh. When we are all together it doesn't matter if you are from Thailand, Africa, or America we are all here to learn from each other. Each day I see a new friendship made, English learned, a cultural barrier broken down.

I will keep you posted with updates throughout the year. We have some awesome activities planned and I can't wait to see what happens.

Here are some much needed thank you's

• Jerika Michel: Our amazing Program Intern. Thank you for your great ideas and kind heart.
  
• Thank you to the Hser Ner Moo Staff. It is so great working with such fun people.
  
• Thank you to all the Youthlinc Students who are volunteering with Real Life. This program couldn't run without you and I hope you know how lucky I feel to be working with all of you!
  

A HUGE THANK YOU to our Sponsors this year

• The Burton Foundation
  
• Miss Utah USA
• American Express
• Larry H. Miller Charities
• The LDS Foundation
  
• GE Money Bank
  

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

Ellie Nazzal
Local Service Director

Vamos a Peru!

Well, I guess it's official! The journey to Peru has begun. The Peru Teams first meeting was December 3rd and we are off to a great start! The best way we could have started the meeting was to thank our sponsors of course, for this amazing opportunity. Giving thanks and keeping in contact are YouthLinc's greates assets, for they keep our sponsors informed, inspired, and willing to keep on donating. We are all grateful for our sponsors, so Peru team don't forget to send them the thank you notes!

Getting to know everyone and learning about their embarrassing moments, desired careers, and biggest fears about Peru was a little overwhelming. ( I have to say, we have quite the group of world travelers in our midst!) All the members of the team seem so unique and full of character. Something tells me that I won't really get to know everyone until we actually arrive in Peru, but once we leave I'm sure i'll never forget them. I know that service has the ability to bond people for life, and I truly hope we can all experience this phenomenon :)

Next we attended to the grocery list, if you would. We talked about passports, service hours, local service sites, and making sure to report those hours. I have spent about 2 months at my service sight already..and I can honestly say I think Youthlinc is brilliant for making this such an important aspect of the program. I volunteer at the English Language Center in Logan, Utah, where I help teach English to migrants and refugees that have recently moved here. For them, English is a matter of survival in this community, and I am so grateful I have the opportunity to help their transition into a new language and culture run a little smoother, even if it is simply explaining to them what fast food or walmart is :)

Fundraising, oh the dreaded word. Well, our leaders and Judy were very optimistic on this front. They encouraged us to write letters as soon as possible, as the Christmas season is upon us. There are samples in our binders and pictures of Peru service in the past on facebook you can steal, so get to work and start raising that money!

Definitely the best part of the meeting was our discussion of what will actually be taking place in Peru. Each committee was explained to us and we were asked to pick the three we wanted to be apart of the most. I was in awe in the complete array of projects we will be participating in. I love that we are focusing on so many aspects of the standards of living that the people in Palmeras face everyday. For construction we will be laying cement, helping to build a bridge, and renovating the primary school. Education-teaching English and other subjects, as well as hopefully bringing books and other supplies to the kids. We will all get to teach a lesson, and we are encouraged to do it in Spanish. How awesome is that?! I believe that a common language will automatically make it easier to touch the hearts and minds of the people we are working with. Though most of us won't speak perfectly, I think it is so important to try. I know the mere effort of trying to communicate in Spanish with the villagers will raise their respect for us, as well as make them feel more comfortable. Community and health- developing projects and raising supplies that the village is in most need of. It is so important to cater to this communities specific health needs, as demonstrated by Smitty's famous example of Kenyan girls and their feminine hygiene needs. Cultural- plan the fun fair at the end of the trip, as well as focus and inform the team on Peruvian culture. Microenterprise- Evaluating loans and decide who to hand them out to, as well as teach business lessons. Though these are tentative goals, they are the framework for some incredible change and optimism in the community. I can just feel it :)

Team bloggers, photographers, and videographers were established and the next meeting will be January 8 at 1 pm at the Youthlinc office. Keep on the fundraising and service hours. Remember that the people in Palmeras will be forever grateful. Keep them in mind this holiday season as we ask for money and gifts. I think that's essentially what YouthLinc wants for us. To think outside ourselves, our communities, and our own country. Keep up the good work! ( por favor ) ha.

Adios!

Rotary Grant builds a bridge at our Peru site, increasing access to medical care

Another Rotary grant will make a difference at a Youthlinc site this year in Palmeras, Peru. Thanks to the generous support from many Rotary Clubs this grant is possible.

We are grateful to the Rotary clubs of: Kaysville, Tooele, Hurricane, Logan, Fort Union/Midvale, Iquitos. Youthlinc funds were also contributed to make this project possible.

Altogether, the grant will provide $14,000 in funding and consists of constructing a 30 meter foot bridge over a tributary of the Amazon River with an 800 meter cement walkway also being built. The bridge and walkway will allow the community (around 1,000 inhabitants) with faster and more reliabel access to medical facilities in the nearby town of Yanamono.

Also, the bridge will creat better access to boat transportation to the city of Iquitos for larger medical emergencies.Currently, the community members walk long distance to access medical facilities that lie just on the other side of the tributary, which raises nearly 30 feet in the rainy season.

The 2011 Peru Team and community members will help provide labor for the bridge and other projects including laying cement for a new multipurpose court in the middle of the village.

This will be Youthlinc's second year in Plameras. Last year the team built a school and medical shed from generous funds donated by the Michel Family Foundation.

We are grateful for all our generous donors and project supporters. With their support Youthlinc continues to make a difference for thousands across the globe, while creating lifetime humanitarians.


Thanks!!!

Youthlinc and ULEMA Partner to Bring Spanish Books to Peru and Mexico

A partnership between Youthlinc and the Utah Educational Library Media Association (ULEMA) is raising 1,000 books in Spanish for the communities of Bautista Grande, Mexico and Palmeras, Peru. We need your help to donate these books to help improve the education of these impoverished areas.

The need is great. Both communities are located in rural areas where literacy rates are poor and significantly lower than other regions of their respective countries. Bautista Grande is located in Chiapas, Mexico's most impoverished state. Literacy rates for these communities are significantly lower than the national averages. Providing books will greatly aid in teaching people of all ages to read.

ULEMA is an organization of all school librarians in the state of Utah with a mission to provide professional support, leadership and enrichment for school library media educators, associates and programs. Every March, ULEMA organizes a service project and this year they chose to partner with Youthlinc to provide provide books in Spanish.

We are grateful for this partnership and need as much support as possible. We are asking all friends of Youthlinc to help with this worthwhile project beginning now and continuing until April 1st. We have designed a website that explains the whole program and the various ways you can contribute. Our goal is to obtain 1000 books, so we need help from as many people as possible. Please open your heart help us get one book closer to our goal.

View the website at: http://weneedbooks.net/


Thank you for your support!

First Thailand Team Meeting!

          Our first team meeting on December 11th was full of information, ideas, and introductions. As we all struggled to learn and memorize names, the room buzzed with excitement. Team members and mentors told about their new service sites, and their means of fundraising. We heard about Julie's experience tutoring and hanging out with kids at a local middle school, and everyone's jaw dropped when one of our team members affirmed that he's raised $4,000 already. (Sorry man, I'll catch your name at the next meeting!)
          Everyone is thrilled to be traveling nearly 9,000 miles to Thailand this summer. But I don't think I was the only one wondering how difficult it will be communicating with people who speak Thai. Megan Dunn shared with Team Thailand some totally worthwhile information! The Salt Lake County Library has an online language learning center called Mango Languages. If you have a library card with the SL County Library District, the service is free. If you live outside the district, the fee is $40 for 6 months (Oh, hey, our trip is in 6 months!). This should prove to be a straightforward way for us to get the basics of conversational Thai down!
           Finally, we were split up into our separate committees to begin brainstorming. Each committee reviewed its overall year/January goals and got started on planning fundraising projects. In the education committee, we discussed our means of acquiring materials for the school children. Between now and our next meeting, the committee will have some basic English lesson plans down. Learning English is especially important for the children in Phang Nga because many of them become involved in the tourism industry. I feel like what my committee will be helping them with will make a difference in their future, and I'm really excited to meet and help these kids.



Just a couple reminders to recap!

• Passports: get one/renew yours
• Pick your Main Service site if you haven't already
• Do you have a talent to perform on our trip?
• Write your first thank you note to your sponsor.
• Fundraising for: your personal trip cost/ collective funds/ your committee!
• Next Meeting is January social (7th-8th at Pete's place)
• Get a start with Mango Languages!

If any of you Thailand-ers are doing some fantastic local service, email (saraswami94@gmail.com) me about it! I'd like to blog about what members from our team as a whole are doing in the community!

        

$40,000 Rotary Grant brings clean water, vocational training to 3 villages in Meru, Kenya

There is nothing like a Rotary International Grant to bring a big wallop of help to an impoverished area. Youthlinc is so grateful for our partnerships with Rotary Clubs that bring huge quality of life changes to all our international sites.

Thanks to the generosity of Sugar House, Richfield, Vernal, Southwest Valley Sunrise, Centerville/Farmington, Park City Sunrise, Park City Lunch(Utah) Rotary Clubs and the amazing Rotary Club of Middleton, England, up to 4,000 individuals in Kiamuri and Makarindi Murambani will finally have access to clean water.

Hundreds of secondary students and adults in Kajuki, Kenya will have access to computers and computer skills training, as well as training of electric sewing machines. This means these subsistence farmers will have a path out of poverty, a trade with which to feed their families.

This Rotary International Global Grant will also provide 150 desks and chairs, as well as teacher desks and chairs, so that an entire primary school in Kajuki can learn without sitting on a concrete or dirt floor. This luxury is something we take for granted in the U.S.

Additionally, the grant will supply a motorbike to Kajuki so that village leaders can check in on hundreds of community members who live far from the center of town, people who are not reachable by roads and have no means of transportation. Community leaders can transport those in need of medical care to clinics, and can bring food to those who are hungry.

Youthlinc has been working in the village of Kiamuri for four years. We've built four classrooms with donations from the Michel Family Foundation & an anonymous donor from Vernal, replacing mud and twig structures with cinder block. Two years ago, Utah Rotary Clubs participated in a grant that provided clean water to part of Kiamuri.

Youthlinc has implemented education, community health, vocational training (baking, sewing, computers, microenterprise, and cultural exchange initiatives. Becky Burton, an alum from Youthlinc's first year, got a $10,000 grant to provide libraries to the community. Another Youthlinc alum and this year's Kenya team Alum Leader, Jerika Michel, raised funds for her own library initiative a couple of years ago.

The Rotary Club of Meru and the community leaders and people of Kiamuri have been great partners in these efforts, providing oversight and planning, donating their labor and initiative, and ensuring sustainability for the quality of life improvement projects we undertake together.

This year's Kenya team will continue our efforts and see the power of Rotary International to change lives.

Youthlinc Successes: Chiapas Microenterprise Pilot Group- Grupo Flor

In just five months seven women have paid off Youthlinc Microenterprise loans and arrangements are being made to rapidly expand the successful pilot program in Chiapas. Before Youthlinc's visit, these women had no access to these lines of credits or bank accounts. They now have a start to save funds for a rainy day, improve business models, and earn extra income for their families.

On June 26, 2010, the Youthlinc Mexico Microenterprise Committee gave loans to a group of seven women (Grupo Flor) from the community of Bautista Grande for roughly $120 each. Prior to giving this loan, the Committee, made up of several high school and college students, met with close to 80 women from the community, explained credit and loans, and found two groups of women interested in receiving loans to help in their clothing and artisan trade.

The group helped these women account for the products they were making and found ways to improve business by focusing on products that were the most profitable. After two weeks of working closely with the groups, the Committee decided to loan money to one group (Grupo Flor) as a pilot project to see if Youthlinc's program would be viable in Chiapas.

This success could not have been reached without the partnership of BanMujer (http://www.desarrollosocial.chiapas.gob.mx/banmujer), a government run microfinance organization. Ban Mujer has been oveseeing the collection of the loans and has also provided valuable business training for the women. Because of the 100% loan recuperation with Grupo Flor, BanMujer has proposed to continue working and expanding Youthlinc's Microenterprise Program in Bautista Grande by offering increased loans to the women and starting a workshop in the community. We are so grateful for this partnership.

The Microenterpirse program and other Youthlinc projects continue to amaze me. When I think of the difference that the hard work and effort these kids made over the months of planning and weeks of work in Mexico, I am dumb founded. While seven women may not seem like a lot right now, the influence of this group of Youthlincers, will spread into other families of women and will help improve the lives of generations. The Youthlinc program continues to create lifetime humanitarians through effective and sustainable development projects. I am happy to be a part of an organization with a clear goal and effective approach to helping those in need.

If you would like to contribute to our Microenterprise program please visit our website at: www.youthlinc.org and click on the DONATE page; or send a check into our office at: 1140 East Brickyard Rd #76, Salt Lake City, UT 84106. Make sure to label each payment with Microenterprise program

Thank you Youthlinc participants and donors (past, present, and future) for making this program possible.

Sincerely,

Smith Monson
Intl Service Director

Kenya Team Meeting December 11th 4-7pm

Attention to all Kenya participants:
Remember our first team meeting is this Saturday at 4 pm at the Youthlinc office.
Here is the agenda for our meeting. Please plan to arrive at the office 5-10 minutes early so we can begin on time.

TEAM MEETING AGENDA
-Welcome

-Announcements

-Judy-Ellie-Smith

-Team Building/Getting to Know You activity.

-Review sections of binder items.

-Local Service Site Reporting, Selection,

-Reminder of first payment due date and required forms.

-Sign up for volunteer office hours.

-Announce committee assignments

-Initial committee meeting-get to know each other

-Diverging information

-Service Project

Mexico Team Meeting

REMINDER: Meeting is THIS SATURDAY, December 4th at 1:00pm

IMPORTANT: Please be 5 minutes early so we can start on time

LOCATION: Youthlinc Office

BRING: Binders, pen/pencil

December Meeting Agenda (also found in your binder)

• Binder Review
  • Youthlinc Service Year mission, goals, strategies
  • Payments, late fees, and refund policy
  • Introduction of Committee Assignments and sign up for committees
  • Local Service Site reporting, selection, and counseling
  • Brief review of international service site
    • Accomodations
    • Projects
    • Culture
    • Mentor responsibilities
      • Mentoring prior to trip
      • In-country duties
      • Getting-to-know-you activity
      • Thank-you notes to sponsors
      • Reminder of first payment due date and passports