Service Year NC receives Continuing the Conversation Award

Congratulations to our Service Year NC initiative on receiving The Service Year Alliance Continuing the Conversation Award.

The Service Year Alliance Continuing the Conversation Award is a one-time award for qualifying attendees of the 2018 Service Year + Opportunity Youth Summit.  The award is intended to support Summit participants continued conversations inspired by the Summit in their communities.

With the award Service Year NC looks to engage “opportunity youth” which are sometimes referred to as “disconnected youth”. This group comprises nearly five million American youth aged 16 – 24 who are neither in school nor employed in service year opportunities.

[callout bodyfontface=”glypha” headingicon=”noicon” textalign=”textcenter” type=”basic”]”Our Service Year NC initiative seeks to provide more on-ramps to service for opportunity youth and more young people of color,” said Darryl Lester, Service Year NC Director. “Service Year NC believes service years are important because they are the beginning of one’s journey to understanding the importance and value of giving back, serving, and volunteering.”[/callout]

Service years also provide on-the-job training opportunities that prepare youth to enter the workforce.

Service Year NC sees and embraces the opportunity to encourage and promote service in an inclusive, transparent and culturally competent way, by creating more opportunities for opportunity youth. We want to unpack the racial and socioeconomic barriers to participating in institutional and organized service.

In partnership with the NC Commission on Volunteerism and Service, Corporation for National and Community Service – NC Office (CNCS), and Movement of Youth, Service Year NC will host a conversation on how to create on-ramps into service for opportunity youth and young people of color in North Carolina.

This event will also highlight organizations that are engaging opportunity youth in service and tell the stories of North Carolina opportunity youth who have benefited from a year of service.

“One of the goals of Service Year NC is to successfully promote service year opportunities in the State,” noted Lester. “If young people take advantage of these opportunities, they will more likely be equipped and ‘job-ready’ when they enter the workforce.”

By promoting these opportunities Services Year NC hopes the next generation of North Carolinians will become more engaged citizens, contributing to the social and economic vitality of North Carolina.