Do Something

I've been talking with the youth this month about social action programs. Working for social justice is an integral component of our faith, one to which we (the adults) devote many resources. Unfortunately, sometimes our projects leave the youth in the fringes. For example, our congregation joined with 19 other congregations to do a Unity Build with Habitat for Humanity. We raised money last month, over $4,000.00, and a group worked on-site today. When my son heard about this project--one of the organizers talked about it from the pulpit a couple of Sunday mornings back--he turned to me, very excited, and said he would like to participate in this project. I had to inform him that participants had to be over 18. This is not the first time I have had to curb my children's enthusiasm because of age restrictions. Frustrated, I started looking on the web (Google is my best friend) for age appropriate projects. Let's face it teens, and children for that matter, have limited resources. Any money the kids "raise" for a project is most likely coming from their parents' pockets, same with any collection drives--food, clothes, school supplies, etc. I found the most awesome website at dosomething.org. Their five guidelines are:

1. Believe in teenagers. Teenagers can lead today. We don't require adults.
2. Trust teenagers. We provide reliable, easy to access information and activation strategies, but teens decide for themselves what to do.
3. Celebrate teenagers. We think all measurable contributions from teens are valuable.
4. Respect teenagers. We understand that teenagers have diverse abilities and constraints.
5. Value teenagers. Our programs and products are free. We're not after teens' money; we want their passion, time and creativity.

Additionally the Do Something motto "Powering Offline Action. Using the power of online to get teens to do good stuff offline" is reflected throughout the entire site. There are many inspirational stories of teens doing, not good, but great stuff in their communities and truly making a difference. I think tonight I saw a spark in our youth and am looking forward to our next conversations to plan some projects. I only hope the adults in our congregation are prepared for the awesomeness that is our youth when they are fired up!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N