MCSC - Youth Service: A Panel Perspective

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Youth Service: A Panel Perspective

The Michigan Community Service Commission has a strong commitment to youth service in the state and works hard to propel the efforts of young people and their impact on a larger scale. For many years they've benefitted from youth commissioners serving on their board in an effort to capture the voice of Michigan's young people.

Three of those individuals; two current MCSC youth commissioners and one former youth commissioner, recently sat down together to discuss their commitment to service and the impact it's had on them and others. Please read on to learn more about Ella Kate Wagner, Breannah Alexander, and Kari Pardoe - three leaders in Michigan's youth service movement.

Please introduce yourselves and explain your current involvement with the Michigan Community Service Commission.

- Ella Kate Wagner: This is my first year as a commissioner, but I've worked with the MCSC a lot. I was on the Service Learning Youth Council for five years. I am currently a freshman at Michigan State University studying elementary education.
- Kari Pardoe: I was a commissioner with the MCSC for nine years, starting my freshman year of college and I stayed on after that. I currently work at the Michigan Nonprofit Association as the Director of The LEAGUE Michigan.
- Breannah Alexander: This is the first year of my second term with the MCSC. My first term as a commissioner started in 2007. I'm currently a senior at Grand Valley State University studying public administration and criminal justice.

What is/was it like to be a youth commissioner for the MCSC? Is this role different than that of a traditional MCSC commissioner?

- Kari: I think my role [as a youth commissioner] was different for a couple of reasons. For one, I got to be part of a national movement to engage youth commissioners and to raise awareness about having young people serve on commissions. I helped to write a white paper for engaging youth commissioners that focused on discussing their roles and what they should be doing in those positions. I also helped to provide technical assistance to other state commissions to encourage youth involvement on their boards.
- Breannah: The biggest difference [serving as a youth commissioner] is that with a lot of the other MCSC commissioners, they bring resources their respective organizations can provide…. Which is great, but at the same time when you come in as a youth commissioner you come in recognizing that your presence and your voice will be biggest contribution. You are to be knowledgeable about what's affecting young people in the state.

Why is youth service so important to you?

- Kari: For me, it's important for a couple of reasons. I wouldn't be where I am today without. As a young person I thought I wanted to go into business and then I got really involved in the youth service movement - from grantmaking to philanthropy - and it totally changed and shaped me into who I am today. As a result, I changed my major in college and totally reevaluated what I wanted to do. Because of my experience, I want to provide those same opportunities to youth throughout the state of Michigan to help them get a taste for what [service] is and how they can integrate it into their lives and continue participating into adulthood.
- Breannah: The idea of youth service is important to me because I come from a family of public servants. My dad was a firefighter and my mom was a nurse, so of course the idea of helping someone else was important. Too often, your community doesn't succeed without its citizens helping those who can't help themselves.

Youth service became a special issue for me when I joined the Youth Advisory Council (YAC), which is affiliated with community foundations that grant-makes to the community for youth-driven programs, but also does direct service as well. Prior to that I had never considered what an impact service has on a community until I realized what a group of 20 people could do as a collective unit to have a lasting impact.

What's one specific project you are passionate about?

- Ella Kate: I did a project in High School that meant a lot to me. The name of the project was Healthy Minds, Healthy Bodies. It was an achievement gap project to address the issue of health in my community where over 50 percent of the students receive free or reduced lunch. The project brought families together in an effort to build relationships. Once a week we would all come together to conduct activities, such as learning about the food pyramid, exercises they could do as a family, or listen to guest speakers. It was amazing to share with them the message of why students should eat healthy and how food can affect brain development and your school success.
- Kari: The program that I'm most proud of…and actually still engaged with… is YAC. It's so neat to engage young people and empower them to become grant makers and taken seriously in their community.
- Breannah: The project that probably had the most impact on me was Spring into Service Day, which I participated in during my sophomore year of high school. As part of this project we were helping to revitalize housing for veterans who had served in the military in the community. It was incredible to see the great sacrifices many of them had made for our country and then seeing what they had to come back to, as far as the assistance they were in need of but yet they weren't receiving.

I helped a veteran who was wheelchair bound and he wasn't able to maintain the things in his house that having legs are convenient for. He was so appreciative of that…just coming outside and seeing his house revitalized and the sheer joy that was on his face was priceless.

How has your involvement in service changed over time?

- Ella Kate: When I was little I started doing service-learning and we would do simple projects the teachers would give us. In high school it got to the point where I would do projects by myself or with other youth…to the point we were engaging in philanthropy and going out to talk to the Governor and our Senators about specific issues. Over time my service has grown so much to the point where I can just do it with other youth and we don't need adult input.
- Breannah: My involvement has changed in the sense I'm a lot more focused on being the person to empower young people and helping them to see the needs in their community and the importance of addressing them. I think in a lot of ways I can provide them with the background they're looking for and I'm not just an adult telling them they can make a difference…I'm an adult who did the same thing and understands how they feel.

How do you appeal to other young people to get them involved in service?

- Ella Kate: What I've done in the past is when we're working on a project, and I know some kids may not want to get involved in the beginning, I invite them to come to our event or our meetings just to see what's going on. They may not want to come the first time but if you encourage them they will.
- Kari: One thing I try to do is to bring energy and excitement into whatever I do. As adults we get so focused on getting the task accomplished that we forget about how we need to engage people. We need to bring in the youth voice and provide them with a platform where they are accepted, where their opinion can be shared, and where they are comfortable.
- Breannah: I think a lot of my experience has been encouraging young people to volunteer and it I manifest myself in the work I do with juveniles engaged in the correctional system. It's important for that group in particular to be engaged in service. It's interesting to see how that experience changes their perspective of their community.

A lot of times I try to have them think about one of the most meaningful experiences in their lives. Occasionally they'll refer to a video game, which isn't helpful, but in a lot of ways the experience comes back to a time when an individual assisted them with something they couldn't do on their own. I try to connect them to that service experience and how they can then do the same.

How valuable do you believe service will be in the coming years?

- Kari: I think service is going to be invaluable to Michigan, especially as we try to move through these trying times we have and know will continue to have. Service and volunteerism are vital and crucial to the success and turnaround. We need to realize that Michigan is our home and we all need to give back in some way. More young people must get involved to be life-long leaders in this field so our nonprofits and foundations will continue to succeed.
- Breannah: I definitely agree that service will be crucial for Michigan. The engagement piece of young people is so important as our generations get older we'll need new people to pick up where they left off.
- Ella Kate: As time progresses and with budget cuts, Michigan is in some tough times right now - as a result, service will grow. I encourage everyone to get out there and serve with the nonprofits. I work with nonprofits in Lansing that are dying because they just don't have the people to help them get things done - and all they need are volunteers!