(Above: Teens from across Greater Boston gathered for Teen
TeamWorks, a week-long session that provides leadership and
teambuilding workshops in addition to volunteer projects)
If there’s one thing that makes Boston Cares
stand out from other non-profit agencies in the Greater Boston area,
it’s the scale on which it engages individuals and organizations to
volunteer and make a difference in the community. Boston Cares is the
largest adult volunteer organization in New England. In 2008 alone,
more than 20,000 Boston Cares volunteers contributed 63,000 hours to
180 non-profits in the Greater Boston area.
A common thread
that led both Karen Boss and Nikki Fountas to Boston Cares was their
desire to make a difference through their work. Karen, who grew up
north of Boston and who currently serves as the Director of Programs
for Boston Cares, explains how a Masters of Arts in Education and six
years of working in college student activities eventually led her to
the non-profit world: “Whatever my work was going to be, I wanted it to
matter in the world,” she says. “I thought that educating college
students was definitely a good way to do that, but then over time, I
wanted to give back to the world in a broader way.”
After
graduating from Point Loma Nazarene University in 2007, Nikki Fountas,
traveled 3000 miles from her home in San Diego, California to serve as
an AmeriCorps VISTA for Boston Cares. “I was looking for a way to make difference
and do something that mattered,” she explains. After serving at Boston
Cares for a year, Fountas applied to become a Massachusetts Promise Fellow and currently serves as the Youth and Families Coordinator for the agency.
Fountas oversees Boston Cares’ BOOYAH! (Boston Young Active Hands),
a program created specifically for youth and families who are
interested in direct-volunteering opportunities in the Boston area; the
majority of BOOYAH! Volunteers are between 13 – 17 years old. Boston
Cares organizes two to three volunteer projects each month that are
only for BOOYAH! members. BOOYAH! volunteer projects are as diverse as
the non-profit agencies that Boston Cares partners with: from building
picnic benches, to packing back-to-school supplies, to removing
invasive species along the Charles River.
Another opportunity that Boston Cares offers teens is its Teen TeamWorks program.
The 4-day, small group volunteer program is designed for teens ages
13-17. It provides opportunities for young people to participate in
teambuilding and leadership workshops, and learn about the issues,
organizations and communities encountered through volunteer services.
“The structure of the week involves the teens coming to the Boston
Cares office in the Financial District each morning,” explains Fountas
of the program. “We have the teens take part in many different
workshops where we discuss issues such as poverty or what it means to
be involved in the community.”
After participating in
team-building activities and workshops in the morning, teens volunteer
in the afternoon. Through the course of a session, participants will
have volunteered with four Boston-area non-profit organizations. “The
volunteer projects take place in different neighborhoods throughout the
city,” says Fountas. “The teens get a really good feel for the city in
terms of services that are provided.” Teen TeamWorks participants not
only learn from the volunteer opportunities they engage in but also
from each other. “We try to choose a group that is diverse in terms of
geography, race, ethnicity and age,” says Fountas, “so that the youth
really learn from each other as well from the week of skill-based
projects that they participate in.”
Teen TeamWorks also teaches
teens that work can mean something beyond a paycheck. “The sort of
driving reason to work for a lot of youth is the payoff that comes in
the form of a paycheck,” remarks Fountas thoughtfully. “That makes
sense, but when they volunteer or when they go through a Teen TeamWorks
program, they really begin to see that payoff comes in more ways than
one. They begin to see how they benefit from volunteering and how
others benefit, and how the experience of being with a group
volunteering can be life changing in a lot of ways.”
Sixteen
year old Brockton High School student Myriam Lebrun participated in the
summer 2008 Teen TeamWorks program; the experience inspired her to
start a project that would benefit her school and community. “I’m in
school still and working on my Teen TeamWorks project,” Lebrun
explained in an email. “My project is a food drive for my community.”
Lebrun also explained in the email that Teen TeamWorks helped her gain
the necessary skills to be able to organize such a project at her
school.
Teen TeamWorks has two sessions for the 2009 summer:
the first session runs July 6 – 9th and the second runs July 13-16th.
The application is open to any teen age 13-17 who can attend all four
days of a session, and although teens can apply for both sessions, they
can only attend one. To apply, download the application,
fill it in, and submit it by 5pm on June 19th, 2009. Teens who are
interested in applying for Teen TeamWorks should be aware that the
program is competitive. “We received 30 applications for 15 spots for
our February 2009 Teen TeamWorks program,” notes Boss.
For
teens that may not feel ready to apply for a program like Teen
TeamWorks or for teens that may not have the time to commit to the
program, Boston Cares offers plenty of other ways to get involved. “Our
model allows people to volunteer who otherwise may not choose to do so
because they’re afraid of not having the time or a consistent schedule
to be able to make a commitment,” emphasizes Boss. “Volunteering with
us is a great way for anyone to get their feet wet and gain confidence.
All that someone has to do to be eligible to volunteer with us is
attend a one-time, hour-long New Volunteer Orientation session and then
they can start signing up for projects on our Calendar.”
Only teens age
16 and over can volunteer on their own for Boston Cares. However, teens
age 15 who have attended a one-time orientation session with a parent
or guardian can attend BOOYAH! projects on their own as well. Teens 14
and under must volunteer with a parent. Go to the TeenLife Boston/Boston Cares web page for
more information and to sign up for a New Volunteer Orientation
session. More than 10 orientation sessions are available per month in
different geographic locations.
Volunteering
with Boston Cares
is not only a great way for teens to engage in community service, but
it’s also a great way for teens to learn about the variety of
organizations that they can get involved with in the Boston area.
Through the one-time volunteer projects offered through Boston Cares
with different non-profits throughout Boston, teens can experience what
it’s like to volunteer for a specific organization without having to
worry about making a long-term commitment; the agency also works with
students on satisfying high school community service requirements.
“I think that volunteering with Boston Cares is
a great entry-point and a great way to access the community,” says
Fountas. “In addition to the hands-on volunteer opportunities that we
offer teens, we also have abundant resources for teens who are looking
to get more involved.” To receive the Boston Cares BOOYAH! Newsletter
and learn about upcoming BOOYAH! volunteer opportunities, feel free to
contact Nikki Fountas at nfountas@bostoncares.org.
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