In its publication, Reconnecting Youth & Community, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (Administration for Children and Families) clearly recognizes the advantages of involving youth in community activities. It encourages professionals that work with youth to focus on the strengths or the "positives" of youth rather than the negative attributes that you so often hear in the media today. Like adults, young people need structure, a sense of belonging to some group or organization, a sense of self-worth, responsibility, and support. Involving youth in volunteer activities is certainly a way to meet these needs as well as the needs of the communities they serve.
Committed students at Alabama A&M University (AAMU) account for the tremendous success of a campus volunteer community service program. The Students Promoting Action/Community Education program (SPACE) is a volunteer service organization that has proven to be an invaluable community-wide outreach tool to many local agencies, organizations and schools.
According to SPACE Coordinator Mary W. Hurt the accomplishments of AAMU's SPACE program are attributed to the efforts of SPACE Site Manager Eunice Tibbs, Vista worker Linda Rogriguez, and other collaborative partnerships, especially the partnerships with the Madison County District 6 County Commissioner Dr. Prince Preyer, Jr. (a partner since the inception in 1991), and AAMU deans, department chairs, faculty, staff and students. In January 2002 an agreement was formed with AAMU's Community Development Corporation (CDC) VISTA program and its Executive Director Mr. Joseph Lee. Dr. Preyer has been instrumental in providing insurance coverage, transportation and consultants for tutorial/mentoring training, while Mr. Lee aided in the SPACE Program implementation with a VISTA volunteer worker.
SPACE fulfills its purpose when it recruits student youth volunteers from all educational disciplines of the various academic schools at the university. The program helps to build character, good citizenship qualities, and the work ethic skills of student volunteers. The SPACE program also utilizes terms associated with space. For instance, the agencies where the students perform volunteer service in Madison County are called "Satellite Centers" because of the area's ties to the space industry.
At least 200 AAMU student volunteers were recruited in the spring of 2002 and approximately 108 youth volunteers participated in the Blast-Off orientation and training session in February 2002. The Coalition on At-Risk Minority Males' (COARMM) Director Earnest Starks, Extension Specialist Edna Coleman, and Ollye Conley, director of the Bo Matthews Center of Excellence, conducted the mentoring and tutoring sessions in preparation for community service.
As a result of the collaborative work between the SPACE program, COARMM, the Bo Matthew Center of Excellence, and AAMU's CDC/VISTA Program, youth volunteers were able to significantly improve the grades and behavior of students who attended five regular schools and after school tutorial programs in the Northwest Huntsville school district. Nearly 500 Madison County students benefited from the spring activities. Most of these students showed a significant improvement in grade point averages. Reports indicate a positive change in classroom behavior and attitudes. Students enrolled in various after school programs also showed a significant improvement in study habits and behavior. The SPACE program, together with the various university disciplines and social service organizations, fills a niche in the community. "SPACE students are committed," commented Hurt. "They volunteer to perform outreach to the disenfranchised and hard-to-reach consumers within Madison County."
Additionally, SPACE sponsors several major community outreach projects on an annual basis: a Thanksgiving food drive, a children's holiday gift drive in December, and a blood drive during the spring of the year.
Impact data evaluation from collaborative and community-based agencies/organizations over the past 11 years, reported that student volunteers taught community disaster education classes (American Red Cross) to middle/high students; stimulated the cognitive, intellectual, social and physical development of children at the J.O. Johnson High School Parenting Lab (an educational lab for teen parents); and tutored/monitored the progress of adults and high school dropouts at the Adult Learning Center, Meadow Hills Initiative, the Bo Matthew Center of Excellence and Upward Bound, just to name a few.
SPACE is now currently operating statewide in six county Extension offices (Madison, Lawrence, Montgomery, Talladega, Mobile and Jefferson). Since 1991, program educators have trained more than 1,500 youth volunteers who provided volunteer service with community-based agencies and organizations. These volunteers have generated more than 11,930 volunteer hours and have reached over 36,830 consumers.
The SPACE program continually lives up to its adopted motto by the famous Mother Teresa, "Unless life is lived for others, it is not worthwhile."