Summer of Service Program Spotlights
Program Spotlights focus on Summer of
Service programs doing exemplary
work across the country. If you would like to
suggest a program, please
email Jean Manney at manney@icicip.org. Thank
you!
ManaTEENS was founded in 1994 when Laura Lockwood, then 12, and two of her friends were told by a local service organization that they were too young to volunteer. They went to Hands On Manatee!’s Volunteer Center and asked to help, which eventually led to the creation of ManaTEENS, a service-learning program for young people from 6th to 12th grade. Hands On Manatee! now serves 716 organizations, all of which utilize ManaTEENS in their service projects.
In 2008 ManaTEENS incorporated a Summer of Service (SOS) program into their work. The organization applied for SOS funding from the Corporation for National and Community Service with a coalition of Eastern sea board service organizations. That summer 792 ManaTEENS completed at least 50 hours of service. ManaTEENS used SOS to launch a number of year round service projects. Young people started a number of environmental programs, including local reef clean up work that required ManaTEENS to become SCUBA certified. You can watch a video of SOS participants cleaning up the reef here.
All ManaTEENS service projects involve a strong youth leadership component. According to Hands on Manatee! Executive Director Adraine McKell, “The youth identify a need in the community and then mobilize their peers, develop a plan, implement a plan, and reflect on it to solve that particular need.” ManaTEENS is known for doing service-learning “backwards,” starting with the work of young people and then moving on to a classroom component. Volunteers write up their project as a curriculum and then give it to their teachers to use in the classroom.
According to McKell, "Summer of Service transformed ManaTEENS, our youth volunteer program, from a respectable, community based, service learning effort into a truly youth led initiative with incredible local impact. ManaTEENS identify unmet needs throughout Tampa Bay and develop plans to address those issues during Summer of Service. The training opportunities, volunteer events, and advocacy campaigns that are initiated by youth in the summer gain momentum throughout the year as thousands of ManaTEENs choose to participate as decision makers in animal welfare, disaster preparedness, environmental, health education, literacy, and safety projects hosted by Hands On Manatee."
For more information on ManaTEENS read Innovations in Civic Participation’s interview with Adraine McKell here.
Previously:
Chicago Public Schools Summer of Service and Leadership Program Spotlight
WalkAbout Program Spotlight
In the spotlight: ManaTEENS
ManaTEENS was founded in 1994 when Laura Lockwood, then 12, and two of her friends were told by a local service organization that they were too young to volunteer. They went to Hands On Manatee!’s Volunteer Center and asked to help, which eventually led to the creation of ManaTEENS, a service-learning program for young people from 6th to 12th grade. Hands On Manatee! now serves 716 organizations, all of which utilize ManaTEENS in their service projects.
In 2008 ManaTEENS incorporated a Summer of Service (SOS) program into their work. The organization applied for SOS funding from the Corporation for National and Community Service with a coalition of Eastern sea board service organizations. That summer 792 ManaTEENS completed at least 50 hours of service. ManaTEENS used SOS to launch a number of year round service projects. Young people started a number of environmental programs, including local reef clean up work that required ManaTEENS to become SCUBA certified. You can watch a video of SOS participants cleaning up the reef here.
All ManaTEENS service projects involve a strong youth leadership component. According to Hands on Manatee! Executive Director Adraine McKell, “The youth identify a need in the community and then mobilize their peers, develop a plan, implement a plan, and reflect on it to solve that particular need.” ManaTEENS is known for doing service-learning “backwards,” starting with the work of young people and then moving on to a classroom component. Volunteers write up their project as a curriculum and then give it to their teachers to use in the classroom.
According to McKell, "Summer of Service transformed ManaTEENS, our youth volunteer program, from a respectable, community based, service learning effort into a truly youth led initiative with incredible local impact. ManaTEENS identify unmet needs throughout Tampa Bay and develop plans to address those issues during Summer of Service. The training opportunities, volunteer events, and advocacy campaigns that are initiated by youth in the summer gain momentum throughout the year as thousands of ManaTEENs choose to participate as decision makers in animal welfare, disaster preparedness, environmental, health education, literacy, and safety projects hosted by Hands On Manatee."
For more information on ManaTEENS read Innovations in Civic Participation’s interview with Adraine McKell here.
Previously:
Chicago Public Schools Summer of Service and Leadership Program Spotlight
WalkAbout Program Spotlight