Join us and you will be immersed in a showcase of our YCS youth’s accomplishments from the past year! From initiatives like Trash2Art’s cleanups and captivating art displays to insightful reflections of our President’s Volunteer Service Award recipients on their service.
Youth Connect is a high-school afterschool program that is a part of Youth Community Service, a non-profit service-learning organization that serves mid-peninsula communities. Youth Connect focuses on developing collaboration among youth, parents and adult allies to raise the awareness of the importance of youth feeling a sense of belonging in their communities.
Youth Connect aims at reducing suicide risk amongst youth by promoting protective factors such as strengthened relationships, increased connectedness to peers and adults, and through community engagement. The mission is to promote wellness, connection, and awareness of protective factors among youth, parents, and youth-serving adults in the community through service.
What Guides Youth Connect?
The work of Youth Connect is guided by the Developmental Relationships Framework from Search Institute, an organization, which has dedicated decades of research to learn and identify practices that help youth thrive. Search Institute’s research has shown that youth well-being increases when their relationships have the following five elements:
Express Care
Provide Support
Challenge Growth
Share Power
Expand Possibilities
Once accepted into the program, the peer leaders work in teams to develop service-learning projects that address what they identify as needs and gaps in feeling a sense of belonging to their communities, building healthy relationships and youth well-being.
Peer leaders meet once a week to plan these projects. High school students apply to Youth Connect to become youth peer leaders and receive a monthly stipend, OR service hours.
In addition, and as their schedules allow, Youth Connect peer leaders are asked to participate in events at the YCS organization throughout the school year.
If you are interested in becoming a peer leader for the 2021-2022 school year, please fill out this application. Space is limited and we are recruiting until we have a full team. Once you have filled out the application, you will be contacted shortly after.
Note: For the 2021-2022 school year, the Youth Connect program will follow all the latest county guidelines and will plan online and in-person events accordingly.
High school students apply to Youth Connect to become youth peer leaders and are eligible to receive a monthly stipend or service hours. Once accepted into the program, the peer leaders work in teams to develop service-learning projects that address what they identify as needs and gaps in feeling a sense of belonging to their communities, building healthy relationships and youth well-being. Their projects are showcased in the Youth Connect parent/adult allies programs and also in various youth forums and collaborations.
Peer leaders also participate and contribute to the development and implementation of the Youth Connect parent/adult allies programs that occur in the fall and spring semesters of the school year.
Peer Leader Video Projects
Pay Attention is a service-learning project created to raise awareness of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and showcase an instance of positive communication to a student with ADHD.
Talk to Me is youth-made video that addresses youth concerns about feeling a sense of belonging with their parents.
An Interview with a Mental Health Professional is a Zoom interview that YCI peer leaders conducted with Dr. Shashank Joshi, a mental health professional. Dr. Joshi was asked questions about mental health, including those related to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Hidden Perspectives is an interview that YCI peer leaders conducted with Nick Talbott, a 2011 Gunn grad and now Stanford Squash coach. In this video, he provides insight into his life and answers common high school questions.
Paly Wellness Mental Health Interview is an interview that YCI peer leaders conducted with Whitney Aquino, the wellness worker at Palo Alto High School. Peer leaders and Whitney discussed topics related to mental health, suicide prevention, and resources that the school’s Wellness Center provides.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
