Team Winning! YMCA Service Project Tom, Charlie, Veronica, Kim, Tyler and Sarah

YMCA Mission Statement With our focus on youth development, healthy living and social responsibility, the Y nurtures the potential of every youth and teen, improves the nation’s health and well-being, and provides opportunities to give back and support neighbors. We believe that all kids deserve the opportunity to discover who they are and what they can achieve. That’s why, through the Y, millions of youth today are cultivating the values, skills and relationships that lead to positive behaviors, better health and educational achievement. - Central Connecticut Coast YMCA

Why Did We Choose The YMCA? We all like children and feel that this common interest would benefit our group the most We wanted to get the children excited about their future, whether they were in the first grade or the sixth grade The YMCA was local and upon researching youth mentoring problems, we saw that the YMCA had the most options for children after school We all had been in similar groups growing up and remembered volunteers that impacted our lives, even if the impact was small

Youth Mentoring Mentoring is a powerful tool in building a connection between young adults and children Mentoring encourages living healthier, happier, and more productive lives Youth Mentoring programs, such as the YMCA, gives children to opportunity to have role models in their lives Mentoring also encourages positive peer relationships, creating bonds between classmates and helps children focus on school and healthy habits

Causes and Solutions: Why Children Are In Mentoring Programs Parents work late so they need somewhere for their children to go after school until 6pm, which give them ample time to be able to leave work and know that their children are safe

Game Plan The YMCA volunteer coordinator, Lyn, requested a hard copy of our plan while we were there This plan included a time outline of our activities that we came up with as a group, which were approved by Lyn After the first time we volunteered we got to know the children, so we changed our plans for the next two times to adapt to the children

Lyn Blah blah blahh

What Did We Do At The YMCA? Team Winning went to the YMCA as a whole but separated so to help with different areas of the program which included playing kickball, soccer, tag, homework help, puzzles, board games, and discussions regarding school, home life, and their futures

Youth Mentoring with Grades 1-4 Basic activities that were required included children staying active and communicative with their peers, as well as the adults, and included a half hour craft time, where they constantly wanted our attention and approval of their work An hour of designated play time where our entire group got together and took the children into the gym to play a game of kickball. The majority of the younger children did not know how to play so it was a fun, new, learning experience for them

Youth Mentoring Grades 5-7 They went along with the activities that we planned but they had more interest in asking us questions about college and what we wanted to be when we “grow up” They did not know a lot about high school, or college and the more we told them about it, the more they got excited

What Would We Do Different Next Time? Stay at the YMCA for a longer amount of time each day Volunteer long-term instead of three days

Mentoring Fun Fact!! "National after-school programs have been in existence for more than 100 years. The 40 largest national youth organizations, which provide many after-school services, serves approximately 400 million youth. School-based sites are numerous and growing.” (Hirsch & Wong 264)