Youth Service…the future of our organisation is here

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Youth Services, has been officially recognised as the Fifth Avenue of Service by Rotary International. This formal action was taken in Chicago during the April 2010 meeting of the Council on Legislation, the legislative arm of Rotary International which meets every three years. Districts in Southern Africa have a long tradition of outstanding service in the area of youth services with great support and forward thinking from District leaders.

Youth Service programmes include all our Rotary service programmes for young people up to the age of 30. In our Districts these include the RI Programmes of Rotaract, Interact, Rotary Youth Exchange (RYE), and Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) along with a large number of other projects done at the club level. Youth Protection is another important Youth Service resource available to Rotarians, clubs and youth programmes at the District level. This vital aspect of Youth Service was introduced to provide greater compliance and protection to participants of the programmes

So, why are Youth Service Programmes so important that they have now been recognised internationally?

We often hear that our youth is our future. This is certainly true and one of the reasons that we focus on literacy, leadership training, and expanding training in ethics for young people. These are the people who will be running our country and our world within the next 20 years. This is a group of individuals who will drive our organisation forward. Rotarians have always taken a sincere interest in helping to prepare the next generation with programmes and projects that help with health and education and lead the way to world peace and understanding. Beyond this fact, young people are also the future of our organisation if we choose for Rotary to survive and thrive beyond our lifetime. Through our Rotary youth programmes, we have the opportunity to not only provide service that is the keystone of our organisation, but also to develop relationships and provide exposure to our wonderful organisation and the ideals of “service above self” to the next generation.

The following programmes make up the menu of opportunities for our youth:

Rotaract is a Rotary sponsored club for young adults in the age group of 18 to 30. Rotaractors are involved in community and international service projects, as well as professional development and leadership training, and are good partners in service with their sponsoring Rotary clubs. Our Zone has somewhat lacked behind in nurturing this youth programme which is perhaps a reason for our very slow growth in Rotary membership.

Interact is a Rotary sponsored club for ages 12 to 18, typically at secondary school although it is not limited to a single school. We have a good track record in establishing Interact clubs at schools yet fail to capture the opportunity of growing the larger organisation with the parents of our Interactors.

Some of our Districts are also engaged with Earlyact, a primary school based Rotary sponsored club.

Rotary Youth Exchange is the leading international student exchange program in the world, and Districts send students out to foreign countries each year, and also hosts students from around the globe to spend a year of secondary school in our communities. This is known as the long-term exchange programme. New Generations Exchange is another cultural exchange program for students beyond secondary school for a shorter term exchange experience abroad.

RYLA, is a premium weeklong leadership camp for secondary school students. There are many such programmes within our Zone and every club is encouraged to send at least one secondary school student from their local community to benefit from the “life changing experience” offered at RYLA.

Youth Service also includes the many projects that individual clubs undertake to serve young people in our communities-such projects as the Dictionary Project, other reading and literacy projects, scholarship programmes, and secondary school projects to name just a few.

Youth Service intersects the Vocational Avenue of Service in such programmes as Career Guidance, Team Speaking Contests, The Presidential Awards Programme, etc. You can tell that there is a wide range of Programmes and projects included under the Youth Service umbrella. Virtually every club should be involved in one or more of these programmes for the benefit of their community.

Since 2011 Rotary International has been encouraging each club to appoint a Youth Service Chair to serve at the club level. The Youth Service Chair should be one of your current or incoming board members, or at a minimum, be a person who will report to the board on a regular basis to keep you and your board up to date on financial and other commitments needed to support your club's youth programmes. There are many District resources available to help you and your club with respect to Youth Service. Please contact your District Chairs for more assistance.

 

Natty Moodley

August 2014