Building up Young Minds with the Youth ServeOhio Toolkit
Education is more than textbooks and classroom lectures; it’s about nurturing young minds and addressing the issues that matter most to our future leaders. After a recent interview with Rebeccah Verhoff-Kiss from ServeOhio, I learned about their efforts to provide valuable resources for youth-serving professionals who work with kindergarten through 12th grade.
Aligning with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, ServeOhio pinpointed the top issues that youth care about most:
- Education,
- Environment,
- Equality and Human Rights,
- Housing and Hunger,
- and Mental Health and Wellbeing.
Through the Youth ServeOhio Toolkit, education professionals can engage students in important issues that impact their community. In it, you will find FREE activities and programs designed to make learning both empowering and fun!
“Ohio youth have the ability - and desire - to solve our state's most pressing problems. Given the right tools, guidance and support, Ohio youth can discover new solutions to the issues in their communities, our state, and the world. It all starts through service - learning about the issues in their community, interacting with community leaders addressing those issues, and volunteering to support the causes they care about. Volunteerism is a learned behavior. When youth start volunteering early, they’re more likely to continue to volunteer into adulthood and throughout their lives, strengthening our communities for years to come.”
With 47 projects to choose from, educators have a wide array of options to seamlessly integrate into their classrooms that will inspire and create awareness among their students. Some projects include; financial literacy support, planting a pollinator garden, hosting community conversations, helping seniors access food, and more! Together, we can build up young minds with the knowledge and empathy needed to address challenges currently affecting our communities.
