When I was on the board of the campus chapter of Habitat for Humanity at Syracuse someone was trying to start a Youth United group. At the time it was way over my head, and I had no understanding of what it was. There was discussion of building bird houses with middle school students, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out how that was connected to Habitat.
When I started at HFH Suffolk, I learned that Youth United is in fact a program from Habitat for Humanity International that is run by youth for youth, bringing together young people from all walks of life to play active roles in transforming their communities. Essentially, YU brings together people between the ages of 5 and 25 to sponsor and build a house in their community while also increasing advocacy. What it comes down to, in my opinion, is that Youth United is pretty freaking awesome! It's education, it's service, it's leadership, and best of all, it's fun!
In September I added Youth United to my action plan for the year. I made it my goal to learn more about the program and to see if I could help implement it here at HFH Suffolk. I attempted to tackle it later that month by checking out the website. I thought it was a little vague and found myself going in circles around the site, so I quickly gave up.
Fastforward to the National Service Leadership Conference a few weeks ago. At a Baptist retreat center in Talladega, Alabama, approximately 700 Habitat for Humanity AmeriCorps came together to train, learn, and share. That was where I met one of my new favorite people, Larry. Larry is an AmeriCorps member working in Americus, Georgia for Habitat for Humanity International as a Youth United specialist. Get it! I made a mental note that Larry would be my key to success in forming a Youth United here.
Fastforward again to the end of the conference, and press skip through scenes of two dedications, a week without a boss, and various other displays of chaos. As I checked my emails and phone messages, I got a phone call from none other than the fabulous Larry from Youth United! He was calling to let me know that in his work he found out that someone from Habitat Suffolk had actually submitted a YU letter of intent in 2003, meaning that, technically, we already have a Youth United group. According to Larry, we already have some great things in place. Our annual Student Build involves hundreds of students from dozens of schools who are already involved with fundraising and building, and many of them practice advocacy as well. We also work with Girl Scout troops to do other types of service work, including serving meals to volunteers and putting together gifts for Habitat families. If we can pull it all together with a youth-run governing body, we will have all the pieces we need for a legitimate Youth United group.
Needless to say, I'm really excited about this. I found our last Student Build to be pretty anticlimactic because none of the students seemed to have a personal connection to Habitat for Humanity, but I feel really optimistic about the fact that Youth United can be the factor that ties it all together. With help from Larry I am excited to see the young people of this community come together to advocate, fundraise, and build.
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