Thank you to everyone who attended our inaugural Community Connections with Jennifer Hatchett, Executive Director of YouthServe.

Instead of a listening experience, Jennifer worked with attendees to help us experience what it is like to be in Camp. We completed an exercise they do with the camp students on different ways to look at our community. We discussed and plotted our answers to questions like “Why wouldn’t someone care about their community?” and “Why might someone not understand their connections to others?”

Jennifer also discussed the importance of volunteering mindfully for local organizations. Her strongest recommendation to the audience was to be more thoughtful and deliberate when you or your company is interested in volunteering with a local nonprofit. Quite often, descending on a nonprofit for a day of service can be taxing on smaller organizations not set up for a large influx of volunteers on a single project.

Jennifer’s advice is to reach out to organizations like hers to ask what they really need. The example she gave was from her own experience – YouthServe could really use some professional design services. Their current budget does not allow for a graphic designer, so she ends up creating the design collateral, web site, and other needs for events and communications. As luck would have it, a local graphic designer (and new Forge member!) volunteered his services on the spot and is now volunteering for YouthServe!

This was a great example of how our community really is interconnected, but you just need the opportunity to bring people together. Who knows what will happen at the next Community Connections event!

YouthServe is a unique organization that both embraces the ideals of servant leadership and offers the opportunity to all within the metro Birmingham area, regardless of their academic status or geographic location. The YouthServe Mission is to empower youth leadership and civic engagement through community service and philanthropy. They do this by bringing youth together from all walks of life – across real and perceived boundaries – to give them the tools they need to think critically about issues in their community and address them in practical, accessible ways.  

YouthServe’s programs accomplish this in several ways: 

1. In-school programming implemented via Civics, Government, or Career Tech classes in middle and high schools

2. Community service events held on weekends year-round

3. Youth Leadership Councils meeting during the school year (Youth Action Council, Youth Philanthropy Council, Alabama Youth Alliance)

4. Urban Service Camps in the summer months

All YouthServe programs (except the in-school programming) are open for any who wish to participate (ages 13-18) and can commit the time. Program participation is on a first-come first serve basis and require online registration.

As Director, Jennifer has overseen nearly 40,000 service hours performed by the teens in YouthServe over the past six years. These youth come from every zip code in the metro area and often participate in multiple community events over the course of their time in YouthServe.

Join us on Wednesday, September 11, at noon, to welcome our next Community Connections speaker, Abigail Schneider from the Jefferson County Memorial Project. She’ll not only discuss the organization and the work they do in our community, but there will be some unique ideas on volunteering for the JCMP. Check out all of Forge’s future events here.