The Youth Service Council is a corporation created to assume the leadership role for youth run community service programs in the Tri-Valley area. This Council was established to address the social and economic needs in our local community. The Youth Service Council is a not-for-profit corporation. The Council is run entirely by students with minimal help from adult mentors. The first goal of the Youth Service Council is to organize young people from high schools and youth service organizations in the Tri-Valley area and provide them community service leadership opportunities. The Youth Service Council will provide projects that will fulfill the needs of youth volunteers required to complete a certain amount of hours, or who just want to help the community. The initial project will consist of food collection for local food pantries. Over time, they will expand to a variety of projects. Future projects will include collections for homeless shelters, environment protection, drug awareness programs, and youth counseling programs. The Youth Service Council plans to expand to include the San Francisco Bay Area and much of Northern California
The YSC is a coalition of high school leadership students managing youth service programs. We are a nonprofit corporation developed and managed by high school students. Our membership draws student leaders from the public and private high schools located in the Tri-Valley area of Northern California.
We listen to the needs of our community
Embrace the resources needed to
improve our community
Advance service projects open to all youth service
organizations
Direct youth service projects that meet the needs of our
community
In November of 2002, the Twin Valley District of the SFBAC addressed a number of issues that impacted the collection and distribution of food donations in the Tri-Valley. A growing number of youth groups were showing an interest in having regular food drive collections. The suggestion was made that the Scouting for Food Program be adapted to meet the needs of other youth organizations. On April 12th, 2003, the Twin Valley District sponsored the First Annual Tri-Valley Youth Food Drive. The covered included Livermore, Dublin and Pleasanton.
The Tri-Valley community strongly supported Youth Food Drive Program. In 2005
Danville, Alamo, San Ramon and Sunol were also participating. At that time
several attempts were made to find an organization to sponsor the program. By
2006 we were approaching 1000 youth volunteers from over 60 youth groups. In
October of 2005 Scot Hasenpflug, a senior from San Ramon Valley High School
approached David Bahr, Youth Food Drive director to request a service project
with a leadership opportunity. Scot was placed in charge of setting up a pilot
program to test the viability of forming what is now the YSC. Scot recruited
over 30 volunteers from 5 high schools to assume the responsibility of running 4
collection sites and distributing bags to 60 volunteer groups. He also recruited
his successor Pej Estakhri.
As a senior, Pej taught a leadership class to a
group of sophomores at Athenian High School in Danville. His class put together
the paperwork to form the Youth Service Council as a nonprofit public benefit
corporation with the State of California. Pej became listed as the first
president of the YSC. At the same time the corporation was being formed, a
student from Granada High School in Livermore was recruited to put together this
web site. Rebecca Fortelka volunteered to build this web site and to write a
business plan for the corporation. Rebecca was listed as the first vice
president of the YSC.
The YSC places high school students in leadership roles for a broad range of public benefit community service projects. The largest of these programs is the Tri-Valley Youth Food Drive. Students assume the responsibility for recruiting youth groups, making assignments, distributing bags, arranging publicity and managing food collection sites for this annual event. Student officers also run the YSC by establishing an annual events calendar, recruiting project leaders and managing a budget. The YSC is a nonprofit corporation that was started by high school students. The business plan and the development of the corporation are also student projects.
Development of leadership opportunities for high school
students.
Coordinate the efforts of multiple youth service organizations with
common goals.
Access community resources, which will be used to promote a
healthier social environment. Recruit professional mentors to guide teen
leaders.