"Volunteering is at the very core of being a human.
No one has made it through life without someone else's help."
- Heather French Henry
The service of youth is inspiring, and we want to share that with everyone, but first we would like to tell you a story. It was 1985 and David Battey was a senior at Williams College working on his thesis. He was researching the newly forming field of youth service. While doing his research and interviewing leaders of existing service organizations he found little opportunities for youth to serve. Youth volunteer opportunities were randomly available through schools and religious groups, but David was interested in consistent and community based opportunities for youth of a diverse background. So he did just that. David built a framework for a youth service program. He went back to his hometown, Kansas City, in 1987 where the Youth Volunteer Corps (YVC) was established. 42 youth served in the first YVC summer in 1987. Since then? YVC has become an international organization with over 30 programs across the United States and Canada and 285,000 youth have completed 4 million service hours. If you want to be apart of YVC, see if there is a program near you, or even start your own!
YVC Mission:
We create volunteer opportunities to address community needs and to inspire youth for a lifetime commitment to service.
Iron County YVC started in 2010 and is currently hosted by the Volunteer Center of Iron County. Our YVC has 30 amazing youth who are dedicated to serving their community. In 2014 Iron County YVC completed $60,000 worth of service hours in Iron County!
Iron County YVC does a lot to help support other local non profit organizations that benefit the community. Program coordinator and youth conduct scavenger hunts each month to help collect food and other items for our local food pantries and shelters such as Iron County Care and Share, The Bread of Life Community Soup Kitchen, and the True Life Center. In June YVC collected and donated over 600 pounds of food for these pantries! These scavenger hunts are one of the youth's favorite project.
You may have seen some of our youth at the Utah Summer Games Opening Ceremonies in June! YVC along with several other groups had the privilege to carry the American Flag and surround the field with with its patriotic colors during our National Anthem. This is an event YVC is able to volunteer with every year! The kids love it, even staying late to help clean up when the ceremonies are over! We would like to thank all of our sponsors and donors who have made it possible for us to continue to grow and find new ways the help our community. A special thanks to Community Action Plan (CAP), Delcore Direct Care, and The Print Shoppe.
