Nanaimo Youth Partnership Program
"You can't put that many great people into one room without something good happening."
That's what I kept saying as we were preparing for our first Neighbourhood Heroes party last January and now I know of at least one of those "good" things.
At the party the seed of an idea was planted that led to the expansion of the Nanaimo Youth Partnership Program (NYPP), an exciting initiative for teens that was launched last fall.
Three major partners, the City of Nanaimo, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Nanaimo and Harewood Community Schools, support the project. The federal government, through Human Resources Development Canada, has funded it.
NYPP has four major goals: to develop four teen drop-in centres (They've attracted five times as many teens as expected), to develop a teen web site (See www.youthnanaimo.com), to develop a Youth Council and to update The Little Black Book, a resource guide for youth. Both of the latter are in progress.
Then, after being nurtured over the weeks by Ray Anthony, the seed that had been planted at our Neighbourhood Heroes party began to grow.
Ray had been working on the NYPP project for some time when he heard about our Neighbourhood Heroes party and decided to drop in.
"Being in a room with 150 Neighbourhood Heroes is a powerful experience," he enthused. "I was really taken with the idea of ordinary people paying it forward, making a difference."
That Neighbourhood Heroes "seed" has led to what Ray calls the Fundraising and Community Service Initiative within the NYPP.
The way it works is that NYPP teens must accumulate a specific number of Community Service Points in order to be eligible for various special activities such as ski trips, paintball outings, summer camps, bowling, swimming, skating and more.
A Community Service Point can be earned by participating in approximately an hour of supervised community service work. For example kids could volunteer on special projects with various not for profit organizations or they could organize an NYPP car wash and donate the proceeds to another worthy cause or they could volunteer to collect food for a food bank or sponsor a Global Project such as collecting pens for an orphanage in Africa.
Community Service Points can also be collected by attending various personal development workshops such as the Unleashing the Hero Within Workshop they did with me last Tuesday.
By giving up a day of their spring break to attend the workshop, seventeen kids earned three of the six points they needed to go skiing at Mount Washington - By the way that's where they were last Thursday and yes, most of them were skiing for the first time and the day was a huge success.
Thrifty Foods and OK Tire on Wellington Road were the two major sponsors for the ski trip. Thrifty Foods made a financial donation and even more money was raised by the staff who sold OK Tire $40 vouchers which offer up to $275 in various services -The entire $40 goes to the NYPP to support their programs - If you would like more information about possibly purchasing one of these vouchers you can call the NYPP at 753-8211, extension 237.
Next weekend the NYPP youth will be gaining more Community Service Points by volunteering at the Morrell Nature Sanctuary.
The OK Tire vouchers are still selling well and continued sales will support other outings but more support is needed if the concept is to continue. This is an exciting opportunity for local corporations to get involved and support our teenagers as they work toward making a positive difference either in their communities or in their own lives.
Call the NYPP office at 753-8211, extension 237, if you would like more details.
If you would like to read any of our previous columns or nominate a Neighbourhood Hero, go to www.nhero.org.
