by Rachelle de Bretagne

Created on: December 09, 2008

Often, we wonder about what will happen in the future. Society is changing, and with those changes, the pace of life has become faster, leaving little time for caring and nurturing. One area which is concerning governments all over the world is encouraging our youth to care about the world in which they live. The importance of this cannot be over-emphasized since those people are the adults of tomorrow. Instilling philanthropic ideals and goals to them as young people, means that they will grow up appreciating that they can indeed make a difference to what is happening in the world.

Looking back over history, students have demonstrated for their beliefs, although many felt that the difference was not significant enough to make a longstanding changes to the manner in which society or government handled things which affected their lives. Young kids in the sixties went off to foreign lands to die for a cause with little understanding of the reasons. Today, the very people to whom these issues were addressed have seen that by encouraging youth, they actually do demonstrate that the philanthropic values of the youth of today do matter, making young people a vital part of what is going on around the world. The understanding this opens up for youth is amazing.

There have been many initiatives, and in particular those involving youth volunteering and community service. By volunteering in areas of interest, the youths who take part are actually learning more than giving. They are learning the value of what they give, and this is a far more valuable lesson. Worldwide volunteers work on community projects to preserve those elements of natural beauty, or to help make places available for city dwellers, and the satisfaction they feel from this work builds values, and is paid back in the character forming nature which is always associated with philanthropy.

AmeriCorps employs more than 40,000 young people at one time, and these are encouraged to work on non profit projects on a vast scale. By employing the young, this makes a very good two way experience as these kids profit from learning about different parts of the world which are less well off, and have helped in projects such as Katrina support. They also teach the young to make a difference, and the vital work which they do includes so many important aspects which enrich not only the lives of the young participants, but also make a huge difference to the people they assist. The work done by the youth of today is extraordinary

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