New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
Mayor Jon Mitchell announced today that applications for the 2013 Mayor’s Learn and Serve Summer Youth Program are now available. Applications can be downloaded from the City’s website and hard copies are available at the Mayor’s Office in City Hall.
Learn and Serve, formerly the Mayor’s Summer Youth Enrichment Program, is a six-week, 12-hour-per-week project based learning and community service program for 14-15-year old New Bedford residents. Loosely modeled after the highly successful Leadership SouthCoast Program, the Mayor’s Learn and Serve Program will engage five teams of ten teens in meaningful, real-world projects that build basic work skills such as teamwork and collaboration, task management, goal-setting, and responsibility; encourage leadership development; allow for deep engagement in a particular content area; and foster an ethic of civic engagement and community service.
The program allows teens to explore a diverse array of skills such as visual art, science, basic research, marketing, design, program development, and subject areas such as fishing, farming and food, healthy lifestyles and environments, tourism, downtown, and more. Participating youth who successfully complete the program will receive a $300 stipend at the end of the summer.
Mayor Mitchell explained that the goal of the program is to provide New Bedford youth with a constructive outlet for their time and energy. “We want to engage youth in projects that will help them to develop critical life skills including time management, personal responsibility, teamwork, and a strong sense of community,” said the Mayor.
The Mayor’s Learn and Serve Summer Youth Program is entirely privately funded, through the donations of our local corporate and philanthropic communities. Fundraising for the program is ongoing, and donations are most welcome. Donations can be made through the Mayor’s Community and Education Fund II at the Community Foundation of Southeastern Massachusetts, 63 Union St., New Bedford, MA 02740.
For more information about the Mayor’s Learn and Serve Summer Youth Program, please call Tyler Wilkinson at 508-979-1410.
My daughter will be 14 in August but would benefit immensely from this program. Please consider making an exception.