The Nederland area is a community brimming with unique opportunities for youth, ranging from outdoor leadership to government services. However, these opportunities are seldom taken advantage of, mainly due to the fact that the community is largely unaware that they exist. Nederland lacks a central resource for youths to find volunteer offerings, leaving organizations the responsibility of recruiting on their own. This means that youth are unable to find volunteer work, and organizations are unable to fill their volunteer positions.
The MCY Youth Leadership Academy is now working on a solution to this issue. The group has worked to compile a list of potential organizations that could provide opportunities, and are now communicating with those organizations in order to gather any volunteer initiatives. The list will include any youth-focused volunteer work or internships. If significant interest is demonstrated in the future, this list may be expanded to paid work and recreational activities as well. Once the list of opportunities has been compiled, the database will be published to the Nederland YLA website.
This database will be a key step in providing more accessible volunteer initiatives to Nederland teens. While finding opportunities before would require searching individual sites or printed lists, the database will provide a centralized list of all local initiatives, including independent organizations, town agencies, and opportunities that might not have otherwise been published. As a website service, it will be searchable on the internet, meaning that anyone researching local opportunities will be directed to this resource. As an online feature, it will also be able to be updated in real-time, meaning that the database will always contain the most up-to-date opportunities as they change and are created.
The YLA expects to have the preliminary database up-and-running on our website in January of 2022. If you are an organization hoping to be included, please contact nctccyouthleaders@teensinc.org with a description of your organization and the volunteer work/internships you’re offering.