Student Contributor -A. Bonnington
Generation Alive is a program that brings awareness to students in the schools to make a difference in the world. Their mission statement is: Generation Alive empowers youth to compassionately engage the needs of their community through action and service. Their goal is to help the students elevate the quality of life in their communities.
The website does a good job of breaking down all their components. This organization should be brought into the schools and classrooms because they follow six steps to make students active in their community and responsive to those needs. They get interns, work with an action team at the school, the action team participates in the assembly talking about what they have learned about the needs in their community and encouraging their peers to be involved, then each student is challenged to spend 4 weeks raising money to achieve a school-wide goal and then they participate in the service project. There are 2 different service projects, the first one is the Something to Eat challenge where the students help package food which are then sent to food banks. The other challenge is the Defend Free which challenges students to respond to human rights issues by packing bags filled with basic necessities for those in need.
They could partner with this organization through their school. The organization came to my school and my students had an opportunity to participate in the assembly. Then they were sent to do fundraising for 4 weeks. Then GA will come back and the students will have the opportunity to package food and watch it be taken away in a truck and delivered to food banks. In the classroom during fundraising, we had a big class jar and students brought their donations and we put it in the class jar and the students are able to watch their jar get fuller and fuller. Also allowing your students to participate in the packaging of food later so they are a part of the process.
R. Veening
I worked with Generation Alive alongside 16-18 of my 6th grade students at Jefferson Elementary.
Similarly, to this contributor, while working with Generation Alive we worked in what was called an “Action Team” where these students were given the responsibility to help run an assembly encouraging their peers to be involved with the fundraiser helping Spokane community with food insecurity. We also spent the four weeks raising money as a school to lead up to the day of our service project. Out of the two options given on the Civic Engagement Clearinghouse website, my school took part in the Something to Eat challenge where students got the opportunity to pack lunches that get sent to the food banks. My students were put in roles of responsibility as the Action Team and were in charge of teaching all the other students in the school how to properly pack the lunches on packing day.
Differently from what this contributor mentions, one day a week for five weeks prior to the first assembly, my students and I worked with Generation Alive teaching my students about what food insecurity is and why it is important to get involved in our community. My students were given packets full of ways to be mindful of others that we went over as a team during lunch/recess every Monday. One-way students practiced being mindful was with an app provided by Generation Alive that students could use to track small actions they took to help others. This could even be something as simple as holding the door open for a peer. These little reminders given to students were a great way for them to learn that even doing little things can make a big difference in someone’s day, which I think is so important to learn at a younger age.
In addition to the work done before the assembly, my students took time every Monday during lunch/recess after the assembly for four weeks till packing day to continue creating posters and advocating for our food drive. Students also created their own messages to say over the intercom during morning announcements to remind students of the importance of involvement. In those four weeks I saw these students grow so much when it came to their responsibility, attitude, and pride for their community. These students became leaders over these four weeks due to the amount of time they spent focusing on a cause bigger than themselves, and when packing day came, that leadership shined bright as they proudly guided their fellow students in packing over 1,500 lunches for the food bank.
Once the packing day was finished, it still was not over. Generation Alive came and visited one more time to debrief with my students. Students were able to reflect on all the good they had accomplished, but most importantly, what they were able to do from that moment on. As a team we talked about the difference between a good leader and a leader who is good. This lesson I felt was the most important of them all. Students can do amazing things one time, but when they are taught how to be a leader who is good every single day, then they can shape the people around them in order to create a better community.
A change I would make, if possible, would be to take my students either before or afterwards to one of the Generation Alive locations or a food bank in the area. So, they could see firsthand the change they are making. If students were able to see the smiles they put on the faces of people in need, the importance of what they are doing will sink in deeper and become long lasting through a memory had with that experience.