PERTH-AMBOY - On a beautiful Saturday afternoon in April, seventeen participants of School Based Youth Services Program a project of Jewish Renaissance Foundation geared up to clean up the streets of their city. With the guidance of Geri Barcheski, Recycling/Clean Communities Coordinator, and with bags and gloves in hands, the students descended on State Street, picking up discarded soda bottles, newspapers, batteries, and a never-ending array of trash.
The cleanup project, originally conceived to celebrate Earth Day, seeks to both make meaning and provide adolescents with an opportunity to build their personal strengths and their resumes, for either college or a future job. However, what makes Earth Day truly transformational for these student leaders is that they are the architects of the initiative.
School Based Green Panthers, a group of high school leaders with a sense of purpose and commitment to giving back, identified their community as the target for much needed help, unleashing their efforts and motivation to organize, promote, and recruit other students around the idea of creating a clean and sustainable community.
School Based interim director, Jusleine Daniel, who is guiding the project, seeks to instill in the youth she serves a sense that they can be proactive and resourceful about the changes they want to see around them, knowing that by leading with actionable steps, they can all generate positive changes in the community in which they live.
For Ronnie Rodriguez, a high school junior, a School Baser, and a recent inductee to the National Honor Society, community service is part of his greater commitment to humanity. While for other students, such as Adlafi Jimenez, also a high school junior, enjoying the possibility to be engaged in a fun and positive activity with his friends is what inspires him to action. What they all have in common is their willingness to engage themselves in creating positive community change.
Regarding the cleanup day, the afternoon ended right where it started. The students gathered together to share water, snacks, giggles and a feeling of accomplishment knowing that the community they live in, is a little healthier than it was before.
School Based Youth Services Program will also be part of the City Wide Clean Up on Saturday, April 23, 2016.
More information about the event can be found following this link
http://schoolbasedyouthservices.blogspot.com/2016/04/celebrate-earth-day-with-school-based.html
Awareness video:
Awareness Video
About Us: School Based Youth Services is funded by the N.J. Department of Children and Families and is a Project of the Jewish Renaissance Foundation. The School Based Youth Services Program (SBYSP) was started in 1987 to help young people navigate their adolescent years, finish their education, obtain skills leading to employment or continuing education, and graduate healthy and drug free.
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