Underprivileged Teens Gain Valuable Work Experience

- by Jon Devin

It shouldn’t surprise anyone to find that Memphis teens are already getting excited about a long summer vacation with MTV. However, you won’t find these teens lazing on the couch in front of their televisions. Volunteer Memphis’ version of MTV-Memphis Teen Volunteers-keeps kids busy learning, serving, and growing into productive young adults.

Volunteer Memphis, the local nonprofit organization that serves as a clearinghouse for volunteer opportunities, created MTV as a summer-only program in 1998. It serves two needs within the community, namely, offering low-income and at-risk youth opportunities to spend their time productively, while also supplying much-needed volunteer support to various agencies and projects.

Volunteer Memphis bills their program as a win-win for kids and the community. MTV is one of several programs offered by this popular, downtown agency including corporate volunteering, volunteer management training, and specialized community services like their famous newsletter, which posts upcoming volunteer needs and opportunities.

MTV later expanded to include informal, year-round volunteer referrals for teens through the school year, explains Volunteer Memphis’ Teen Volunteer Coordinator, Page Yarborough.

Yarborough, who officially serves Volunteer Memphis as an AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) intern, went on to say that over 200 Memphis teens are on board this year. Her job is to recruit, interview and place as many teens ages 13 to 18 as possible into appropriate volunteer positions with Memphis area nonprofits.

Although many such agencies have limited opportunities for teens, she said that others come back year after year. Methodist LeBonheur, the Memphis Botanical Gardens, the Memphis Zoo and Aquarium, the YMCA, the Pink Palace Family of Museums, and the National Civil Rights Museum all accept teen volunteers through MTV. Twenty-three agencies are participating in all this year. Typical volunteer work through theses agencies includes assisting nurses, amusing children through arts and crafts, serving as day camp counselors, and demonstrating interactive exhibits.

So why do teens decide to volunteer?

Yarborough knows that a lot of the younger teens are very interested in getting summer jobs but are still young to be hired for pay. By volunteering, they get used to accepting responsibility, showing up on time, working under supervision, and other job skills which may give them a leg-up in the job world later on.

Also, their siblings get them interested, Yarborough explained. “Kids call me up and say, “my big sister worked at the zoo last year and I want to do it too,” she says.

And for her part, Yarborough is proud that by offering the MTV program, Volunteer Memphis is recognizing the needs of low-income teens with few other opportunities to achieve. “Since Volunteer Memphis doesn’t directly deal with issues of poverty per se, it’s great that we have a program in which our volunteers are coming from some of the poorest areas of Memphis,” she says.

Yarborough targets schools in neighborhoods where teens are underprivileged and in need of productivity during the summer months. She forms relationships with teachers who know the value of MTV, and challenges students to get busy. She added that in some schools, students are required to perform service hours in order to graduate, and MTV fills the bill nicely.

Still other teens learn about MTV through another of Yarborough’s projects, which took place in October. Titled “National Make a Difference Day,” the event sends teams of Memphis teens all over downtown in a scavenger hunt through area nonprofits.

“Some teens may have heard of the National Civil Rights Museum, but never actually realized that it is a nonprofit agency which needs volunteers,” she said. While en route, the teens get to meet nonprofit administrators and managers who turn the hunt into a learning experience.

With the month of June upon her, Yarborough is excited to see her teens gearing up for a summer of service. Officially, the MTV placement opportunities run from June 1 to August 1, but teens may still be able to find a place to volunteer after the start date. Though she didn’t say so, Yarborough is clearly proud of her teens and the work they are about to undertake. She will miss them when her VISTA internship ends in August.

So while televisions and Play Stations beckon young minds this summer, a more rewarding experience awaits inside the walls of various Memphis agencies. And as Yarborough points out, the learning, skills, and memories of service will last long after each teen has forgotten who won American Idol.

You can learn more about Volunteer Memphis and MTV online at volunteermemphis.org or by calling (901) 523-2425.