Serve Connecticut is Connecticut’s Commission on Community Service, housed in Connecticut’s Office of Higher Education since 1994. Our charge is to promote and facilitate service and volunteerism among all ages; our strategic prioritization of youth service engagement is actualized with youth (16-25) representation on our governor-appointed board as well as in a youth service-related objective in our State Service Plan. Serve Connecticut has for over 20 years funded several AmeriCorps programs that include youth service as a key component, the most recent being HealthForward, which engages high school and college students in health-related service corps.
In 2021, Serve Connecticut received a Mott Foundation funded youth service planning grant from America’s Service Commissions; the Commission used this funding to engage a consultant to conduct a landscape assessment of Connecticut’s youth service ecosystem as pertains to underserved/underrepresented middle/high school students. Key informant interviews were conducted with K-12, Out of School Time, Higher Education, AmeriCorps, tribal, and other relevant stakeholders.
The resulting Serve Connecticut Youth Service-Learning Discovery Project (YSLDP) Report provides insight into the youth service, service-learning, and civic engagement landscape in Connecticut and makes recommendations on actionable items to further assess/deepen understanding of elements of that landscape, enhance youth service provider connectivity and capacity, and improve access/overcome barriers to youth service for participants.
In 2024, Serve Connecticut has again been awarded a Mott Foundation grant to “Deepen Youth Service” in Connecticut, as well as an AllState Foundation grant to “Empower Youth-led Service;” both of these grants are facilitated through America’s Service Commissions (ASC). These funds will be utilized in the following ways:
• Provide Youth Service Mini-Grants to support or improve access to youth-led service/service-learning projects
• Convene youth service participants, providers and champions for a youth service summit in fall 2025
• Enhance peer-to-peer network connection among youth service participants, providers and champions
• Improve access to capacity-building supports for youth service providers