Youthlinc - Creating lifetime humanitarians

HISTORY

The Youthlinc program has been in existence since 1999, when Founder Judy Zone was a secondary school teacher. She tells the story of the founding of the program in this way:

The Inspiration
When my daughter graduated from high school, she knew she came into a few thousand dollars that I had put aside for her since she was born. She said the nicest thing to me when I asked her what she wanted to use the money for. She said she would like to take a trip with me! She wanted to go on safari, which seriously was never anything that had crossed my mind. Because it is so Judy expensive to travel to Africa, we went with a Kenyan owned safari company, and fortunately got to spend as much time with the people as with the animals. Because it was a mother-daughter trip, we had a lot of time to process the information -- Kenyans speak English, so there was not a communication barrier to understanding a completely different culture."

My daughter, Sara, had always been a service minded person. She and her friends volunteered every Sunday morning through their last two years in high school feeding the homeless under the viaduct in Salt Lake City. As a high school teacher, it was fascinating to me to see a young person make the connections between local needs and international needs -- People in Kenya went hungry with no one feeding them under the viaduct. There was no Free Clinic to go to when they were sick. But the Kenyans were so happy -- just to be alive each day. It was a remarkably lesson she learned, and a remarkably eye-opening experience for both us, a real global consciousness raiser.

When we returned, I was simply obsessed with figuring out a way that other young people could see the connection between local and international service. In my mind at the time, the sticking point was the money. It is so expensive to travel to Africa! So, I came up with this idea: Wouldn't it be wonderful if generous individuals and businesses would invest in the humanitarianism of young people by sponsoring part of their trip IF the students earned that sponsorship through their local service?"

The Sponsorship Concept
This Sponsorship Concept is central to the Youthlinc program. Even if a student comes from a wealthy family, and certainly we have plenty of students participating in that category, the student STILL has to earn the sponsorship through their local service and leadership. This program is not something your parents can buy for you. It is something you must earn.

The Importance of Volunteers
For the first five years, the Youthlinc program had no paid employees, just a growing group of volunteers. We still have hundreds of volunteers, mostly our loyal program alums and their parents, but now we also have an Executive Director, Office Manager, a Local Service Director, International Service Director, a Microenterprise Committee Chair and a Social Media Intern. Youthlinc celebrated a decade of service in 2009!

Our volunteers help us in every aspect of running the program, from fundraising to office work. We could not exist without them.

The Program; Past, Present and Future
Our program has grown steadily. The first year 1999-2000 we had 20 participants and went to a site near Mombasa, Kenya.

Our second year 30 participants went to Ngala School, in Nakuru, Kenya. In this year, began its partnership with Utah Rotary clubs.

In our third year, there were approximately 36 participants each in programs to Kenya and Mexico. In this year, we began of partnership with the Special Education, Physical Therapy, and Occupational Therapy programs at the University of Utah.

In our 4th year, we added our Peru site: three programs with approximately 36 participants, and in our fifth year, we added our Alumni Trip, open to all past participants of any program and any year, and all their friends and family.

In 2008, we opened a new site in Thailand, partnering with the Rotary Club of Patong Beach, Thailand, and in 2010, we opened a new site in Cambodia, partnering with the Angkor Rotary Club of Siem Reap.

From the inception of the program in 1999, almost 1,000 Youthlinc students have contributed almost 90,000 hours of service in their own communities all over Utah. We have had pilot programs in Nevada, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Washington State.

We now partner with the University of Utah, Utah State University, Weber State University, Westminster College, Dixie College, and East High School.