All from the National Service Briefing

Are you a student enrolled in a community college? Have you faced or overcome difficulties in completing your education? Do you have creative ideas on ways your community and school can better support you and your peers in completing their education? Mobilize.org wants to hear from you. Apply to attend the Mobilize.org "Target: 2020 | My Education. Our Future." Summit in Charlotte, North Carolina, October 22-24, 2010 where you will join 150 students from North Carolina's community colleges to identify the barriers students face in achieving their educational goals and develop student-led solutions and community projects to address them.

An unprecedented gathering of youth-serving leaders, advocates, and young people!

In the first in a series of Youth Service America Service Talks, YSA will explore the meaning of 9/11 for those who may have no direct experience, asking the questions, "What does this date mean to us?" and "how shall we respond?" A panel will explore the date's new incarnation as a day of service and the ways that young people can carry on the spirit of service we experienced immediately after the events. This Talk will take place on September 2, 2010 from 10:30 am - 12:00 pm at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, DC.

Operation REACH's Gulfsouth Youth Action Fund, a youth philanthropy initiative that engages youth as leaders and empowers them with the resources to make strategic investments in their peers and their communities, is seeking nominations for the 2010 Youth Change Maker Awards. These prestigious awards honor outstanding young people, ages 7 through 25, who have shown exemplary leadership in recovery, education, entrepreneurship and community service initiatives in the Gulfsouth region. Self-nominations are accepted.

In a recent report entitled, "Nastiness, Name-calling & Negativity: The Allegheny College Survey of Civility and Compromise in American Politics," the authors found that average citizens are upset about incivility, although they differ by ideology, gender, and media use. CIRCLE Working Paper #71 focuses on the newest generation of voters, finding that they differ from their older counterparts, being less likely to believe that civility is possible, less ashamed about recent incivility, but more supportive of compromise and more optimistic about higher education's role in promoting civility.

Youth Service America recognizes seventeen year old Julia Haney from Wayland, Massachusetts as an Everyday Young Heroe for her efforts to promote a world where kids can achieve their athletic, artistic, environmental and educational aspirations and where youth development is seen as an important priority, as well as her efforts to motivate her peers to become community leaders and active global citizens.

The US Department of Education has launched a new campaign to combat bullying in schools. The Department coincided the Summit with the launch of their new website, www.bullyinginfo.org, a centralized location where state and local agencies can find resources on anti-bullying educational materials and connect with the Office of Civil Rights, the entity responsible for investigating allegations of bullying. The website contains useful information for parents, teachers, administrators, caregivers, and other professionals that work with youth on identifying and stopping bullying.