You and the teenagers in your community would like to organize a concert as a fund-raising activity for the street children in your city. The community elders disapprove because it would eat up much of your time for school and that what you are planning is a job for adults. As a leader of the group, you are tasked to make a position paper addressed to the community elders to show your arguments in favour of organizing the concert.
Answers
Answer:
Community activities, volunteering and civic responsibility
Community activity is part of ‘civic responsibility’. It’s about doing things because we want to give back to our communities or help others.
Your child can learn about civic responsibility and be active in your community by:
- joining a Surf Life Saving Club, a scouting group or a local environmental or clean-up group
- helping with a primary school play, or coordinating or coaching junior sport
- setting up an arts space for the community or getting involved in youth radio
- being part of a youth advisory group through the local council
- promoting causes – for example, environmental issues, refugee rights, bushfire recovery and charities.
Your child might be interested in online civic or community activities – for example, an online campaign to save local parkland. Online community involvement can motivate teenagers to get involved in face-to-face community activities.
Benefits of being involved in community activities and volunteering
It doesn’t matter what teenagers do for their communities. Any involvement is good! When teenagers get involved in community activities and volunteering, they get many personal rewards and feelings of achievement.
Role models
By getting involved with community activities, teenagers can come into contact with like-minded peers and positive adult role models other than their parents. Interacting and cooperating with other adults and peers in community organisations encourages teenagers to see the world in different ways. It also helps them see how to put values or beliefs into action for the good of others.
Identity and connection
Young people are busy working out who they are and where they fit in the world. Being involved in community activities can give your child a:
- a positive way of understanding who they are
- a sense of belonging in their local community
- an opportunity to make new friendships and connections.
Skills
Community activities give teenagers the chance to apply the skills they already have. For example, your child could use the cooking skills they’ve learned at home at a community sausage sizzle or at a soup kitchen.
Volunteer work and community activities are also great opportunities to show initiative and develop workplace skills. For example, the sausage sizzle could give your child experience in speaking to customers and handling cash. Volunteering for Meals on Wheels might help your child prepare for part-time work as a waiter. And helping out at an animal shelter is a good way to learn how to groom or care for animals.
Being able to manage free time while balancing leisure, work and study is an important life skill. Being part of community activities could motivate your child to get more organised and start to manage their own time.
Self-confidence, mental health and wellbeing
Community activities can boost teenagers’ self-confidence and self-esteem. Your child can learn to deal with challenges, communicate with different people and build up their life skills in a supportive environment.
It’s also a great foundation for mental health and wellbeing.
Young people often feel good about being involved in something where others expect them to turn up, where they feel helpful and valued, and where they’re supported to achieve something as part of a group. These positive feelings can help protect young people from sadness and depression.
Being involved in positive community activity can also reduce the likelihood of substance abuse, mental illness and criminal activity.
Explanation: