Organizers of over a dozen Youth Service Month Partner Days of Service will introduce their event, share how youth can get involved, and highlight planning tools & resources. YSA staff will also share information about Youth Service Month and Global Youth Service Day (April 25-27). Can't make it? Register anyway to receive the recording and session materials.

The Garden Grant program provides a $3,500 monetary grant to support a new or existing edible educational garden located at a K–12 School in the U.S. or Canada. Must regularly engage at least 10 K-12 children in garden programming.

Are you a young changemaker between the ages of 13-23? Apply now for the chance to participate in a Leadership Development Fellowship and win up to $5,000 in funding for a project that inspires kindness and strengthens their local, national, or global communities.

Youth changemakers - aged 5 to 25 - in the U.S. and Canada are eligible to apply for these grants to lead and engage their peers in awareness, service, advocacy, and philanthropy projects during Youth Service Month that build more inclusive, empathetic, and kind communities. Youth may apply for grants of either $250 or $500. Projects may address any issue or community need that is important to the youth project leaders.

YSA will recognize U.S. K-12 school districts, charter school networks, private school systems, and other multi-school systems (e.g., parochial, virtual, tribal) that are creating a culture of service-learning and/or community-engaged learning. These districts/systems empower students to lead, innovate, and create lasting community impact. Applications must be submitted by district/system leaders (e.g., Superintendents or other central office administrators) at YSA.org/schools.

In this episode of The Power of Young People podcast, meet Milan Varma, the president of —a student-led nonprofit combating food insecurity in Philadelphia and around the country and learn how Food4Philly encourages young people to make a difference in their communities through organized food distribution events and increased awareness of food waste.

Next month, students across the state will present their projects to the Minnesota Zoo to help them address real-world problems. This year, the focus is on white-cheeked gibbons, which is a critically endangered species.

“Every year, it’s a different real, authentic zoo-based challenge that we have students solve,” said Kristi Berg, STEM specialist with the Minnesota Zoo. It’s called the ZOOMS STEM Design Challenge. Over the years, students in grades 3 through 12 have helped the zoo by putting together a project. It could be new enrichment opportunities for animals or re-designing a habitat.

As schools navigate rising stress among students and staff, some educators are turning to a simple yet powerful solution: kindness. Although it can be difficult to measure the benefits of kindness education programs in schools, research suggests that these programs have the potential to improve school climate and safety, as well as benefit the social-emotional development of students.

"Some teachers take students to engage in community work that is deeply tied to the curriculum, through approaches known as action civics or service learning. But when young people take on social action projects — especially those aimed at addressing systemic injustices — the experience can backfire if it leads only to frustration and failure. ... To counter this despair, we need to redefine what it means to hope. We need to cultivate the kind of hope that sustains action despite uncertainty — the kind that fuels long-term struggles for justice, even when victories are slow in coming."