1. Internship Abstract
Title: Youth Leadership Development
Name: YeanYean Wong
Preceptors: Project Supervisor: Karen Winlund, Youth Services
Agency: American Red Cross, New Jersey Region
Purpose: To assist youth to develop valuable skills in effective communication, leadership development
service learning, project planning, diversity awareness and emergency preparedness.
Significance: The American Red Cross (“ARC”) has nearly 330,000 volunteers in 2015. In July 2016,
about 16,000 youth volunteered with ARC. Among other states, New Jersey has about 16% of youth
volunteers in FY2016. Youth development programs have been identified as key resources in promoting
positive youth development (Learner, Almerigi, Theokas 2005). ARC acknowledged the importance of
promoting youth volunteers as an organizational resource. ARC, through its youth programs, encourage
youth to uphold the fundamental principles of ARC. Through active engagement, youth reported
becoming dynamic for self-actualization and social responsibility. Having effective communication and
leadership skills, youth becoming more empowered in meeting community and national challenges
through youth services and volunteer services.
Method/Approach: Secondary data research on historical data of youth volunteering was conducted
through several online websites such as Google Scholar, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and all ARC official
links. Also, interviews were conducted with several ARC’s key informant officers. The summary reports
of active volunteers, Red Cross Club Demographic for New Jersey region in July 2016, and Corporate
Annual Statistics FY2015 and FY2016, were retrieved and exported from ARC’s internal report
spreadsheet. However, only active members were included and captured in ARC Volunteer Connection.
Outcomes: Historically, across the country, the youth volunteering rate has doubled from 13.4% to
28.4% between 1989 and 2005. Also, the percentage of youth volunteer who served through youth service
organization has increased from 15.1% in 1989 to 25.2% in 2015. ARC National Youth Council 2015
statistics show that, 25% of ARC volunteers are youth or young adults, aged 24 or younger. During
FY2016, youth volunteers contributed 232,841 hours in ARC. As of July 13, 2016, ARC has 836 active
youth volunteers and 72 active Red Cross Clubs in New Jersey. 332 youth volunteers are reported with no
information provided for demographic analysis.
Evaluation: The youth development programs designed to increase exposure of youth to ARC. The
limitation of ARC’s Volunteer Connection system should be addressed in order to capture more specific
and meaningful data in future. Also, in order to support more effective impact evaluations, and enhance
the quality of youth development programs, ARC should create a database of tools and instruments, and
develop guidelines to help youth programs to build more rigorous evidence in assessing the outcome of
the programs.
Reference link: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/my-drive