FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Contact: Christina Wessell Batcheler
April 25, 2008 Youth Service America
202-296-2992 x 128
Cwessell@YSA.org

ACROSS THE STREET, AROUND THE WORLD,
MILLIONS OF YOUNG PEOPLE ARE CHANGING THE WORLD ON
GLOBAL YOUTH SERVICE DAY

WASHINGTON—(April 25, 2008) - Millions of young people in 101 countries around the world, from the United States to India, from Iraq to Brazil, and from Pakistan to Zimbabwe, are implementing community service projects during the 20th annual Global Youth Service Day.

Spanning three days, April 25, 26, and 27, 2008, GYSD is the largest service event in the world and involves young people, ages 5-25, from schools, community organizations, and congregations of faith. Youth volunteers will address critical problems, such as climate change, literacy, poverty, human rights, high school dropout rates, malaria, and many other issues.

“Young people are volunteering and voting at record rates because they are deeply affected by global challenges they see in today’s media,” says Steve Culbertson, president and CEO of Youth Service America. “Youth care about what is happening across the street and around the world, and they are motivated to be part of the solution to the world’s problems. On GYSD and throughout the year, their amazing energy, creativity, and idealism are making substantive change.”

Activities and highlights of Global Youth Service Day 2008 include:

• YSA awarded 100 State Farm Good Neighbor Service-Learning Grants, funded by the State Farm Companies Foundation. Winners received a $1,000 cash grant to create a GYSD project that links academic learning with community service.
• YSA awarded 70 organizations, teachers, and young people in 22 countries a $500 Disney Minnie Grant that engages young children, ages 5-14, in GYSD service projects.
• The UN Foundation and YSA published a new service-learning module to encourage service projects around malaria prevention for GYSD and World Malaria Day (April 25, 2008).
• YSA’s 170 National Partners lead, promote, and support GYSD in the U.S., along with 50 International Coordinating Committee members who mobilize GYSD activities in more than 100 countries. 
• GYSD involves 70 National Lead Agencies that mobilize more than 180,000 young people in cities, states, and provinces across the U.S. and Canada.
• In Brazil, Natal Voluntarios expects more than 100,000 young people to participate in hundreds of projects around the country, with a focus on the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will commemorate events. ESPN and Disney will honor 60 young GYSD volunteers at the X Games in Rio de Janeiro.
• In Baghdad, the Iraqi Democratic Coalition for Youth Empowerment will train hundreds of students in first aid and equip them with first aid supplies as they learn to treat burns and other injuries from emergency situations.
• Youth in 36 countries across the African continent will be doing GYSD projects.
• In New York City, the NYC Young Women’s Volunteer Summit will feature workshops and service activities benefiting women throughout the city. The Summit, held on Saturday, April 26, is spearheaded by the NYC Commission on Women’s Issues, the Mayor’s Volunteer Center of NYC, Children for Children, and CosmoGIRL! Magazine, in partnership with the City University of New York.
• The CMT cable network’s pro-social initiative One Country and YSA have joined forces for the second year in a row to help motivate youth for GYSD. Former American Idol and recording artist Diana DeGarmo of CMT’s ‘Gone Country’ is the honorary spokesperson.
• Hundreds of Semester of Service projects that launched in January on the Martin Luther King Day of Service will culminate this weekend on GYSD. YSA and the Corporation for National and Community Service are partners on this effort.
• U.S. Senators signed on as original co-sponsors of a bipartisan resolution by Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska proclaiming April 25th Global Youth Service Day. The cosponsors include Senators Akaka (R-HI), Bayh (D-IN), Boxer (D-CA), Brown (D-OH), Burr (R-NC), Cantwell (D-WA), Cardin (D-MD), Casey (D-PA), Clinton (D-NY), Cochran (R-MS), Coleman (R-MN), Collins (R-ME), Craig (R-ID), Dodd (D-CT), Dole (R-NC), Durbin (D-IL), Feingold (D-WI), Feinstein (D-CA), Gregg (R-NH), Inouye (D-HI), Isakson (R-GA), Kennedy (D-MA), Kerry (D-MA), Landrieu (D-LA), Lautenberg (D-NJ), Levin (D-MI), Lieberman (ID-CT), Lincoln (D-AR), Martinez (R-FL), Menendez (D-NJ), Mikulski (D-MD), Murray (D-WA), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Obama (D-IL), Specter (R-PA), Stevens (R-AK), and Tester (D-MT).

• For information about more than 1, 150 events that are taking place in the United States, please visit: www.YSA.org/map.
• For information about events in other countries, please visit www.GYSD.org.

Global Youth Service Day is the largest youth service event in the world and is a year-round effort to expand the impact of the youth service movement. The initiative launches new service organizations, policy changes, and sustainable service programs to create a culture of engaged youth. State Farm Companies Foundation is the presenting sponsor in the United States. Planning Tool Kits, Service-Learning Curriculum Guides, Classroom Posters, Micro-Finance Grants, and more are available for youth, parents, teachers, and organizations.

Youth Service America seeks to improve communities by increasing the number and diversity of young people, ages 5-25, serving in important roles. Founded in 1986, YSA is an international nonprofit resource center that partners with thousands of organizations in more than 100 countries to expand the impact of the youth service movement with families, communities, schools, corporations, and governments. For more information: www.YSA.org.

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