Youth Volunteers

The Special Needs Ministry at SCC has a LOT of youth volunteers. In our church, once you go into 5th grade, you are encouraged to begin serving somewhere. I've found that we tend to have a lot of kids interested in serving in the SN Ministry. I'm not sure if it's because we have the most "toys" in our room or if it's because these kids truly have a desire to work with special needs kids. Either way, we LOVE having them and find that many of them stay serving in the SN Ministry until they graduate from High School. We have very low turn-over with our youth.

I've found that the youth are some of the best volunteers you can get. We try to use our youth mainly as buddies. Our kids seem to respond better when one of their peers (slightly older but still a peer) is guiding them in a typical classroom setting rather than an adult. Isn't that how it always is, kids will listen to guidance from peers but tend to shun it off when mom or dad give them the same advice? We've also found just by having peer there it seems to take the differences away. Other kids in the classroom are more apt to come up and start visiting with the special needs child as opposed to when an adult is there.

Our youth volunteers make up probably 50% of our volunteer pool. They are the backbone of this ministry. They're the ones down on the ground interacting with the kids. They're the ones following the kids around to make sure they don't escape. They're the ones building friendships with kids they might have never taken the time to get to know.

It's an honor to serve alongside the youth of the SN Ministry. They are great examples and I'm always proud to say that they're MY youth.

If you have a way to tap into the youth of your church, you'll find some jewels. You'll be gaining volunteers while they'll be gaining experience in working with people who are different than they are. You'll find that the benefits are great on both ends.