During the week of October vacation, HCLF organized a week filled with a variety of fun activities for our Heart-Centered Youth Leaders!
Heart-Centered Youth Leaders are youth volunteers between 13 - 17 who are willing to commit to learning who they are, what are their abilities, and what they want.
Over the years, HCLF has worked with many youth who fell under the HCYL umbrella: learning about personal and heart-centered leadership, and developing personal and professional skills by attending different workshops and seminars, while organizing different activities for other youth and the community. This year, HCLF restructured its HCYL program for youth and kicked it off with Impact Week back in April. A trajectory was organized in which youth get opportunities to follow workshops to develop personal and professional leadership, engage in participatory activities, and give back to the community. At the heart of the first trajectory to becoming an HCYL is learning about who you are: what are your values and principles, and how these reflect in your decisions, actions, and behavior.
In October, we organized a special week of activities that would continue to build and strengthen the core values and beliefs that the youth volunteers developed throughout Impact Week.
The week included 3 days of activities, in which 6 youth volunteers in the HCYL trajectory participated. Facilitated by our Youth Worker, the activity was a mix of educational, team building, and community service.
The first activity was an interactive educational session, with the goal of getting to know each other’s qualities by playing a card game, while also gaining awareness of shared commonalities Lastly, the youth volunteers established which qualities they want to work towards improving by creating small goals. Throughout October and until the next educational session in November, the HCYL youth volunteers will have the space and time to think about how they want to strengthen the quality and what ways they are planning to actively improve it. During the next education session, they will share what it has been like for them to work on the quality, continue to build awareness of Heart-Centered Leadership qualities through roleplay, and gain support from each other.
The next activity was a fun night bowling at Eagle Bowling to reenergize the youth volunteers and get them into a healthy spirit of competition with each other. HCLF believes in empowering and inspiring youth, however, we also believe it's crucial to show appreciation to our volunteers by rewarding them with opportunities to cherish each other and value the effort they make when supporting us in creating an impact through our programs for other youth.
To close off the week and stimulate our group of HCYL to give back to the community through acts of service, the group volunteered at Fundacion Pa Nos Comunidad where they helped make packages of food and hygiene items. They thoroughly enjoyed being guided by FPNC through all the steps when preparing packages for their target group. It was a humbling experience that taught them to always be kind and grateful for the life that they have and it also empowered them to continue giving a helping hand from the good intentions of their hearts.
When asked which activity had the most value for the volunteers during the HCYL October vacation week activities all of them voiced that volunteering at Fundacion Pa Nos Comunidad was the most valuable experience sharing: “Volunteering is a nice thing to do because I feel like I’m helping people and the community”.
We would like to thank Fundacion Pa Nos Comunidad for the wonderful opportunity to volunteer and give back to the community.
