It’s that time of year again, Global Youth Service Day (GYSD)! GYSD celebrates and encourages young people around the world to make a positive global impact by giving their time and efforts to improve their communities. This year, GYSD is happening April 12 - 14 and YES program wants to help YES students and alumni around the world prepare for GYSD. That’s why we hosted the YES program Lead for GYSD Webinar on March 19, 2019 at 9am EDT. The webinar shared strategies and advice on leadership skills, volunteer management, and advancing community involvement.

Webinar attendees worked on strengthening their project leadership skills and learned strategies to recruit, retain, and manage volunteers to have a bigger impact with GYSD projects. Throughout the webinar, we provided information on previous YES GYSD projects, how to register your own GYSD projects, and facts about this very exciting day.

This year’s GYSD is also focused on encouraging young people to become activists and advocates to address root causes of problems through policy change. Webinar attendees learned from our guest speakers about how they can encourage youth to advocate for policy change in their own communities.

To read more about GYSD please visit the Youth Service America website, and register your GYSD project. GYSD is the largest service event in the world and YES students and alumni have been involved every year!

Meet the Speakers:

Leen Al Yaman, YES program specialist in Lebanon will share best practices to manage volunteers. Leen has been working on the YES program since August 2016. She is the YES Senior Program Specialist at AMIDEAST Lebanon. She has been part of the YES family for 10 years having went on the YES program in 2008 – 2009 where she attended Saint Andrew’s Priory School in Honolulu, Hawaii. Upon her return to Lebanon in June 2009, she joined the YES alumni network. She pursued her bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with emphasis in Human Resources Management at Haigazian University in Beirut on a fully-funded scholarship. During university, she held several internships at the Lebanese Central Bank, the Nawaya Network (a local NGO), AMIDEAST office and at Lebanon Reforestation Initiative (USAID-funded project). Upon graduation, she started her career as an Administrative and HR Coordinator at Lebanon Reforestation Initiative (USAID-funded project) for a full year before joining AMIDEAST to work on the YES program. Leen is very passionate about her work with the alumni network. Having been part of the YES experience, Leen knows firsthand the life-changing impact this program has on the alumni who successfully return home. For her, the YES experience does not end upon returning home. Becoming a YES alumnus/a marks the start of a mission towards community engagement and service.

Anooj Bhandari is a community builder, youth engagement activist, and artist. He facilitates youth organizing programs in the United States and abroad. His main focus is to help youth make changes in their immediate communities and have a positive impact on their future. He works with many curriculum development and community facilitation projects, working with dialogue and facilitation on leadership development and intersectionality of social identity, primarily with youth, working with organizations including the Moth, Rustic Pathways, and Make the Road NY. Anooj is currently working with youth of color to build community based alternatives to punitive discipline in schools and communities. On the Lead for GYSD Webinar, Anooj will be leading an activity for webinar participants to identify their strengths as leaders in different circles of their communities. Anooj is also a performer in the company, the New York Neo-Futurists and is a teaching artist, bringing the art and craft of storytelling to communities. He believes in kindness, above all.