D’Andre Lampkin is a seasoned public servant with a strong community service background and experience in starting and leading program initiatives. He successfully founded the Lampkin Foundation, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt human services organization designed to promote “social good” projects throughout the United States. In the following article, D’Andre Lampkin discusses how community engagement can help to empower the youth of today, for a better tomorrow.
Many young people are insecure or feel purposeless as a natural aspect of growing up. Volunteering in the community can help a young person navigate these troubled waters.
The younger generations of the world can benefit from volunteering and other means of community engagement, resulting in a feeling of empowerment, some of which includes growth in character and education in generosity for the future.
In this article, D’Andre Lampkin of the Lampkin Foundation discusses the ways that youth can be empowered by community engagement. By the conclusion, it will be clear that volunteering to help the community is both a current benefit and an investment in the future.
Getting Youth Involved
There are few things more empowering than working with various charities and helping to improve the lives and situations of those who are in need. However, the many outlets there are for contributing to the strength of a community also represent plenty of different benefits.
D’Andre Lampkin explains that because it can be so overwhelming to try and understand how the youth of today can find themselves feeling more capable and confident through participation in community engagement, let’s take a look at the top 3 ways this is possible below.
- Practice For the Future
- Growth of Character
- Boost in Confidence
Each of these benefits that contribute to feeling empowered are great reasons for youth to volunteer, and we’ll explore how in greater detail below.
Practice For the Future
According to the University of Nevada’s findings, youth who volunteer at various institutions, charities, and other community events are more likely to continue giving charitably in the future. D’Andre Lampkin says that this may look like monetary contributions, or it may look like giving more of their time as adults to helping their community.
Either way, it is undeniable that whatever skills and responsibilities they take on in a volunteering situation for the community is carried through to their grown up lives. This makes it all an investment in not only the community, but the future of the individual.
Essentially, D’Andre Lampkin says that young people can begin to take ownership over the place and people they live with.
Growth of Character
In the same vein, volunteering young people experience growth in character. They learn to respect the people that they work with, and are actually more disposed to learn that lesson quickly because volunteering carries with it the connotation of everyone being united under one goal.
D’Andre Lampkin of the Lampkin Foundation says that they can also experience what it is like to be a leader, since there is a level of autonomy in offering one’s time to work with others and problem-solve. Understanding those who have different life experiences, and may even have fallen on hard times, is a great way for youth to be empowered through the opening of their minds and worldviews.
Boost in Confidence
Finally, engaging the community creates a boost in confidence for the youth of today. There is nothing more empowering than a young person being able to see a need, feel themselves apart of the solution, and being able to understand what a job well done looks like, according to D’Andre Lampkin.
Being a part of one’s community is keenly felt when one takes part in making it better through volunteering. This is the sense of confidence that a young person stands to gain.
In Conclusion
There are many ways that youth can be empowered through community engagement. When a young person volunteers, it increases their likelihood of carrying the skills and compassion they develop on into the next phases of their lives. Many virtual charter schools support these efforts.
D’Andre Lampkin also notes that in addition to better the future, younger individuals can feel a sense of accomplishment not just by seeing what they can do for their community, but feeling more compassion and generosity than they may have explored within themselves before. This can boost confidence, not just for their younger days, but for their whole adult lives!
To empower the youth through community engagement is to plant the seeds for more community-minded adults in the future. Ultimately, this contributes to stronger communities all over the world, from generation to generation.
