The Wickham Avenue Alliance (WAA), a collaboration of the C. Waldo Scott Center, Doris Miller Community Center, Pearl Bailey Library, Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center and the YWCA Virginia Peninsula, continued its commitment to provide programming and learning opportunities for community youth by facilitating its Youth Leadership Program for the 9th consecutive summer.
The WAA Youth Leadership Program provides opportunities for youth in middle school or high school to give back to the community and learn valuable workplace skills while earning a weekly stipend. In addition to providing 12 volunteer hours per week over an eight week period, 20 youth from the Southeast community participated in educational programs, a resume building workshop and a career exploration seminar.
In total, participants provided 2,353 volunteer hours among the six community sites including the C. Waldo Scott Center, Doris Miller Community Center, YWCA Virginia Peninsula, Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center, Pearl Bailey Library and the Boys and Girls Club of the Virginia Peninsula – Greater Hampton Roads Unit. Halfway through the program, 85% of youth participants surveyed felt their service learning was helpful to staff, and all participants felt the program was helping them develop as a leader. While the program has ended for the summer, youth leaders continue visiting community sites to volunteer their time, and two have joined the Teen Advisory Committee at the Pearl Bailey Library.