GenerationOn Make Your Mark Week (formerly Kids Care Week) is celebrated during the third week of October, this year October 16-22, 2011. The week inspires and mobilizes youth to use their energy, ingenuity and compassion to “make their mark on the world” through hands-on service to help others in their local and global communities. During the week, young people focus on issues that matter most to them by doing small acts or service projects that add up to making a big difference. Make Your Mark Week ends on Make a Difference Day, the largest national day of service.

Thanks to our founding partner, Hasbro, generationOn will award 200 mini-grants in the amount of $250 each to support service projects that enable youth to “make their mark” on one of the following issues: Animals, the Environment, Homelessness, Hunger and Literacy. We’re looking for projects that engage youth and other community members in creative solutions that make a positive impact on the Make Your Mark Week issues in local and global communities.

•  Click here to pledge today!!

Goals

• To inspire youth to explore local needs and civic engagement
• To equip youth with the tools and resources to implement service projects that address one of the five Issue Areas
• To mobilize youth to “make their mark” on the community during Make Your Mark Week 2011

How to Make Your Mark

• Do small acts of service in one of the five Issue Areas
• Do a larger project with a group. Need money to get your project done? Look below to find out how to get a mini-grant!

Make Your Mark Week Resources

GenerationOn encourages youth-inspired and youth-led projects for Make Your Mark Week 2011. Adult facilitators may also lead youth to action. Suggested project ideas can be found on the generationOn Kids Care Clubs website. Use the username, Makeyourmark, and the password, genon, to access step-by-step instructions, Fact Sheets for Kids, Author Interviews, Recommended Reading Book Lists, Club/Meeting Activities, Compassion Education Stories, Internet Resources and Reflection Activities.

Your group can create a project related to one of the five issue areas and use the resources to support the project.

Check out the resources for kids and teens.

Make Your Mark Mini-grant

Thank you to our applicants for applying! We will be notifying the recipients on or before October 1st.

Congratulations!

Check out these amazing projects that have already been selected to receive mini-grants:

• Homelessness

Not all homeless people have the same needs. The PACE Alternative Education Program in Huntsville, Alabama will work together to identify five specific needs of five different homeless people. Each grade will fill 12 cinch backpacks with those items and donate them to the local Rescue Mission to be distributed to homeless people in their community.

• Environment

Students from Milton High School in Milton, Georgia will work together to transform four out-door areas at their academy into sensory gardens. Each garden will appeal to a different sense. The American Legion 201 Jr. Auxiliary group will be creating the sound garden, complete with bird houses, chimes, and other sound sensory sculptures. They will simultaneously grow an appreciation for, help, and promote the environment.

• Animal Welfare, Homelessness, Hunger

Sixth graders at the Culver Community School in Culver, Indiana will host their fourth annual Soup for the Soul Dinner. Patrons will pay $5 and receive a unique handmade bowl, mug, or plate, soup made by their community members, a delicious dessert, warm rolls, and refreshing drinks. Patrons will also be able to bid on a multitude of auction items. Proceeds from the dinner will be donated to local charities. In the past, they have donated the proceeds to Make A Wish, South Bend Center for the Homeless, many different food pantries, and several animal shelters.

• Hunger

The youth at The Vineyard New Outreach Ministry in Greenville, Mississippi will provide hunger relief to a great number of people by running a mobile food pantry to reach people in rural parts of the county, where there is no hunger relief program. The youth will recruit volunteers, send press releases, pack boxes, and inform the community about the feeding. They will pass out the food on October 22^nd and discuss what they have learned about hunger and poverty in their community.

• Animals

Students and parents from Greensboro, North Carolina and the surrounding area will take part in Project B.A.R.K. Together, they will build dog houses for dogs living in low-income areas and put together care packages of donated toys and dog food. The event will open a dialogue in the community about unchaining dogs, the importance of spaying and neutering animals, dog safety, and general pet care issues.

• Hunger & Homelessness

A group of 20 fourth-sixth graders at Completely Kids in Omaha, Nebraska believe the keys to fixing the problems of hunger and homelessness are to give people the food of relationship and a home feeling within the community. To do this, the youth will prepare and serve a meal for approximately one hundred homeless and hungry people and spend time bonding with the people they serve.

• Literacy

Entheos Explorers of West Jordan, Utah have had great success creating high quality, child-written children’s books based on math. In the past, these books have been donated to schools in Africa. For Make Your Mark Week, the Entheos Explorers apply their efforts closer to home. They will work with a local children’s author to develop their own math based books and purchase commercially produced children’s literature. These books, along with notes from the kids, will be donated to The Road Home, a social service agency for homeless families in their area.