Volunteer program good for all

August 15, 2003

In 1993 the Liberty Union High School District started a program called Teens Link With Community, or TLC. The program was part of a statewide intervention to help students gain a relationship with their community by teaching them volunteerism.

Each high school student is required to volunteer 20 hours during his or her senior year. Students who do not fulfill the requirement fail to graduate from high school. Over the years this program has had mixed reviews. There are those parents who are upset that their children are required to filfull the hours, stating that high school students have an already busy enough schedule and volunteer commitments add too much stress on their lives.

Others feel that it is an important part of the high school experience and gives teenagers the chance to see what it is like to help others.

When school started this year there was some confusion as to when and where students can volunteer for their hours. Usually only volunteer hours in the senior year count and must be completed by early spring. In their senior year at Freedom High School, students take economics in the first semester and government the second semester. One of the instructors at Freedom was confused and thought students could only perform their hours during the second part of the school year.

This caused a few phone calls to the Oakley Almond Festival committee because students were worried that they would not be able to use their hours during the festival weekend, where many TLC students completed their hours last year.

It also worried some students who completed their hours before the school year even began. It had been relayed last year to some juniors that they could begin their volunteer time when the previous seniors completed their hours. Completing hours over the summer break seemed a good solution and helped those students who hold part-time jobs.

The confusion is understandable, when students were told that they can complete their hours in advance of the government class as long as it meets the requirements and their volunteer time doesn't compete with the previous year's class. The reason for that is because volunteer spots are hard to find in this area. Especially for those students without transportation.

For Oakley, the biggest organization to utilize the TLC students so far has been the Oakley Almond Festival. Many of the students have found it easy to get their hours done in the beginning of the year and finish them in just one weekend, while others have volunteered at the Oakley Library and for East County Little League, and a few have had to be more creative or go out of town.

The trick to matching community and the students is for the volunteer-related organizations to become creative. While an organization must be a nonprofit group in order for the students to volunteer, it is not necessary that it have government nonprofit status. For example, the city may utilize students by hosting a cleanup during Earth Day in April. A creative person who feels that Oakley's downtown needs some sprucing up might call the TLC program and see if they can get some students and local residents together and go out and pick up litter, maybe paint some fences and so forth.

Perhaps a high school senior could help an Oakley senior who could use the help in weeding and mowing the lawns or just needs someone to read to them because their eyesight isn't so good anymore.

Each student is asked to write a two- to three-page essay of the work and almost always write that at first they thought it was going to be boring, but that after they were done they found it to be a rewarding experience.

While it may take a little imagination on the part of Oakley's organizations to find spots for the students in TLC, the whole point is to keep the youths of Oakley volunteering and working in Oakley. If you have any suggestions or ways to help with the programs, call Marty Aguilara at 925-634-2166, Ext. 2040.

Roni Gehlke's column on life in Oakley appears each week in the Brentwood News.

Distributed by the Contra Costa Times

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