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Jon Burns and Kevan Osmond were selected as winners of YCI’s Global Action Grant for Kindness Connect, a web platform they are creating for volunteers and community organizations alike. Their goal is to remove barriers to volunteering and get more people ‘up on their feet’ doing good work for great organizations.
Our Progress
The past two months have been a whirlwind of activity. Building the Kindness Connect web platform has run much like your typical software development project, but with one notable exception. We began with ideas: big ones, little ones, far-fetched ones, and easily attainable ones. With all of the ideas in front of us it was time to prioritize by thinking about how each could turn into a useful feature. The result was a list of core requirements that would make up Kindness Connect.
The next step was to thoughtfully sketch each feature into web design mock-ups. This was when the real grind began. Taking sketches and making them come to life is a lot like taking a sheet of music and using an instrument to bring a song to life. In our case, the sheet of music is the design sketch, the instrument is computer programming code, and the song is the web platform.
However, this hasn’t been a solo mission, which brings us to our notable exception. At the beginning of the project we set a rule that this would be a collaborative effort. We weren’t going to build it alone. True to this rule, we’ve been meeting with community organizations across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). These organizations have provided us with invaluable feedback on their workflow, difficulties they face, product suggestions, and so forth.
Jon and Kevan hosting a workshop at the University of Waterloo’s Leadership Starts Here Conference
Next Up
We’re happy to announce that the technical development of Kindness Connect is almost complete and we’re moving onto a milestone that we’ve been looking forward to: putting Kindness Connect in the hands of the public. This milestone is really important for us. It’s an opportunity to demonstrate what we’ve been building, connect with users, and amass some real world usage.
Kindness Connect’s Map Search: a Tool for Finding Opportunities in a User’s Area
We’re fortunate to have the support of some great organizations in the GTA who have agreed to help us with this public testing phase. We’ll also be looking for individuals in the area to evaluate from a volunteer perspective.
Community
The community has been a great source for generating ideas for Kindness Connect. Frequently in random meetings and conversations people have shared their ideas by saying “wouldn’t it be cool if” or “have you thought of” and often these ideas have made their way into development.
We are grateful for such input and equally grateful to YCI for selecting us as the recipients of the Global Action Grant. We feel as though we have been warmly welcomed into YCI’s fantastic community and would like to extend an invitation to the YCI community to provide us with further suggestions. Please don’t hesitate to drop us a line, introduce yourself, and share any ideas you might have at info@kindnessconnect.com. It’s simple: if you have ideas, we’d love to hear them.
Thank-you to YCI for your support and to the YCI community for keeping us inspired.
Happy volunteering!
- Jon and Kevan
Email – info@kindnessconnect.com
Twitter – @KindnessToronto https://twitter.com/kindnesstoronto
Facebook – www.facebook.com/KindnessConnect
Website – www.kindnessconnect.com
On Friday March 22nd, we hosted our 1st Spring Social networking event to bring together Youth Challenge International alumni, staff, board members, and friends in celebration of our youth development programs and the incredible people involved with YCI. The evening was a blast for everyone. Attendees enjoyed mingling with a networking bingo game where they met people who had been on safari, rode a camel, visited Kaeiteur Falls, and stood on Umbrella Rock. A travel-related silent auction raised over $800.
Sarah and Joanna, two Costa Rica alumni enjoying a game of pool
Now in our 25th year, we are excited about strengthening our alumni network and bringing together like-minded people that have a passion for youth and international development. What we quickly came to realize as we called the 400+ Toronto alumni to invite them to this event, is that a lot of YCI alumni have moved on from Toronto and live all over the world from Chile to Dubai to Australia and everywhere in between. YCI’s alum are leading successful lives with very exciting careers in international development, travel, adventure, and more. Two alum with whom we have recently reconnected with have started their own travel companies, Angus Murray and Rick Snowdon.
Stephen Brown (Chairman of the Board) with Julie Harris (Alumni)
Angus Murray, 1990 Guyana Alum, is the founder of Live Out Loud Adventures, an environmentally responsible and socially conscious trek adventure company that operates in Tanzania, Ecuador, Canada, and Nepal (Mt. Everest). On May 21, 2008, Angus became the 50th Canadian to summit Mt. Everest! http://www.liveoutloudadventures.com/
Rick Snowdon, 2006 Grenada Alum, is the founder of Spirit of the West Adventures, a kayak adventure company that provides fun, safe, and ecologically sound kayaking experiences in BC. As a freelance writer, guide and photographer Rick has travelled around Canada and around the world. http://www.kayakingtours.com/
Gabriela, Jessica, Lauren, and Nucci, former YCI staff
It’s all smiles for Carly Court (Volunteer Program Assistant) and Amanda Armstrong (Volunteer Program Coordinator)
Bryan Cox (Executive Director) and Stephen Brown (Chairman of the Board)
Thank you to everyone that attended and supported the 1st YCI Spring Social! As we continue to grow, we are continuously expanding our network of young leaders and people who believe in positive change around the world. Our newest upcoming initiative is YCI’s Kilimanjaro Climb to Give Thanks, which we hope you will join us for. Find out more at http://www.projectpage.info/yci-kilimanjaro
Look out for more YCI networking events in Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, and other cities across the globe in the future!
When I volunteered for Youth Challenge International I never thought it would have such a long-term impact on my life. I was fortunate enough to volunteer from January to June of 2009 in Mombasa Kenya. While in Mombasa I volunteered at Kwacha Afrika, YCI’s local partner, organizing workshops, events, forums and community events, focusing on health promotion, leadership, human rights and equality.
While at Kwacha Afrika, I worked closely with many youth including, a 16 year old boy whose amazing dedication, hard work and passion for helping those around him always amazed me. After working with him for many weeks I began to understand the difficult circumstances he faced, orphaned and living with his older brother, barely able to afford 3 meals a day. He expressed many times how much he wanted to go back to school, but couldn’t return because his brother could not afford to send him.
I sent an email to my parents describing the boy’s situation and they quickly decided to send money so that he could return to school. During the following months in Kenya, Michael Kalu (our local officer) and myself began the paperwork to establish a scholarship fund for youth in Mombasa. Within my six months in Kenya we had received enough donations from friends and family back home to support 7 students in returning to school.
Upon returning to Canada, we began the application process to become a registered charity with Revenue Canada. In March we were approved and are now fully registered and fundraising to continue supporting the seven students currently in school, as well as accepting additional students each year.
The scholarship fund is intended to help youth who have no financial means of funding their education and provide them with the opportunity to pursue their educational goals. The scholarship fund also provides support by mentoring the youth in their pursuit of education.
Preference is given to those youth whose parent, or parents are deceased, or who do not live with, or gain financial support from their parents. Proof of parental income or of a guardian’s income is required as a determining factor of each applicant.
Once students have been accepted to receive a scholarship, our local program officer Michael, helps them select a suitable school and make all necessary arrangements. Because many of the students do not have any family members, Michael accompanies them to the school, helps buy school supplies and ensures they are settled. Our preference is to find boarding schools for all of our students. This ensures they have a safe place to live, access to three meals a day, access to water and no distractions from their school studies. Although tuition is more for boarding schools, we think it is worth the added cost!
So far we have managed to raise money simply through word of mouth and a large group of very supportive, caring friends and family. We always welcome donations and are constantly amazed by the generosity of those around us!
For more information check us out at:
http://canadamombasascholarshipfund.weebly.com/index.html
- Jessie Gresley-Jones, YCI Youth Ambassador. Jessie volunteered on back-to-back YCI projects in Kenya during the Winter and Spring of 2009.
Want to learn what other YCI alumni are up to? Check out our blog’s Alumni Update category.
Jessica Lockhart has been a long-time member of the YCI family. In addition to being a YCI alumna (Vanuatu, 2006), Jessica worked in the Toronto office as a member of the Volunteer and International Programs Teams for more than two years. Now, Jessica is back travelling the globe- this time in Guyana. Check out her blog: http://jessicalockhart.blogspot.com.
For over two years at YCI, I‘ve wished countless volunteers good luck as they’ve set off on their international volunteer placements. And for over two years, I’ve often sat at my desk, under the soft glow of my computer screen, wishing that I was in their place instead. Those two years afforded me a lot of time to wonder—if I were a YCI volunteer, and had the chance to do it all over again, where would I go?
For a while, Africa seemed like the obvious choice. The only problem? Urban centres have never appealed to me. Coming from a rural community in northern Alberta, I’m continually drawn to communities that have characteristics in common with my hometown—whether it’s size, isolation or even industry. Guatemala and Costa Rica were both at the top of my list for a while, but at the end of the day, I kept coming back to one place: Guyana. Volunteers would come back raving about their experience, and I would spend hours sorting through photos of the lush jungle scenery and the vast savannah plains.
It seemed only too fortuitous that just as my contract with YCI ended in early August, a job opening was passed my way for a short-term site coordinator position in Guyana. And it also seemed somewhat serendipitous that the hiring manager was friends with a YCI alumnus, who gave me a lovely reference. Everything was somehow falling into place.
So at the end of August, after years of preparing volunteers for their adventures, I was finally setting out on an adventure all of my own. After a hectic three weeks in Alberta and BC visiting family, I flew back to Toronto early one Saturday afternoon. And then, after only four hours of frantic packing, I was back at the airport again later that night, this time to catch my evening flight to Georgetown.
My flight itinerary was the very same one that I’ve sent to volunteers over the years. Overnight to Guyana, a brief stopover in the Port of Spain, and maybe a night at the Hotel Tower before orientation with Youth Challenge Guyana (YCG). Sitting on the plane, I thought about how many YCI volunteers before me had sat in that exact same spot.
I spent the next 10 days travelling through Region 7 and Region 2 of Guyana, meeting community partners and local stakeholders in preparation for an upcoming short-term medical mission in October. And everywhere I went, people’s eyes lit up in recognition whenever I mentioned my connection to YCI. (During one such meeting with a stakeholder, I mentioned my experience in passing. But the conversation soon took a turn, when I found out that the stakeholder in question was the founder of YCG!) It didn’t matter where I was—a YCI volunteer had been before me.
As I prepare to return to Guyana with Ve’ahavta in October, I can’t help but think about what a small world it really is—and how YCI has become, over the last five years, my family. I know that wherever I head next, there will be a network of alumni and supporters there to help me along the way.
To learn more about Ve’ahavta’s work in Guyana, please visit their website at www.veahavta.org. You can read more about my adventures in Guyana, Vanuatu and throughout Canada at http://jessicalockhart.blogspot.com.
I'm standing in front of where the Mazaruni and Kamarang Rivers fork in Kamarang. Kamarang is in the Upper Mazaruni, in Region 7 of Guyana.
