A process in which youth and adults from across America identify opportunities and services in their neighborhood for young people, children and families. The data as well as existing information collected will form the basis of a youth-oriented website, ilivehere.info that will provide easy access to this information.

Goals for Mapping America Week:

• Begin to create a national database of places to go, things to do and opportunities for America’s youth.
• Encourage youth and adults to work together in their neighborhoods.
• Raise the awareness of the need for young people to have access to accurate youth resource information.
• Support...

A process in which youth and adults from across America identify opportunities and services in their neighborhood for young people, children and families. The data as well as existing information collected will form the basis of a youth-oriented website, ilivehere.info that will provide easy access to this information.

Goals for Mapping America Week:

• Begin to create a national database of places to go, things to do and opportunities for America’s youth.
• Encourage youth and adults to work together in their neighborhoods.
• Raise the awareness of the need for young people to have access to accurate youth resource information.
• Support communities to build partnerships for sustaining local youth resource information.
• Build a base of local partners for a national Youthline.

  Mapping America Week is a product of Youthline America and is tentatively scheduled for October 2009.

The ilivehere.info website will be a repository for youth information nationwide. ilivehere.info will tell our story and engage participants through compelling visuals, intuitive navigation, and concise messaging. It will be marketed towards young people with a functionality and scope that resonates with youth. The website combined with the work of the Resource Providers and the Youthline will create a human connection in a digital world.

Targeted Audiences

This website will serve two distinct sets of users, Consumers and Resource Providers:

The Consumers will be young people, parents, and professionals interested in resources and opportunities in their area. Another kind of...

The ilivehere.info website will be a repository for youth information nationwide. ilivehere.info will tell our story and engage participants through compelling visuals, intuitive navigation, and concise messaging. It will be marketed towards young people with a functionality and scope that resonates with youth. The website combined with the work of the Resource Providers and the Youthline will create a human connection in a digital world.

Targeted Audiences

This website will serve two distinct sets of users, Consumers and Resource Providers:

The Consumers will be young people, parents, and professionals interested in resources and opportunities in their area. Another kind of consumer will be designated local contacts who will be able to gather and analyze data for a specific geographic area. These designated local contacts could be elected officials and/or intermediaries who have legitimate authority and interest in making such information available.

The second set of users, Resource Providers, will be those organizations and opportunities that choose to have profiles on the site and have access to the back office information on the site. Resource Providers will also be the Partners that have crosswalked their data onto the site and whose databases are linked to ilivehere.info.

Functions

The individual Consumer will be able to enter in their zip code and receive information on Resource Providers specific to their geographic area. This Consumer will also be able to map their neighborhood resources through the use of Google Maps API that will also contain public transportation information and will be able to access the site information over mobile devices.

The designated local contact will be able to port their localities’ data to their local site from the ilivehere.info website. They will also be able to create a local page on the ilivehere.info site for their locality.

By choosing to be listed on the site, Resource Providers will be able to have their data updated and refreshed on the website through traditional web-based data entry methods or through the use of web services technology. Youthline America, as consolidator, will provide software to allow Resource Providers to update their information on their own server. Youthline America will then crawl the resource’s pre-selected data to the database for the ilivehere.info website. This technology will now make it feasible for Resource Providers to take responsibility for keeping their information current and accessible with minimal effort. Also, local geographic entities (cities, counties, and states) will be able to group their data.

The website will also contain face pages for every program listed on the site and will use mechanisms like widgets to spread knowledge on programs and issues. The site will also contain a message board for organizations to interact with each other, and a monitored message board for young people to connect and discuss resources in their neighborhood.

The ilivehere.info website will be a repository for youth information nationwide. It will be marketed towards young people with a functionality and scope that resonates with youth. The website combined with the work of the Resource Providers and the Youthline will create a human connection in a digital world.

Management

The Website will be managed by Youthline America, a 501© 3 not for profit with foundation and discrete corporate support. The ilivehere.info website will be available to youth and resources at no cost. Advanced users will pay a modest subscription fee.

Imagine that in one hour an 18-year-old Listener handles a call from 19-year-old male needing information on college admissions, provides information to a father needing a neighborhood day care program for his 3- year-old daughter, and helps a 13-year-old female concerned about her friend whose parents are divorcing.

Don’t imagine it. Trained young people are already assisting other young people and adults by providing geo-coded resource information, listening to them in crisis situations, and helping them face everyday life issues. Unfortunately, they are only doing it – in this comprehensive manner – in a handful of places for a limited...

Imagine that in one hour an 18-year-old Listener handles a call from 19-year-old male needing information on college admissions, provides information to a father needing a neighborhood day care program for his 3- year-old daughter, and helps a 13-year-old female concerned about her friend whose parents are divorcing.

Don’t imagine it. Trained young people are already assisting other young people and adults by providing geo-coded resource information, listening to them in crisis situations, and helping them face everyday life issues. Unfortunately, they are only doing it – in this comprehensive manner – in a handful of places for a limited number of hours.

What is Youthline?

Youthline is a toll-free confidential line available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is staffed by salaried youth, referred to as Listeners. Listeners undergo more than 100 hours of training and on-going professional supervision that prepares them to provide information, handle crisis calls, and listen to youth who are working through the issues most important to them.

Youthline will employ thousands of youth and provide them with the training and skills needed to use information systems, perform crisis intervention, and enhance communication.

Why do we need a Youthline?

On the local and national levels, there are now many 800 numbers dedicated to specific and often critical issues. These lines provide vital resources for young people in crisis; however, these phone systems are not conceived or designed with the staffing and goal of Youthline, which will available to all youth to:

Listen – The importance and art of attentive listening. Youth Listeners will be trained to listen in a non-judgmental manner to young peoples’ hopes, concerns, and fears about issues ranging from getting a job, to relationships, to immediate crises.

Inform – Listeners will be trained on how to access information on the ilivehere.info website to inform young people of resources and opportunities available in their communities.

Problem Solve (to the next level) – Listeners will possess the skills and information to work with youth to suggest pathways and steps toward solutions, including seamless transfers to experts in crises.

Youthline works at the nexus of the message and the messenger, providing safe, accurate, and timely information, each and every time.

Youthline is a project of Youthline America, whose mission is to build a safe, interactive communication system for young people. The Youthline will “Build a human connection in a digital world.”

OneVote is a simple premise: Building on an existing ceremony coupled with technology, youth and adults will be reminded that one of the desired outcomes of education is an involved citizen.

OneVote alone will not restore hope or alter the possibility that more 18-24 year olds will vote for the next “American Idol” than the next American President.

OneVote will provide youth and adults with a set of activities ANDstimulate dialogue about what it means to be a citizen in America in the 21st century.

Onevote.org will be a place where students,...

OneVote is a simple premise: Building on an existing ceremony coupled with technology, youth and adults will be reminded that one of the desired outcomes of education is an involved citizen.

OneVote alone will not restore hope or alter the possibility that more 18-24 year olds will vote for the next “American Idol” than the next American President.

OneVote will provide youth and adults with a set of activities ANDstimulate dialogue about what it means to be a citizen in America in the 21st century.

Onevote.org will be a place where students, educators, and community partners can locate and exchange information on how to leverage the high school graduation ceremony as an entry point for recognizing the importance of registering, voting and connecting. OneVote will provide the virtual tools and the basic framework for high schools to award Citizen Diplomas, along with the academic diplomas, to graduating high school seniors as they pledge to become lifelong voters.

CHALLENGE

• Youth are the lowest voting cohort
• Youth often do not know how to register or where to vote
• Youth, new to voting, are not comfortable or aware of the actual process of voting.

ONEACTION

Congratulations, today you will receive two diplomas: Your Academic Diploma and your Citizen Diploma. Your Citizen Diploma recognizes that have pledged to be an active and informed community member, and if given the opportunity you will vote in every local and national election -H.S. Principal, June 2009

OneVote is a three step process for communities:

• Where People Vote: By using local Boards of Election and Google Maps, high school seniors and educators will view what neighborhoods look like where people vote versus where people don’t vote.
• Citizen Diploma: With the basic framework and suggested process provided by OneVote, high schools will create and award “Citizen” Diplomas, along with the academic diplomas, to graduating seniors as they pledge publicly to stay civically engaged in their community and become lifelong voters.
• Video Clip: High school seniors throughout the United States will create videos in the YouTube tradition documenting their experiences during different stages of the voting process. The videos will be submitted to the OneVote website and to web channels with which OneVote has partnered.

OUTCOMES

• One million ‘09 High School graduates will register and publicly acknowledge that they will vote in every local and national election.
• OneVote will build onevote.org: a web 2.0 application with a virtual tool kit for youth, educational institutions, and community organizations on how to target and leverage the high school graduation ceremony as a natural entry point for recognizing the importance of registering, voting and connecting.
• onevote.org will be an ongoing resource for every high school student, and interested teachers and community workers.
• OneVote, one step, one dialogue…Doable in 2009