Urgent Evoke

A crash course in changing the world.

Junior International Summer Service Corps

Junior International Summer Service Corps (JISSC)
An Evokation of Service & Development


The Name
Junior International Summer Service Corps (JISSC)

The Place
It’s global. It initially starts in the US but the students work overseas. Eventually overseas students will also be able to work in the U.S.

The Idea
Develop an international summer service program for high school students in the US, especially those from low-income neighborhoods, to form teams of 10 and travel overseas to do service projects in development for a period of 1-2 months. They will travel and work with chaperones and be hosted by Peace Corps Volunteers at their sites.

Innovation
Its innovation lies in the fact that the group will not rely on fundraising to raise the funds for their expenses and the projects on the ground in the host country. It will come from the social enterprise, an umbrella entertainment social enterprise where 100% of profits go to the JISSC program (I‘m a writer of books and music and currently auditioning for the show hitmakers and talking with publishers about the first book). Secondly, the kids traveling to serve will establish relations with kids in their host site through pen pal relationships (peace pals.org). Those relationships will hopefully continue afterward. Third, it’s a preparatory summer for international work and they are exposed to the work of development and aid workers including Peace Corps Volunteers. They also work on new languages all year to prepare for the trip and to do service learning projects throughout the year to prepare for the service projects they will do on the ground.

IMPACT
The Challenge
Currently 33.4 million people live with AIDS, as of 2008. More than a billion people go hungry each day. Two out of every 5 people lacks basic adequate sanitation and 1 out of 6 people lacks access to clean water. Three billion people live on less than $2 per day. And there are 1.5 billion people who live without regular access to grid electricity. We have a lot of work to do.
There are serious development problems all around the world. And while some economists and previously labeled developing countries are now considered emerging countries (India, China, Brazil, etc.) many are actually diverging as Paul Collier notes in “The Bottom Billion.” We really must do something to combat this.
At the same time, wealthy countries have intra-development problems of their own, especially in their lower-income parts. Educating kids and encouraging them to go to college can be one way to improve their situation. But the education must be holistic and creative to reach all children. Children are fragmented, feel a loss of identity, and search for something new and exciting whether in the form of drugs, sex, alcohol, video games, etc. They need an identity and a bigger story to live.

The Next 3 Years
Year 1 - We will find a school this fall 2010 and start the program with one school and one group of 10 kids planning to travel to El Salvador. If enough volunteer staff is found, we will do 2 trips. We will fundraise the entire year for all the expenses and the projects the students will perform. Pen pal programs will proceed and succeed the trips. I will work on launching the entertainment company. I will have signed a book deal on book 1.
Year 2 - We will have at least 4 teams for the fall of 2011 going to South Africa, El Salvador, Thailand, and Romania. The teams will still fundraise all of their travel and project expenses. Pen pal programs will proceed and succeed the trips. By this point, the entertainment company is bringing in money through publishing and writing royalties and profits are being generated.
Year 3 - Rollout. This is the first year that all the student trips will be funded from the social enterprise. Students will have the opportunity to work for the company. Their wages will go toward trip and project expenses. This will eliminate the need for extensive fundraising though we may still fundraise to provide extra financial support.

The Service
JISSC would initially serve a village of 500. In the second year, JISC serves 2 thousand people. By the third and fourth year, it will serve tens of thousands of people.

The Barriers
1. The project would fail if there was lack of funding in its early years before it could be funded by the social enterprise.
2. A sub-optimal social enterprise that doesn’t pull in the revenue needed to fully fund JISC is a potential barrier.
3. A lack of school support would be hard if schools cannot be found that want to participate.

The Money
I have three options with my first $1,000: two deal with JISSC, one deals with the greater social enterprise umbrella. First, I would use it to take an exploratory trip to El Salvador to prepare for the first group going down in 2011 fall. The other option is to simply save it as part of the pool of money for the first summer service high. Lastly, I could use it as an investment to help market my first book to an agent and publisher to get a publishing deal that will work favorably to fund this social venture.

SUSTAINABILITY
The Partnerships
I have partners all over the world. I have colleagues and friends who were formerly in the Peace Corps. I know current Peace Corps Volunteers, especially one in El Salvador who has volunteered to host the first group in the summer of 2011. Haley Fletcher, a program associate for the Association of H*** in the Wall Camps, is a partner and eager to become involved. Maureen Israel a recruiter for KIPP DC is also interested and eager. There are others to numerous to count. I used to be a teacher and have many connections and partnerships with schools through my current profession as an adjunct professor, after school tutor, and mentor. I also partner with Sarah Wilkinson of PeacePals.org.

The 3 Most Important Things
Build partnerships with principals who would welcome the program to their school.
Build the social enterprise business whose profits fund JISSC in the future.
Due to the amount of work, find committed staff who are dedicated to the cause of service and raising up service-driven leaders.

STORY
The Defining Moment
I taught in K-12 education previously. While doing that I took a group of children to El Salvador one year, and they had such an amazing time, that we decided to go back the following year. The second year we added a trip to Ghana and India, as well. The kids returned one final year after and then the program stopped.
I remember being told that I should launch a non-profit and implement a program like this with many schools. I was asked to speak at an educational conference on service in education. And this program that ran for a few years won a national character education award.
I noticed that when a child is serving he or she changes. He thinks less of himself and more of others. He becomes responsible and selfless and holistically-sighted. This is a wonderful quality and it affected these children from low-income communities very well.
I decided this year since moving back to the US from South Africa, that I want to start this program. It doesn’t exist and never existed as an organization apart from any school. Children who went on previous trips are looking at international relations, starting mentoring programs on their campus, running other service projects, and considering a wider array of job opportunities. It’s a life-changing experience, and I want to be a part of it.

The Social Innovator
Victor, PhD, is a Science & Technology Policy Fellow and social innovator student and future social entrepreneur.

Views: 25

Comment by Paul Holze on May 23, 2010 at 4:43am
And best of luck with this!
Comment by Ternura Rojas on June 7, 2010 at 5:50pm
Hello Victor, I just read this and I am moved :-) I LOVE this evokation and I really hope you manage to make it possible with or without the aid of WBG. Best of luck, T
Comment by Victor Udoewa on June 7, 2010 at 5:51pm
Many thanks. I'm moving forward on it!
Comment by Ternura Rojas on June 7, 2010 at 5:59pm
GREAT! of you need help you know you know where to find us. Did you join our FB group? here:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=126724470674171&ref=ts
Cheers, T

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