ManaTeens: Interview with Adraine McKell
ICP: How was ManaTEENs founded?
Adraine McKell: Laura Lockwood, when she was 12, she walked into the volunteer center and she was with her sister and two other friends. She said we just went to [a local service organization] and asked to volunteer: “and they looked at me and said I was a baby and had nothing to offer. You’re the volunteer center, can you put us to work because we have something to offer.” Originally they were Meals On Wheels “jumpers” who jump out of the car to deliver the meal. That’s how ManaTEENs got started. At the time the volunteer center served 203 organizations [in 1994] with all adult volunteers. Before the end of 1994 there were already about 300 ManaTEENs from 6th grade to 12th grade. By the end of 1997 we had 8,000 members and by the end of 2000 we’ve maintained 10,000 volunteers since. Today we serve 716 organizations and they all utilize ManaTEENs. Now we don’t even give them a choice [to accept teens. They all want them].
ICP: Please tell us about your Summer of Service program.
AM: Our first year was last summer. We were part of a consortium of Eastern sea board Summer of Service states; 6 states and 14 sites. We applied as a consortium to the [Corporation for National and Community Service] for funding. We were the trainers for the consortium. We decided to focus on environmental efforts because that was what the manaTEENs decided to do last year.
792 students volunteered at least 50 hours of service. We used summer of service as a launching effort for many new programs that are sustainable year round.
It gave us the opportunity to bring the kids together on a daily basis for 6 weeks, which we’d never done before. We do lots of different trainings where we’ll bring them together for 4 or 5 days at a time and trainings lead to projects.
It gave us the opportunity for the first time ever to bring groups of youth together for intensive [full time youth led] volunteer work. Sometimes we didn’t have agendas that tied up every waking hour they were with us, which allowed for brainstorming.
ICP: Can you give us an example of some projects implemented as a result of Summer of Service?
AM: Last year we implemented a program to deploy artificial reef balls made of concrete. Students were certified in SCUBA and went out to deploy the balls. We had been certifying kids in SCUBA for years but there was not full implementation.
We also started the FISH ID program. We’re in the grouper fish region. In recent years the kids learned through their [7th grade] science class that their reproduction cycles had stopped because there was so much debris that the groupers couldn’t spawn.
200 kids got certified in environmental snorkeling. They can dive where there’s corral reefs and not damage the reefs. They went out and picked up all the fishing lines and the debris. This was a3 day a week project.
In addition we were able to start a program to save the sea birds and shore birds from the fishing line… that was strangling about two hundred birds a summer. They only documented 16 deaths last summer whereas the summer before it was 237.
Kids launched these projects and now they continue them.
ICP: How does ManaTEENs define service-learning?
AM: All of [our programs] are service- learning. The youth identify a need in the community and then mobilize their peers, develop a plan, implement a plan, and reflect on it to solve that particular need. As far as tying in the learning part we do service-learning backwards and we’ve always been known for that and that’s why all the schools love us around here. The students write whatever curriculum their plan is doing and then bring it in to the teachers to implement.
ICP: ManaTEENs puts a lot of faith in youth people to design and lead projects.
AM: We see ourselves at Hands On Manatee! as just the resource center. All our programs are youth led and youth driven.
It can happen anywhere. I’m just as concerned about liability and risk management but I’ve been able to prove that if you want it bad enough you can make it work. It’s just a matter of making sure you take every precaution with safety training.
ICP: What is the impact of the lack of Summer of Service funding this year?
We sent out a survey to ManaTEENs and their parents on February 20th – about 600 former participants and 2,000 ManaTEENs who have joined since the summer program last year – to ask if they would be interested in participating in an intensive Summer of Service program that focused on disaster preparedness and if so would their parents be willing to offer funding to offset the cost if we didn’t get funding. 96% said yes, they wanted to redo it this year and commit to 4-6 weeks and were willing to pay up to $50. So the impact is now we just piece together and try to do the best we can with our [existing funds]. It’s certainly nothing intensive like it was last year. We hate to launch something that was so successful and so popular and not be able to offer it again next year.
ICP: What can you tell us about the long-term impact of being a ManaTEEN?
AM: 96% of ManaTEENs are continuing through college and beyond to be philanthropic. Several ManaTEENs have completed terms in AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps VISTA. Those are all the direct result of getting involved early and staying involved.