Hands4Hope & Independence High School Work to Partner to Engage At-Risk Students with the Community

Hands4Hope and Independence High School are working to partner on a program that will connect students to their community, build life skills, and help reduce the dropout rates. The program will have the capacity to include up to 30 students, grades 9-12, at this continuation school where nearly 100% of the student body is at risk and can benefit greatly from the various facets of the Hands4Hope Service Learning Club program. H4H and Independence HS are currently seeking funding to bring this program to fruition. Preliminary work is in process and once secured, this program will launch immediately.

For 9 years, Hands4Hope has empowered youth to bring about meaningful change in their communities through its Youth Leadership Model: Explore, Act, Lead: Youth explore social issues surrounding them, take action by choosing and designing service projects, then lead these projects from start to finish — everything from food and clothing drives to anti-bullying campaigns. In the process youth learn critical skills like leadership, communication, collaboration, budgeting, and problem solving.  

Once a month, Youth participants spend time with seniors with various levels of dementia, at Ramona "Moni" Gilmore Senior Center in El Dorado Hills socializing, helping with arts and craft activities, and playing games.

Youth participants host a dinner once a month at Sister Nora's Place, who provides long-term shelter and case management for women with a history of homelessness, trauma and serious mental and physical illness.  They bring either a prepared or ready to cook dinner for the female residents and one staff member.  Once dinner is ready everyone sits down for a for family style dinner. Hands4Hope Youth Participants are encouraged to engage the residents in conversation or just talk to them to help bring a bright spot to their day.

Hands4Hope teaches youth how to be civic minded leaders and during the process they learn critical skills like communication, collaboration, and problem solving. They also learn about themselves, each other, and the community around them in ways not otherwise possible.

Since inception, Hands4Hope has served 5,000 youth. Youth are drawn to this program because it is youth led, with guidance from trained adult mentors. This autonomy gives them a sense of independence, power, and relevant contribution. Hands4Hope provides the opportunity for students to make a meaningful connection between factual and experiential learning, between exploring a social problem and actively working to solve it.

As students develop and implement a project, they gain the skills essential for academic and work success . . . personal attributes including time management, realistic and collaborative planning, and follow-through on projects. Individual participants gain as their sense of self-esteem, confidence, and self-sufficiency grows. Nowhere is this more important than our work with at-risk youth.

Once needed resources are secured, Hands4Hope will work with the administration at Independence High School to facilitate implementation of this program through a “club” at Independence High School campus in the El Dorado Union High School District. Independence is a continuation high school that provides an alternative education for students who have fallen behind in studies and may be in danger of not graduating. It is a Title 1 school, with 114 students enrolled and 64% of the population classified as socioeconomically disadvantaged.

The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act encourages implementation of: “programs for positive youth development that assist delinquent and other at-risk youth in obtaining: (1) a sense of safety and structure; (2) a sense of belonging and membership; (3) a sense of self-worth and social contribution; (4) a sense of independence and control over one’s life; and (5) a sense of closeness in interpersonal relationships.” (Positive Youth Development, Coalition for Juvenile Justice), Hands4Hope provides all of those things.

Alison Gennai, Independence High principal explains, “Almost all our students are considered at-risk in one way or another, from being credit deficient and in danger of not graduating on time, potentially crippling substance abuse issues, to dealing with serious socio-emotional obstacles that can derail their ultimate academic success.”

Principal Gennai continues, “We strive to create a program where students ignite their self-esteem and begin to view themselves as capable and valuable community contributors. A service learning program like Hands4Hope can be a very powerful tool to help us on this mission.”  

This service learning program will have the capacity to include up to 30 students, grades 9-12. Beyond this, the students will create and implement service projects that will impact 100+ individuals in need.

For more information on this program or to help fund it for this year and/or future years, please email info@hands4hopeyouth.org or call 916-919-5695.