Global Youth Service Day (GYSD) celebrates and mobilizes the millions of young people who improve their communities each day of the year through service. It was established in 1988 with the intent to promote youth involvement in their communities around the globe. It is celebrated in over 135 countries making it the largest and longest service event in the world. It is also the only service event
dedicated to the contributions that children and youth make to their communities year round. Each year in Duluth and some of the surrounding areas, The YMCA and True North AmeriCorps facilitates youth service learning projects dedicated to helping solve some of the issues in our community. Not only do we provide opportunities, we also try to team up with schools, youth organizations, nonprofits, community and faith-based organizations, national service programs, government agencies, and adult mentors in order to create partnerships to strengthen the foundation of our community. In 2015, GYSD Northland engaged 51 community partnerships, 2,307 youth volunteers, and 3,450 people from the community in 27 service projects. We successfully raised $2,804 towards bettering our communities. In 2016, we wish to exceed the successes of last year and contribute even more.
