A N.Y. Charity Enlists Teenage Students to Help Document Their Overseas Work

The YMCA of Greater New York used to face several obstacles when it tried to talk to donors, potential participants, and others about its Global Teens program. Chief among them: It had very few photographs, and the teenage participants had difficulty putting into words what the service trips meant to them.

The organization’s inexpensive solution: Train a cadre of participants to document the trips and provide an inside look at what is often the young people’s first experiences in another country.

Press Corps

Since 1996 more than 700 teenagers have traveled to other countries through the Global Teens program to work on service projects, learn about another culture, and push themselves to try new things.

This past summer, 120 students went on 10 overseas trips. Twelve participants who volunteered for the new Press Corps program were given both a digital camera and a video camera to record the groups’ experiences. After the trip, they worked with volunteers to edit their material into short videos.

One video shows how a group of exuberant teenagers who traveled to Thailand to help build a new YMCA in the village of Sanpatong reacted when their van driver cooked a frog for them. At first, most of the kids said they wouldn’t try the dish, but in time, the aroma won them over.

The Press Corps program had the unexpected benefit of helping to draw quieter kids more fully into the groups, says Kevin Shermach, who oversees communications at the YMCA of Greater New York.

“In a lot of the cases, the kids who volunteered for it were not the overwhelmingly outgoing kids,” he says. “They now had an excuse to go up to everyone and talk about how the trip was going.”

Showing Donors

The YMCA plans to use the videos to help recruit participants for this year’s trips and to show current and prospective donors what Global Teens participants experience.

“It’s showing the impact while it’s taking place,” says Mr. Shermach, “which I think is really rare, especially when you look at programs with teens, who are notoriously guarded and hold things close to the vest.”

The YMCA of Greater New York also plans to use video to show the impact of its work closer to home.

During July and August, the organization recorded more than 700 people sharing their Y stories as part of the organization’s Summer Story Project. The YMCA of Greater New York will use the footage to create its next video series, which the organization plans to release later this year.