Frequently Asked Questions - Youth Development

  • YSC stands for Youth ServiceCorps and is an inclusive and safe program for all youths who want to give back to the community through service, personal development, and having fun. We do this through volunteering activities, developmental workshops, mentoring, peer to peer learning, and opportunities to engage and lead others.

    Over one hundred high school students sign up to be a part of Youth ServiceCorps each year to participate in volunteer activities, workshops, and social events. Many of our volunteers come from Quincy High, North Quincy High, Braintree High, B.C. High, Randolph High and other high schools in Massachusetts.

  • QARI staff and youth leaders plan volunteering opportunities throughout the year for high school volunteers to learn more about the needs of the community and the nonprofit organizations that are meeting their specific needs. Our activities in the past years have included community park clean-ups, serving in food kitchens and pantries for specific community members, supporting cultural and civic festivals, and other community-based events. Some of our regular events each year include:

    The QARI Youth Staff are committed in building up the next generation to be leaders wherever they are. The Youth Department organizes regular workshops for all youths to attend during the school year. Many workshops will focus on the necessary skills needed to navigate our increasingly digital environment like Google Drive and social networking sites like Linkedin. Other workshops focus on holistic well being through self care workshops, social events and discussions like our monthly Bubble Tea Time in English and Chinese languages.

    Our youth leadership program invites high school students to apply every spring to become a youth leader for the following service year. Youths accepted into the program will participate with the Youth Department to plan, execute, and evaluate activities for the youths in the community. Youth leaders gain essential skills and experience which will help prepare them to be leaders in their future careers. Youth leaders can choose between three different areas, called branches, to serve.

  • Other than YSC, there are other programs for youths to participate in! We have:

    1. U&I Mentoring Program - one-on-one mentoring program with EL middle school mentees and high school mentor volunteers

    2. Empower Youth - workforce development program

    3. Living Out Loud (LOL) Program - wellness group focused on team building, socialization, and communication

    4. Youth Leadership Committee - youth leadership program with a new group of youth leaders each year

    These programs run annually. Please note there may also be other programs coming up in the future. For more information on each program, please check out the QARI website here: https://www.qariusa.org/youth-development

  • QARI offers many opportunities throughout the year for youths to volunteer. Here are some of our recurring events when we usually have youth volunteer opportunities:

    1. QARI’s Lunar New Year Festival

    2. QARI’s August Moon Festival

    3. QARI’s Earth Day event

    4. City of Quincy’s Flag Day Parade

    5. U&I Mentoring Program

    There will always be other events that come up throughout the year for you to participate in. If you are on our email list, you will be receiving emails about these, so please make sure your email is correct when filling out the YSC application form.

  • You can receive emails from us about more opportunities by joining the YSC and email list; you can find our YSC application form linked on the Youth Development page of our website.

General

  • The application is a google form for youths who are interested in joining the YSC to fill out. Once completed, you will be added to our email list and database, as well as be invited to join the QARI Youth ServiceCorps Discord Server. This is to make sure we do not invite any spam accounts into the server.

    You can find our YSC application form linked on the Youth Development page of our website.

  • Yes! Please have your friend fill out the YSC application form linked on the Youth Development page of our website.

  • No, YSC is open for any and all high school students from any city, town, or school to join.

  • Yes, YSC is only for high school students to join. Rising freshmen (current 8th graders) are welcome to join starting in April of the summer before attending high school.

Joining YSC

  • If you have received emails from QARI regarding youth activities and programs, then you should be on our YSC email list. If you are still worried or unsure, please reach out to the QARI Youth Department.

  • This may be because of multiple reasons:

    1. Our emails are going into your email spam folder. Please check your spam folder and mark our email addresses as Not Spam so that future emails will end up in your inbox.

    2. Your email was entered incorrectly in the application form. When emails are entered incorrectly in the application form, they will bounce back to us. Please always double check your email when entering them into any form.

    3. Your inbox is full. If you provide a spam email to us, it is likely that this email address is receiving too many emails and will no longer accept any new emails, resulting in our email bounce backs.

    4. Administrative error on the QARI side.

    You may reach out to the QARI Youth Department staff for email support regarding receiving emails from YSC; we will figure out a solution to make sure you receive the information from QARI YSC.

  • Please reach out to the Youth Department staff with this request and your name, original email address, and new email that you would like to use instead. Your volunteer hours may still be under your original email, so please note this when requesting your hours.

Emails

  • Each volunteer opportunity will have a separate registration/sign up form to complete. Once you have successfully submitted the form, you are registered for that volunteer opportunity! If you are unsure if your form went through, please reach out to the contact person for that specific volunteer event.

  • Yes! While we do not have as many volunteer opportunities during the summer as during the school year, we encourage all youths to volunteer with us regardless of the time of year!

  • The annual festivals are our largest events for youths to participate in. There are multiple ways for youths to get involved.

    1. DECO - making decorations for the festival, either to give out to festival-goers or to decorate the festival location with

    2. MARKETING - going around the local neighborhood and speaking to local businesses about the event, includes sharing, handing out, and hanging up the flyers and posters with the local businesses

    3. FIELD DAY / FESTIVAL DAY - supporting the operations of the festival day, includes many different tasks that are assigned to youths who have successfully registered to volunteer on the day of the festival

    To register, please fill out the form that was shared for that specific opportunity via email to all members of YSC.

  • To ensure your volunteer hours get recorded properly, you must sign in and out with a QARI staff member. Your hours will be added into our database manually after each volunteer event and may take 2-3 weeks to be completed.

  • You can volunteer as often as you like! There is no limit to how many volunteer hours the youths can accrue, but please keep in mind your own capacity and boundaries when committing to multiple activities and programs, as we expect all volunteers to fully participate and be present.

  • Please email the Youth Programs Lead for one of the following:

    1. Schedule a time to bring the volunteer hours form from school for us to fill out

    2. Request for a QARI volunteer hours letter.

    It is your responsibility to provide the proper paperwork and necessary information. In your email, please include with your volunteer hours request and include your name and email address, as well as any additional information you would like to provide (e.g. volunteer event, dates).

Volunteering & Volunteer Hours

  • Yes! Our YSC has an instagram @qariysc.

  • You can visit the Youth Development page of our website at https://www.qariusa.org/youth-development to learn more.

Miscellaneous