The Allstate Foundation’s
Approach to Youth Service
Leveraging the Potential of Youth Service: A Call to Action
CELO is proud to partner with The Allstate Foundation in their efforts to empower youth to serve and improve communities. The Allstate Foundation is dedicated to engaging youth with opportunities to serve, equipping youth with the knowledge, skills, and resources needed to make an impact, and preparing adults to support youth-led service.
This partnership began in 2023 when The Allstate Foundation sought to transform how the country views and supports youth service. The first portion of this partnership brought together a cross-sector, intergenerational fellowship that developed a new definition and model of service for contemporary society co-created by youth, scholars, and service-centered organizations.
Through this partnership and in collaboration with over 3,000 young people and service leaders from across the United States, The Allstate Foundation published Leveraging the Potential of Youth Service, introducing a new definition, model, and design considerations to guide the next decade of youth-led, youth-driven service.
“Accelerating youth-led, youth-driven service is essential because it cultivates a greater sense of agency, purpose and connectedness. Youth need to be involved in all aspects of service, from research and governance of service-organizations to design and delivery of programs and funding decisions. Our goal is to spur more youth-led, youth-driven efforts across the nation. We know from our research that today’s young people want these types of programs, and we’re excited to help meet that challenge.”
Greg Weatherford II
Director, The Allstate Foundation and Social Impact
In Our Own Voices: Youth Perspectives on Community Service
In Our Own Voices serves as a companion publication to Leveraging the Potential of Youth Service. A continuation of this partnership and The Allstate Foundation’s commitment to empowering youth voices, this publication builds on these core concepts by bringing to life youth realities, reflections, and aspirations for community service and its role in our lives and broader society. It also captures and expands on four core areas that youth are particularly invested in as it relates to our evolving understandings of service: (1) Youth-led, youth-driven, (2) Access, (3) Mentorship, & (4) Sustainable community engagement.
“When we remove this kind of traditional idea of service – like service being limited to volunteering – then we reshape it into more than just individual moments. It becomes inclusive of people having the courage to get involved in a movement that’s bigger than just them. When that sense of purpose is driven through those everyday heroes that we uplift, I think service becomes more powerful to the heart and the mind for young people.”
Trey Baker
Scholastic Corporation
The Allstate Foundation Resource Library
View youth service resources including guidance documents, research, tools, and websites to reference when designing, delivering, and engaging in youth-led, youth-driven service experiences.
Have a resource you think would be a good addition to The Allstate Foundation Resource Library? Please email info@expandingleadership.org.
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The Allstate Foundation
In support of The Allstate Foundation‘s youth empowerment strategy, the Center for Expanding Leadership & Opportunity (CELO) has partnered with them to (re)define youth service for a new generation and empower youth to serve and improve communities.