PARENT FAQs
Go ahead and put us to the test:
What type of service opportunities are available to my teen through CYL?
At CYL, we believe that volunteerism is both about serving the common good and about discovering your own unique talents and passions. For this reason, we seek to provide a breadth of opportunities that allow our students to explore the many ways they can lead and make a difference in their community. Our students have participated in volunteer work directly influencing homelessness, youth at risk, adaptive sports, education, literacy, art, people with disabilities, environmental stewardship, food justice, the refugee population, and so much more. You can see our many partners here. There are a variety of opportunities each month, and after testing the waters, we hope they will find the thing that sparks their passion and purpose.
What is the basis of your leadership curriculum?
Our leadership curriculum is organic and action-oriented, focusing on themes developed from a collection of the best ideas of great thinkers, educators, partner universities, corporations, and our own youth. It is our curriculum that develops our leaders into self-aware, civic-minded, and environmentally-sensitive change makers. We believe the best education should be founded and challenged in experiences with others. This is why we ask our Young Leaders to “take action” at the end of each Leadership Exploration Meeting.
What is the Decalibron Summit Program and why is it important?
The goal of our program is for high school students to figuratively reach a total of four mountain summits before they graduate high school. The CYL summits are named after the Decalibron Loop peaks in Fairplay, Colorado and this particular visual drives our Leadership Skills Development. These summits help our Young Leaders focus on social good, giving back, living outside their comfort zones, developing the beauty that exist in their communities, and taking risks that benefit others – it’s a leadership style that brings out the best in all of us! This process allows your student to explore their passion then commit to a cause; it moves them through this process through experiential learning so it feel natural and fun, not burdensome.
Learn more about our Summit Program requirements.
What non-profit and community organizations do CYL partner with?
CYL partners with over 45 non-profit organizations that focus on key issues in our community and beyond. Each of which is vetted by CYL Staff to ensure a quality volunteer experience for all youth. These non-profits are committed partners of the program, but also seek to involve youth beyond our partnership. Through this strong network of partners, we can help our students follow their heart and find their passion. We support the missions that our students care about the most and we are constantly expanding our partner list. You can explore many of our partners and their missions by visiting our partner page on the CYL website.
How are volunteer and leadership hours tracked through CYL?
By becoming a member of CYL, students can track their service and leadership hours through our website. Our registration process allows us to track how many Service Adventures or Leadership Exploration Meetings your student has signed up for and the hours they have dedicated to both. Participation is validated at each event through our adult leaders. We are expanding our tracking capabilities, and soon students will be able to automatically print volunteer and leadership reports that they can provide to school counselors or college admission boards.
What is the unique benefit of my teen participating in volunteer opportunities through CYL?
The CYL program is built around five key values: Leadership + Service + Community + Adventure + Legacy. We infuse everything we do with these in mind. We seek to help students discover themselves, face challenges, become visionaries, and engage in the common good, plus we make sure we include lots of adventure along the way (because everything’s better with a dash of fun!). Additionally, college and university admissions departments are looking for students who have both depth and breadth in their volunteerism. CYL offers students a robust program that they can engage with throughout their high school experience but also offers a gateway to explore a wide variety of causes and opportunities.
How many service opportunities are available to my student through participation in CYL?
Through our CYL-led Service Adventures and our partner-led individual service engagements the number of service opportunities is virtually unlimited. However, it is our goal to offer at a minimum of three CYL led Service Adventures a month and we anticipate offering over 35 in the upcoming year. Students are encouraged to explore individual opportunities with our non-profit partners, and we list many of those opportunities on our calendar as well. Through the combination of our CYL and individual service opportunities our students can engage in an unlimited amount of service opportunities, and it is not uncommon for our members to easily exceed the hours required by their high schools and clubs.
Do you offer service opportunities outside of our local community or outside of the United States?
CYL strives to get our students outside of our community to engage with their role as a citizen of the world and explore how they can make a difference wherever their journey takes them. These opportunities have ranged from helping the Lakota people on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, to a serve & surf adventure to serve the homeless in Santa Barbara, CA. We offer one local to global service experience as well. On deck for 2018 is a service trip to Costa Rica.
Where are the leadership meetings held and how can I get my teen engaged?
Our Leadership Exploration Meetings (LEMs) are chapter based, and we currently have six active chapters. Each chapter is made up of students who either attend school or live in convenient proximity to the chapter meeting. We encourage our students to engage with the chapter that is the best fit for them. Our current chapters include Denver, Arapahoe, Douglass, Jefferson County, Pikes Peak, and Boulder. Chapter locations and meeting dates can be found on the contact page of our website.
Does my teen need to participate in all of your program activities to be a member of CYL?
Community is one of our values and one of the things that makes CYL unique. The more your teen participates, the more they will become part of the bond of our community. However, we encourage teens to become members and participate in ways that are most meaningful to them. We understand that high schoolers are busy – there is school, homework, clubs, sports, etc. – so we’ve created our program to be nimble. If service is their passion and priority, they are welcome to join us on the adventures that excite them the most and students can join throughout the year or at any point during their high school career.
How can I get my teen’s school or club involved in CYL?
CYL is a great pathway for high school service and academic clubs to connect to meaningful service opportunities. We also offer Custom Service Opportunities to schools or organizations who want to jump start civic engagement within their program. We would be excited to engage with your teen’s school to determine how CYL can help bring the unique value of our program to help them meet their objectives. Contact us and find out more about these unique team-building days.
My teen is not really interested in outdoor adventures like hiking and skiing. Is CYL the right place for them?
We can’t give you an answer to that question until they come and check us out. However, our dynamic community of teens thrives by embracing a diversity of interests and viewpoints. Plus, our robust program strives to guide students in their passions no matter where they lead. While we try to build outdoor adventure into many of the things we do, we truly believe that any student will find amazing opportunities and create lasting friendships by being a member of Colorado Young Leaders.
*Didn’t see your pressing question up there? Shoot us an email and we’ll be in touch as soon as possible.