Project Care

Challenge:
Use your imagination and creativity to make our community a better place to live. You have what it takes to identify a problem, look into it, come up with an innovative solution and make a difference in Centre County!

Read the newspaper, listen to the news, talk to your family and friends. Ask them what they think are issues for people who live in Centre County. Community issues can deal with just about anything that affects people's daily lives.

Guidelines:

Step One - Build a team of 3 - 4 students who share a concern about one particular issue. A good team will have people with many different skills, interests, talents and experiences.

Step Two - Ask an adult to join your team as a coach. You need someone who can volunteer time to help your team organize meetings, help with transportation, help find community resources, and support you as you make a difference in the community.

Step Three - Do some research on possible solutions to the community issue you picked and think about how you can get the resources you need to make your idea work.

* Do you need people to volunteer?
* Do you have the materials you need?
* How can you get the people/things you need to make your idea work?
* Who are the people in Centre County who can give you advice about the issue? Contact community mentors who are experts or have an in your issue to talk about your ideas.

Step Four - Now it's time to make a plan. List the following:

1. The issue you are focusing on.
2. Your idea to solve the problem.
3. List of materials/resources you need. Plan of how you will get them.
4. List of materials/resources that you already have.
5. Steps to your plan.
6. How will you know if your plan is working.

Step Five - Post your information on the Project Care Volunteer Opportunities Web Site.

Step Six - Put your plan into action. If your solution doesn't work, don't give up ... brainstorm and test a new solution. Most problems have more than one solution.