WASHINGTON – (June 6, 2007) – Socially-conscience people between the ages of 12 and 20-years-old are encouraged to apply for micro-grants of up to $1,000 from the YSA Youth Venture Program to create sustainable social ventures. An AmeriCorps VISTA program, the YSA Youth Venture Program's mission is to provide funding and resources to young people to lead socially-conscience campaigns that are a lasting asset to their communities. YSA Youth Venture teams are required to plan a Global Youth Service Day project on April 25-27, 2008, and will receive resources from Youth Service America and Youth Venture, the leading organizations in the youth service movement. The application deadline is August 13, 2007.

For more information about the YSA Youth Venture Program micro-grants, please go to: http://www.genv.net/en-us/region/ysa

Youth Service America is national resource center that partners with thousands of organizations committed to increasing the quality and quantity of volunteer opportunities for young people, ages 5-25, to serve locally, nationally, and globally. Founded in 1986, YSA's mission is to expand the impact of the youth service movement with communities, schools, corporations, and governments. In addition to Global Youth Service Day, which takes place every April in more than 115 countries, YSA also hosts servenet (www.servenet.org), providing the largest database of volunteer opportunities in America. For more information, visit: www.YSA.org

About Youth Venture: By inspiring and investing in teams of young people to start their own social ventures, Youth Venture is working to build a powerful network of young changemakers around the world. Youth Venture provides coaching, resources, and seed funding for young people ages 12-20 to create, launch, and lead sustainable community-benefitin g ventures. We believe this will catalyze a cultural sea change, transforming a generation of young people into capable leaders of social change - leading to a world of Everyone a Changemaker. Youth Venture was founded in 1996 by Ashoka. For more information: www.genv.net

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MEDIA CONTACT:
Christina Wessell Batcheler
Youth Service America
202-296-2992 x 128
cwessell@ysa.org
http://www.YSA.org
http://www.servenet.org

Join Us:
*The 20th annual Global Youth Service Day events in the United States take place April 25-27, 2008 - www.YSA.org/NYSD

*Internationally, Global Youth Service Day events take place in more than 115 countries April 25-27, 2008 - www.GYSD.org