About Y'ALL
The Beginning | Growth and Expansion | IUPUI Chapter | Mission | Purpose & Structure | Commitment to DiversityBackground
The Beginning - Indiana University, Fall 2005
After Hurricane Katrina made landfall in August of 2005, many people wanted to help those affected by the storm, but were unsure of how to do so. Seeing this wealth of volunteer spirit, a handful of students at Indiana University independently decided to find ways to mobilize interested volunteers to the coast. In December 2005, these student leaders took 200 volunteers on Y’ALL’s first relief trip to Pass Christian, Mississippi. The trip was a huge success, and was noted by officials in the gulf region as being the largest group of volunteers to ever travel down and work together in the post-Katrina recovery efforts. As word of the first trip spread, the Y’ALL organizers were unable to stem the tide of new, interested volunteers, and many of the original trip-goers had a pressing desire to return to the coast. Therefore, Y’ALL was born at IU to harness this passion for volunteerism and to continue serving those in need along the gulf coast.
Growth and Expansion
The organization quickly grew and garnered enormous support from student and university officials. In spring 2006, Y’ALL received the IU Dean of Students Award for New Organizations. Furthermore, along with the tremendous growth at IU, the organization began to expand its services to students outside of the IU community. By fall 2007, new Y'ALL chapters had been established at Purdue University and IUPUI (Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis). As a whole, the three Y’ALL chapters have sent over 1,000 student volunteers to the gulf region. These volunteers have provided more than 40,000 hours of work, which amounts to over $500,000 in manual labor.
IUPUI Chapter
The Y’ALL chapter at IUPUI was established in Fall 2007. The leaders of the IUPUI chapter have organized and led multiple trips to New Orleans during the past two years. In December 2007, 46 students traveled to New Orleans on the first IUPUI trip. In May 2008, 33 students participated on a second trip. Then, this past winter break (December 2008), 39 IUPUI students traveled back to New Orleans, marking the third trip in the chapter’s short two year history. Prior to these Y’ALL trips, the university had never seen a service trip of more than15 students. Therefore, the Y’ALL organization has significantly expanded the service opportunities for IUPUI students.
On these trips, IUPUI students participated in variety of basic manual labor – gutting homes, debris removal, dry walling, insulating, painting, flooring, roofing, etc. Along with the enormous physical support that Y’ALL has brought to Katrina victims, student volunteers have also provided tremendous emotional support to those directly affected by the storm. Y’ALL continues to be a sign to Katrina victims that many of their fellow Americans have not forgotten about them.
Mission
Y’ALL’s mission is to develop a co-beneficiary relationship between those living in great need due to a disaster and the members of Y’ALL. Y’ALL accomplishes this by facilitating student-led disaster relief trips to provide physical and emotional support for those living in great need, while instilling leadership skills and a sense of altruism in all members of the organization through its service and standards of excellence. Y’ALL strives to assist members and utilize their learned skills to collaborate with other student/community groups to educate about the need for youth-driven service at the local and national levels. While currently amidst a 5-year commitment to the gulf coast, Y’ALL possesses the leaders, volunteers, and resources necessary to respond to future disasters.
Purpose & Structure
Student leadership and service development are primary aims of Y’ALL. Y’ALL encourages participants to interact with hurricane victims to gain a better understanding of the community they are serving. Witnessing and experiencing a disaster-ravaged environment is a humbling and often overwhelming experience for many volunteers. Some students are moved to tears when they see the vast devastation that remains and speak to survivors. This eye-opening experience often prompts students to reflect upon their own lives. Upon return, many students describe the experience as “life-changing,” reporting that seeing the day-to-day struggles of victims gave them a new perspective on their own lives, and motivated them to pursue more service work. This deeply personal response to service is a key part of the “Y’ALL experience.”
Y’ALL is a unique organization, in that it serves, and in essence unites two otherwise unconnected communities (college students and hurricane victims). Furthermore, Y’ALL’s student-driven structure contributes greatly to its success and growth by providing many opportunities for student leadership and initiative. Each Y’ALL chapter is headed by a five officer executive committee which coordinates and administers the trips. These students are responsible for a fiscal budget of $30,000-$60,000+ per year (each chapter is different) and organize an estimated 100-300+ volunteers (again, each chapter is different), and their duties expose them to the day-to-day business of non-profit operations. Additionally, there are 6-7 group leaders on each trip. Trained before the trip, each leader is responsible for the management and safety of 8-10 volunteers while on the trip. Finally, the work environment facilitates the independent development of leadership skills in all members, simply by allowing volunteers to teach and assist each other on the job. With these three tiers of involvement, every student who volunteers has the chance to further develop his or her leadership skills. It is here that the organization, "Youth Advocating Leadership and Learning" earns its name, as Y’ALL encourages students to learn much needed leadership skills in a unique environment while serving the national community.
Commitment to Diversity
The size and nature of each university allows Y’ALL to draw from a diverse pool of students. Given the great need for volunteers, Y'ALL strives to take students from all walks of life and provide them the opportunity to enhance their leadership potential while helping others. The dual purpose of this is to firstly utilize any person willing to volunteer their time for the benefit of hurricane victims. Then, as an ongoing project, the natural diversity of our volunteer groups facilitates in cross-cultural interaction through the simply medium of teamwork on the job. Realizing this as an important part of the organization, Y’ALL at IU has recently partnered with the IU Office of Diversity Education. This partnership has given Y’ALL opportunities like having volunteers spend an evening talking with students from Dillard University in New Orleans on the May 2007 trip. Dialogues like this have been fun and tremendously educational for Y’ALL volunteers, allowing them better perspective of the diverse world in which we live.