DoSomething.org is a website that has a wealth of information on anything that could possibly interest an American teenager. Its content includes information about celebrity teen stars, volunteer opportunities, human rights movements, daily news bulletins, and much more. Just as the name suggests, Do Something urges teenagers to be active participants in the world. In addition, the organization lends a voice to various causes around the country and in the community.
Do Something challenges youth to act on the problems that face society as a whole, such as action and planning for schools to become more environmentally friendly, helping the homeless by donating used jeans, or sending letters, cards, or emails to support the troops overseas. It empowers youth to take action in a fun and interactive way. This website provides numerous ideas for action, ranging from something as simple as sending an email to something as complex as dedicating more extensive amounts of time and energy to larger projects of the teen’s choice. Whatever someone may choose to do, Do Something is a great resource to use to fulfill any community service requirements a student might need to graduate.
“What’s your thing?” is a tab on Do Something’s home page that lists 1 different areas of interest. There are three choices relating to schools: Discrimination, Education, and Violence and Bullying. For example, if someone is most interested in school violence, clicking on this link brings up a new page that lists options related to child abuse, cyberbullying, dating violence, gang violence, gun control, hate crimes, school violence, and violence against women. The Do Something website puts a wealth of knowledge about multiple subjects at the user’s fingertips in an instant. If the user selects school violence as an area of interest, for example, one statistic that would appear is the following: “In the same year, students ages 12-18 were the victims of about 628,200 violent crimes at school, including rape, aggravated assault, and robbery.” Do Something also gives students the tools they need to help put an end to bullying and harassment in schools. This is accomplished by not putting the student in harm’s way, but rather helping other students to not become a victim.
Probably one of the coolest things someone can do is to create his or her own Do Something Club. All that is needed is five friends who want to Do Something positive in their community or school. Groups complete a simple online application, and they have the flexibility to fix the problems that they see in and outside of a school environment with their own creativity. Do Something even provides grant money to support student projects. Do Something offers students a way to fulfill Mahatma Gandhi’s famous quote, “Be the change that you want to see in the world.”
Browse School Violence Research Topics or other Criminal Justice Research Topics.
References:
- Do Something: www.dosomething.org