President's Volunteer Service Award Related FAQs (moved from old website)

About President's Volunteer Service Award, what is it? SFVCCA has just been approved as  an official Certified Organization for the President's Volunteer Service Award on Sep 9th, 2019. visit:  https://www.presidentialserviceawards.gov/eligibility#organizations if you want to know more about this national award.

How can students receive this award?  We apply this award for qualified youth group members who are us citizen/greencard holder and accumulated enough hours (within 0730 last year to 0801 current year) in August each year. This award will be passed in our annual meeting in September. 

How many hours is required for this award? Hours Required to Earn Awards in Each Age Group Age Group                    Bronze                      Silver                   Gold  Teens (11–15)              50–74 hours            75–99 hours        100+ hours Young Adults (16–25) 100–174 hours       175–249 hours    250+ hours   Adults (26+)                  100–249 hours       250–499 hours    500+ hours More detail can be found at Volunteer section and in President Volunteer Service Award PDF file.  ​​ ----------------------------- I am in between 15 and 16. Which age group fits me when I apply for this award? If you are in between 15 and 16 in the year (within 0801 last year to 0731 current year) we apply for the award,  it depends on your birth month to see which category you will fall in.  If your birth month falls in the 0801 last year till 1231 last year, you will be in the Young Adult age group. Otherwise you will be in the teens age group.  From PVSA: "The age category is determined by the age the person was for at least 7 months within the calendar year.  For example, if the person was 16 for 7 months within the year in question, that person would qualify within the 16-25 age group. " ​

How can I accumulate community service hours? If you would like to apply different awards offered by SFVCCA youth group, please follow the steps at http://www.sfvcca.org/volunteers.html to record the community service hours you have accumulated with different organizations.  The following community service activities are highly recommended: 

• Be the little teacher over zoom for the kids in our community

• Host a student interview or workshop over zoom

• Be a student volunteer at CACAYC,  SFVCCA Chinese school and Youth Group

• Organize a group of students and do community service with our associate partners Youth Group Community Service Program Partners List Please find an adult supervisor to sign  community_service_verification_form.pdf , and submit it to our gmail account ygvolunteerhours&gmail.com. ​​

Can School Club Hours be counted as community service hours? It depends.  Per the Eligible Service defined by https://www.presidentialserviceawards.gov/eligibility : Unpaid acts of volunteer service benefitting others, the following examples are countable as community service hours: 

• Alex is a member of school robotic team. Each week he spend hours at training, team meeting and contest. These hours are not counted as community service hours.  He lead the team to a couple of out reaching program and work with a local team to promote Robotic concept with local kids. These hours are counted as community service hours. 

• Angela joined an Art club in her school. She promoted a covid-19 related art project within this club. All hours related with this project are counted as  community service hours. 

• Richard is a member of Chess club. Chess club meet every day to play chess. These hours are not counted as community service hours.  He also teaches little kids via the club out reaching program. These hours are counted as community service hours. 

• American Cancer Society club hours are counted as community service hours.  ​ NOTE: Only club supervisor teacher can sign the community service hour form (form provided by school or use our form), Youth Group advisor can't sign these hours for you.  If you have question, please ask our student team (Richard or Arthur) via discord student group or contact Holly Wang / Luyi li. 

Within Youth Group, what kind of activities could be counted as community service? Community service hours are offered to: student who hosted an interview/workshop/presentation or has been teach over the zoom during Safer at Home time period; student who can lead a project;  students who join the service team (security team/cleaning team/tech support team/security team); students who worked on a task assigned by the board. Students are encouraged to submit project proposals to the board before launch any new project, and provide summary after launch the project. 

Can parent's service hours be passed to students? No. Adult community service hours is recorded separately from students. We highly recommend that parents to encourage students to accumulate community service hours under your guide, instead of passing the service hours to them. We emphasize the responsibility, consistency and other characteristics that the students will build up through community services, instead of just the service hours. 

I don't live in San Fernando Valley, can my kid apply for this president award through youth group?  SFVCCA service area doesn't limit within San Fernando valley, so does Youth Group. Yes, every family is welcomed to join SFVCCA as a member, and students in your family are qualified to apply for this award once they accumulated enough hours. 

How often should I submit my community service hours? 

• Keep an excel sheet locally to record all your community service activities
  

• Submit community service hours PDF files once per month, following the steps at http://www.sfvcca.org/volunteers.html Please try to avoid submit service hours in the end of each year before we apply community service hour award. 

Can adult receive this award and can elementary kid receive it as while?  Yes.  For elementary students, as we have limited resources, we currently only apply this award for outstanding kids. Please contact Holly Wang or Luyi Li directly. ​

Do you have an example files for submitting to your service hour tracking gmail system?  Yes, we do. See examples. 

yuying_7_hours_services_with_youth_group.pdf

Download File

andiecommunityhoursselfrecord.xlsx

Download File

Other FAQs

There is a local Chinese high school student branch under CACA, what is the differences between your Youth Group and CACAYC?  CACAYC has a local youth branch which meet once per month, in a local church with the generous offering of room usage by the church. They offer variety field trips/leadership training and other opportunities mainly to independent high school students. ​ The differences between our Youth Group and CACA Youth branch can be summarized as following:  1. On Site:  SFVCCA Youth Group is a subgroup under SFVCCA, with a couple of field trips under discussion, most of our activities with be onsite at 8224 Yolanda ave.  2. Broader Membership: Not only we open to local high school students, Youth Group membership also open to middle school students, and also to college students.  3. Family and Community Oriented:  The activities that we designed will be family and community oriented. We would like to have parents/grandparents to come together to join our activities by designed bond activities, so that youth group can functions like a glue for the communities.  4. Culture, Fun and Entertainment: Besides offering serious topic in parents education series, most of our activities are culture related. Fun and entertainment is the main goal especially for our core activity. For example: happy hour offered once per week to the community.  Youth Group started up with the strong support from CACA Youth branch, a lot of local high school students will be members for both groups. We share a lot of values in common. We will work closely on multiple activities (parent lecture, happy hour and leadership training). As we will attract more high school students to our youth group, we hope to help CACA youth branch develop more members and both our programs can be successful at the same time. 

How can student join the member and the student board?  All students are welcomed to join our youth group member starting from middle school six grade and 11 years old.  Students board is open mainly to high school student club president/leaders. We recommend  middle school student to involve in the activities lead by parents or senior students. Students board also open to selected middle school students who can take responsibilities and lead a team/project. 

Will there be any awards for international students as they are not qualified to apply for President community service award? Yes, international students are qualified for community service hours award we passed in Sep, and also the student group/club awards.