Introduction

I first became interested in youth service in 1985, when I took a job as a team leader in New York's year-old City Volunteer Corps. I was looking for a way to do something about urban needs, and I wasn't qualified to teach or to be a social worker. I liked the idea of challenging young people to help, rather than counseling them to change. Leading youths in community service didn't require a graduate degree, and it would allow me to contribute, to learn, and to be with teenagers every day.