Maureen Rubin, director of CSUN’s Center for Community Service-Learning will present on Friday, Aug. 5 along with Jennifer Roman, project coordinator for MOSAIC, a program sponsored by the Center, and Northridge psychology junior Veronika Gilliand, a MOSAIC mentor.

The Northridge representatives were invited to the conference based on the success of the community service-learning program MOSAIC (Mentoring to Overcome Struggles and Inspire Courage), which partners with the Los Angeles Police Department and the Jeopardy Foundation to support after-school gang prevention programs in the San Fernando Valley.

The presentation, “Best Practices for Engaging and Empowering Community Youth for Life Success,” will demonstrate how college students and community volunteers can empower young people for success through leadership training, character education, self-esteem development and academic success.

The goal of the presentation is to raise community awareness about empowering youth, to get company support and to educate people that they can get involved in the community, Rubin said.

Conference attendees will learn to identify critical elements for success with at-risk youth in school-based and after-school programs; to work with universities, community resources and local businesses to strengthen such programs; and how to incorporate leadership training, character education, self-esteem development and tutoring and mentoring to empower youth and change their lives.

“It’s really about giving the youth a purpose,” Rubin said. Through these volunteering and community service programs, “the youth start thinking about what they can do to help the community. They learn to become caregivers instead of care receivers. The goal is to try to empower them to believe that they can make a difference in the community.”

Northridge’s Center for Community Service-Learning will be co-presenting with Champions of Caring, a Philadelphia-based student service-learning nonprofit organization.

The National Conference on Volunteer and Service is the nation’s largest annual gathering on volunteering which reaches out to the leaders, thinkers, and doers from the world of volunteering and national service. The conference is sponsored by Learn and Serve America and the Points of Life Foundation, a foundation started by former President George H. Bush and former Secretary of State Colin Powell that spearheaded the movement to get large corporations to get involved within the community.