Daybreak Rotarians share a deep commitment to youth: both in our community and internationally. We do that by supporting the following initiatives:

• Rotaract
• Interact
• P.A.R.T.Y. Program
• International Youth Exchange
• RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Award)
• $1,000 scholarships to high school students through the Nanaimo Ladysmith Schools Foundation
• Local support for child & youth work being done by local organizations
• International support for child and work done abroad

Rotaract

Rotaract strives to provide volunteering, learning, and fellowship opportunities, whether in their own community or abroad. Taken from Rotary International: “do you want to be part of a global community of young adults taking action for positive change? Are you looking for the chance to share your ideas and look at the world’s challenges in a new way? Join a Rotaract club and find all this and more, including:

• Hands-on service projects
• Fun networking and social activities
• Professional development opportunities
• An international network of young leaders”

Worldwide membership totals over 184,000 in more than 8,000 clubs worldwide. Rotaract clubs are self-governing and self-supporting and can be either university or community based. Individual Rotary clubs sponsor Rotaract clubs and offer guidance and support, making the Rotaract clubs true “partners in service” and key members of the Rotary family. Our club is very lucky in that we have not one or two, but five Rotary Clubs that sponsor us.

The Rotaract Club of Nanaimo is a service club for young adults and is a registered student club with the Vancouver Island University Students’ Union. The club is currently made up of students and non-students alike, between the ages of 18 and 30. The club meets on Monday @ 5 pm- 6 pm in the VIU Residence – Cedar Centre Board Room, 4 University Crescent, Nanaimo, BC. Yearly they attend BIG WEST where all rotaracts come together.

https://www.facebook.com/RotaractClubofNanaimo

Interact

Interact is a club for young people ages 12-18 who want to join together to tackle the issues in their community that they care most about. Through Interact, you can:

• Carry out hands-on service projects
• Make international connections
• Develop leadership skills
• Have fun!

Every Interact club carries out two service projects a year: one that helps your school or community and one that promotes international understanding.

Service projects are an effective way for you to take action at home and abroad, connect with other young leaders, and get members excited about your club. You can find ideas and tips for successful projects in the Interact Handbook.

Interact clubs meet at least twice a month. Contact the club to find out about its next meeting, service project, or social event.

If you want to learn more about Interact, watch “Students Making a Difference,” the 2012 Interact Video Contest grand-prize winner, or any of the other entries to see how young people, like you, are changing the world through Interact.

P.A.R.T.Y. Program

We also support the Nanaimo Regional General Hospital ‘Prevent Alcohol and Related Trauma to Youth.’ (P.A.R.T.Y.) program me both financially and in leadership.  P.A.R.T.Y. provides Central Vancouver Island grade 10 students a tour of our hospital to gain first-hand experience and participation with the consequences of their decisions.

P.A.R.T.Y. is an interactive education program that exposes teens to a series of events:

• listening to a presentation by Emergency Room Doctor with cause and affect of illicit drugs and alcohol,
• viewing a crashed vehicle showing possible impact to the crash victim and the tasks of first responders at the crash scene,
• seeing simulated patient care in the hospital trauma room,
• experiencing different situations in patient’s rehabilitation,
• learning the details of an autopsy,
• watching a police supervised film with a series of bad decisions resulting in a crash and discussion of possible solutions,
• hearing a personal story of a peer impacted by alcohol and a crash;

Island Health provides the venue. Volunteers from BC Ambulance Service, NRGH trauma nurses and doctors, RCMP Officers, Daybreak Rotarians and others community volunteers deliver the Central Island P.A.R.T.Y. Program and escort the students to the different venues.

For more information on the P.A.R.T.Y. Program visit their website at http://partyprogram.com/

International Youth Exchange

Rotary Youth Exchange is the opportunity of a lifetime for the more than 8,000 students who participate each year. By sharing your own culture and embracing a new one, you help foster global understanding—and learn a great deal about yourself and your home country in the process.

Youth Exchange is a study-abroad opportunity for young people who spend anywhere from a few weeks to a full year as an international student hosted by local Rotary clubs.

https://www.rotary.org/en/our-programs/youth-exchanges

RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Award)

Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) is a leadership development program run by Rotary. While participants can be any age, most events focus on secondary school students, university students, or young professionals. RYLA events are typically 3–10 days long and include presentations, activities, and workshops that cover a variety of topics, including:

• Leadership fundamentals and ethics
• Communication skills
• Problem solving and conflict management
• Community and global citizenship

http://rylanw.org/

$1,000 Scholarships to Local Students

Each year Daybreak contributes to high school students through the Nanaimo Ladysmith Schools Foundation. The $1,000 scholarships are:

• In memory of a past member Dennis Dusenbury – scholarship to an automotive student
• Chris Everett music bursary

Local Support – for child and youth programs

Locally, we focus our fundraising efforts from the annual Golf Tournament on :

• Nanaimo Youth Services
• Boys and Girls Club of Central Vancouver Island
• Nanaimo Child Development Centre

Our Texas Hold’em Poker events fund the:

• Mid-Island Centre for Abilities
• Telephone Visiting Society and their “Kids on the Block” youth education program me, an interactive stage performance which relates differing personal abilities.

Literacy Central Vancouver Island – four book donation drop boxes

• $50,000 a year raised to support literacy.

International Support for Child and Youth Organizations

International work is quite broad.  We’ve been supporting youth in other countries for years.  In Ghana we’ve worked with numerous schools and orphanages providing books, computers, latrines, wells, security fences, roofing, flooring, soccer balls, playground equipment, electricity, etc.  The most recent one is between Brechin School and Nwawsua Primary School in Ghana.

This work is done in conjunction with Vancouver Island University and Regional District of Nanaimo.

Our members are also involved with a Women’s Shelter and local projects assisting families with water, toilets and beds in the Lake Atitlan area of Guatemala. Our international goals are to develop sustainable projects that are wanted and needed by the local population.

Project example:  A WEEK IN THE LIFE OF A CANADIAN AND GHANAIAN STUDENT

The project is meant to link two elementary/primary schools in two countries (Brechin Elementary School in Nanaimo and Nwawasua Primary School in Nwawasua, Ghana). Each school will develop a leadership team of approximately 30 students to participate in documenting a week in the life of a Canadian and Ghanaian student.  The week will be recorded using digital cameras and video recorders.  The project will be over a regular school semester from January, 2016 to June, 2016.