Nicholas Lisle, a sophomore at Northern Illinois University, was recently place at the DeKalb County Youth Service Bureau (YSB) as the intern to Executive Director, Diana Hulst. YSB is a program for court ordered youth to devote volunteer hours to the community. A Public Administration and Community Leadership Civic Engagement double major, Lisle has worked on outreach in the form of newsletters, increasing the open rate since his tenure.
“Nick’s communication, organization, and technology skills are a great asset to YSB’s programs that serve at risk youth in DeKalb County,” states Hulst.
Lisle’s internship is the result of a collaboration with NIU’s Center for Non-Governmental Leadership and Development (NGOLD) and the DeKalb County Nonprofit Partnership (DCNP) through the generous support of the Doug and Lynn Roberts Family Foundation. The NGOLD-DCNP internship program provides NIU students a unique opportunity to connect with local organizations and make a lasting impact in the DeKalb community. At the same time, the program gives students like Lisle an avenue to advance their professional skills.
Lisle was also recently assigned to aid VolunTEEN Program Coordinator, Rene Burger. Evolving from YSB, VolunTEEN is now open to any teen interested in volunteering, while still accommodating those with court service hours to serve. Lisle works on building better relations between the youth group members and the surrounding community. In previous years, the VolunTEEN group has collaborated with the DeKalb County Community Gardens to help prepare soil, plant, provide art projects for the garden, maintain and harvest the garden, and finalize the preparation for the food to be sent to food banks serving elder-living locations, senior centers, low-income housing locations, day care facilities, community meal sites, schools, Hope Haven, and food pantries.