The mission of IMPACTPLUS is to help young people use technology to plan and implement service-learning projects and leverage their participation in civic life. IMPACTPLUS has achieved proven success since its launch in 2004, with YMCAs reporting outcomes of remarkable – and in some cases ground-breaking – community-building efforts.

At the heart of IMPACTPLUS is the belief that young people need 40 Developmental Assets — the essential building blocks necessary for their development into healthy adults. IMPACTPLUS gives participating YMCAs the opportunity to create meaningful youth and adult partnerships through which young people develop 21st Century skills. These skills include media, technology, video production, collaboration, effective writing, and critical thinking, and are developed in synergy with the skills nurtured through the YMCA’s proven approaches for promoting service-learning, civic engagement, diversity, and asset development. Through the application of these skills in a totally unique approach to community building, young people build assets in themselves and make significant contributions to their community. IMPACTPLUS is facilitated by YMCA of the USA and Mighty Media, Inc., and was developed through generous funding from the Corporation for National and Community Service, the Time Warner Foundation, and the Best Buy Children’s Foundation.

The IMPACTPLUS Process

IMPACTPLUS begins with Resource Mapping, a process through which young people use modern media and technology tools to create a shared understanding of their community and its resources. Ultimately, the process leads young people to create a web-based graphic representation of their community’s resources — a "resource map" — and share what they learned through a dedicated Web site designed and administered by them. Young people then develop and implement a plan for strengthening those resources through a service-learning project.

A distinguishing feature of IMPACTPLUS is the way in which it synergizes its priority areas – four proven approaches that have arisen from the work and passion of YMCAs:

• 1.Service-Learning—helping young people and adults gain knowledge and skills through participation in community service activities designed around specific learning objectives and intentional reflection.
• 2.Civic Engagement—helping young people become more connected to their communities as stakeholders and change agents.
• 3.Diversity —practicing inclusion by valuing the diversity of all people within YMCAs and the communities they serve.
• 4.Asset Development—providing young people with the support and experiences they need to become healthy, caring and competent adults.

IMPACPLUS integrates these approaches in tangible ways that amplify current YMCA activities and successes. To learn more about each of these approaches and available resources, visit www.ymcaexchange.org (User name: YMCA; Password: 9622).

Benefits of IMPACTPLUS

IMPACTPLUS has inspired and led participating YMCAs to facilitate extraordinary community-building efforts including:

• Identifying and strengthening resources and opportunities for various populations in the community—including teens, at-risk and disabled youth, and minorities—and the ways the community serves these populations.
• Creating a community resource center through which members of the community can become more civically engaged through service-learning activities.
• Leading the effort to create an asset-rich community by helping community members, schools, businesses, and organizations recognize how they can more intentionally promote the 40 Developmental Assets.

YMCAs that are participating in IMPACTPLUS have also reported the following specific outcomes of their efforts:

• Increased civic engagement among community members, especially young people.
• Positive change in the perception of young people in the community.
• Greater appreciation of the power of media and technology to do good.
• Ground-breaking collaborative relationships among community-serving agencies and organizations.
• Increased understanding and value of diversity.
• Greater appreciation of the YMCA mission and the ways in which the YMCA serves the community.