Blog

Spirit of Community, Youth Service and COVID-19

Thursday, April 2, 2020

To honorees, alumni, parents and program partners across the country:

What a few weeks it’s been. The Spirit of Community teams at Prudential and NASSP have been thinking of you in these tumultuous times, and hope that you and your loved ones are healthy and safe.

COVID-19 has upended many lives – from cancelling school and so many events, to closing businesses and straining our health care infrastructure. While this period of closures and social distancing affects each of us in different ways, the common thread is disruption and uncertainty about the weeks ahead, for ourselves and for the communities where we live and serve.

Meet the State Honorees: Caring for Animals and the Environment

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Meet some 2020 honorees looking out for the planet and its four-legged inhabitants.

When the simplest gifts make the most profound difference

Friday, December 27, 2019

Disheveled, tattered clothes, worn-out shoes and no backpack. Some kids saw a target — someone to pick on. Hannah Karanick saw a boy who needed help.

Hannah told her parents about the boy in her school. They soon learned he and his mother were living out of their car. Her family offered to help and took the boy in for a year while his mother got back on her feet. While the boy lived with them, Hannah watched him become a new person.

A gift for giving

Monday, December 23, 2019

The holidays were rapidly approaching when Alexander’s baby brother, Benjamin, was again admitted into Levine Children’s hospital because of a severe fever. Weeklong stints in the hospital were becoming normal for the young family. Alexander was a regular visitor. Caring and outgoing, he bonded with hospital staff. His favorite holiday was Christmas, and as it drew near, Alexander asked when the patients went home for the holidays. He was shocked to learn that most didn’t. Saddened by how many children underwent treatment, each one became another reason for him to take action.

How one student had the StAMINA to create a mental health revolution in her state

Friday, December 20, 2019

Things changed in middle school. Stress, depression and substance abuse were becoming commonplace. Allison Tu saw it so clearly. Couldn’t the parents and teachers? Maybe they thought it was classic teenage angst, hormones or a flair for the dramatic. But mental health issues for youth throughout Kentucky were all too real. One student took their own life in sixth grade, then another freshman year.