How can my friend and I start a volunteer group for teens?

[The Kayster]

My friend(14) and I(15), want to start an organization for young teens (11-17ish) were we just do different types of volunteer work from helping kids in hospitals to cleaning trash off the sides of roads to walking dogs in an animal shelter. We want it to be for teenagers who are home alone a lot whether it is because their parents work very late or because their parents choose to not be with them. Or for teens who have been through a hard divorce or family issues. Just basically for lonely teens. We have 18 year old brothers who could drive and stuff, they have already offered, and parents that approve. How do we get started?

[Jack]

Dream big and don't let anyone pull you down. As a side note, as you engage in this adventure people will try to drag you down at every step. Many of the people who will say the most painful things will be those closest to you. Know that most of the people really do care about you and mean well. Some will be jealous. You just have to stay focused. In order to be focused you need to have a vision and a mission.

What is your vision? What is your mission? It can be very broad at this point, but what do you want to do? How do you want to do it?

This next part is extraordinarily important. Go out and visit places and organizations to gain ideas, get more focused vision, and most importantly to figure out what your passion is. You must have passion if you want to start something like this, so find out the best you can where that passion lies. Try out working in this capacity and make sure it is what you think it is. I know someone who watched too much JAG and became a lawyer. Now they work long hours for a cell phone company and barely see the inside of a court room, never mind the battlefields of Iraq.

Then dream some more. Work on your vision and your mission. Then start to develop a plan. Depending on your funding and how much you are able to do, you may decide to become your own non-profit organization. You might be able to (as your own organization) fit under the umbrella of another organization. Eventually as you get large enough, you'll have to incorporate, but the timing is different for everyone.

Try to make your plan flexible so that you can make changes as you learn more and fine tune your mission and vision.

Eventually you'll probably want to add more people to your organization. Networking is probably the best way to do this. If you can get a stage, great. If not, talk to people and let them know what you are doing. By the time you get in a place where you need marketing, you definitely won't need this response anymore.... Social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and others are also good tools for recruiting and looking for sponsors.

Finally, read. Read books and articles on non-profits, leadership, and any other subject that relates to your organization. At every stage of the game, read, read, read.

One of my favorite books, that could be helpful to you, is called Good to Great and is written by Jim Collins. The basic premise is that each person should find what they are best at and have the most passion for....then go after those things with every thing you have....to be great.
Source(s):
http://www.jimcollins.com