AISTIPHI CHANGEMAKERS COMMUNITY

Senior High, Technical/Vocational, Other

The Aistiphi Changemakers is a permanent program designed to encourage community service leadership among youths in Ghana’s senior high schools, technical/vocational institutes and other second-cycle schools. The Aistiphi Changemakers program is premised on the understanding that youth community service provides an outlet for young people to express their creativity and dynamism and channel their vibrant energies and skills towards supporting social causes and addressing social problems.

AISTIPHI believes youth community service is critical to a well-rounded education, character formation and leadership preparation. Each school year, registered members take on an annual challenge to complete at least one community service initiative and report the completed project to AISTIPHI in real time for publication in the Aistiphi Gazette. Members earn lifetime Community Leadership Credit Points for each project submitted. Eligible projects must support positive social causes or help address social-economic and environmental problems.

WHAT IS YOUTH COMMUNITY SERVICE PROJECT?

The Aistiphi Changemakers views ‘community service’ as any student-centered initiative through which teens and young adults give back to make society better. Youth community service provides memorable experiential learning opportunities for youths to  develop the values of empathy, kindness, solidarity, cultural sensitivity, social responsibility and servant leadership while building skills in team work and problem-solving. Recent initiatives reported by schools include support for orphanages, clean-up and sanitation campaigns, donation to prisons and fundraising to support child cancer care and heart surgeries. We encourage all members to be creative and pursue reasonable projects that can be accomplished with limited resources, but which provide rich experiences for students. The goal is to impact others and while getting rich learning experiences in do so.

WHO CAN BECOME A MEMBER?

The Aistiphi Changemakers Community is organization-based, which means a single individual cannot become a member, only a school or an student organization can become a member. The Aistiphi Changemakers has two membership types: General School Membership and Independent Membership.

1. A General School Membership is registered and held by school authorities for the school community as a whole
2. An Independent Membership registered and held by a heads of a subunit of a school (e.g., a school department or faculty) or by leaders of student-led organizations (e.g., clubs/societies, student governments, resident houses and halls, etc.)

A participating school may have a General School Membership only or a combination of a General School Membership and several Independent Memberships running concurrently. We recommend a ‘General-School-Membership-only’ option because it serves all entities within a Member School and unifies all community service accomplishments under one official umbrella. We are also mindful that creative and energetic young students need free space to invent themselves that is devoid of excessive supervision and control. Therefore, we provided the Independent Membership to give students another option to participate in Philanthropy Space in circumstances where the General School Membership may not be favorable.

WHO CAN REGISTER A MEMBER?

• General School Membership: Only a duly authorized officer in senior management or senior teaching staff position can register a General Member account for a school. There are no exceptions to this requirement.
• Independent Membership: Only a duly authorized officer of a subunit of a school can register an account for a subunit. Examples include head of departments, SRC presidents (or similar others), school prefects, heads/presidents of clubs and societies, house/section prefects, etc.
• AISTIPHI’s standard communication with members is via e-mail. To ensure reliable contacts, we require officers charged with registering member accounts to use reliable official e-mails of the entities they are registering, not personal e-mail accounts. For Independent Membership, we require that e-mails used be accessible to other leaders of the subunit and transferrable to future leaders after the current leaders complete school or leave.

STEPS TO REGISTER

1.  Nominate a duly authorized officer of your school or school subunit to serve in the role of Aistiphi Community Liaison (ACL). Your ACL will be the go-to person for AISTIPHI, and the recognized officer in charge of registering and managing your membership account.
2. Your ACL begins the initial registration process online using this link.
3. AISTIPHI contacts your ACL to obtain relevant information to verify and ensure the integrity of the account.
4. Once our verification is complete, you will be required to pay your annual member subscription of $5 for General School Members and $1 for Independent Members.

AFTER YOU BECOME A MEMBER

• We publish your social outreach and community service in real time in the Aistiphi Gazette, our national magazine of Philanthropy and Development Engagement. You earn lifetime credit points for each approved and published entry.
• We document your Gazette entries as permanent, searchable, historical records so you and your future children can see in the years to come what you did in your school years.
• You join a community of elite schools and students entities who are actively giving back to help make Ghana a better place.
• We feature  your unique member profile online in the Aistiphi Directory of Community Service. Your unique profile page holds a running record of all your community service initiatives accomplished over time. Anyone can look you up in the Aistiphi Directory and see your accomplishments.
• You proudly become part of Our Commonwealth of Goodwill that includes businesses, international partners, alumni, NGOs, professionals, citizens abroad, celebrities, religious bodies, etc. – all of whom are contributing to Ghana’s prosperity.
• You are eligible to participate in programs, services and events of Aistiphi including our jamboree, philanthropy report, annual awards, media moments and several others.

AISTIPHI COLLEGIATE COMMUNITY

Universities, Higher Ed Institutions

The Aistiphi Collegiate Community is a program designed to encourage community service leadership among students in universities and other tertiary higher ed institutions. The program recognizes that university students have the knowledge, innovation and leadership skills that could be instrumental in helping address challenges in Ghana’s communities and institutions.

As part of students’ higher ed experience, the program challenges students to undertake at least one major community service project every school year and report the completed initiative to AISTIPHI for publication in the Aistiphi Gazette. Members earn lifetime Community Service Leadership Credit Points for each eligible project completed and reported.

WHAT IS COMMUNITY SERVICE?

The Aistiphi Collegiate Community defines community service as a focused volutary initiative undertaken by tertiary students to address specific challenges in communities and institutions and support for positive social and environmental causes. University students typically undertake community service initiatives to mark special occasions such as anniversaries, hall week celebrations and other special occasions. The Aistiphi Collegiate Community program formalizes and popularizes this practice through providing incentives to encourage and sustain the culture of giving back. Recent initiatives reported include assisting schools in underserved rural communities, mentoring and personal development support for girls, public health education outreach and free screening for diseases, clean-up and sanitation campaigns, donating blood to stock blood banks, and disaster response iniatives, etc.

WHO CAN BECOME A MEMBER? 

Membership is open to Universities as corporate entities and student-led organizations.

• Corporate Membership: Universities are eligible to join in their capacities as Corporate bodies. The community service initiatives reported by Corporate University Members are akin to CSR initiatives reported by businesses. These initatives may or may not involve the participation of students.
• Student-led Organization Membership: Eligible members include student organizations at the universitywide, school, college, institute, department or faculty levels, JCRs, halls/hostels, student clubs and societies, SRCs/student governments and other campus-based student entities. By joining the Aistiphi Collegiate Community, Student-led Organizations commit to honor the yearly community service challenge and pass on the legacy to their future student membership.

WHO CAN REGISTER A MEMBER?

• Only University administrators may register a coporate member account for a university.
• Only duly authorized leaders of student organizations may register a member account for their organizations. Examples of duly authorized leaders include are organizational presidents, vice-presidents, secretaries, commissioners, chairpersons and PROs and similar executive team members.
• Individual cannot register to join the membership of the Aistiphi Collegiate Community. Membership is organization-based, which means only organizations can register to join.
• AISTIPHI’s standard communication with members is via e-mail. To ensure reliable contacts, we require officers charged with registering member accounts to use reliable official e-mails of the entities they are registering, not personal e-mail accounts. For Student Organization Members, we require that e-mails used be accessible to other leaders of the organization/group and transferrable to future leaders after the current leaders complete school or leave.

STEPS TO REGISTER

1.  Your organization nominates a duly authorized individual in your organization to serve as its Aistiphi Community Liaison (ACL). Your ACL is the go-to person for AISTIPHI, and the recognized officer in charge of registering and managing your membership account.
2. Your ACL proceeds to begin the initial registration process online using this link.
3. AISTIPHI contacts your ACL to obtain relevant information to verify and ensure the integrity of the account.
4. Once our verification is complete, you will be required to pay your annual member subscription. Subscription for Corporate University Members is $8.50 a month, payable annually at $100. Student organizations pay $1 per year.

AFTER YOU BECOME A MEMBER

• You can begin submitting your completed community service initiatives in real time to AISTIPHI for publication in the Aistiphi Gazette, our online magazine for Philanthropy and Development Engagement.
• We document, share and preserve all your submissions as permanent, searchable, online historical records for present and future generations.
• We feature  your member profile online in the Aistiphi Directory of Community Service. Your profile holds all your community service projects accomplished over time.
• You become a proud member of Our Commonwealth of Goodwill, which includes businesses, international partners, alumni, NGOs, professionals, citizens abroad, celebrities, religious bodies, etc. – all of whom are contributing to Ghana’s prosperity.
• You are eligible to participate in programs, services and events of Aistiphi including our jamboree, philanthropy report, annual awards, media events and several others.