Building an Online Youth Calendar

I call it digital gleaning.  The act of scouring the web and looking for stuff to add to the youth calendar.

It has lately been a goal of mine to be able to look at any given day in Lakewood and be able to see what is available for young people to do.  This is one way of looking at the 2nd of America's Promises - Safe Places - the idea that a community committed to quality activities for its young people would have a plethora of offerings to meet those diverse needs.

So, I put together an online calendar for Lakewood's Promise to do just that.  You can find it here.

I wanted the calendar to be a lot of things. First, I wanted ONE PLACE, where folks could go to find programs for young people without having to bounce from site to site.  I wanted it robust enough to handle lots of events.  But mostly I hoped that those who offer those quality programs would take the time to add them to the calendar.  Some do while others wait for me to do my occasional "digital gleaning".  This is OK but I realize that many youth activities are not on the web and to me, this is sad.

So here is a challenge.  Please, if you are a provider of any kind of positive youth activity, or you know of activities not listed on the calendar, please take time to add them.  I moderate all activities to make sure that they are appropriate, (Sorry - your beer bash will not be listed) but anything is welcome from recreation to faith communities, sports opportunities to craft classes, clubs, scouts, and music lessons - add them to the calendar.

Here's to a city, one of the 100 Best Communites for Young People, with tons of stuff to do for kids to keep them safe.