The Assistance League is a nationwide, nonprofit organization, composed of people of all ages, willing to volunteer and help out in their community. It was first formed in 1919 and has become a national operation focused on giving back to the community. They do projects like Operation School Bell, Kuddles for Kids, and Jeans for Teens.

Asisteens is the youth branch of the Assistance League. Young men and women from grades 9-12 are able to be a part of Asisteens. Liana Neyer, a former Asisteen in the 80s, has been volunteering for Asisteens as the coordinator for 3 years.

“I serve as the link between the Assistance League and the Asisteens,” Liana Neyer said. “I oversee the registrations of the Asisteens and their meetings, the budget, everything that has to do with Asisteens, I report that to the Assistance League.”

Teens can also have jobs in Asisteens. Emilia Neyer is a senior at San Dieguito Academy, and this year she is the chair of Asisteens, but she has also previously been the education chair.

“I organize a lot of the meetings and volunteer opportunities,” Emilia Neyer said. “I help create the agenda and I send messages out to other Asisteens.”

They find ways to be of service to their community by volunteering at the Assistance League thrift store, and food pantries, like Feeding San Diego. Asisteens offers many different types of volunteer opportunities, and each one brings an excellent chance to learn new skills.

“We’ve done feeding San Diego,” Liana Neyer said. “There’s something called the Saint Andrews food pantry, where once a week they get leftover groceries from supermarkets, and you give out the food to food-insecure people…and typically we do Fill-A-Belly. The assistance league, their big philanthropy project is called operation school bell. Where they raise a lot of money and give it to underserved people in the community. The underserved people go to Target, and we help out at Target, and we each get 70 or 80 dollars per child to spend on new school clothes.”

Becoming a part of Asisteens is also a great way to earn volunteer hours. Joining the organization can help obtain new leadership skills, and become more connected in the community.

“I really like helping out in my community,” Emilia Neyer said. “I knew that for high school it’s important to get community service hours, and I also just wanted to feel like I was doing something productive with my time and impacting others instead of just benefiting myself.”