Amplifying National Service in Educational Settings: Tools, Best Practices, and Resources

Liberty Smith, Associate Director, National Service-Learning Clearinghouse &National Service Resources and Training

Erin Lee, Public Services LibrarianNational Service-Learning Clearinghouse &National Service Resources and Training

Tracey Seabolt, Program Coordinator, Learn and Serve America

Caitlin Lambert, AmeriCorps*VISTA,Ohio Campus Compact

Inese Alvarez, Director,RSVP of Summit County

“Preflection”

• How are you engaged in different forms of service in educational settings?

• What do you know about service-learning? • How do you think service-learning could

meaningfully support your work?

What Is Service-Learning?

Service-Learning is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates

meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the

learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen

communities.

How Does Service-Learning Differ from Community Service?

• When students remove trash from a streambed, they are providing a service to the community as volunteers

• However, when students remove trash from a streambed and:– analyze what they found– share the results and offer suggestions

for reducing pollution– reflect on their experience…that is service-learning

Five Core Components

• Investigation• Planning• Action• Reflection• Demonstration/Celebration

K-12 Standards for Quality Practice

These essential elements of a high-quality service experience are more likely to produce positive outcomes for students:

• Meaningful service• Link to curriculum• Reflection• Diversity• Youth voice• Partnerships• Progress monitoring• Duration and intensity

Reflection

• Effective reflection engages both service-learning leaders and participants in a process that consciously connects learning with experience. It is the use of critical thinking skills to prepare for and learn from service experiences.

• Reflection provides an opportunity for youth voice, as participants evaluate the service-learning experience with guidance from adults.

Youth Voice

• Youth voice refers to the ideas, opinions, involvement, and initiatives leadership of young people. In the context of service-learning, youth voice refers to the input young people provide in developing and implementing projects, plans, and policies to guide service-learning.

Progress Monitoring

• Service-learning engages participants in an ongoing process to assess the quality of implementation and progress toward meeting specified goals, and uses results for improvement and sustainability.

Benefits of Service-Learning for Students

Research has demonstrated that high quality service-learning:• Strengthens academic achievement,

school attendance, and classroom engagement

• Connects students to their communities• Reduces risky behaviors

Benefits of Service-Learning for Communities

Communities can: •View young people as valued resources,•Become more knowledgeable about school programs and needs, and•Have opportunities to publicly acknowledge the contributions of young people.

Mission Statement

The mission of the Corporation for National and Community Service is to improve lives, strengthen communities, and foster civic engagement through service and volunteering.

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Regional Campuses

Learn & Serve America

AmeriCorps

Senior Corps

Grants to:State Education Agencies (K-12) Higher Education InstitutionsCommunity-Based EntitiesTribes and US Territories

Foster Grandparents

RSVP

Senior Companions

State CommissionsNational Nonprofit Organizations

National Service-Learning Clearinghouse

AmeriCorpsState & NationalAmeriCorpsNCCC AmeriCorpsVISTA

Sponsoring Organizations

CNCS State Offices

CNCS State Offices

National Service Programs & Partners

Learn and Serve America

Our GoalsTo build the field of service-learning in schools, community-based organizations, and colleges and universities across the country.To enrich the service experiences of AmeriCorps and SeniorCorps members working in educational settings and enhance the educational experiences of the youth whose lives they touch.

Learn and Serve America Grant Program Structure

Learn and Serve America

Innovative and Community-Based Service-Learning and Researchnot less than 15%

School-Basednot less than 60%

Higher Educationnot more than 25%

Research and Evaluation

Summer of Service

Semester of Service

Youth Engagement Zones

STEM, Energy Conservation, Disaster Preparedness, Technology Access, Cross-Age Mentoring, Civic Education

Allotments to State Education AgenciesBased on school-age population and Title I allocations

2-3% Tribes & US Territories Set Aside

Grants to Individual Institutions and Higher Ed Consortia

Campuses of Service

Strategies for Transforming Service into Service-Learning

Caitlin Lambert

Ohio Campus Compact

AmeriCorps*VISTA

Lorain County Community College

Elyria, Ohio

Overview

• Context of OCC AmeriCorps*VISTA at LCCC• Role as Service-Learning AmeriCorps*VISTA

– Curricular Service-Learning– Co-curricular Service-Learning

• The benefits of connecting AmeriCorps*VISTA service with service-learning

• Resources• Pictures

OCC AmeriCorps*VISTA at LCCC

• AmeriCorps*VISTA• Fight poverty

• Ohio Campus Compact (OCC)• Increase civic engagement on campuses

• Lorain County Community College (LCCC)• First AmeriCorps*VISTA on site• Service-learning focus• Poverty alleviation focus: food access

• LCCC Service-Learning• AACC – No Child Left Inside• Service-Learning team

Role as Service-Learning AmeriCorps*VISTA

• Everything service-learning & civic engagement – Program management– Grant development– Marketing/Communications– Etc!

• Building capacity for:– Curricular service-learning– Co-curricular service-

learning

Curricular Service-Learning

• Students– Service-Learning I– Examples of curricular service-learning:

• No Child Left Inside• Youth Service America UnitedHealth

HEROES Grant• Faculty

– Lunch and Learns– Meet and Greets

• Community Partners– Identified community need

• Wish list

Co-Curricular Service-Learning

• Day in the Garden/Day in the Dirt• Make a Difference, Make it Green• MLK Day of Service

– OCC grant– Oberlin Winter Term Intern– January 22, 2010– 227 volunteers, 6 projects, 321 service

hours• M3C Fellowship• AmeriCorps Summer Associate• Service-learning components

What are the benefits of using service-learning as a tool to enhance campus based AmeriCorps*VISTA service as

opposed to non-service-learning forms of civic engagement?

Benefits of Service-Learning

• Engages entire college community in meaningful way

• Flexible components– Reflection– Meeting an identified community

need• Builds workplace skills• Allows AmeriCorps*VISTA to build

capacity and fight poverty simultaneously

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Stories From the Field

RSVP of Summit County

Inese Alvarez

Akron, OH

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Giving Thought to Green- Akron OH

Service learning project based on model from The Project on Civic Reflection

www.civicreflection.org Civic reflection is the practice of reading

and discussing short pieces of literature as a means of reflecting on the central questions of civic life, i.e. giving, serving, leading & associating

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Giving Thought to Green- Akron OH

Chose a private Catholic school – Our Lady of the Elms High School

Social Action Club- Afterschool program for students interested in community issues and good candidates for discussions about civic engagement

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Reading & Reflecting with RSVP

Literary Readings were chosen from “The Civically Engaged Reader”

“Fellowship”- Franz Kafka

“Mending Wall” – Robert Frost

“Where Were We” – Dave Eggers

“The Lovers of the Poor”- Gwendolyn Brooks

“The Use of Force”-Wm. Carlos Williams

Meeting 1 – Associating: Mending Wall by Robert Frost

Lunch – 30 minutes Participants read poem silently; facilitator or

participant reads poem out loud (10 min)

 

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With whom do you most identify – the neighbor or the narrator?

When do “good fences make good neighbors”? What is a good fence?

Do the narrator and the neighbor find common ground, despite their differences?

Where do we meet with neighbors to “mend walls”?

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Text Points

Reflection Question

What do walls do? Think about a wall or fence you love. Why do

you love it? Describe a wall or fence you don’t love…why

do you not love it?

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Series of 4 meetings involving 8 high school students from Our Lady of the Elms High School and 10 RSVP volunteers

Evaluations showed an interest in continuing the activity

Reading & Reflecting with RSVP

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Program Goals

1. To further intergenerational understanding

2. To engage older adults to mentor youth on importance of civic engagement

3. To bring about more consciousness about the environment in the community

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Program Development

6 meetings - 2 hours each Meeting 1: Reading of poem Meeting 2: Information about Climate Change Meeting 3: Information about low-income

housing; Discussion on fund-raising; How to design presentation to residents of low-income housing

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Program Development

Meeting 4: Finalize the presentation/Rehearse

Meeting 5: Implement Presentation Meeting 6: Follow-up with reading of the

poem to tie in the activities with the poem; evaluation of program

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First Meeting

Reading and discussion of “God’s Grandeur” by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844)

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Second Meeting

Information about climate change

presented by RSVP volunteer

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Third and Fourth Meetings

Talk given by Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority Service Coordinator (also RSVP Advisory Council member)

Students and RSVP volunteers discussed how they were going to take the information and present it to lower income residents of AMHA

Decided to present to 2 buildings

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Third and Fourth Meetings

Discussion about ways to seek donations for energy efficient light bulbs and reusable shopping bags. (Writing request letters, fundraisers)

Students and RSVP volunteers worked on Go Green Skit to present the information and “Fact or Fiction” game show format to test the audience’s knowledge about what they learned

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“Go Green” Skit

Conversation between Grandparent & Grandchild about CFL’s, bottled water & plastic bags.

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Game Show: Fact or Fiction

Testing the audience about what they just heard with “Fact or Fiction”

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Final Meeting

Reading of poem/Reflection

Was there a relationship between the poem and the service learning activity?

Recognition given to all participants– Certificates, pins, “Thanks-a-lot” Girl Scout cookies,

Mark Lynas's book, Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet presented to the president of the Social Action Club, Pizza & Cake!

Resources from the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse

servicelearning.org

Think, pair, share: how can service-learning amplify your program?

• Could your program benefit from adopting a service-learning approach? How could it help you achieve your desired impacts?

• Or, could your program benefit from adopting core components from service-learning (e.g. youth voice, reflection, progress monitoring)? How could it help you achieve your desired impacts?

• What is one thing you will do as a result of this session?

Resources for AmeriCorpsservicelearning.org/americorps

Resources for Senior Corpsservicelearning.org/senior_corps

Searching NSLC Resources

Additional Resources

• Campus Compact– www.campuscompact.org

• Davis, A., & Lynn, E. (Eds.). (2006). The civically engaged reader. Chicago, IL: Great Books Foundation. – The Project on Civic Reflection– www.civicreflection.org

• Eyler, Janet, and D.E. Giles. A Practitioners Guide to Reflection in Service- Learning. Nashville: Vanderbilt University, 1996.

Contact

Liberty Smith, Associate Director, National Service-Learning Clearinghouse &National Service Resources and Traininglibertys@etr.org

Erin Lee, Public Services Librarian,National Service-Learning Clearinghouse &National Service Resources and TrainingErin.lee@etr.org

Tracey Seabolt, Program Coordinator, Learn and Serve AmericaTSeabolt@cns.gov

Caitlin Lambert, AmeriCorps*VISTA,Ohio Campus Compactclamber2@lorainccc.edu

Inese Alvarez, Director,RSVP of Summit CountyIalvarez@matureservices.org