Three Kinds of Service Activities: Direct, Indirect, and Advocacy

Service-Learning can include service from any of the three levels:

• Indirect service includes cleaning up the community,serving food, building playgrounds for younger children,raising money for a worthwhile cause.

• Direct service includes working with or teaching otherpeople, including teaching classes to younger studentsand reading to the elderly.

• Advocacy service includes creating social changethrough government or grassroots action. Students maywork to change laws and regulations or inform politiciansand community members about pertinent issues.

Chavez Service-Learning Direct Service Example:High school juniors developed a gang prevention assembly for their local feeder middle school inSouth Central Los Angeles. The non-profit Homeboy Industries trained youth on gang preventionstrategies and techniques. The students developed skits, pamphlets, collages, surveys, andhosted speakers and small group discussions to address the realities of gang life and thealternatives that exist for middle school students to avoid future gang affiliation and involvement.

Chavez Service-Learning Indirect Service Example:Students K-12 learned about the plight of migrant farm workers and the efforts Cesar E. Chavezand the UFW have made to bring about better living and working conditions. They then collectedwalk sponsorship monies to participate in the Annual Cesar E. Chavez Walk-a-Thon in LosAngeles to benefit farm workers and their families.

Chavez Service-Learning Advocacy Service Example:High school students in Oakland, California petitioned their local City Council to develop a runDown, vacant lot in their neighborhood into a park and name it after Cesar E. Chavez. Studentswrote letters, made classroom and community presentations, spoke at City Councils meetings,and developed a community-wide awareness campaign to generate support for the developmentand dedication of the park.

“Students must have initiative; they should not be mere imitators. They must learn to think and act forthemselves and be free.” Cesar E. Chavez