What Happens When You Engage Youth in the Funding Process?

Written by: Glenn McLaurin; State Farm Youth Advisory Board Member, Mid-Atlantic Zone Representative

Every year, the 30 young leaders from across the U.S. and Canada who comprise the State Farm Youth Advisory Board (SFYAB) convene to discuss how to best promote school-based service-learning and empower students and teachers to conduct outstanding projects that create lasting change in their communities. The Youth Advisory Board does more than talk, however; with the support of the State Farm Companies Foundation, the Board coordinates a $5 million-a-year service-learning funding program, administering grants ranging from $25,000 to $100,000 to support community-based, youth-led service-learning initiatives.

State Farm’s innovative service-learning funding model empowers young leaders to support fellow young leaders. SFYAB members lead every step of the grant administration process, from designing and marketing the annual Request-for-Proposals to reviewing the grant applications and selecting the recipients. This opportunity for an intensive, hands-on approach to supporting high-quality, youth-led service-learning projects is a learning exercise for Board members as well. Members gain insight into the needs and challenges of communities across the U.S. and Canada, and are exposed to the creative, inspiring approaches employed by teachers, nonprofits, and young leaders to find sustainable solutions and reduce social ills.

The Youth Advisory Board funds projects that address a range of community issues. The funding targets for the 2009-2010 grant cycle were financial education, access to higher education/closing the achievement gap, teen driver safety, environmental responsibility, and natural and societal disaster preparedness. Across this range of topics, however, all the projects funded shared several key traits – the initiatives clearly embraced the tenants of service-learning, sought to achieve sustainable solutions through intensive community engagement, partnership building, and a critical analysis of the root causes of the issues they sought to address, and were led by, rather than simply involving, K-12 youth.

The youth-leadership element of the projects funded by the Board is one of the most valued aspects of the YAB’s mission to promote service-learning in schools and communities across the U.S. and Canada. The SFYAB does not just believe in the potential of youth to make a difference, it invests in the ability of young leaders to serve as agents of change.

Allowing young people to lead service-learning initiatives amplifies both the educational and service benefits of the experience. With greater responsibility and a more personal investment in the project, youth gain a better understanding of the root causes of the issues they plan to address, and remain more dedicated and committed to overseeing the successful implementation and sustainability of their initiatives. The State Farm Youth Advisory Board encourages greater youth participation and representation in community and education-oriented organizations and agencies – students will benefit from the opportunity to become more active in their communities and schools, while receptive institutions will gain not just from the passion and energy of youth, but from their creativity and insight as well.

Several organizations exist which promote youth leadership through service and innovative education programs. Youth-led service and service-learning opportunities are routinely funded through Youth Service America and its programs, including Global Youth Service Day, Get Ur Good On™, and Semester of Service. Students seeking to realize their leadership capacity through exploration of their passions would do well to participate in The Roadtrip Nation Experience, an innovative curriculum designed to inspire young people through participant-led interviews with successful athletes, entrepreneurs, and politicians. The SFYAB encourages educators and students alike to explore these resources, and engage in critical conversations about the contributions young people can make to their schools and communities through dedicated service and leadership.

The State Farm Youth Advisory Board is committed to supporting youth-led service-learning initiatives, and invests in the power of young people to create lasting change in their schools and communities. Opportunities for funding will be available on February 1, 2011 and can be found at www.sfyab.com.

What Service-Learning Means for Dropout Prevention

Guest Blog by: Marty Duckenfield, National Dropout Prevention Center

For nearly 20 years, the National Dropout Prevention Center has advocated service-learning as one of the most effective dropout prevention strategies. Many think students drop out due to academic failure, and this is true, as many do. Service-learning provides a way to learn that is engaging and meaningful for young people, and thus academic success follows naturally.

But there are other risk factors as significant as academic failure, and these have a huge impact on student dropout. Interestingly, service-learning meets the needs that are implicit in these risk factors: students who are disengaged with school, who don’t participate in extracurricular activities, who are involved with high risk peer groups, and who show patterns of misbehavior. There are students who don’t come to school since they don’t feel safe there. Many come from families that don’t value education, are unsupportive of the school. And many of these families are often dealing with challenging issues such as drug or alcohol abuse and frequent disruptions, such as moving or divorce.

By looking at these and other risk factors, we can readily see how participating in meaningful service-learning can provide the kinds of experiences that foster resilience and develop those characteristics in young people where they can overcome. And so, the National Dropout Prevention Center looked at all the research on resilience – what are the characteristics that young people have that enable them to succeed even when the odds are stacked against them?

Service-learning provides experiences that foster those characteristics of resilience; relationships, independence, competence, creativity, and optimism (RICCO). These characteristics, when enhanced through service-learning, have provided the edge young people need to help them become successful in school and in life.

There are no silver bullets in dropout prevention, but I have to say, service-learning comes pretty close!

Animal Tales: Inspiring Humane-Themed Service-Learning

Most educators know that students of all ages are often captivated by both stories and animals. Stories have been used since ancient times to awaken the imagination and impart community virtue by creating powerful visual images and connections with the characters. This connection takes the listener or reader to a new place. A place where it is OK to "try on the shoes" of another and contemplate new morals or actions. We can harness the power and passion inspired by both stories and animals to create humane-themed service-learning projects.

First, let’s examine exactly what encompasses humane education. Humane education includes animal welfare, environmental issues, and social justice. At the present we will be discussing the animal welfare aspect of humane education and how humane-themed realistic fiction can inspire service-learning in any academic subject area.

Buddy Unchained, the story of a dog who was rescued from a life chained outside and now lives with a loving family, is a perfect example of humane-themed realistic fiction. The reader gets to understand Buddy and his body language and see how he struggled to stay out of the weather, to have water to drink and food to eat, and to have companionship. Buddy is not anthropomorphized or personified; we get to see him as a sentient, companion animal in need of care. We get to relate to the idea of being cold, hungry, and lonely. And what makes the story perfect for inspiring service-learning is that by the end of the tale the reader is excited about Buddy finding a new home and the reader wants to help other dogs have the same outcome. This natural transition gives project ownership and a real voice to the students and lets them choose how they can share the message of responsible pet care in their communities. The academic and social-emotional skills used during the project act to reinforce multiple areas of intelligence and there are numerous activities that can be part of the service-learning work.

Examples:

• Create Public Service Announcements about why dogs should not be chained outside and air them on the school or local radio.
• Write letters to newspapers and legislators asking for anti-tethering laws and explaining why tethered dogs not only suffer from a lack of care, but also why it endangers the community.
• Create a presentation or puppet show about proper pet care that older students can perform for younger students.

There are many ways you can create a community partnership with an animal welfare group who can help with or benefit from projects. Contact local shelters, wildlife conservation groups and rehabbers, environmental organizations, and national animal welfare organizations to find out their needs and how they can be part of your service-learning project.

If you would like to incorporate humane-themed literature into your service-learning work, a great place to find book titles is http://www.humanesocietyyouth.org/awards/best_books.asp. You can obtain free service-learning projects and ideas at http://www.humanesociety.org/parents_educators/mission/ and http://www.humaneteen.org/?q=node/694.

To learn more about this powerful teaching tool, please email youth@humanesociety.org with the subject line “Stories and Service-Learning.”

Why We Want Your Story!

Written by: Learn and Serve – Michigan Team

You may notice it seems like everyone wants your story. From the Corporation of National Community Service to NPR to here at Learn and Serve – Michigan, people are begging to hear your story. Why? Because stories are powerful! They can teach us, empower us, and change our minds. They connect people to the mission and vision of an organization. Your stories are some of the best resources an organization can have!

We have heard people tell us again and again they don’t have a good story to share. That can’t possibly be true! The truth is we are all have stories, but probably share them in different ways. A story, like a piece of art, is simply a product of our experience, hopes, and ideas. The building blocks can be found in anyone. Perhaps some of us have more technical skill to document them, but all of us have the ability to produce them. We all have stories to share; it is just getting ourselves to find the right words and the courage to share them that is the trouble.

We all have stories that define us. We just have to bring them out. One way to do that is to answer the question “Why do you do what you do?” In fact there is a worldwide art project [http://www.wdydwyd.com/] to answer the simple question “why do you do what you do?” The project combines an image and text in a creative way. It can be a great way to help you find your story. Take out a piece of paper and free write for five minutes on Why you do what you do. At the end of it see what comes up. You might just find the beginnings of a great story.

Once you have a story, consider your main message. What is your message? For instance in our message about the Michigan Community Service Commission [http://michiganslyc.blogspot.com/2009/12/michigan-needs-recruits.html] the message was “Service is the solution to move Michigan forward.” So what is your message? Is it “Youth should have a voice in the community?” Is it “Service-learning can reach children currently being left behind in the classroom?” What do you want to tell us?

Everyone wants your story and you should want to tell it to them! A good story can help you get funding, support from key stakeholders, and new volunteers. So develop your stories and once you do tell us so we can get them out there!

If you have a good story to share about service-learning or youth service, email it to Angelia Salas at salasa@michigan.gov.