Learn and Serve America Serving Us All

Written by: Matt Robinson, Education Consultant with KIDS Consortium in Maine

During the last week Learn and Serve America grantees in Michigan and Maine have independently done some incredible work that I have witnessed. Let me tell you a bit about what the dedicated and talented people working on behalf of our youth are doing to make learning an engaging and meaningful experience serving students and their communities.

In Lincoln, Maine, on February 16th and 17th leadership teams of LSA grantees RSU #67 (Lincoln, Chester, and Mattawamkeag) and RSU #34 (Alton, Bradley, and Old Town) met to design assessment tools to help support the continuous improvement of quality service-learning. The ink on the first drafts isn’t dry yet, but already the potential for these tools to help teachers, students, and community partners to have more, clearer, and better results is exciting.

In a February 17th press release two other Maine school districts received Learn and Serve America grants. The Sanford School Department and MSAD #17 (the Oxford Hills School District) have been awarded LSA grants by the Maine Commission for Community Service, the agency responsible for managing LSA funds and supporting Maine LSA grantees.

In Bellaire, Michigan, on February 9th and 10th, planning teams from all over Michigan attended the 2011 Service-Learning Sustainability Symposium with Learn and Serve-Michigan to develop action plans that will support the sustainability of service-learning as a teaching methodology. The enthusiasm and thoughtfulness displayed by the teams was inspiring. For a more detailed description of the goals and the thinking behind what it takes to sustain service-learning visit http://learnandservemi.blogspot.com/2011/01/what-it-takes-to-sustain-service.html.

The common thread, in addition to their Learn and Serve America affiliation, is the commitment of federal and state agencies in concert with local educators and administrators to doing thoughtful work to support service-learning. Through these collaborations, service-learning becomes sustained learning that transforms communities.

Learn and Serve America is a program for the Corporation for National and Community Service that supports K-12 service-learning throughout the country. You can learn more at http://www.learnandserve.gov.

NOTE: This blog originally appeared on Volunteer Maine’s Blog. You can find it here: http://www.volunteermaine.org/blog/learn-and-serve-america-serving-us-all%29. Thanks for letting us repost it!