Introduction to the Second Annual Disability/Inclusion Week

Written by: Ellen King, Learn and Serve – Michigan AmeriCorps*VISTA

The Michigan Community Service Commission is so excited to announce that we will be celebrating the second annual Disability/Inclusion Week October 17-21, 2011. This week-long effort raises awareness about disability and inclusion to make service a part of the lives of individuals with disabilities. The Learn and Serve – Michigan team will be focusing this awareness on including individuals with disabilities in service-learning projects, and other youth service opportunities.

Throughout the week of October 17, we will connect you with countless disability/inclusion resources through Facebook (Learn and Serve – Michigan) and Twitter (@learnandservemi). You can also track the Michigan Community Service Commissions tweets all week with #inclusion. Be sure to check in everyday for inclusive classroom project examples and other service-learning and inclusion related resources!

Sign up to join us for our webinar on Wednesday, October 19^th at 3:30 as we discuss “Engaging Youth with Disabilities in Service.” This webinar will connect schools and youth serving organizations with valuable tools and resources to help serve and connect with those with disabilities. Attendees will also hear from a special education teacher who will highlight successful service projects. Registration is still available: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/900700242

Do you have any inclusive service or service-learning examples that you would like to share with us? Comment and we will be sure to highlight it during Disability and Inclusion Week!

September 11 National Day of Service

Written by Chelsea Martin, Volunteer Michigan AmeriCorps*VISTA

This month, people all across the country are taking part in September 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance activities. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and national service coordinators like HandsOn Network are partnering with organizations like 911day.org, My Good Deed, as well as state and local organizations to help Americans serve, honor, and remember those who served or were lost in the tragedy.

The Michigan Community Service Commission has joined the growing national movement focused on supporting veterans and military families as part of their September 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance efforts. With funds granted by HandsOn Network and the Points of Light Foundation, the MCSC is working to coordinate service projects across the state of Michigan between September 8 and September 12, 2011. Projects will incorporate an element of remembrance for the 9/11 tragedy and many will engage military members, veterans, or military families in projects. Partners like Michigan Habitat for Humanity, AmeriCorps State programs, and local volunteer centers are carrying out service projects like community garden clean-up and house builds in communities across the state.

If you’re interested in creating a September 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance project, there is still plenty of time! Visit www.handsonnetwork.org for great project tool kits. To find listings of already existing service projects based on zip code, check out www.911day.org.

The September 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance is a culmination of an effort originally launched in 2002 by 9/11 family members and support groups. It became officially recognized following the passage of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act of April 2009.

Also, be sure to check out Michelle bama’s PSA on this National Day of Service: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC66p-cStSU&feature=channel_video_title

Responses: Why Do You Do Service-Learning, Why Will You Continue To Do Service-Learning?

Recently, the Learn and Serve – Michigan Team developed a survey calling for responses on “Why Do You Do Service-Learning” and “Why Will You Continue To Do Service-Learning.” We will post the responses to these questions leading up to the 2011-2012 school year.

This post features Angelia Salas, Senior Program Officer at the Michigan Community Service Commission.

Why Do You Do Service-Learning?
Service-learning helps fulfill the human promise early in life. Each and every single human being on this planet has gifts to contribute and it seems important that we tap that potential as soon as possible. If we create that spark in the academic setting, the potential for learning is intensified.

Why Will You Continue To Do Service-Learning?
Good teachers have used service-learning in the classroom forever. It will remain an important way to reach students and meet academic and community needs. We created a movement over the last two decades. That won't end.

If you are interested in seeing your response appear on our blog, follow this link http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6SX3BPR and take our short survey to tell us why you do service-learning and why you will continue to do service-learning.

Angelia Salas can be reached at salasa@michigan.gov .

Responses: Why Do You Do Service-Learning, Why Will You Continue To Do Service-Learning?

Recently, the Learn and Serve – Michigan Team developed a survey calling for responses on “Why Do You Do Service-Learning” and “Why Will You Continue To Do Service-Learning.” We will post the responses to these questions leading up to the 2011-2012 school year.

This post features Maria Kimmel, a special education teacher at Belding Area Schools.

Why Do You Do Service-Learning?
Service-learning provides opportunities to help my students be involved in helping their community and achieving learning goals in a unique way. It gives them a chance to get out of the classroom and apply skills in real and meaningful ways. It gives my students, who have learning difficulties a way to shine and achieve while helping others in need.

Why Will You Continue To Do Service-Learning?
Service-learning Projects provide my students opportunities to work as a team to help others while meeting their own learning goals. It helps them be successful and gives them purpose, instead of seeing themselves as disabled, they view themselves as people who can help others in meaningful ways.


If you are interested in seeing your response appear on our blog, follow this link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6SX3BPR and take our short survey to tell us why you do service-learning and why you will continue to do service-learning.

Maria Kimmel can be reached at kimmelm@bas-k12.org.

Social Media in Service-Learning

Written by: Brad Lewis, (Program Officer for Learn and Serve America at the Corporation for National and Community Service)

Learn and Serve America (LSA), at the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) funded 10 Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) and six Institutions of Higher Education in 2008 to pilot the implementation of social media in service-learning programs.

Several years later, we learned some valuable lessons.

At the outset, CNCS recognized that with a small budget and a large country, we had to work through intermediaries to get things done. Therefore, this strategy was to test the use of the web as the ultimate vehicle to meet the masses. It had to do with reaching out to meet Americans where they were – on the web.

“93% of teens go online, as do 93% of young adults. Also, 74% of all adults go online. Further, nearly

three quarters (73%) of online teens and an equal number (72%) of young adults use social network sites.” (Pew Internet and American Life Project, 2010)

There was little adoption of these strategies in community-based agencies and schools, while institutions of higher education were a bit farther along.

“When we started, there was zero support for using social media. We have learned so much…. Now it is integrated into our communication strategy and is helping us connect across streams of service.” (Angelia Salas, Michigan Community Service Commission)

The funding seeded innovations in connecting tools such as blogging, Facebook, wikis and Twitter with service-learning work in order to increase youth engagement, community collaboration, and best practices for high-quality service-learning.

What does this mean for the field?

· Using social media tools, appropriately customized, supported by skilled workers who have adequate time, and combined with training modules, can boost civic engagement and strengthen the organizations that use this strategy.

· Developing new tools or platforms is difficult, slow, and full of unexpected challenges. Yet many people express the need for new tools and are critical of the existing ones. The development cycle in private industry involves failure and restarting or revising original plans, so that is to be expected.

· It is important to use social media strategically and for a purpose. The way to start is not to say, “Students use Facebook, so we’d better do something with it.” The starting point is to ask, “What do we want to achieve? What tools do we need to accomplish that goal?” Then: “Are social media tools among those we need?”

Our CBOs summed it by saying:

Social media presents many exciting opportunities for community organizations to communicate about and advance service-learning, even with the obvious start-up challenges being champions for new ways of doing business.

They also found unanticipated positive impacts. One grantee noted, “Our intention was to engage youth; the unanticipated impact was how excited adults were.”

Last words:

“Just don’t jump on a social media site because it looks cool. Really think about your goals, your purpose, and your audience, and if that site will do for you want you want.”
- Erica Ricker, Heartland Foundation

Trends to come:

Scanning the horizon, we see: (this came from our Higher Education folks)

· Very heavy use of social media by young Americans, and positive correlations between social media use and volunteering. Declines in young Americans’ use of earlier media, such as newspapers and television, as social media has revolutionized.

· The “other revolutions”: Social media and youth have been important themes in, for example, the Arab revolutions of 2010-11 and the Obama campaign of 2008.

· Evidence that important service and service-learning organizations are not well served by the tools that the market provides. (E.g., The Phoenix Project’s focus groups found universities dissatisfied with web tools for service-learning.)

· Technological change is rapid--consider the widespread growth of smart phones and tablets--yet important populations are still stuck with old technology. Schools may only have computers sold in 2001.

· There is no breakthrough technology, no “killer app,” for civic engagement or service-learning.

The list of CBO social media grantees and a description of their Web 2.0 projects can be found at the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse (NSLC) website: http://servicelearning.org.

Learn and Serve America Community-Based Organization Social Media Grantees/Lessons Learned document - http://www.servicelearning.org/2008-cbo-social-media-grantees

Learn and Serve America Higher Ed Social Media Grantees/Lessons Learned document - http://www.servicelearning.org/2008-he-social-media-grants