Learn and Serve America's National Service-Learning Clearinghouse

National Family Month is celebrated during the five-week period between Mother's Day in May and Father's Day in June, so for this month's newsletter we've compiled some resources on family involvement in service-learning. May is also National Foster Care Awareness month, and we shouldn't forget the important role that foster families play in a child's life and the ways that they too can be involved in service-learning!

Also this month, we've pulled together tips on a topic near and dear to our hearts: partnerships.

Inside you'll also find service-learning news and events, and as usual, tons of free resources!

Happy summer,

Barbara and Liberty

Barbara Holland, National Service-Learning Clearinghouse Director
Liberty Smith, National Service-Learning Clearinghouse Program Manager

10,000 AmeriCorps Positions Funded by Recovery Act
As part of AmeriCorps Week, the Corporation for National and Community Service today announced $85 million in Recovery Act grants to put 10,000 AmeriCorps members in distressed communities to meet critical social needs resulting from the economic crisis…
www.learnandserve.gov/about/newsroom/releases_detail.asp?tbl_pr_id=1341

Update on How You Can Share Your Input on Serve America Act
The Corporation for National and Community Service launched a new web page at www.NationalService.gov/feedback/serveact that allows you to share your thoughts and see what others are saying in real time…
Press Release: www.learnandserve.gov/about/newsroom/statements_detail.asp?tbl_pr_id=1360

AmeriCorps & Service-Learning
AmeriCorps members (including AmeriCorps State & National, AmeriCorps*Vista, and AmeriCorps NCCC) are working in schools, universities, and community-based organizations across the country implementing, facilitating, and coordinating service-learning. This page includes examples of how AmeriCorps and service-learning interconnect and resources to help support AmeriCorps members involved with service-learning.
www.servicelearning.org/page/index.php?detailed=669

Building Practice and Research Capacity: Strategies for Using the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse
Watch and listen to this webinar to get a quick overview of the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse and learn some tips on how to search our many databases.
www.servicelearning.org/webinars/index.php

New Service-Learning Podcasts!
This month we have two new service-learning podcasts hosted by our Higher Education Program Advisor Julie Plaut from Campus Compact:

The focus this month on the Higher Ed email discussion list revolved around connecting university students with local high school students in a mutually beneficial partnership. University students may provide mentorship as well as help families with tasks such as applying to universities and applying for financial aid. Discussion list members provided examples of existing program models that facilitate this partnership, such as SAGE (Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship), which directly links university students to high school students through mentorship.

Add your project or ideas to the discussion. If you're not already a member of one of our email discussion lists please visit www.servicelearning.org/what_is_service-learning/lists_news/.

And, if you're already a member of one of the lists and want to look back at past discussions simply visit lists.etr.org where you can search on a particular topic, or browse through the archives.

Did you know that NSLC is on Twitter? You can follow what we're talking about and see what others in the service-learning field are talking about in the Twitterverse. It's free, quick, and easy. Simply join at www.twitter.com. You can find us at www.twitter.com/nslc and www.twitter.com/liberty_nslc.

Partnerships

One of the foundations of high-caliber service-learning is effective and sustainable partnerships. As one of the 8 K-12 Service-Learning Standards for Quality Practice (www.servicelearning.org/instant_info/fact_sheets/k-12_facts/standards/index.php), forming effective partnerships helps insure that service projects are well-rounded endeavors that are grounded in meaningful relationships with community leaders.

How do you know if your projects are benefiting from quality partnerships? The Standards indicate that in service-learning:

1. there is a variety of partners, including youth, educators, families, community members, community-based organizations, and/or businesses.
2. partnerships are characterized by frequent and regular communication to keep all partners well-informed about activities and progress.
3. partners collaborate to establish a shared vision and set common goals to address community needs.
4. partners collaboratively develop and implement action plans to meet specified goals.
5. partners share knowledge and understanding of school and community assets and needs, and view each other as valued resources.

The kinds of partnerships that can help foster a service-learning program are really only limited by an educator's imagination and willingness to reach out to their communities. Dan Gerber from the University of Massachusetts is quoted in A Guide to Reciprocal Community-Campus Partnerships saying, “Partnerships are the process of two or more people envisioning a better life for themselves and for the community in which they live, learning together ways to accomplish a better life, and then working together in creating it.” Effective partnerships are essential to a successful program that seeks to grow students' education and horizons while addressing community needs, hopes, and aspirations.
www.servicelearning.org/library/lib_cat/index.php?library_id=8302

For a discussion of some of the research emphasizing why partnerships are so fundamental to a successful project, you may be interested in the K-12 Service-Learning Standards for Quality Practice: An Annotated Bibliography: www.servicelearning.org/library/lib_cat/?library_id=7511.

For a guide to other terrific partnerships resources, take a look at our Hot Topic: Partnerships www.servicelearning.org/page/index.php?detailed=319.

Building Relationships for Student Success: School-Family-Community Partnerships and Student Achievement in the Northwest
Drawing from current research and school experiences, this book gives teachers, parents, and administrators examples of successful partnership strategies. Together, these voices of committed educators and families help deepen understanding of family involvement practices, teaching us much about their diversity and creativity. They tell how various kinds of schools and families work to build partnerships in ways that increase student achievement.
www.servicelearning.org/library/lib_cat/index.php?library_id=5665

Community and Family Engagement: Principals Share What Works
The paper explores ways in which principals of community schools--and other principals who, though they may not yet identify their schools as community schools, are responding in a very similar manner--work successfully with community partners, families, and other key stakeholders to improve student outcomes. By reflecting on the topic from the perspective of principals, the text offers insights about why they engage community, why doing so is hard, and what strategies and approaches they find most effective.
www.servicelearning.org/library/lib_cat/index.php?library_id=7349

Emerging Issues in School, Family, and Community Connections
This is the first in a series of research syntheses examining key issues in the field of family and community connections with schools. The issues highlighted in this synthesis represent critical areas of work in family and community connections with schools where clarification, agreement, and further development are needed, as well as promising new directions that are emerging. It is based on a review of over 160 publications.
www.servicelearning.org/library/lib_cat/index.php?library_id=5737

Engaging With Families in Out-of-School Time Learning
This Snapshot provides an overview of how researchers are evaluating out-of-school time programs' engagement with families.
www.servicelearning.org/library/lib_cat/index.php?library_id=8037

Service-Learning: A Context for Parent and Family Involvement
From Growing to Greatness 2006, this article looks at how service-learning, as a model of community development, offers a rich context for parent, family, and community involvement strategies.
www.servicelearning.org/library/lib_cat/index.php?library_id=7439

Zoom Into Action: Family Guide to Volunteering
This guide contains ideas for projects, names of national agencies to contact and suggestions for how to make volunteer experiences fun and rewarding.
www.servicelearning.org/library/lib_cat/index.php?library_id=5639

For more information and resources for parents, including What is Service-Learning? A Guide for Parents written by Cathryn Berger Kaye, visit our Resources for Parents: How to Get Your Child Started in Service-Learning page www.servicelearning.org/instant_info/parents/index.php

Did you know that NSLC offers copies of many of our most popular service-learning marketing resources for free or low cost to both grantees and non-grantees? You can order free copies of the Bring Learning to Life items or of the NSLC promotional postcard for SLICE: Service-Learning Ideas and Curricular Examples to help you spread the good news about service-learning. The order process is easy. Just fill out the form online and let us do the rest!
www.servicelearning.org/pubs/index.php

2009 Summer Institute on Philanthropy and Voluntary Service 
June 6, 2009 - August 1, 2009 
www.servicelearning.org/events_jobs/slconf_events/index.php?action=detailed&event=975

12th Annual Service Learning Summer Institute 
June 11, 2009 - June 11, 2009 
www.servicelearning.org/events_jobs/slconf_events/index.php?action=detailed&event=1080

Developing a Good Heart in STEM: The 1st Summit on Incorporating Social Justice and Service-Learning into the STEM Curriculum 
June 11, 2009 - June 12, 2009
www.servicelearning.org/events_jobs/slconf_events/index.php?action=detailed&event=929

5th Annual Symposium on Service Learning & Civic Engagement: Responding to the Challenges and Opportunities for Engagement 
June 11, 2009 - June 11, 2009
www.servicelearning.org/events_jobs/slconf_events/index.php?action=detailed&event=1005

National School-Based Mentoring Conference 
June 16, 2009 - June 18, 2009
www.servicelearning.org/events_jobs/slconf_events/index.php?action=detailed&event=927

2009 National Conference on Volunteering and Service 
June 22, 2009 - June 24, 2009 
www.servicelearning.org/events_jobs/slconf_events/index.php?action=detailed&event=835

National Faith, Justice and Civic Learning Conference 
June 25, 2009 - June 27, 2009 
www.servicelearning.org/events_jobs/slconf_events/index.php?action=detailed&event=907

Suggest a Calendar Event
A great way to advertise your service-learning related event is to add it to the NSLC calendar.
www.servicelearning.org/nslc/suggestion/

Have you ever been convinced that your program isn't the first to try a particular idea? Do you wonder if others would be interested in your project discoveries? Whether you're just starting out, or have been engaged in service-learning for years, let the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse make the connection for you. We collect materials created by service-learning programs and add them to our library for others to access. If you have produced surveys, forms, curricula, project plans, or any type of materials that could be shared with others involved in service-learning, send them our way! Check out this list of recent grantee submissions.

Whether or not you're a Learn and Serve America Grantee, let others know about the successful approaches used in your service-learning program. Submit today at:
www.servicelearning.org/library/promote/index.php.

Remember that Learn and Serve America grantees must send the Clearinghouse all program evaluations and other material developed through their funded activities.
www.servicelearning.org/library/lib_cat/grantee_submitted_mats.php.

CBO

Community Partner: Service-Learning Toolkit
SPRING Service-Learning Network
This toolkit was developed to assist community-based organizations partner with faculty and/or students to implement a service-learning experience at the collegiate level. Contents include: "What is Service-learning and Why Is It Worth the Effort?" "The Service-learning Partnership," "Roles and Responsibilities of the Community Partner," "Best Practices in Managing Service-Learners," "The Basics: Integrating Service-learning into Curriculum," and an appendix containing a Backward Design Template, Needs List Organizer, and Budget Worksheet.
www.servicelearning.org/library/lib_cat/index.php?library_id=8560


HE

Learn and Serve America Program Civic Engagement Survey Summary (2007-2008 Data)
Washington Campus Compact
This report reflects information collected as part of Washington Campus Compact's Learn and Serve America Program Civic Engagement Survey, which was completed by 377 college student
volunteers/service-learners during the 2007-2008 grant cycle.
www.servicelearning.org/library/lib_cat/index.php?library_id=8662


K-12

"LEADERS" Model for Service-Learning
Texas Center for Service-Learning
This chart shows the "LEADERS" model of service-learning, which includes the following seven steps: look and listen, examine issues, agree on a project, develop a plan, execute the plan, review outcomes, and showcase.
www.servicelearning.org/filemanager/download/Sample_Forms/LEADERS_MODEL.pdf

We want to show the world what service-learning can look like!

Do you have a terrific story of a student who was slipping through the cracks until they were reached by service-learning? Or do you have an inspiring project that makes others wonder what THEY could be doing to better the community? Send us your service-learning success stories and let us tell them to America!
www.servicelearning.org/nslc/success_story_form/

Send us your high quality photos of your service-learning programs or projects to highlight on our sector pages, as well as on the rest of the site, what service-learning in action can look like! Simply attach them in an email to nslc-webmaster@servicelearning.org

We appreciate the contributions you make to the enhancement of the National Service Learning Clearinghouse, America's Resource for Service-Learning Information.

Success stories are a way for NSLC to highlight and show off what you have done and are doing in the realm of service-learning.

Submit your own story today www.servicelearning.org/nslc/success_story_form/index.php.

Stories of Service: The Spokane Falls Community College Food Bank
Kristian Stewart , WACC VISTA Leader
The harsh economic times facing many in our neighborhoods and communities has increased the demand for the services provided by nonprofits, and nowhere is that urgency felt more than in the nation's food banks…
www.servicelearning.org/nslc/success_stories/he.php#8.

View other success stories.

NSLC is all about sharing, so please feel free to forward this newsletter to friends and colleagues and invite them to subscribe by sending a blank email to join_nslc-newsletter@lists.etr.org.

You're also welcome to incorporate excerpts from the newsletter into your own newsletter (just be sure to cite Learn and Serve America's National Service-Learning Clearinghouse NSLC Newsletter and send us a copy).