The Resource Center: Cesar Chavez Day effective practices

Building school/university service-learning collaborations and strong projects

This Education Commission of the States (ECS) Issue Paper presents effective practices for building a strong service-learning collaboration between a school and a university, along with essential practices for teachers conducting service-learning projects. Read more.

Building young leaders through service-learning

Youth who develop leadership skills while participating in community service build self-esteem and engage even more people, especially other youth, in service. City Year San Jose/Silicon Valley is developing service-leadership skills in middle and high school students through their "Young Heroes" and "City Heroes" programs. The time-intensive programs structure service projects around leadership skills such as critical analysis, problem-solving, managing diversity and project management. Excerpted from The Resource Connection newsletter, Vol. 5, No.1. Read more.

Creating buy-in among students of service-learning

Research shows that students who participate in high quality service-learning experiences typically become more engaged in learning as shown by increased attendance and motivation to learn. But how do educators "sell" the idea in the first place? This effective practice offers suggestions shared on the K12-SL e-mail discussion list in August 2005. Read more.

Creating partnerships to bring the arts to school and community projects through service-learning

As a result of a Learn and Serve grant and the key partnerships that were developed with the Alameda County Office of Education, the East Bay Community Foundation's Arts Partnerships for Educational Excellence (APEX) Initiative, and the Oakland Unified School District, the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland and San Francisco was able to extend art education to a wide range of students. This program was highlighted in the National Service News, Issue No. 174, December 19, 2002, published by the Corporation for National and Community Service. Read more.

Developing service-learning and community partnerships

Pulling it Together: A Method for Developing Service-Learning and Community Partnerships Based in Critical Pedagogy is a guide to creating service-learning programs and activities that are developed through sustained collaboration between educators, students, and community organizations. The goal of the practices outlined is to move beyond finding effective ways of educating students to engaging educators and community organizations in a dialogue to address issues in their communities. Excerpted from the original document written by 2000-2001 National Service Fellow Danika Brown. Read more.

Engaging middle school students in service-learning

Service-learning helps students develop academic, workforce, and citizenship skills while helping to solve local problems. This effective practice highlights service-learning at McGehee School in New Orleans, Louisiana, where all 131 students participate in service-learning as part of the regular school curriculum during grades five through eight. This effective practice was highlighted in the National Service News, Issue No.159, May 27, 2002. Read more.

Enhancing undergraduate service-learning through community partnerships

Arizona State University developed its service-learning program to enhance students' academic skills through classroom-linked community engagement. Since the service-learning program's inception in 1993, the university has created partnerships with school districts and non-profit sites throughout the community. The program supports discipline-specific service-learning internships and course-embedded service-learning throughout the university, providing extensive training, oversight, research, and outreach opportunities for students and faculty. This effective practice was shared during the 2001 National Conference on Community Volunteering and National Service in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Read more.

Honoring ordinary heroes through a community service project

The extraordinary contributions of ordinary citizens often go unnoticed in a community. Finding and honoring these ordinary heroes has become an annual cross-age service-learning project for fifth- and ninth-graders in Sharon, Massachusetts. During the year-long Ordinary Heroes Project, students explore the nature of heroic acts through literature and interviews with local citizens who exemplify heroic virtues. They also hone their interviewing, writing, listening and speaking skills. Excerpted from Community Lessons: Promising Curriculum Practices by Julie Bartsch. Read more.

Implementing a community development-oriented service-learning strategy

This 2001 study by National Service Fellow Steven A. Henness examines community development-oriented service-learning (CDOSL), a new approach to service-learning by which rural schools and communities are meeting goals together and revitalizing rural communities. This approach leads to successful completion of development projects, increased civic pride, and organizational development. It builds capacity of students to be active participants and leaders in the community. Read more.

Implementing K-12 service-learning

This executive summary of "An Evaluation of K-12 Service-Learning in California: Phase II Final Report" examines the impact of service-learning programs in K-12 schools in California. The study concludes that the promise of service-learning can be fulfilled so long as challenges are understood and addressed properly. Characteristics of well-implemented service-learning programs are provided. Read more.

Implementing service-learning in community colleges

This excerpt from Best Practices in Service Learning: Building a National Community College Network, 1994-1997, an American Association of Community Colleges project brief, provides a list of strategies that fifteen colleges participating in service-learning programs found worked successfully when tailored to the individual college campus atmospheres. Read more.

Instituting a new service day by combining university and community resources

AmeriCorps*VISTA members at the University of Montana, under the auspices of the Montana Campus Compact (MTCC), helped institute the first annual Martin Luther King, Jr., Day of Service in Missoula, Montana. By partnering with Missoula Youth Homes, 35 volunteers helped paint, patch, and provide basic maintenance to homes in economically distressed areas. A reflection and learning component to highlight diversity issues was included in the daylong event. Shannon Maynard, AmeriCorps*VISTA Leader and Publications Specialist, submitted this effective practice in April 2002. Read more.

Integrating entrepreneurship education with service-learning programs

A university business professor has created service-learning opportunities related to business and economic literacy that often involve mentoring younger students. His students participate as teams and showcase their projects at regional and national competitions each year. This effective practice was shared by Dr. Curtis L. DeBerg of the California State University at Chico. Read more.

Involving students in planning and implementing school-wide service-learning

Granite Falls High School in Washington State, a National Service-Learning Leader School, has developed a comprehensive service-learning program that involves all of its students, as well as members of the faculty, parents, and the community at large. This program was highlighted in the National Service News, Issue 130, published April 16, 2001 by the Corporation for National and Community Service. Read more.

Involving youth in community-based service-learning

ImPACT, a service-learning program at the Learning Web in Ithaca, New York, engaged youth in service-learning by giving them "voice and choice," which made service-learning relevant to their experiences. ImPACT ran as an extracurricular after-school program, which met twice a week for three hours over a five-month period. In the New Designs for Youth Development article "Making an ImPACT: The Power of Community-Based Service Learning," program coordinator Curtis Ogden discusses how he gave youth voice in each stage of the service-learning project: recruitment, group building, community research, selection and implementation of project, and evaluation and celebration. Read more.

Starting a high school service-learning program

Developing and implementing a service-learning program at the high school level can be achieved in several ways. This effective practice outlines some techniques for planning and implementing service-learning. Ideas were collected by Dennis Lawrence of Washington High School in Kansas City, Kansas, from input received on the Service Learning Discussion Group in June 2002. Read more.

Using art to teach students about the global reach of racism and justice

Students at Santiago Creek Community School, an alternative campus operated by Alternative, Community, and Correctional Education Schools and Services (ACCESS) of Orange County, California, undertook an international service-learning experience: the design, making, and exchange of murals with students doing a similar project in Capetown, South Africa. The project emphasized use of student voice, collaboration, and partnership, while also highlighting empathy, equality, and a sense of global connectedness. Service-Learning Coordinator Jim Perez submitted this effective practice in July 2006 as part of a report on ACCESS. Read more.

Using community-based service-learning as a strategy during out-of-school time

Sandra Naughton's National Service Fellows report, "Youth and Communities Helping Each Other: Community-Based Organizations Using Service-Learning as a Strategy During Out-of-School Time," offers community-based organizations ideas, suggestions and resources for improving or initiating programs for youth during out-of-school time. After surveying a diverse pool of community-based programs nationwide, nine practices were found to be a part of successful programs. This effective practice profiles nine programs that demonstrate each of the best practices, and includes lessons learned. Read more.

Using service-learning projects as an integral part of alternative K-12 education

Alternative, Community, and Correctional Education Schools and Services (ACCESS), a division of the Orange County Department of Education, uses service-learning projects as a way to enhance curriculum, learning, academic achievement, and social development while also addressing the needs of a diverse student community. ACCESS students engage in a variety of innovative service-learning activities that contribute to the health of their communities, and in turn discover their potential, develop their character, and maximize their learning. Educational consultant Michael Stark submitted this effective practice in August, 2003 as part of a project for CalServe. Read more.

Using service-learning to introduce at-risk students to a broader community

A class of 16 at-risk students in Anaheim's Youth and Family Resource Center (YFRC) undertook the design, making, and delivery of pillows and care packages for young patients confined to the Neonatal and Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (NICU/PICU) at the University of California, Irvine Medical Center. The project had two goals: to extend the students' concepts of community and to aid young children in need. Service-Learning Coordinator Jim Perez submitted this effective practice in July 2006 as part of a report on the success of Alternative, Community, and Correctional Education Schools and Services (ACCESS) in Orange County, California. Read more.

Service Events