Student involvement in service and service-learning produces valuable benefits to local communities and enables young people to become proactive members of society, while also experiencing the mutual benefit gained from such involvement. … Schools — both K–12 and postsecondary — as well as community-based and other service-learning programs provide useful places for engaging students in volunteer opportunities and in helping them start off on a solid path toward a lifetime of service and civic participation.

—From the Corporation for National and Community Service Strategic Plan 2006–2010