Abstract

Participating in a service-learning activity does not guarantee a beneficial learning experience. The Youth Service Opportunities Project (YSOP) in New York emphasizes reflection in all of its service projects to help participants see their service experience in context and explore social issues. This effective practice was shared at the AmeriCorps*VISTA Faith-Based and Community Organization Conference at the University of Indianapolis, August 20 through August 22, 2001.

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Issue

Service-learning can expose participants to new concepts, procedures, events, people, experiences, and places, but without reflection to process the experience, no deep learning will occur.

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Action

YSOP is a faith-based institution, but all of the programs are conducted on a non-sectarian basis, while emphasizing reflection. Throughout service projects, reflective activities are varied so that people with different interests find something that fits them — writing exercises, large and small group sharing, some quiet reflective activity, or participating in a question and answer session with a speaker.

Reflection helps participants contextualize their service experience and explore issues of justice, compassion, and even political action. It is much harder to get people to focus on the causes of poverty or to be raising questions like "Why do we have poverty in America?" or "Why do we have hungry and homeless people?" The approach is to try to get youth to raise questions, not to supply them with answers. Reflection activities help youth develop their own answers to questions, based on their personal experiences dealing with the issues.

Reflection is also structured into various agenda throughout the programs. For example, at the start of YSOP workcamps, the youth and adult volunteers are asked to write how they felt the last time they saw a homeless person, a statement to self-consciously mark where they are at the beginning of the workcamp. After serving in soup kitchens, clothing and furniture banks, and family shelters, participants return to these statements and are asked to respond to the same question, illustrating how the service experience affected their attitudes. Participants are also asked to write a personal service challenge, something they would like to achieve within the next month. The challenges are mailed to them about a month after the workcamp to remind them of the experience and the commitment they made. Throughout the workcamp, YSOP staff lead reflection activities to help participants personalize their experience. Reflection activities range from guided visualizations of what it is like to be a mentally ill homeless person, to quiet time alone to ponder questions posed by a staff person.

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Context

YSOP's mission is to engage people in volunteer service to individuals neglected by society. Each year over 2,300 volunteers participate in YSOP programs, providing vital service to over 120,000 hungry and homeless people in New York City.

The primary program is overnight workcamps, which offer an intensive 24-hour experience in learning about poverty issues. Individuals and groups from schools, colleges and faith-based institutions attend workcamps, typically on a Thursday afternoon through Friday, or Friday through Saturday. Groups usually include about 30 youth and several accompanying adults. During a workcamp teams of students serve in soup kitchens, furniture and clothing banks, food pantries, and family shelters.

In addition to the overnight workcamps, YSOP offers longer workcamps, school field trips and ongoing programs at local high schools. During winter, spring, and summer breaks, YSOP offers week-long workcamps for high school and college students, intergenerational groups, and adults. YSOP also coordinates service experiences during the school day as field trips.

AmeriCorps*VISTA members placed with YSOP serve at local high schools organizing service and leadership groups both during and after school. For example, at Washington Irving High School, where most of the students are from low-income homes, AmeriCorps*VISTA members organize students in the Hotel and Restaurant Management House to volunteer at a neighborhood soup kitchen and food pantry. AmeriCorps*VISTA members work with another low-income high school group to organize service experiences in the surrounding neighborhood for the rest of the larger school community.

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Citation

This profile is adapted from the following National Service Fellow report:

Naughton, Sandra. "Profiles of Success," Youth and Communities Helping Each Other: Community-Based Organizations Using Service-Learning as a Strategy During Out-of-School Time. Washington, D.C. : The Corporation for National and Community Service, July 2000.

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Outcome

Before YSOP activities, participants take inventory of their existing attitudes toward homelessness so the service has a personal frame of reference. By reflecting during the experience, participants ask questions, tackle problems, and discuss ideas to clarify their learning from the service. After the service experience, participants can evaluate, assess, and contextualize their experiences in terms of their personal beliefs and broader social issues.

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Evidence

Staff use a combination of surveys, phone interviews, and written assessments to evaluate the program continually. Each youth service team writes an evaluation of the social services agency where they were placed, capturing information such as how many people were served, the quality of the on-site orientation and sanitary conditions, and overall satisfaction. Staff send a questionnaire to the guardians of all youth participants a week after the workcamp program asking how they think the experience impacted the youth. Staff also interview the lead organizer of each youth group by phone after the workcamp to assess if expectations were met. Additionally, staff also complete an evaluation of each workcamp they facilitate.

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Resources

From The Resource Center library:

Youth and Communities Helping Each Other: Community-Based Organizations Using Service-Learning as a Strategy During Out-of-School Time

Item number: R1803

Related Practices

• Planning reflection activities
• Creating reflection activities for high school students working with technology
• Incorporating creative reflection activities

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