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Service Learning

Voices of Katrina, Voices of Service: 
EDUC F401/W505 Alternative Spring Break Session  
February 23-March 30, 2010

A six week 3 hour course 
Open to ALL Indiana University undergraduate and graduate students
(all majors eligible)  Click Here for More Information:  Voices of Katrina

 

"Service learning involves students in community activities that compliment their classroom studies. Programs aim to help students increase their academic skills through understanding how what they learn can be applied to the real world. Service learning helps students become interested in their communities and learn how they can affect the quality of life in them." - Corporation for National Service, Learn and Serve Grants

Service Learning covers a continuum of options:

  • Community service credit - Individual student or service club
  • Service Learning Class
  • Integrated into one subject/one grade
  • Co-curricular- partners
  • Integrated into a multidisciplinary curriculum School wide focus or theme - poetry, CARE SKILLS, C.L.A.S.S., Peace Village
  • Service learning infused into curriculum and supported through the culture and structure of the school
  • Voicing Experiences Through Service (VETS) supports students (ages 14 to 21) as they are paired with veterans to conduct and submit oral histories to the National Veteran's History Project at the Library of Congress.

Vets can help students: build reciprocal and meaningful relationships, have a positive and measureable impact on community life, develop self-determination, self advocacy and communication skills, develop relevant and transition planning, gain access to early work experiences and identify career options, capture part of history through the voices of those who live, develop leadership skills.

VETS is a Program of National Significance, funded by the Corporation for National and Community Service, housed at Indiana Institute on Disability and Community, Indiana University, Bloomington. Dr. Sandi Cole and Dr. Teresa Grossi are National co-Directors. VETS is partnering with schools in Indiana, Maryland and Vermont in this exciting effort.

Download VETS FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION (267 KB .pdf file)

http://www.iidc.indiana.edu/vets/


Our Work

A core value of the Institute is that people with disabilities are full, participating, and contributing members of their communities. To implement this core value, the Indiana Institute actively engages in service learning projects.

Through the promotion of service learning, young people with, and without, disabilities are gaining and utilizing the tools to foster greater collaboration and accessibility, and to fight hunger, homelessness, and a myriad of other environmental and social problems. STAR Schools and Learn and Serve programs received technical assistance from the Institute.

Five Learn and Serve programs were housed in special needs classrooms, impacting over 250 community members through their service learning classes. Schools in some 60 school districts offered service learning benefiting hundreds of participants and community members.

As part of the National Service Inclusion Project, the Indiana Institute works to bring the disability community and the concept of national service together to build the capacity of communities to sustain all their citizens, regardless of ability. Currently, people with disabilities are engaging in volunteer activities ranging from neighborhood clean-up projects and book drives to providing testimony on relevant issues, supporting people in transition, building low-income housing, assisting elders in their homes, tutoring, mentoring, teaching peace education, and much more

"After my experiences in DC, I will simply fuel my fire of advocacy with the memories that I was able to make. The faces of the individuals from Miriam's Poets will live on in my mind. I will participate in legislative advocacy with a new understanding and objective,"
- L200 service learning course participant

"The day on the hill allowed me to see the importance of making the activity of service that is already taking place known to those that could use these ideas in promoting change within our world. In the past I had always seen advocacy as writing a letter to verbally bash something that is already happening (SAVE THE WHALES). Now, I realize the importance of shedding a positive light on the activity that is worthwhile, but needs more focus, enthusiasm, and awareness to be a more effective tool,"
- L200 service learning course participant

"Wow! What an amazing experience. I've experienced so much and have such a hard time verbalizing it. When people ask how my DC trip was.I simply say "amazing." This trip has forever changed my view on life,"
- L200 service learning course participant

"Advocacy is terribly important, and now that I realize that many others do not know this, I am more inclined to work towards the education of others in this area,"
- L200 service learning course participant


Resources

Learn and Serve Indiana Alignment Chart: a useful tool to demonstrate how service learning aligns with other school improvement initiatives. Numerous other alignment charts are available or can be tailor-made for specific districts by contacting Cate Hart at CELL. (59kb Word Document)

Service Learning 101: an introductory presentation of service learning with explanations and examples of services, essential elements, and resources. (86kb PowerPoint Presentation)


Links

  • Corporation for National and Community Service: The CNS website links readers to opportunities for Americans of all ages and backgrounds to engage in service that addresses the nation's educational, public safety, environmental, and other human needs to achieve direct and demonstrable results and to encourage all Americans to engage in such service.
  • Communityworks, Vermont: Communityworks promotes exemplary teaching strategies, practices, programs and models that support students becoming caring, responsible and active members of their communities. The site provides resources for educators that include curriculum exemplars and tools, publications and technical assistance.
  • Community Outreach & Partnerships in Service-Learning: Indiana University's COPSL provides assistance connecting community engagement with course-based learning. COPSL coordinates service-learning in cooperation with school-based service-learning units and with community service efforts in the Student Activities Office and the Residence Halls Association.
  • Generations United
  • The Greenleaf Center: The goal of the Greenleaf Center (an international, not-for-profit institution headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana) is to help people understand the principles and practices of servant-leadership; to nurture colleagues and institutions by providing a focal point and opportunities to share thoughts and ideas on servant-leadership; to produce and publish new resources by others on servant-leadership; and to connect servant-leaders in a network of learning.
  • Indiana Campus Compact: ICC supports colleges and university members to involve students, faculty, and the entire campus by supports the integration of community service into the cultures of its member campuses by facilitating collaborations, sponsoring programs, advocating policy, and promoting public awareness.
  • The Indiana Department of Education, Division of Service Learning: IDOE supports service-learning programs in schools K-12 to meet community needs, while improving students' academic skills and teaching them the habits of good citizenship. Learn and Serve Indiana grants are used to create new programs or replicate existing programs, as well as to provide training and development to staff, faculty, students, and volunteers.
  • Indiana Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives: This organization helps to strengthen communities through service and volunteerism by identifying and mobilizing resources, promoting an ethic of service, and developing in communities the capacity to solve problems and improve the quality of life for all individuals and families.
  • National Inclusion Project: NSIP works with national and community service programs nationwide to increase the number of people with disabilities as members and volunteers. Through comprehensive training, technical assistance, and product dissemination, NSIP strives to ensure meaningful service experiences for all Americans with disabilities engaged in service.
  • National Youth Leadership Council: NYLC links youths, educators, and communities to redefine the roles of young people in society and empowers youths to transform themselves from recipients of information and resources into valuable, contributing members of a democracy.
  • Youth Serve America: YSA is a resource center that partners with thousands of organizations committed to increasing the quality and quantity of volunteer opportunities for young people in America, ages 5-25, to serve locally, nationally, and globally.