Steps to Creating a Service Learning Program

1. Understand the educational goals of your potential partners
2. Assess how ready your organization is for service learning
3. Identify a partner school or youth organization
4. Develop your goals with the school or youth organization
5. Be prepared to promote your agency and recruit youth into your project
6. Inform volunteers about supervision, training, and orientation
7. Help youth reflect on their experience
8. Make evaluation and recognition an ongoing process
9. Retain youth volunteers

Step 1: Understand the educational goals of your potential partners

Before you begin searching for a partner school or youth organization, take a moment to consider the needs of your potential partners. Appreciating what they need to get out of a project will be a big step towards designing a service learning experience that benefits both your organization and the school.

Understand the needs of teachers

You can eliminate much of the strain of coordinating the project if you involve teachers as partners in the entire process. Anything you can do to help your partners understand your agency's mission and how you can provide a service learning experience will be of great value.

Focus on links to the curriculum

You may have a wonderful service opportunity for youth, but if the link to curriculum is unclear you reduce your chances of finding a partner school. Teachers need to achieve certain educational goals, and your project should be designed to help them reach them.

Consider the needs of students

• What opportunities would be appealing to youth?
• Is the proposed work meaningful to youth?
• Will youth have an incentive to further their growth as a volunteer?
• Is the work site youth-friendly?
• Are other staff members excited about youth volunteerism?
• How will youth volunteers interact with the population you serve?

Learn the logistics of schools

• What schools in your area encourage volunteerism or already have service learning projects?
• How will the school calendar affect the availability of youth to participate in your program?

Step 2: Asses how ready your organization is for service learning

There is no simple checklist for what your organization needs to do to get involved with service learning. Much depends on your organization's structure and experience, the needs in the community, and the availability of partners. Still, there are numerous questions that can help you assess your organization's readiness to take on a service learning partnership:

• Have you worked with volunteers on other projects?
• Does your organization use well-defined job descriptions for volunteers?
• How diverse are the volunteer opportunities that you have available?
• Is someone available to be a champion for service learning within your organization?
• Have you worked with youth volunteers?
• Do you have access to supervisors for students?
• Has your organization worked with groups of teenagers or children?
• Would students readily apply what they would do in your organization to what they are learning in school?
• Is your organization able to provide release time for staff to meet with school faculty and attend training in service learning?
• Are your facilities appropriate and accessible to the age and skill level of youth who will be providing services?
• Is your organization able to design services that will fit students' schedules?
• Is your organization prepared to spend the planning time needed to help youth connect their service experiences with their class work?

Step 3: Identify a partner school or youth organization

Find the appropriate school and contact the right person

• Call a school with which you want to work.
• Ask to speak to a coordinator or counselor involved in service learning who can direct you the appropriate teacher for your project.
• Let the contact know you are interested in working with a class on a service learning project. Often, that person will know what teachers/students would be interested in.
• Meet with the teacher or volunteer coordinator and present your idea for a youth service learning project.
• Let the teacher know why your agency would like to work with youth volunteers.

Step 4: Develop your goals with the school or youth organization

Identify a project that you would like to develop

• Be sure that it is age-appropriate.

Plan curriculum goals together

• Brainstorm possible curriculum links.
• Take the time to write these links out; this will make it easier for you to concentrate on making sure the students understand these connections.

Plan the project goals and expectations together

• Ask the teacher to write down the project goals and what the students should gain from this experience. At the same time, write down what you would like your organization to get out of the experience.
• Form mutual goals and expectations by combining the outcomes.
• Write an action plan with specific tasks to accomplish the identified goals.
• The agency, teacher, and students should all have copies of the goals and expectations.
• Always include youth in planning service learning projects; ask students to add their thoughts and ideas.
• Develop a contract that outlines goals and expectations. All parties involved should sign it. Look at a sample agreement*.

Continually evolve

• Set aside time on a regular basis to evaluate the service learning project.
• Revise your expectations and goals if needed, but do this as a team with the teacher and students.
• If something is working exceptionally well, find a way to expand it.
• If something isn't working, find a way to make it work or eliminate that element.

Step 5: Be prepared to promote your agency and recruit youth

Classroom visits are an excellent way to recruit youth and promote your project

• Discuss the community issue your agency works on.
• Get feedback from students on how to address this issue.
• Begin to both include students in the project and build enthusiasm for your agency.

Give the teachers and students some background information about your agency

• When and why was it formed?
• What is the community issue you address?
• What services does your agency provide?
• Where is the service provided?
• What types of jobs do volunteers have at your agency?
• Why is their work valuable to achieving your mission?

Be prepared to recruit

• If your agency is already working with young people, ask these volunteers to speak at the school about their own experience.
• Create a description that outlines the tasks for the project.
• Create a visual presentation (video, Power Point) that shows how people can volunteer at your agency.
• Send flyers or pamphlets about opportunities for service learning to educators.
• Post your youth volunteer description on TVC’s website, where it will be placed on a list of Agencies that work with youth volunteers. Our Guide to Youth Volunteer Opportunities will provide a link taking users directly to this list. To find out more, send an email to:csp@thevolunteercenter.net.

Step 6: Inform volunteers about supervision, training, and orientation

It's important to provide an adequate orientation to your organization, the necessary training to do the job, and the supervision needed to succeed.

Training

• Training can take place at your agency or in the classroom. Explain the project.
• Specify the length of the training session(s) in advance.
• Make sure the students understand how to accomplish the identified tasks.
• Have them practice what you would like to do.
• Address any concerns students might have about the project.

Orientation

• Introduce the teacher and students to your staff.
• Make sure the teacher and the students have the name of a contact person.
• Explain how the work of volunteers fits into your agency's scope of work.
• Make youth feel comfortable asking questions and working with others.
• Inform the students about important policies and procedures.
• Orient volunteers to the physical site.

Supervision

• Agree upon an adequate method of supervision, identify who will be responsible for supervision.
• Clarify the role of the teacher -- is he/she to observe? Participate? Give directions? Discipline students?
• Be clear about who is in charge in case of a student emergency.
• Make sure the students and the teacher understand what is expected of them.
• Have the teacher clarify to students that you and the staff are legitimate authority figures that students must respond to.

Note: If students are visiting your agency with their teacher as part of a school-organized trip, this certified teacher MUST be with the students at all times.

Step 7: Help youth reflect on their experience

Reflection is an integral part of service learning experience. Reflection helps students appreciate the value of their work and crystallizes the learning they have acquired.

Develop a process that allows the students to reflect on their work

• Reflection should be incorporated into each phase of the project: before (to prepare), during (to troubleshoot), and after (to process).
• Make sure the reflection activities ask students to connect lessons from their service experience with the curriculum at school.
• There are a variety of student reflection activities you can use. Choose those that work for you and the age of the youth you will be supervising.
• Include all participants in the project-don't forget the clients.
• Take this opportunity to learn from the insights gained during reflection.

Step 8: Make evaluation and recognition an ongoing process

Give youth volunteers feedback and encouragement

• Help youth realize that they are contributing something.
• Tell them when they are doing a good job.
• Help them when they need support.

Recognize youth volunteers' accomplishments

• Write a letter to a student's parents, teacher, or principal recognizing the time the student has given.
• Give the students official "service learning certificates," noting the contributions they have made.
• Offer to write a letter of recommendation.
• Throw the youth a party or have a recognition ceremony.

Evaluate your project goals and expectations together

• All parties involved should take part in evaluating the project.
• An evaluation should be created that measures whether or not the service learning project met the goals and expectations outlined at the start of the project.
• If the teacher decides not to continue the project, find out what went wrong, use this feedback to strengthen your program.

Evaluate student and agency performance

• Students should evaluate their experience at the agency. Ask questions that address each component of the program, training, orientation, learning, as well as what worked and what could be improved.
• The supervisor or the project should provide ongoing evaluation of the students' work and general demeanor. View a sample Student Volunteer Evaluation form *.

Step 9: Retain youth volunteers

Consider maintaining long-term relationships with students, teachers, and schools

• Work with the teacher to adapt the project to fit the changing needs of your agency and of the class.
• Leave the students with an open invitation to volunteer in the future.
• Ask the students what would make them stay; maybe it is time for them to try other positions with more responsibility.

Contact other schools or youth programs about service learning projects

• You've had one success (hopefully), share the experience with a new class.
• Get your past students to present their project to a new class, this could be the ultimate reflection!

 

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