Service Learning

View a brief overview of key service learning and youth service terms.

Schools and teachers are increasingly using service learning, a form of experiential education that integrates community service into the academic curricula. Service learning, however, is not limited to schools. Youth development organizations, corporations, and volunteer programs at nonprofit organizations are using service learning as a strategy for making community service a powerful learning experience.

Service learning is a method by which people learn and develop through active participation in thoughtfully organized service experiences. Service learning projects that take place in schools and youth organizations are:

• Designed to meet actual community needs.
• Coordinated in collaboration with schools and the community.
• Planned with significant input from the involved youth.
• Integrated into each young person's academic curriculum.
• Structured with time to think, talk, and write about the service activity.
• Organized to extend student learning beyond the classroom.
• Created to foster the development of a sense of concern for others.