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As the school-year gets underway this month in many regions in which our readers live, we think of the best ways to engage student volunteers in service-learning opportunities. The resources below can help you apply the concept of service-learning to your setting and encourage young volunteers to thrive in their volunteer work.
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Featured Book
| An Asset Builder's Guide to Service-Learning By Search Institute
| A clear and informative strategy for schools, faith communities, and youth organizations to blend the best of effective service-learning programs with the philosophy of youth "asset building" and Healthy Communities. |
Read an excerpt from this book below.
This book is available as an e-book (US$11.50).
Order An Asset Builder's Guide to Service-Learning today! |
Other Resources | An Asset Builder's Guide to Training Peer Helpers by Barbara B. Varenhorst, Ph.D.
| A trainer's manual for adult leaders preparing young volunteers to do peer helping, with 15 interactive sessions complete with discussion guides and handouts (many useful for any age volunteer learning to do counseling).
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This book is available as an e-book (US$22.00).
Order An Asset Builder's Guide to Training Peer Helpers today! | Working Shoulder to Shoulder: Stories and Strategies of Youth-Adult Partnerships That Succeed by Deborah Fisher
| Stories and strategies of youth-adult partnerships that succeed, with over 20 reproducible tools to help you engage youth participants to the greatest effect in your organization.
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This book is available as an e-book (US$12.00).
Order Working Shoulder to Shoulder: Stories and Strategies of Youth-Adult Partnerships That Succeed today! | Children As Volunteers by Susan J. Ellis, Anne Weisbord, Katherine H. Noyes
| How to integrate volunteers under the age of 14 into an existing adult volunteer program: multi-age teams, designing work, preparing the agency, liaisoning with schools, and legal issues.
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This book is available as an e-book (US$9.00) and in paperback (US$16.95).
Order Children As Volunteers today! | Volunteer Management Resource Library>Service-Learning
In this free online library find a list of books, articles, excerpts related to engaging students in service-learning activities. |
Book Excerpt
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Designing Intergenerational Service-Learning Opportunities
Excerpted from An Asset Builder's Guide to Service-Learning, by Search Institute, 2000.
How do you design effective service-learning programs for intergenerational groups? ...[T]he basic principles of service-learning also apply to intergenerational service-learning. In addition, consider the following suggestions:
- Involve all generations in planning and preparation;
- Make sure the experience is meaningful and beneficial to all generations. Ensure that all ages can give as well as receive;
- Encourage cross-generation conversation, sharing, and relationship building. This can be enhanced by helping people in each generation understand the other generations more fully so that they don't begin their time together with numerous misperceptions and stereotypes;
- Recognize both the strengths and limitations of the people involved. For example, elderly participants have a great deal of wisdom, experience, and perspective. Many also find that their bodies are slowing down, and their hearing and eyesight are diminished; and
- Be explicit and intentional in nurturing mutual respect and understanding across generations. This can be accomplished, for example, by ensuring that people from all generations have active leadership roles in planning and executing projects. It also can be addressed by ensuring that no single generation dominates times of reflection.
Permission is granted for organizations to reprint this excerpt. Reprints must provide full acknowledgment of the source, as cited here:
Excerpted from An Asset Builder's Guide to Service-Learning, by Search Institute, 2000. Found in the Energize, Inc. Online Bookstore at http://www.energizeinc.com/store/1-208-E-1
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Energize empowers and inspires leaders of volunteers worldwide. Our specialty is creating and selecting the most relevant, innovative resources in volunteer management. We're advocates for the power of volunteers and for the recognition of the leaders who unleash it. About Us
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