Learn more about Service Learning

What is service learning, anyway?

Service learning is a teaching and learning strategy integrating meaningful community service with academic study and reflective practice. It aims to enrich learning, build civic engagement, and strengthen communities.¹

Young people learn new skills and increase their knowledge through service, which has benefits to them and to their communities. Examples of youth service learning with large societal impact are: a HIV/AIDS campaign involving 5,000 youth in South Africa; Youth Build USA involving 92,000 American youth over the past 16 years in building 19,000 units of housing; and the Palawan Conservation Corps in the Philippines, which built a 10,000 square foot native plant nursery.²

Who is involved?

Young people, teachers, entire classrooms, mentors, organizations, and governments are all involved in making successful service learning experiences.

Moreover, volunteer experiences that make up the action component of service learning have an economic value. Globally, volunteers make a $400 billion contribution to the economy of more than 30 countries.³ In 2009, about 62 million Americans volunteered, giving 8 billion hours of service worth approximately $162 billion to America’s communities.⁴

A service learning project in Batam, Indonesia.

Where are consequences felt?

Service learning takes place in every country around the world, at local, regional, and national levels.

Here are some programs of note:

• In Kenya, the Garissa Youth Project (G-Youth) offers service learning opportunities for 1,600 in- and out-of-school Garissan youth aged 16-30 years-old. One service learning success story is Ibrahim, who was tired of waiting for changes in the community and in his everyday life. He volunteered for a HIV awareness project run by Handicap International, then for a USAID funded project called AIDS, Population and Health Integrated Assistance (APHIA II). He received training in Nairobi as a facilitator for behavior change communication then returned to Garissa to facilitate HIV awareness programs.
  
  
  
• Ibrahim is one of the youth who established a Youth Consortium for Peace and Justice. The purpose of this consortium was to help youth to find a way to express their voices and to relate and support each other as youth from one region. The Garissa Youth Consortium is comprised of 445 members and every member has the opportunity to support the action of the consortium financially and to try to find solutions for issues in the community.⁵

• The Palestinian Youth Empowerment Program has created the National Youth Corps, which has recently completed these projects⁶:
• National Campaign for Children with Cancer to raise funds for the first specialized pediatric cancer treatment facility in the Palestinian territories
• Olive Harvesting Campaign to assist impoverished farmers in the West Bank in the labor‐intensive process of picking their olives
• Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign for 140 rural women, with free medical screenings

Why is service learning important?

Service learning gives people a better understanding of the deep, interrelated social problems that exist in many communities. It also opens communication between groups that might not normally interact, such as between different social classes and ethnic groups. All of this can lead to greater social activism and civic engagement.⁷

A Peace Corps volunteer playing tee-ball in Honduras.

The Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) aim to create a more just and sustainable global society. To reach these goals, civic engagement is critical for several reasons. First, civil society holds governments to account financially and morally. Second, it can help tailor strategies to achieve the MDGs at the local level. Third, civil society can have a very useful role in monitoring and reporting on progress towards the MDGs. Fourth, civil society can advocate and campaign for the MDGs. Fifth, civil society members can volunteer their time, skills, expertise and passion for the MDGs.⁸ Keep in mind that everyone is a part of civil society, regardless of age, gender, or background.

For example, volunteers have bolstered the recent efforts to inoculate children against polio. Since 1988, more than two billion children around the world have been immunized against polio thanks to the cooperation of more than 200 countries and 20 million volunteers.⁹ Polio, which used to paralyze more than 1,000 children a day, infected only 1,604 children in the year of 2009.¹⁰ Kick Polio out of Africa, a joint effort of civil society organizations and government, is an initiative that supports this work.

Citations

¹ http://www.ysa.org/servicelearning

² http://www.icicp.org/ht/a/GetDocumentAction/i/1701

³ http://www.ccss.jhu.edu/pdfs/ILO/ILO_2008_12_19_NewsRelease_ICLS_support.pdf

⁴ http://www.nationalservice.gov/about/role_impact/performance_research.asp

⁵ http://www.g-youth.org/main/index.php/about-g-youth/success-stories-cat-blog-layout/156-taking-control-of-his-own-life.html

⁶ http://www.ruwwad.org/factsheet/Ruwwad%20Factsheet%20-%20English.pdf

⁷ http://www.servicelearning.org/youthsite

⁸ http://content.undp.org/go/newsroom/2008/april/ad-melkert-achieving-the-mdg---the-call-for-civic-engagement.en

⁹ http://www.polioeradication.org/history.asp

¹⁰ http://www.polioeradication.org/casecount.asp