California State Region 3 Service-Learning Resource Guide (October 22, 2007)

Prepared by Michael Stark ()

Region 3 extends roughly from Davis to Lake Tahoe and from Galt to Marysville.

Service-Learning is the methodology in which students learn and develop through active participation in thoughtfully organized service conducted in response to the needs of the community. Service-learning’s key components are: student leadership, meeting a community need, school/community partnerships, preparation, recognition and clear connections to curricular learning objectives. (Youth Service America)

Region 3 Service-Learning Network

Deborah Bruns Region 3 Creek Coordinator and Service-Learning Network Lead

Yolo County Office of Education

1280 Santa Anita Court #100, Woodland Ca. 95776

Voice 530-668-3781

Fax 530-668-3850

John Durand Karen Green

Service-Learning Coordinator, Galt Union School District Placer County Peer Court

13501 Franklin Blvd. 671 Newcastle Rd. Suite 7

Galt, Ca. 95632 Newcastle, Ca. 95658

916-683-1703 916-663-9227

Bina Lefkovitz Sasha Neumann

Youth Services Provider Service-Learning Training /Educational

Network (YSPN) Consultant/Evaluator

PO Box 8113, Truckee, 96162

(916) 231-5333, x22 (530) 308-5431

Christine McMorrow Michael Stark

Sierra Watershed Education Partnerships (SWEP) Region 3 Service-Learning Coach / Consultant

P.O. Box 572 3744 Coldwater Drive,

Tahoma, Ca. 96142 Rocklin, Ca. 95765

530-525-6692 916-435-1698

Corrections / Additions / Suggestions would be appreciated:

General Information and Funding Sources:

NATIONAL GOVERNMENT AND SERVICE SUPPORT AGENCIES

The Corporation for National and Community Service connects Americans of all ages and backgrounds with opportunities to give back to their communities and their nation through voluntary service. More than 2 million Americans serve their fellow citizens each year through the Corporation's three main programs: AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, and Learn and Serve America. In partnership with nonprofit groups, faith-based organizations, schools, and other public agencies, participants in these programs tutor children, build and renovate homes, provide immunizations and health screens, clean up and preserve the environment, serve on neighborhood crime-prevention patrols, and respond to disasters. They also recruit and manage volunteers and otherwise help to build the strength and effectiveness of nonprofit organizations. See site for Presidential Service Awards.

See Also: Students in Service to America < This excellent web site contains a search engine where you input your zip code and area of service interest. The search engine matches your zip code and interest to service projects in your area. Links to Americorps, VISTA, National Senior Service Corps, Peace Corps and a host of other similar organizations.

National Service-Learning Clearinghouse:

NSLC web site provides a searchable library catalog, access to PDF files, links to helpful sites and service-learning updates. Also included in the web site is a “tool kit” providing informative “how to” packets that give overviews and ideas for service-learning projects.

Helpful search engines: Need funding?

Collection database:

Learn & Serve Grantee Program:

National Service-Learning Partnership:

1

The Partnership is a national network of members dedicating to advancing service-learning as a core part of every young person's education. Founded in 2001, the Partnership supports members sharing resources, organizing change and sponsoring innovation. The network consists of more than 8,500 members in all 50 states, including young people, teachers, parents, administrators, policymakers, education leaders, community partners, businesspeople, and researchers. FREE CURRICULUM MATERIAL: The Teaching Resources section presents high-quality resources that Partnership members have created for teachers, administrators, students, and community partners. This section provides entry points for both new and experienced practitioners.

National and Community Service Resource Center < contains tools and training for volunteer and service programs. This is an excellent one stop shopping web site helping you answer almost all of your questions.

National Youth Leadership Council (NYLC): Dedicated to engage young people in active learning and service. An outstanding resource guide for service-learning activities. Sample projects a must viewing.

Peace Corps: Go to “Connect with a volunteer” or “service learning”

Excellent resource for international projects.

Points of Light Foundation: An excellent source of material and web sites of service organizations.

The Teacher’s Network has a useful website for teachers interested in helping their students save the environment through service learning! The website offers suggested curriculum infusion areas such as science, math, social studies, health, family studies, and English. Other features offered on this page are sample preparation, action, reflection, and celebration as well as potential project outcomes. Use this site as a template for your environmental education project idea. Visit:

Youth Service America (YSA) 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.Founded in 1986, YSA's mission is to strengthen the effectiveness, sustain ability, and scale of the youth service and service-learning fields. A strong youth service movement will create healthy communities and foster citizenship, knowledge, and the personal development of young people. YSA envisions a powerful network of organizations committed to making service and service-learning the common expectation and common experience of all young people in America.

Pedagogical Support

After School Network: A statewide coalition charting the course of after-school opportunities for California’s children and youth. Excellent links to “resource list”, “funding” , “success stories”, and “free curriculum”. “Funding” link excellent resource for all educators.

American Promise Alliance: Alliance partners – corporations, nonprofit service organizations, foundations, policymakers, advocacy organizations, and faith groups – work collaborativelyto ensure that America’s young people receive the Five Promises. Excellent resource list of agencies wishing to cooperate with schools supporting children’s needs.

Kids Consortium: Resource website for s-l material, ideas, research and support.

National Dropout Prevention Center/ Network

Search Institute: Institute is an independent nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide leadership, knowledge, and resources to promote healthy children, youth, and communities. At the heart of the institute's work is the framework of 40 Developmental Assets, which are positive experiences and personal qualities that young people need to grow up healthy, caring, and responsible. Free downloadable material.

YAK (Youth Adult Konnections) Excellent source of research material.

PDF files on the following topics: Developmental assets for ages 0-6, substance abuse, and service-learning.

California Support Agencies

California Department of Education: Content Standards

CalServe K-12 Service-Learning Initiative
Through the CalServe Initiative, the California Department of Education provides direct funding assistance to twenty-three school district programs providingregions.htm over 84,000 students and 8,000 community volunteers in urban, rural, and suburban communities throughout the state. It is the California Department of Education's vision that by the year 2004, 50% of all districts will include service-learning as part of their regular instructional practice, engaging students in at least one service-learning experience

at each grade span (K-5, 6-8, and 9-12). The Cal-Serve Web site provides a data bank of free service-learning lesson plans and valuable links to other service-learning resources.

Service Corp. < Address: 1110 K Street, Suite 210 Sacramento, Ca. 95814 Phone: 1-888-567-7378 (1-888-567-SERV)

The mission of the California Service Corps is to provide meaningful forms of volunteerism and service to the people of California. The California Service Corps works directly with the Corporation for national and Community Service and other key partners. Reward your students for their participation in making California a better place to live. CSC provides certificates for community service participation. This award provides recognition to Californians ages 5-14 who by completing 25 hours of service during any 12 month period. Site has a limited search engine matching areas of interest to service

California State University, Sacramento -- Office of Community Collaboration (OCC)

Working with large regional initiatives and various grant proposals, OCC interfaces university resources with community needs. OCC helps link CSUS instructors and students with local agencies (To accommodate student schedules and transportation needs, most community placements are close to campus.) Contact: Charlottte Cook Professor and Director, Office of Community Collaboration E-Mail: (916) 278-4610 Sheila Macias Coordinator of Programs and Partnerships Office of Community Collaboration. E-Mail: (916) 278-4769

Governor and First Lady’s Recognition Service Awards:

Service Awards honors children ages 5-14 who have completed 25 hours of community service in a 12 month period.

Search Institute: Building healthy communities/ students throughuse of “The 40 Assets all Kids Need to Succeed.”

Youth Community Services (YCS)

Youth Service California’s (YSCal) mission is to make service a part of every young person’s life in California. It was founded on the belief that youth service positively impacts a young person’s academic and civic potential and strengthens the community. YSCal is committed to fostering the growth and effectiveness of youth service and service learning programs in California and provides information and other resources to policymakers, community-based organizations, press and educators. For the past five years, YSCal has sponsored statewide networks of high school leaders to promote youth service at local, regional and state level (see: The Catalyst Project )

Local Volunteer Agencies (Region 3)

Big Brothers Big Sisters - Placerville:

56 Main St. Placerville, Ca. 95667. Phone: 530-626-1222

Mission: Helping to mentor youth (contact: Krysti Dahlgren or Deborah Jones)

Boys & Girls Club of Auburn 1103 High Street, #300, Aburn, CA 95603. 530-889-2273

Boys and Girls Club El Dorado County Western Slope

212 Armory Dr. Placerville, Ca. 95667 Phone: 530-333-1067

Mission:To provide a safe, positive after school program for youth enabling them to become productive community partners. (Contact Joan Stek, Jacque Brown)

Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Sacramento:

5212 Lemon Hill Ave. Sacramento, Ca. 95824 Phone: 916-392-1350

Service: Sports, Fitness, Recreation, Tutoring, Art, and Technology

Special effort to help disadvantaged youth. (Contact: JeVaugn Baker)

Campfire USA:

City of Roseville: source of volunteer opportunities. Here you can find volunteer activities that suit you, find contact information for organizations that make use of volunteers, register with the volunteer center and fill in volunteer application forms for the organizations listed here.

City of Sacramento:

Hands On Sacramento connects 2,500 volunteers a year with opportunities to match their schedules and interests. Volunteers select from one-time, group-based volunteering to longer-term opportunities to opportunities for volunteer leadership. Choose from projects at 50 different non-profits, schools or government agencies. You can volunteer alone, with family and friends or with co-workers.

Kiwanis:

Lions Clubs International:

Youth Services Provider Network (LEED):

1107 9th Street, Suite 340, Sacramento 95814 (Phone: (916) 231-5333). The Youth Services Provider Network (YSPN) is a collaboration of a broad cross section of youth serving providers and funders in the Sacramento region committed to promoting positive youth development, learning, networking and resource sharing.

YSPN seeks to shift the youth serving delivery system to: view youth as resources, increase youth involvement and leadership, expand opportunities that help prepare youth for life. And mobilize and leverage community resources that support youth to be both problem free and fully prepared. The LEED web site hosts an excellent list of Region 3 support agencies.

Also see YSPN Sacramento web site:

Literary Resources (General)

The Big Dummy's Guide to Service-Learning: < Twenty-seven simple answers to good questions on faculty, programmatic, student, administration, and non-profit issues.

"The Complete Guide to Service-Learning" by Cathryn Berger Kaye
This book presents service learning-its importance, elements, steps, and challenges-within a curricular context. It features chapters on a variety of topics complete with inspiring quotations, background information, activities, real-life examples, and ideas that have worked for other teachers. Special 'Bookshelf' sections highlight and describe
nearly 300 books that offer teachable moments about service learning, responsibility, caring, and helping - as well as ways to encourage discussion and make the lesson last.

Epicenter. < Everything you'll ever need to know about service-learning is found in this all inclusive web site. Be sure to checkout their up to date list of funding sources.

Kids Consortium: “Kids as Planners” A guide to strengthening students, schools and communities through service-learning.

National Drop Out Prevention Center: < > is an excellent source for inexpensive materials on service-learning. Service-learning pamphlets can be ordered in bulk.

National Service Learning Partnership < > A national organization dedicated to advancing service-learning. The web site contains a repository of service-learning literature and documentation (curriculum, assessment, success stories, student voice, community partnerships, district integration).

"Service Learning Seeds. Getting Started: Growing a Service Learning
Curriculum" from the Michigan K-12 Service Learning Center. This is a guide for teachers who are integrating service-learning into their curriculum. Seven questions are answered in full. These questionnaire: 1) Why do we

want to engage students in service-learning? 2) What do we want for students as a result of the service-learning experiences? 3) Where will the service-learning component live, when will students perform service, how much

will students perform? 4) What learning opportunities will exist for students so that they can meet the outcomes we have set? 5) How will we know what students know and can do, as a result of service-learning experiences? 6) How will we evaluate the students' work and effort? 7) Do we have a way to express the curriculum
design work?

Arts: (Region 3)

Current TV: An excellent resource on how to create short public service announcements. The site contains helpful hints on what equipment to buy. Current TV will also post your students’ creation.

Preserving Your Local Culture through Desktop Video Production: Open to grades 3-12

Technical support provided to help Placer County teachers / students produce short historical video on their community. Small Fee Required: Instructor receives five workshops on line, complimentary video camera, one set of digital video editing software, and one set of curriculum. Annual spring celebration of student works held in Roseville Tower Theater. Contact: Placer County Office of Education @ 530-889-5910 (Festival open to all schools)

River of Words: Youth (K-12) poetry and art contest with theme of Sac. River Water Shed.

Due 2/25/2008. ROW P.O. Box 4000-J Berkeley, Ca. 94704 (Winning entries will be posed on SRWP web site.)

Contact Mary Lee Knecht: . See for entry forms.

Tower of Youth: Digital media arts showcase. Public-private partnership working to modernize the education system and contribute to a world class arts and technology workforce. Statewide program provides both teacher and student support. Program is in partnership with IMAX theatre, Sacramento. 916.922-0100

Character Education

Good Character: This content rich website is loaded with free resources to help you work with Character Education.

National Dropout Prevention Center: NDPC provides a variety of publications and other resources for the promotion of service-learning.

Citizenship: (Region 3)

Constitutional Rights Foundation and Project Citizen Coordinator (Region 3):

Contact: Dee Morgan < C.R.F. seeks to instill in our nation's youth a deeper understanding of citizenship through values expressed in our Constitution and its Bill of Rights, and educate them to become active and responsible participants in our society. CRF is dedicated to assuring our country's future by investing in our youth today:

Peer Court, Placer County: “Through direct participation in the Peer Court Program, juveniles accept responsibility for their behavior and accountability to the community while enhancing their respect and understanding of the judicial process. Cases are referred to Peer Court from the juvenile court, or local police agencies.” The juvenile will appear before a teen jury and will be represented by a teen” attorney”. Adult attorney mentors will assist both defense and prosecuting attorneys. An adult judge will preside.” E-mail: Phone: (916) 663-9227

Citizenship – (General Resources)

Action Without Borders/ Idealist Kids & Teens <

The goal of Idealist Kids and Teens, Actions Without Borders’ youth site, is to introduce young people to the nonprofit sector and provide them with the resources they need to start working on issues of importance to them. Idealist Kids and Teens helps to encourage schools and their students to identify and address the issues that concern them and then provides outlets for action.

California Association of Student Councils

The California Association of Student Councils (CASC) provides leadership skills training for elementary, middle school and high school students through one day and multi-day workshops and conferences. The organization also serves as an advocate for youth and provides a channel for the expression of student views, Through the Student Advisory Board on Education and Student Advisory Board on Legislation in Education programs, students have

the opportunity to formulate proposals for change in educational policy and present their findings directly to the State Board of Education and the education committees of the State Assembly and State Senate. Detailed

information and registration forms for conferences are available on the CASC website (Contact: June Thompson @ <>)

California Center: The California Center, established in 1971, is a recognized leader in democracy education for youth. We are a nonprofit, nonpartisan civic participation organization striving to engage youth in the democratic process and encourage their healthy social, physical, and mental development. Through our programs, thousands of young people become involved in public issues affecting their communities, cities, and state. Participants develop enthusiasm for the democratic process, along with the balanced knowledge, confidence and skills necessary to become effective participants in that process. California Center programs are distinguished by our inclusion of an ethnic, geographic, and socio-economic cross-section of young people. We encourage youth who are considered “at risk” to participate in our programs, and welcome youth who might not ordinarily receive the opportunity to participate in a youth leadership capacity.