• Second graders writing stories and letters children in shelters.
• Civics students helping new immigrants pass their citizenship tests.
• Middle school students developing a bird sanctuary and providing tours for the Audubon Society as part of their study of birds and migration.
• Students using their computer and history skills to produce "history boxes" for the local museum.
• Students providing leadership for the district's technology program, testing and refining software systems and installing a complex wiring system.
• Students writing and producing a promotional video about a shelter for homeless teens.
• Industrial design students planning and building a wheelchair for a 18-month-old child with multiple sclerosis

Community-Based Organizations Can Gain:

• real service accomplished by enthusiastic and creative volunteers,
• closer partnerships with schools, colleges and universities,
• access to resources of education institutions,
• creative ways to expand services to clients,
• input on how to target services to youth, young adults, and their communities,
• education of students (and families) about the mission and work of the organization,
• positive exposure in the community, and
• future lifelong volunteers and contributors.

Students Can Gain:

• knowledge, skills and practical experience,
• opportunities to apply classroom learning in real-world settings
• exposure to career choices,
• on-the-job training,
• friendships with staff, clients, and fellow volunteers, and
• a chance to make a difference.

Schools, Colleges and Universities Can Gain:

• motivated students,
• expanded learning opportunities,
• closer partnerships with community-based organizations,
• access to community resources, and
• positive exposure in the community.

Service-Learning - An effective way to address community needs
Not only do students learn more by serving their communities, but their communities prosper as their students learn. Students throughout Washington are serving their communities in the following ways:

Community Development:

• Soap Lake Middle School students won a national award for their community problem-solving program that involves students in restoring a local park which now attracts tourists and makes the community more attractive for young and old alike.
• Concrete Middle School. This timber-impacted community has involved students to help revitalize their local community to make it much more attractive to tourists by developing an exercise track, creating a handicapped-accessible trail, developing a walking tour guide for families, and revitalizing a park at the entrance of their town to draw tourists.

Civil and Intergenerational Relations:

• In Spokane, West Valley Middle School students provide stimulating activities and meals for senior citizens in their community. In addition, they provide thousands of service hours to the Humane Society and other community agencies.
• Gig Harbor High School recently won a national award for service to homeless families.
• Students in Nooksack Valley Senior High School's service-learning courses now provide thousands of hours annually to senior citizens, young children, and the literacy corps.

Public Health:

• Cleveland High School students have done research on the health hazards of Puget Sound seafoods.
• Students have provided health awareness programs to thousands of elementary students.
• Service-Learning can help enable communities to move from a dependency on federal programs to a local structure for community development.

Benefits to the Community
Developing Good Citizens:
"In most schools the concept of 'good citizenship' has been trivialized to mean coming to class on time, sitting still, and not fooling around too much. Training for real citizenship requires a great deal more and ought to involve participating in the community -- knowing what's going on, caring about it, and doing something about it. If our kids could experience that now, they will see that their participation can make a difference -- that civic involvement is rewarding and even enjoy-able. Then they're much more likely to continue being involved as adults."

Research by The Center for Youth Development in Minnesota indicates: "From a position of virtual equality on the pre-test, students participating in service learning demonstrated an increased preference for community participation when compared with non participating students."

Reducing Youth Violence
According to John Calhoun, Executive Director of the National Crime Prevention Council: Being unbeholden, "disconnected, many youth evolve into teens who shoot and kill over a girlfriend or a collision in the hall. In seeking connection, a sense of place and belonging, they join gangs. Without investment in family, community, or future, they have nothing to lose.

"We must forge a new policy toward our nation's teens, involving both program and process. The program focuses on providing teens with opportunities for responsible contribution; the process focuses on dignity of exchange, acknowledging the individual's ability to contribute as an integral part of that individual's receipt of needed services.

"Claiming and valuing teens, both in program opportunities and in social service exchanges, can enhance their self-esteem and develop that vital sense of stake or investment in the community and the future. Teens with such a stake not only have no reason to resort to violence, they have every reason to avoid and deflect violence and to help drive it from their environment."

Providing Valuable Service
As our communities become increasingly diverse and as the issues of homelessness, hunger and pollution become increasingly complex, we need the assistance of youth. Communities can no longer depend on federal or local governments to address local needs, and youth can provide the creativity, energy and commitment needed to find solutions to important human issues. In the process, they will begin to immerse themselves in these issues and explore ways to prevent the problems as well as identify the symptom.

Frank Slobig, in his "Policy Blueprint for Community and Youth Employment," quotes estimates by the Urban Institute and the American Institutes for Research on the opportunities for young people to serve:

• At least one half million opportunities appropriate for young nonprofessional workers could be created in education and school-related services alone.
• Better care for severely restricted elderly and handicapped individuals could productively occupy another 275,000 youths.
• An estimated 225,000 opportunities exist in energy, environmental protection, and urban and rural conservation areas.
• Social service to children, youth, and families could involve 165,000.
• Young people are essential resources, and society needs to see that their active participation is essential.