Service learning gets young people involved

By Kim Asche, University of Minnesota Extension
Regional Office, Hutchinson

Fall is almost here. Youth start back to school and begin to sign up for their involvement in groups and clubs. One concept to look for, or have a youth group explore, is service learning. Service learning has been defined as a type of experiential education that involves young people in both community service and education.
If the youth group you are involved with is looking to define quality service, learning the six key elements include:
• Active, integrated learning draws lessons from the experience of performing service work and enhances the knowledge, values and skills of the participants.
• Youth voice engages youth in as many aspects of project planning as possible.
• High service meets a real need in the community, is age appropriate, well organized and gets things done.
• Collaboration involves all stakeholders in the planning, execution and evaluation of the program.
• Reciprocity provides benefit to the recipient and the provider of the service.
• Reflection allows time for reflection before to prepare, during to troubleshoot and after to process.
Service learning provides developmental opportunities that promote personal, social and intellectual growth, as well as civic responsibility and career exploration.
Service learning, as a form of experiential education, allows learning to occur through a cycle of action and reflection as youth work in collaboration with others through a process:
• applying what they are learning to community problems
• reflecting upon their experience
• achieving real objectives for the community
• achieving deeper understanding, competence, and skills for themselves
Most educators agree that service learning is a teaching strategy that applies education to student-identified community issues. As youth identify these issues, they learn that they are part of a community. Participants benefit by increasing their abilities and their self-confidence as well as enhancing their ability to work with people from diverse backgrounds. As an ongoing part of the process, youth frequently reflect on what they have learned about themselves, their community and the problems they are seeking to address.
In this way, youth develop a sense of caring for others and a better understanding of their role as active citizens. These same basic concepts learned as youth often stay with us through adulthood.
Thank you to all the community members involved with volunteerism and service learning experiences.

(Kim Asche is a 4-H youth deveopment educator with the University of Minnesota Regional Extension in Hutchinson.)