In this newsletter, we are pleased to feature highlights from the online Sage Session with Shirley Sagawa, “The Charismatic Organization: 8 Ways to Grow a Nonprofit That Builds Buzz, Delights Donors, and Energizes Employees” in the Nonprofit Management section.

For practitioners seeking resources to strengthen research skills, check out the Service-Learning Research Capacity Hub at the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse.

If you’re looking for a simple and economical way to connect with other young professionals in your area, check out the Communications and Visibility section.

SLYPN joins other national service and service-learning in celebrating the passage of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act. See the Advocacy section for details of the landmark legislation.

ISSUE AREAS

ADVOCACY

Why the Serve America Act Matters for Service-Learning 
By Ace Parsi, Public Policy Fellow, National Service-Learning Partnership

On April 21, 2009, President Obama signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act into law. Serve America which passed with bi-partisan support, represented a crowning achievement for members of Congress, the service-learning field, and specifically Senator Kennedy who has worked for decades in promoting the idea of national service. The Act authorizes up to $97 million federal dollars for Learn and Serve America to promote service-learning.

Serve America creates many new opportunities to keep the service-learning movement moving forward and in the process serves a broad array of students. The Act funds a longitudinal service-learning study that will empower the field to better document and communicate the benefits of service-learning which we are all aware of. In higher education, it creates Campuses of Service that recognize institutions of higher education with exemplary service-learning programs and assists students pursuing public service careers.  A special significance of this Act is how it catalyzes service-learning activities for youth and communities most impacted by the national dropout crisis, often referred to as the Silent Epidemic. Through the creation of Youth Engagement Zones, Serve America targets many of these school districts and communities and provides funds to engage youth in high quality service-learning experiences. Other significant aspects include support for Summer of Service and Semester of Service and continued recognition of Global Youth Service Day.

Given what happened with this Act and how long we worked on it, we should take a moment to soak it all in.  In the United States Senate, 42 members out of a 100 member body cosponsored this legislation signaling broad support for national service and increasing awareness and support for service-learning. With the expansion of support for service-learning, this represents a significant victory.  We must not look at this as the end of our efforts until the next major reauthorization. Instead, we must approach this as a new beginning and mobilize to build on our victory now!

We must build on our momentum and not allow this moment to pass us by! Young people and all service-learning advocates could take many actions to move forward with this effort. First, we can get in touch with members of Congress through phone or mail and thank them.  Find out whether your member supported this effort:

House vote, Senate vote

If your member voted for this legislation, ask them how they think efforts to expand service-learning can be further developed in the future. If they didn’t vote for it, ask them why not.  As legislators prepare to review and reassess No Child Left Behind and other priorities of the U.S. Department of Education, let's challenge them to think of service-learning’s role in that process.

Finally, service and service-learning are often a supply and demand issue.  Serve America provides many opportunities on the supply end. For our part, we have worked to advocate for these new changes and now we must ourselves act on them.  Many of us grow complacent in thinking that advocacy is the end rather than the beginning. Serve America has provided us with new opportunities to engage in service-learning and expand our efforts.  Now we can write the next story of what comes next for service-learning in America.

COMMUNICATIONS AND VISIBILITY

Get Connected in Your Own Backyard: Affordable Ways to Network with other Young Professionals

1. Host a Regional Brown Bag Lunch.  Tap into local talents and leaders to bring together young professionals for a professional development opportunity.  Contact your Regional Lead for assistance. 

2. Host a Regional Happy Hour at a local conference or event.  Bring together young professionals in your area in a fun and relaxing environment.  Contact your Regional Lead for assistance.

3. Host at National Learn & Serve Challenge event.  Create media buzz and attention around service-learning, and develop new partnerships with local organizations - all lead by young professionals.  Contact Christina Kwon for assistance.

For more information about Regional events/resources, or if you have ideas about hosting a Regional event, please contact your Regional Lead (listed below).

• Atlantic Region: Andrew Campbell, America’s Promise Alliance
• North Central Region: Chris Rubesch, Duluth Public Schools
• Pacific Region: VACANT, if you'd like to become the Pacific Regional Lead, please contact Christina Kwon.
• Southern Region: Rebecca Flood, The Service-Learning Exchange
• Southwest Region: Tracy Vlnicka, FrontRange Earth Force

CONSTITUENCY-BUILDING

Learning How to Build Relationships
By Sher Moua, Youth Service California

As a young professional who is learning to find my way in nonprofit fund development and community organizing, I have learned that one of the fundamental keys to developing successful partnerships and leveraging the support of new stakeholders is relationship-building. Two recent experiences, a training, “Meet the Grantmakers: How to Approach Foundation During Tough Economic Times,” at the Foundation Center in San Francisco, CA, and a meeting with community members in Modesto, CA, has helped me better understand and appreciate the value of relationships. Here’s what I learned:

When approaching foundations during this tough economic time:

• Pick up the phone and make the call (unless the foundation says not to). Program officers want to get to know you and the work your organization does.
• Be persistent. Once you’ve contacted the foundation, spoken to a program officer, and they’ve shown interest in your work, follow up, schedule a meeting, and show your appreciation.
• Get to know the program officer. Learn about the work of the program officer and get to know the person by asking questions and listening. If you’re invited to submit a proposal, this person will become your greatest ally. This is the person that is going to work, fight, and make the case for you. If you’re not invited, be gracious and thank the foundation (and program officer). This is not the end of the road. There may be an opportunity down the road when the economy improves.

When meeting with community members to introduce a new program and engage their support:

• Interact with the community members. Hear their work and find out why they do what they do. Listen to their stories and learn about where they come from.
• Seek professional and personal connections. Search for parallels to converge the work you both do. Find links between professional and personal contacts you’ve both worked with or know.
• Follow up. Make phone calls and schedule face-to-face meetings. Seek one-on-one time to learn more about what they do, to get to know them, and to explore how you can work together.

While you’re developing relationships, remember to be friendly, open, and patient. Greet with a smile, a firm handshake, and ask how they are doing. Share your work, your passions, and your reasons for soliciting support. Work hard, follow up, and give it time. Building trust takes time and effort.

DIVERSITY

Diversity...Not Always Black and White
By Rebecca Green Flood, Youth Organized for Disaster Action

When did diversity become only about race?  We in the service-learning field have often focused on diversity as it relates to race. Do we get to check “Diversity” off our high quality service-learning checklist if we have enough students of different colors participating? Have we hired enough people of different races in our service-learning organization? Or, as I heard a teacher mention the other day, “I have diversity in my service-learning project because my students get to learn about what it means to be from a different country.”  Even on the national level, we are guilty of a narrow view of diversity, often focusing on including diversity in initiatives based on race and gender.

But when we look at the National Standard of Diversity and its Indicators as outlined by the RMC Research Corporation (2008), we see that diversity within a service-learning project can be so much more. And there is more than one way to incorporate diversity into a service-learning project.

Standard: Service-learning promotes understanding of diversity and mutural respect among all participants.

Indicators:

1. Service-learning helps participants identify and analyze different points of view to gain understanding of multiple perspectives.

2. Service-learning helps participants develop interpersonal skills in conflict resolution and group decision-making.

4. Service-learning encourages participants to recognize and overcome sterotypes.

Source: K-12 Standards for Quality Service-Learning Practice, National Youth Leadership Council and RMC Research Corporation.

Service-learning seeks to encompass diversity on many levels. Besides race and gender, diversity can include socio-economic status, religion, abilities and intelligences (Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences), values and beliefs, and geography.

Take a second look at your program and think about  how many types of diversity you have incorporated—either through planning or by accident. Now think about how aware your participants are of that diversity or do a quick survey. You may find that there is a great disparity between the diversity that exists and the level of awareness of that diversity.

Do we spend so much time focused on color that we miss opportunities to embrace all the diversity within our organizations and programs? Are we overlooking “teachable moments”? Let’s broaden our narrow definition of diversity within service-learning to take our programs, projects and organizations beyond color. Let’s remember that diversity is not just black or white.

For more information on diversity, visit the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse or for great ideas on incorporating diversity, visit Colorado State University's website on service-learning.

RESEARCH

The Partnership is pleased to announce the release of Information for Action: A Journal for Research on Service-Learning for Children and Youth, Volume I, Number 2. The Journal is a peer-reviewed publication that features relevant, methodologically sound studies of service-learning impacts and examples of innovative instruction written by experts, scholars, practitioners, and youth. Click here to access the Journal.

The Service-Learning Research Capacity Hub is one of the newest resources of the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse.  Use its resources to build your capacity to conduct and publish research, disseminate information, and secure external funding.  The Hub is broken down into four distinct sectoins: Fundamentals of Research, Tools for Conducting Quality Service-Learning Research, Publishing and Presenting, and Scholars.  Check it out!

HIGHER EDUCATION

State Farm Recognizes Service-Learning Excellence in Teacher Education

On March 20, 2009 at the National Service Learning Conference’s State Farm Awards Night, the National Service-Learning Partnership announced that California State University Chico was selected to receive the 2010 State Farm® Award for Service-Learning Excellence in Teacher Education.  The award honors teacher education programs that make a significant commitment to improving the quality of teaching and learning in preparing teachers and schools leaders to use service-learning as an instructional strategy

“At CSU, Chico, service-learning is an important part of our special education teacher preparation programs as well as other credentialing programs in the School of Education,” said Terri Davis, chair of the Department of Professional Studies in Education. “The program’s faculty engages the teacher candidates in service-learning activities, while providing candidates with systematic and explicit instruction in service-learning as a teaching strategy.”

“An increasing number of undergraduate programs and graduate schools of education begin to actively prepare educators to use service-learning as a tool to use in their own classrooms,” said National Service-Learning Partnership Executive Director Nelda Brown. “We applaud State Farm for its leadership and commitment to promoting service-learning as one strategy to improve the quality of teaching and learning in our nation’s K-12 schools. We hope this award helps more schools of education understand and implement the effective practice and programs needed to prepare and increase the number of teachers ready to engage students in service-learning.” 

In the spirit of its commitment to education excellence, State Farm supports service-learning as an innovative way to promote student academic achievement and community development. The award is administered by the National Service-Learning Partnership at the Academy for Educational Development, in collaboration with the International Center for Service-Learning in Teacher Education. Learn more about the winner of the 2009 State Farm Award for Service-Learning Excellence in Teacher Education

NONPROFIT MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP

Cultivating Service-Learning Charisma: Highlights from the Sage Session with Shirley Sagawa

On May 12, SLYPN and NSLP Connections hosted an online Sage Session with Shirley Sagawa. Sagawa offered useful insights for those how have struggled for financial capital or political influence and for those wanting to take their programs to a new level. She emphasized that building social capital is a breakthrough strategy for nonprofits that want to grow and a great fit for service-learning programs. The web conference offered lessons on how to build your program’s social capital so you can increase your impact and deliver on your mission.

Below are some of the questions asked during the session:

• How do we make a more compelling, charismatic case for service-learning to attract new donors and new supporters?
• What are best strategies for middle managers and staff to be movers and agents of change?
• What are ways we can help support other organizations in innovation?
• In your book, the story of Tufts University's "knitting the schools together" would seem to provide a great model for K-12 schools in which teachers operate in silos by discipline rather than being driven by school mission.  When we're able to overcome the silos, this can strategically help the work of service learning and philanthropy education programs and other special programs within a school.  Would you have other lessons from your study of Charismatic Organizations that we could applied to system-wide character education and service learning initiatives?

For the answers to these questions as well as to download the notes and the Power Point from this session, visit the SLYPN or NSLP Connections websites.

PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE

National Conference on Volunteering and Service, June 22-24, Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA.

The National Conference on Volunteering and Service is the world's largest gathering of volunteer and service leaders from the nonprofit, government, and corporate sectors. Co-convened by Points of Light Institute and the Corporation for National and Community Service, the annual event provides attendees with an opportunity to learn, connect, and be inspired through a wide range of exciting and informative plenary sessions, workshops, special events, service projects, exhibits, specialized corporate tracks and more.

2009 Conference Goals

• Learn best practices, trends, strategies and new ways of doing business from the nation's best thinkers and practitioners of service and volunteering through more than 175 workshops, forums and plenary sessions.
• Connect with peers, funders, experts and leaders from the business, government and nonprofit sectors. Get plugged in before you come, through our Facebook event, Twitter feed and blog.
• Be inspired by dynamic speakers and stimulating forums, in a place known for exciting innovation. Recharge, engage and bring back new ideas and civic energy to strengthen the reach and impact of your organization.

All are invited to attend. If you or your organization deals with volunteers in any capacity, this is an event you do not want to miss. Attendees typically include:

• Volunteer coordinators and supervisors
• Nonprofit professionals
• Workplace volunteer managers
• Leaders in Corporate Social Responsibility
• AmeriCorps/Senior Corps program directors and staff
• Social entrepreneurs
• HandsOn affiliates and volunteer centers
• AmeriCorps Alums
• And anyone else ready to pave the way for a fresh approach to civic engagement.

GRANTS AND AWARD OPPORTUNITIES

Support for Community Pedestrian Safety Groups (Deadline: May 29)
The University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center is seeking up to ten communities or neighborhoods interested in making their environment safe for pedestrians and walkable to pilot test the Resident's Guide. Each selected site will receive $2,000 for its participation, as well as technical assistance from pedestrian safety experts.

Target Early Childhood Reading Grants (Deadline: May 31)
Reading grants are awarded to schools, libraries and nonprofit organizations, supporting programs such as weekend book clubs and after-school reading programs that foster a love of reading and encourage children from birth through age 9 to read together with their families.

Saucony: Run For Good (Deadline: June 13)
The Saucony Run For Good Program encourages active and healthy lifestyles in children, and offers grants to communities and non-profit organizations that initiate and support running and fitness programs for kids. Maximum award: varies. Eligibility: 501(c)3 youth organizations with programs that increase participation in running to positively impact the lives of participants. 

Project Ignition Grants (Deadline: June 30)
Project Ignition is a grant program that uses service-learning to help address teen driver safety issues. These grants support students in grades 9 through 12 and their teachers or advisors to work together to develop a campaign to address the issue of teen driver safety in your community. The grantee's school will receive a $2,000 grant, funded by State Farm®, to implement their program in the fall of 2009. Each year, schools whose campaigns are judged to be among the top 10 in the nation receive $5,000 to help cover expenses to come to The National Service-Learning Conference. There, they showcase their great work, one campaign is named the Best of the Best and that team presented with a $10,000 grant to continue its teen driver safety efforts. 

Ezra Jack Keats Foundation Mini Grants (Deadline: October 31)
The Ezra Jack Keats Foundation offers mini-grants to school and public libraries for programs that encourage literacy and creativity in children. Programs relating to the work of Ezra Jack Keats are welcome, but not required. Maximum award: $500. Eligibility: public schools and libraries located anywhere in the United States, including Puerto Rico and Guam.

NSTA/Math Solutions: Mickelson ExxonMobil Teachers Academy (Deadline: October 31)
The Mickelson ExxonMobil 2010 Teachers Academy offers a five-day program designed to provide third- through fifth-grade teachers with knowledge and skills to motivate students to pursue careers in science and math. Maximum award: all-expenses-paid, five-day program in July 2010 in Jersey City, NJ. Eligibility: third- through fifth-grade teachers in the United States.