Service-Learning Opportunities

Getting Familiar
The Joint Education Committee
Definition and Goals for P-16+ Service Learning
The Task Force

Links
Illinois Campus Compact
Intergenerational Initiative
Learn and Serve

Resources
Corporation for National Service
Education Commission of the States
National Service-Learning Clearinghouse
Research and Articles
Coming Events

Previous Issues
September 2000

Many Service-Learning Opportunities for Faculty

Campus Compact is a national coalition of college and university presidents committed to helping students develop values and skills of citizenship through partnership in public and community service. It is the only national higher education organization whose primary purpose is to support campus based public and community service. Our presidents believe that by creating supportive campus environments for the engagement in community service, higher education can best prepare their students to be active, committed, and informed citizens and leaders in their communities.

Illinois Campus Compact has a membership of 25 higher education institutions. Service learning has been a major emphasis of Campus Compact since the beginning. The State Campus Compact Office serves as a key liaison to school systems, higher education, community-based and government organizations, as well as, providing member campuses with hands-on assistance, workshops and conferences. Initiatives are meant to promote productive collaboration between colleges and communities. Initiatives seek to create opportunities for renewed civic and community life, to improve educational and economic opportunity, to expand democratic participation by citizens and to apply resources of higher education to address the challenges that confront communities. We know that connections have been made between higher education and the P-12 school system. Our grants have given faculty and students on college campuses opportunities to create innovative learning experiences for both the college student and the P-12 students.

GRANT INFORMATION
25 grants given
over 250 student participants
faculty were involved
over 50 volunteers involved
more than 3000 served through grant programs

Issue areas addressed: education, public safety, human needs, environment

Projects included:
*School-age language assessment in a local school
* Park district participant usage survey and research
*Evaluation and treatment for speech and swallowing children
*Tutor program in low income community
*Work with senior citizens to improve social and physical environment
* Skills training for juvenile offenders
*Theatre conflict resolution with junior and senior high students
*CASA program to gain perspective on how to resolve issues related child abuse and family dysfunction *Freshmen seminar class immersion into a Russian community setting in Chicago to assist elderly Russian immigrants and help at their community center.
*Work with sheriffs' departments to introduce an d expand neighborhood watch programs
*Assist with Navajo community projects on GIS land use and diabetes
*Evaluation of the SHEROS Program, a community-based HIV prevention program for young Latino adolescents
*Adult Literacy tutoring program at the Winnebago Co Community Correctional Center
*Survey of national hospice workers in regard to their training needs

Illinois Campus Compact is a member of a regional Campus Compact group known as the Midwest Collaboration. We were notified in June by the Corporation for National Service in June that we would receive funding for a grant proposal titled "From Service to Citizenship: Strengthening Collaboration Between Higher Education and Communities." The goal of the Citizenship project is to bring citizen education to the center of higher education's mission in the Midwest, and to engage college students, faculty, staff and community members in conversations that will bring about democratic renewal. The strategies for achieving these goals are an innovative series of subgrants, trainings, and publications, which will develop college students, faculty, staff, and community partners as leaders in and advocates for public work and will allow the participants the opportunity to exercise the skills of citizenship.

ICCCS is currently awarding eight grants to faculty for community engagement of service and learning; five grants to student citizen fellows for service projects and three grants to community service director fellows for professional development and enhancing the service and learning programs on their campuses.

Projects for the 2000-2001 grant period are versatile, creative and exciting. Faculty in Illinois are collaborating with local P-12 programs to develop service learning experiences. Students at four universities are reaching into the community to work with children and adults in projects that will give them a new perspective on education. Community Service Directors have designed projects to support and develop service learning on their campuses and partner more effectively with the community.

The Campus Community Dialogue Grant proposals are due Oct. 13. These grants support diverse groups from a campus-community as they commit to a year of collaborative discussion and strategizing around around a commonly perceived issue or challenge in their local communities. The grants will be supported for $3000 each and up to six of them will be awarded later in October. Action grants will be available for these grantees to participate in a three day Action Planning Institute in June 2001.