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Module 1
SERVICE LEARNING AND COMMUNITY SERVICE

Overview:

Service Learning refers to those programs that have been developed to enable
students to gain experiences in serving others and to learn from those experiences. Service
Learning is excellent preparation for living a worthwhile life in society. In service learning,
students not only provide an important service to the community, they also learn about the
causes of problems in the community and how to communicate effectively to others as they
serve. They learn important skills and life lessons that they can use when they go out into the
world beyond school. It is training for life.

This module focuses on service learning and community service. In this module, we
will be aware of meaning & importance of service learning, outcomes for the stakeholders

Objectives:

At the end of this module, you should be able to:

• define service learning and know its importance;
• determine outcomes for stakeholders;
• define community and community service;
• identify types and examples of community service;
• apply the steps in a successful community service project.

Course Materials:

Unit 1: Service Learning Defined and Its Importance

Service Learning is a form of experiential education where learning occurs through a

cycle of action and reflection as students work with others through a process of applying what
they are learning to community problems, and at the same time, reflecting upon their
experience as they seek to achieve real objectives for the community and deeper
understanding for themselves.

It is a flexible pedagogy which can

be used in a variety of classroom and
community settings. Students, Community
Partners, and Instructors are key players in
developing effective service-learning
activities. Service learning is connected to
course content and is organized around
clear learning goals; service learning provides meaningful service activities which address

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real community needs as defined by the community; and service learning provides students
opportunities for critical reflection upon their service experiences.

Effective service learning practice supports

both student learning and community service goals.
Learning practices are grounded in objectives,
enhance disciplinary skills, engage students in well-
defined tasks, and allow for both formative and
summative assessment. Service activities meet
genuine community needs, provide meaningful tasks
for students, and promote communication and
collaboration with community members. further
discuss these goals.

Service learning provides students with opportunities to develop civic engagement

skills. By working with community members, students can enhance their group, organizational
and interpersonal skills. They also can gain important experience working with diverse
members of their communities.

Unit 2: Outcomes for the Stakeholders

Service Learning Outcomes for Learners

➢ Young people who serve ultimately gain much more in understanding than they give
in serving.
➢ Learning does not necessarily come from the experience of service alone, but from
reflection and creating meaning from that experience.
➢ Service learning can help young people grow from the natural dependence and
egocentrism of childhood into mature personal interdependence and engagement in
the community.
➢ Young people who serve learn wholistically. All functions of personality contribute to
development of the self.
➢ Students learn and grow as they feel and think about service experiences (i.e., through
behavior, affect, and cognition). Because learning begins with behavior, students gain
efficacy and self-direction.
➢ Service learning empower youth to become service-oriented citizens and youth
leaders.

Outcomes for Education: The Teacher

➢ The curriculum is broadened and deepened to create a richer context for learning.
➢ As students gain responsibility for their learning, teachers gain new roles as mentors
and guides as well as presenters of information.

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 ➢ Service learning holds the promise of partnership – quality relationships between
teachers and students.
➢ Service learning requires performance-based methods of evaluation.
➢ Staff collegiality improves as staff work together in an interactive learning environment.
➢ Mutually beneficial school/community partnerships are formed.

Outcomes for the Community

➢ Service learning contributes to community development and renewal.
➢ Recipients of service benefit from direct aid, human involvement, and personal
empowerment.
➢ Agencies receive an infusion of creativity and enthusiasm from participating youth.
➢ Service learning helps students become interested in their communities as
community-minded citizens.
➢ As youth contribute through service to the common good, they are seen to be one of
the community’s greatest resources.

Unit 3: Community and Community Service Defined

A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as norms,
religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a
given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, town, or neighborhood) or in virtual space
through communication platforms. It is a group of people with diverse characteristics who are
linked by social ties, share common perspectives, and engage in joint action in geographical
locations or settings.

Community service is the engagement of individuals or groups in an organized activity

that contributes to the local, national or world community. It is also known as volunteering
which is defined as the practice of people working on behalf of others or a particular cause,
without payment, for their time and services.

Unit 4: Types and Examples of Community Service

There are three types of community service and service-learning: direct, in-direct and
advocacy. Once a community need is identified, the project activities that are developed will
align with one or more of the types.

Direct. You can develop direct service activities where students interact with the
recipients of service or the physical environment they have targeted for improvement. You
and your chapter can volunteer at a food kitchen to serve community members in need or
perhaps you can work with your community senior center to create an adopt-a-grandparent
program that lasts for a week.

In-Direct. If you don’t have the ability to come in direct contact with the beneficiaries
of service, you can organize an indirect service activity where students channel resources to

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a problem but do not interact with those being served. This can include organizing a canned
food drive to donate to a food pantry in a neighboring community or participating in a
community beautification project.

Advocacy. It is important to always be an advocate for the issues that inspire you.
During advocacy service activities, students bring awareness to an issue and inspire others
to take action. Advocacy can also address the underlying causes of a social problem by
attempting to influence policymakers or elected officials.

Examples of Community Service

General Ideas

• Donate or raise money for your local Red Cross

• Organize a community blood drive
• For your next birthday, ask for charitable donations instead of gifts
• Read books or letters to a person who is visually impaired
• Contact a tree farm about donating Christmas trees to nursing homes, hospitals, or to
families who can't afford to buy their own
• Collect unused makeup and perfume to donate to a center for abused women
• Help register people to vote
• Organize a car wash and donate the profits to charity
• Help deliver meals and gifts to patients at a local hospital
• Write articles / give speeches advocating financial literarcy. First you should learn
about the topics themselves, like calculating housing costs, or understanding personal
loans, and then give presentations on these topics.

Helping Children and Schools

Tutor children during or after school

• Donate stuffed animals to children in hospitals
• Organize games and activities for children in hospitals or who are visiting
hospitalized relatives
• Knit or crochet baby blankets to be donated to hospitals or homeless shelters
• Collect baby clothes and supplies to donate to new parents
• Organize a Special Olympics event for children and teenagers
• Collect used sports equipment to donate to families and after-school programs
• Volunteer at a summer camp for children who have lost a parent
• Coach a youth sports team
• Put on performances for children in hospitals
• Give free music lessons to schoolchildren

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 • Organize a summer reading program to encourage kids to read
• Organize an Easter egg hunt for neighborhood children
• Create a new game for children to play
• Organize events to help new students make friends
• Babysit children during a PTA meeting
• Organize a reading hour for children at a local school or library
• Donate used children's books to a school library
• Volunteer to help with Vacation Bible School or other religious camps

Helping Senior Citizens

• Read to residents at a nursing home
• Deliver groceries and meals to elderly neighbors
• Teach computer skills to the elderly
• Host a bingo night for nursing home residents
• Host a holiday meal for senior citizens
• Make birthday cards for the elderly
• Donate and decorate a Christmas tree at a nursing home
• Organize a family day for residents of a retirement home and relatives to play games
together
• Ask residents of a retirement home to tell you about their lives
• Pick up medicine for an elderly neighbor
• Perform a concert or play at a senior center
• Help elderly neighbors clean their homes and organize their belongings
• Rake leaves, shovel snow, or wash windows for a senior citizen
• Deliver cookies to a homebound senior citizen

Unit 5: Steps in a Successful Community Service Project

Steps in a Successful Community Service Project

Step 1: Find Out What Is Needed in Your Community

Step 2: See What You Have the Ability to Do
Step 3: Choose a Project
Step 4: Develop a Plan
Step 5: Recruit Your Volunteers
Step 6: Make a Budget
Step 7: Make a Timeline
Step 8: Raise Money
Step 9: Do the Project
Step 10: Evaluate and Celebrate

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Step 1: Find Out What Is Needed in Your Community

There are many ways to do this. Start out by asking your friends and family members
if there are things that they have seen that need a solution. Talk to neighbors. Talk to
community officials (local government) and police officers, and speak with non-profit groups
in the area.

Once you have an idea of the issues present in your area, spend some time
researching them. What is the history of the issue? Is it a new thing or has it been around a
long time? What realistic steps can be taken to address it? What, if anything, have other
groups done in the past to fix the issue?

It’s also a good idea to research what kind of events have taken place in your
community in the past. What projects were successful? What sort of activities had nobody
show up? You can do this by talking to your local city government or local non-profit groups
that have held events. You may also know from personal experience of events that you have
attended. Which were the most engaging and resonated with your community?

Step 2: See What You Have the Ability to Do

It's time to start asking yourself the tough, specific questions. Remember to be honest and
realistic as you answer them:

✓ What skills and talents do you have?

✓ How many people do you realistically think you will be able to get to help you?
✓ What skills and talents will they have?
✓ How many hours per week can you devote to the project?
✓ How soon do you want to do the project?
✓ What is a realistic amount of money you will be able to raise for the project?
✓ Do you have any materials at hand that will be helpful?

Step 3: Choose a Project

List your activity ideas. If you have a group of people you're going to work with, allow
them to help you rank the ideas from most to least important. Vote on or decide which activity
you want to do. Make sure it is reasonable, within your means, and that you can actually make
an impact.

Be honest with yourself and your group when assessing how to make the most impact.
Be realistic with your expectations and honest about the best way to reach your end goal.

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Step 4: Develop a Plan

To start, write down exactly what you are hoping to accomplish. This will include a big-
picture goal as well as the specific smaller tasks that you will need to do in order to get to that
main goal.

You also need to go into the practicalities of the project. How much equipment will you
need? How many people will you need to successfully complete each part of the project? How
much time can each person commit to the project? How will you organize different volunteers?

Remember that you're responsible for the success of the project and one large part of
that is that it takes place safely and legally. Do some background work to check out your
liabilities and research the potential complications that can arise from the project you're
planning.

Step 5: Recruit Your Volunteers

If you don’t already have a group of people helping you, now is the time to get some
people involved. Also, ask friends and family if they know people who would like to be
involved.

For each person, make sure that you have their contact information (email and phone
number), as well as what areas they are best able to help in (making food, publicity, etc.).

Get specific time commitments from your members. How much time can they
contribute every week? How much time can they contribute on the day of the event? Make
sure they are realistic and don’t commit more than their schedules will allow.

Step 6: Make a Budget

Now that you know your goals, you have to get specific with how much money is going
to be needed to make your plan come to life.

Make sure you list the type of items that you need – be specific! How many will you
need of each item? What is the cost per item? What is the total cost?

Don’t forget that your budget has to include more than just the physical items involved
in your project. If you need a license to have an event or if you are going to pay someone to
make an appearance, that will need to be factored into the budget as well.

Finally, be sure to consider practical needs, like the cost of transportation and food on
the day of the event for your volunteers.

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Step 7: Make a Timeline

You should already have a rough idea of how long your project will take, but now you
need to narrow it down to the specifics.

Pick an end date for your project that will give you enough time to put it together. Make
sure that the date is approved by all necessary authorities.

Make specific schedules for each of your volunteers based on how much time each
can contribute. This is important – you don’t want to end up having to do everything yourself
at the last minute because you assumed that people would be putting in more hours than they
actually can! Try to be realistic with your expectations of what can be accomplished every
hour.

Mark specific goals on your timeline. By a certain date, a certain amount of the project
should be completed, etc.

Step 8: Raise Money

There are a number of ways to raise money: street collection, organized events like
raffles or an auction, direct mail donations, asking for contributions through church
newsletters, and more.

You can also contact local businesses for sponsorship. Offer them some sort of
advertisement in return.

Whatever you choose to do, you will need to develop a strategy. Decide what your
plan of attack will be to raise the amount needed.

Step 10: Do the Project

Now it's time to execute all of your planning!

It may seem like the hard work is done at this point, but the actual event needs to go
off without a hitch!

Make sure that as much as possible every preparation is done and set up the day
before the event. Don’t stress yourself out more than you need to on that day. It’s also good
to send out lots of reminders the day before to volunteers, participants, media, and anyone
else who is important.

Make sure you have a detailed schedule for what you will do the day of the event.
Also, make a list of volunteer contact info, vendor contact info, and who will help in
emergencies. Keep this with you at all times.

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 Try to enjoy yourself, but stay on top of how things are progressing!

Don’t forget to take pictures and stay active on social media during the event.

Step 10: Evaluate and Celebrate

What to Do Afterward

Once your project is over, you hopefully have experienced and learned new things.
Take some time to reflect on this on your own and also get feedback from the volunteers and
participants.

What didn’t go to plan? Consider how you could have done things differently and
avoided problems. What went well? Why were those things successful? What have you
learned about yourself? This can be many things like teamwork, leadership, or planning skills.

Also, make sure you stop and consider if you actually were successful in your goals.
Did you help your target group? How can you tell that you have made progress and an
impact? Take notes of these things.

Finally, take some time to celebrate. You’ve just undertaken and accomplished
something that many people would shy away from.

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 ASSESSMENTS

Task 1:
Answer the following:
1. Define service learning and explain advantages to students, teachers, and
communities. Explain two advantages to each group.
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2. Describe the three types of community service.

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3. Explain why self-reflection is important to community service.

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Task 2:

Create a plan for the community service you and your group have chosen. Identify a problem
in the community that you feel you could make a difference in solving if you could organize a
group of people to work on it. Who would be your beneficiaries? What would you need to do
in preparation for the activity? Who could be your teammates in the service? Could your
school implement the project? Prepare also the program for this activity.

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 REFERENCES

Bucao, A. et. al. Modules in National Service Training Program, PUP Sta. Mesa.

Definition of Community. Retrieved from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community#:~:text=A%20community%20is%20a%20social,virtu
al%20space%20through%20communication%20platforms.

Definition of Community. Retrieved from

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1446907/

Definition of Community Service. Retrieved from

https://www.ffa.org/livingtoserve/types-of-service/

Definition of Service Learning. Retrieved from

https://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/service/what.html

Examples of Community Service Projects. Retrieved from

https://www.ffa.org/livingtoserve/types-of-service/

Importance of Service Learning. Retrieved from

https://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/service/why.html

Steps in a Successful Community Service. Retrieved from

https://www.ffa.org/livingtoserve/types-of-service/

Types of Community Service. Retrieved from

https://www.ffa.org/livingtoserve/types-of-service/

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