Service learning is a great tool to get students more involved in their communities and great way to teach lessons in a way that is meaningful. It allows students to put their lessons into practice and see the results of their efforts.
Before you start planning service-learning projects, though, it’s a good idea to build partnerships with some local nonprofits.
Building a partnership allows students an opportunity to return to the same nonprofits and see the impact of their work. Partnerships also let teachers build better projects with the help of the nonprofit, and nonprofits get to share their issue areas with students.
Before building partnerships, though, there are some questions that schools and nonprofits should find out the answers to.
What should nonprofits ask schools or teachers?
- What experiences have you had in community service or volunteering? What impact have those experiences had on you?
- Why are you interested in a partnership?
- What do you think is the most important reason for involving youth in service learning?
- How could service learning help you to address major challenges you face in educating students?
- If you could make one dream come true through service learning, what would it be?
- What is the one thing you hope your students would learn about our community and society?
What should schools or teachers ask nonprofits?
- What have been your organization’s experiences in working with schools?
- What have been your experiences working with children and teens in your agency?
- Why are you interested in a partnership?
- What do you think is the most important reason for involving youth in service learning through your organization?
- What are the major challenges you face in providing service to our community?
- If you could make one dream come true for those served through your agency, what would it be?
- What is the one thing you most hope service learning will accomplish in our community and society?
