Description

Many schools do not include activities such as service learning in their curriculum. Service learning can be a valuable strategy for helping students build connections with their school and community, develop social-emotional skills, and gain real-world professional experience. There are benefits for both the students and the organizations where work is being done. This session will explore the why and how of implementing service learning into activities and interventions with the students we support. Many tips and ideas for implementing a program that engages students in service learning will be shared. I will also provide examples of practice implementation through experiences in engaging student mentors and youth with problematic behaviors in service-learning activities. Social work skills related to planning and implementation will be discussed with a focus on how we can share the social work core value of service.

The agenda of the session includes:

• Introduce myself and the topic of service-learning
• Review some of the literature related to service-learning
• Share an example of school-based implementation
• Provide some tips for implementation

Learning Objectives for the session include:

• Define service learning as an intervention for students.
• Identify the benefits of service learning as a strategy for professional growth.
• Reflect on strategies for implementing service learning and how they can be applied to their school setting.