Brokering collaborations to include seniors in service-learning

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Abstract

The Wisconsin Intergenerational Network (WIN), a program of the Dane County RSVP, accepted the challenge of generating interest in the Corporation for National and Community Service’s SaYES initiative, to develop service-learning collaborations that include seniors in students’ service-learning. Taking on the role of broker, WIN used existing meeting venues and organizational frameworks to raise awareness of SaYES and introduced a statewide mini-grant program to provide incentive to participate. By targeting localities in the state where there were both Learn and Serve America and RSVP grantees, the Wisconsin initiative was able to generate collaborations due to the readiness of existing projects. The Wisconsin SaYES brokering approach for connecting school-based service-learning efforts with senior volunteer programs can serve as an effective model of how to generate interest in and broker collaborations for new ventures.

Issue

Agencies and programs that have the common goal of community service, but different participants, may not always see opportunities for collaboration. Barriers include a lack of knowledge about support available from other agencies or programs, lack of time to explore opportunities to join efforts, or no incentive to see collaboration as a possible, fruitful avenue.

National service programs, such as Learn and Serve America and RSVP, do overlap in their common interest in community service, but are not natural collaborators. Learn and Serve America grantees are focused on youth involved in service-learning, while RSVP organizations are focused on placing senior volunteers in service roles. Some extra effort on the part of a broker that understands both entities can raise awareness about areas of overlapping interest, partnering opportunities, and guidance to help shape useful partnerships.

Action

Through 2004 and 2005 Wisconsin was one of several demonstration states enlisted by the Corporation to generate partnerships around their state between school-based service-learning programs and volunteer organizations that recruit and place seniors. Karen Dischler, Intergenerational Program Manager at RSVP of Dane County was asked by the state Learn and Serve coordinator to head the SaYES initiative in Wisconsin. Dischler chose to invite the Wisconsin Intergenerational Network (WIN) to be the lead agency in Wisconsin. WIN had well-established relationships with the state commission office, the state Corporation office, as well as the various national service programs served by those offices, so it was the logical organization to take responsibility for this project. In addition to Dischler, who was on the WIN Board, two other board members took lead roles: Bonnie Schmidt, WIN Director; and Vince Borleske, Program Officer, Wisconsin National and Community Service Board.

Several elements of the design and execution of the initiative in Wisconsin represent best practices that may be applicable to other national service programs seeking to support the creation of partnerships at the local level, especially partnerships that bring together programs that can include older adults to support students in service-learning. These include:

Provide a monetary incentive to draw interest and provide some start-up support.

From the funds available to Wisconsin for the SaYES initiative, a mini-grant program was established. Collaborating organizations had the potential to acquire $1,000 awards to help defray some start-up program costs. Three mini-grants were offered.
Use existing venues to introduce the concept of senior involvement in service-learning.

In Wisconsin, the venue was the annual National Conference on Volunteering and Service, a gathering of Corporation entities, where both Learn and Serve America and RSVP staff were in attendance. Dischler and Borleske attended both the Learn and Serve and RSVP sessions to introduce the SaYES program and encourage partnering between senior organizations and school-based service-learning programs. Later, they met in the community of interested collaborators and presented information on the mini-grant process, assisted in partnership development, and included a question and answer portion.
Plan time at the beginning for the potential collaborative partners to share information, learn about the other's program, and participate together in the program development.

At the initial meeting, the WIN brokers asked both agency representatives to talk about their agency and how it's goals would be met by doing a collaboration. Dischler said, "It was also important for each agency to share what their agency would provide to the collaboration, and what they needed. We also asked them to tell what excited them most about this collaboration, which provided a positive framework for continuing the dialogue."
Emphasize the commonalities shared by potential partners, rather than the differences.

"We asked the school-based programs and volunteer organizations to consider their ‘common threads,'" Dischler said when describing the Wisconsin approach. "We asked them, ‘What do you both share?'" The programs responded that their most central commonality was their shared interest in community service.
Don't assume that local organizations that have things in common will be aware of the other.

School programs and volunteer organizations are busy operations. Just as in other endeavors, sometimes it's easy to become so involved in one's own work that you don't realize there are others out there who might be helpful to you and you to them. In the Wisconsin case, Dischler noted that "some of the Corporation programs at the local level had been grantees for years and were unaware of the other entities within their own community."
Enlist allies in the arenas where the potential collaborators operate.

While Dischler was tied into RSVP and senior networks throughout her state, she needed some allies in education to get schools and school-based programs to assist. In this regard, she found through working with the state National and Community Service Board that they could provide connections with the state Learn and Serve coordinator and directors of the educational service districts, called Cooperative Educational Service Agencies (CESAs), who were a great help. They understood the educational context and also could help target community organizations and schools with quality programs and greater likelihood of success at partnering.
Start at a level where partnering readiness exists for the type of collaboration you're encouraging.

One of the stipulations of the grant program in Wisconsin was that one of the collaborators needed to be a Learn and Serve America grantee or former grantee. This meant that the partners didn't need to start at square one in relation to service-learning and that there would be knowledge within the collaboration of what quality service-learning is and service-learning implementation experience. This assured a positive experience for the volunteers who would be working with the program.

Context

SaYES is a joint initiative of Learn and Serve America and Senior Corps, programs of the Corporation for National and Community Service, and was created to connect Senior Corps volunteers in supporting K-12 service activities and service-learning programs.

RSVP is one of the largest volunteer efforts in the nation and in Wisconsin. Each year more than 11,500 older adults in the state provide volunteer service through 17 locally sponsored RSVP projects serving 29 counties. Dane County RSVP's Intergenerational Program has been particularly adept at building volunteer connections to the 16 school districts in the county in a range of activities including tutoring, mentoring, e-mail buddies, folk art, and local history. Dane County RSVP collaborates with both AmeriCorps*VISTA and with Learn and Serve America.

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction receives Learn and Serve America funds and provides state leadership for K-12 service-learning. State statute reinforces service-learning by stating that a school board may require pupil participation in community service activities to receive a diploma. Service delivery for Learn and Serve in Wisconsin is provided through the Cooperative Educational Service Agency (CESA) network that supports K-12 education through 12 regional offices.

Funding for the mini-grants was provided through the Corporation and the State Education Agency K-12 Service Learning Network (SEANet), which supported the demonstration project efforts.

Outcome

This practice suggests several changes for how Learn and Service America projects relate to seniors, including the following:

The RSVP volunteers in the Wisconsin initiative were involved in all aspects of the activity — from planning to implementation.

Providing planned time for the students and volunteers to get acquainted, to find their own commonalities, and to learn more about what's important to the other, rather than launching directly into service, was instrumental to the success of the project.

Evidence

One project in northwest Wisconsin provides an example of a successful collaboration resulting from this mini-grant program. For a senior service project, the class of 2005 at Mercer High School in Mercer, Wisconsin, joined forces with senior volunteers recruited by the RSVP project in their area to fill a vacant space in the Mercer downtown business district and provide a resale shop in their community. Senior volunteers helped to staff the store, make window displays, and create crafts to add to the used goods collected for resale. During the first year, the store, called the Paw Shop for the school's tiger mascot, grossed $6,000. From profits, students were able to present a check of $1,500 to a local charity for community emergency assistance programs. This successful enterprise and partnership that started by one senior class is being adopted and sustained by the incoming senior class. Many of the RSVP volunteers, who found themselves mentoring as well as assisting the students, committed to return as volunteers as well.

Once word of this project spread in the community, other older adults inquired about how they could be involved too. RSVP happily enrolled these new volunteers in their program and assigned them to the store.

Posted On

July 25, 2006

For More Information

Karen Dischler

RSVP of Dane County

Intergenerational Program Manager

517 N. Segoe Road, Suite 300

Madison, WI 53705

Phone: (608) 441-7893

Fax: (608) 238-7931

Website: http://www.rsvpdane.org

Email: kdischler@rsvpdane.org

Jim Lee

Cooperative Educational Service Agency (CESA) #12

618 Beaser Avenue

Ashland, WI 54806

Phone: (715) 682-2363

Email: jiml@cesa12.k12.wi.us

Resources

Dischler, K., and Schmidt, B. Collaborating with schools: A guide for community-based organizations (988 KB). Madison, WI: RSVP of Dane County, Wisconsin Intergenerational Network. October, 2005.

The Paw Shop Learn and Serve Program. (Program Spotlight).