Building a community-wide service ethic through intergenerational service-learning
Abstract
A small, coastal Oregon town that has experienced many transitions in employment and lifestyle has come together around community-wide service-learning projects that benefit its citizens. Their efforts show what can be done through years of attention to the components of community- and school-based service-learning projects. This effective practice highlights this community-wide approach to intergenerational service-learning that begins in the earliest grades and continues through retirement for many adults, and was submitted by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory in October 2006 for the SaYES Initiative.
Issue
Encouraging service-learning within a community as a lifetime endeavor takes long-range planning and collaboration with schools, local governmental agencies, and nonprofits.
Action
In 1995, the Tillamook School District, in Tillamook, Oregon, determined that volunteering in the local area should be a major part of developing a rich engagement with the community in its young people, beginning with the earliest grades.
Consequently, this small community on the Pacific Coast has created opportunities in community service for all ages and interests. Ed Armstrong, who works at the Tillamook Schools district office, and who is also the president of the Tillamook Chamber of Commerce, says, "Volunteering and service-learning are just a way of life here...Kids grow up with it." Now, as the seniors at Tillamook High School begin their work on the district-required senior service-learning project, service-learning fits into place as a school and community expectation. These students have all been doing service-learning projects since they were in second grade.
Over the years, in collaboration with the community at large, a variety of projects have been developed and supported that give community members of all ages a chance to volunteer. This has happened through the work of dedicated teachers, school administrators, and community members. Additionally, the Tillamook School District Board legitimized service-learning across the district by adopting a service-learning policy that requires the incorporation of service-learning components across grades K-12 and links to specific curriculum standards. Successful projects have included a community/school sponsored charity drive that began in 1952 and has raised over a million dollars since then for local Tillamook and other Oregon charities.
Junior high projects include a:
- Physical education and forestry service-learning program
- Habitat for Humanity service-learning project
- Science student service-learning project partnership with the city of Tillamook and the Oregon Department of Forestry
- Curriculum-based service-learning program that brings trained students into the elementary classroom as reading aides
- Tillamook Education Consortium-financed service-learning "Paint Fest" to plan, paint, and decorate the walls of the junior high
- Student leadership in service-learning project called "Youth Voice"
Projects at other educational levels include a:
- High school service-learning project that matches an adult (50+) volunteer mentor with each student as they plan and complete a 30-hour required senior project
- K-12 service-learning watershed restoration project that involves community volunteers over fifty with students in fish hatchery and riparian restoration work
- Middle school service-learning heritage project
- An elementary school service-learning project through which students adopt a park and carry out a number of projects that increase the use of the park and decrease vandalism
Context
Baby boomers (those born between 1946-1964) are just now beginning to emerge as a significant volunteer resource. The Corporation for National and Community Service launched the SaYES Initiative — Seniors and Youth Engaged in Service — to encourage increased partnering among adult (50+) volunteer organizations, such as RSVP, and schools and community-based organizations engaged in service-learning. RSVP agencies and service-learning schools alike want to tap into this new and expanding volunteer resource.
The rural Oregon community of Tillamook is situated at the southeast end of Tillamook Bay on the Pacific Ocean. A county seat, the City of Tillamook has a population of approximately 5,000. Tillamook County (population approximately 25,500) has an economy based primarily upon agriculture, forest products, commercial fishing, and recreation/tourism. There are approximately 23 people per square mile over Tillamook County's 1,125 square-mile area.
The Tillamook School District has close to 2,100 students in grades K-12. There are three elementary schools, one junior high, one high school, and one alternative school. The Title I (free and reduced lunch) population is approximately 50 percent.
Outcome
Young people raised in Tillamook grow up in a community that encourages volunteering for both youth and older adults — so that volunteering becomes more a way of life than a school requirement. Tillamook students begin volunteering at an early age and continue this "habit" as they grow into adulthood. Sometimes community volunteering takes the form of school-based service-learning integrated with the curriculum and, at other times, volunteering is strictly community-based.
The deep involvement of the entire community is evident in the leadership of the current Tillamook School District Superintendent, Randy Shild. He grew up in Tillamook, and participated in many school and community-based projects, such as the charity drive. Now, as the school district leader he is intent on promoting and supporting service-learning throughout the school system and community.
Persistent volunteering across all age levels and a wide variety of opportunities for volunteering are available, including:
- Charity drives
- Chances to work with young and older students in riparian restoration
- Opportunities to help at assisted-living homes
- Science-related projects that focus on estuary mapping using GPS technology.
All of these projects involve students and adult volunteers (age 50 and over).
Evidence
The number of students and citizens involved in ongoing service-learning projects continues to grow in the community. The benefits of these community-wide projects are known throughout the community and appreciated.
Posted On
December 6, 2006For More Information
Related Practices
Related sites
National Service-Learning Clearinghouse
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