By Jennifer Griffin-Wiesner
(from May 1995, Youth Update newsletter) Young people, from kindergartners to college students, are getting involved in their communities. About 2 million young people gathered on Tuesday, April 25, to clean up, help out, and make a statement about the importance of America's growing youth service movement on the seventh annual RespecTeen sponsored National Youth Service Day.

With more than four thousand events taking place across the nation, National Youth Service Day 1995 recognized and encouraged young people's creativity and commitment in taking on the tough issues in their own backyards. Projects included restoring a run-down playground in New Orleans, serving lunch to homeless people in New York, and blazing a path between a business district and a nearby trail system in Montana.

In fact, American youth contribute more than 2.1 billion hours of service every year. But all service is not equal. There are variations in programs-some have more impact on the youth involved in them that others.

Service-learning is an idea that is becoming popular in youth service programs. Service-learning programs combine service to communities with structured time for reflection and evaluation that enhances students learning from the experience.

A forthcoming study by Search Institute suggests that young people involved in such programs see the benefits of service and plan to continue serving. Yet not enough of these programs integrate reflection. As a result youth don't absorb all the positive potential of the experience.


Positive Outcomes

Many students responded positively when asked about personal outcomes of their service-learning experience (percent who responded "agree" or "strongly agree"):
"It doesn't take long to realize that making the community better for others really makes it better for yourself too," said 19-year-old NYSD participant Daryl Gilmore. "When a place is your home, you want everyone to have a chance to share in the good stuff. "

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Most Youth Plan to Continue Serving

In addition to feeling good about and learning from their experiences, youth in the study report that they will likely continue to be involved in service in the next five years. Eighty two percent say that it is likely that they will help a person who is having trouble or in need, 74 percent are likely to change what they do in order to protect the environment, and 72 percent are likely to continue to be involved in volunteering.

These findings are consistant with a recent Independent Sector study which found that school-aged volunteers are twice as likely to continue serving as adults. They are also more likely to vote as adults and donate a notably higher percentage of their income to charitable causes.

Getting to Know You...

About half of the students in the study participated in group, rather than independent, service projects. Fifty four percent of youth participated in activities done as a group-from planning projects, to doing them, to talking about them afterward. This is reflected in how well youth got to know other people involved in the projects. Sixty one percent said they got to know the other youth involved very or somewhat well. Only 51 percent got to know the adults who ran the program very or somewhat well.

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Little Time Spent on Reflection

While these results indicate that some service-learning programs are having a positive impact on young people, the study also shows that students spent little time talking and writing about their experiences. Only 17 percent of students said they spent "a lot" of time on these types of reflection and 53 percent report spending little or no time at all on reflection.

According to Eugene Roehlkepartain, author of Everyone Wins When Youth Serve, spending time talking and writing is key to gaining the most knowledge and insight from a service experience. As students apply their learning and examine their experiences, their studies begin to come to life and become relevant and meaningful. In addition, as young people learn about issues, their service becomes more effective.

A full report of results from the study will be released in mid 1995.

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Copyright © 1995 by Search Institute. This article may be printed for personal use only. Other uses require prior permission from Search Institute, 1-800-888-7828. All rights reserved.