Youth Organized for Disaster Action: Why Youth Voice Matters

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Youth Organized for Disaster Action: Why Youth Voice Matters

Kathia Monard-Weissman, Joan Liptrot & Julia Wagner

Abstract

Allowing students to assume leadership roles underscores the importance of

service-learning projects. This paper highlights youth voice as a framework for

examining the impact of service-learning projects on students’ academic and civic

engagement. Presented here is a case study of the Youth Organized for Disaster Action

(Y.O.D.A.) program. Data was derived from surveys, interviews and observations of

schools in New Jersey and Pennsylvania that implemented safety-related projects during

the school years of 2004 -2005 and 2005-2006. Analysis of the data suggests that

students who made choices and were more actively involved in relevant and engaging

activities while selecting, designing and organizing service-learning projects appeared

more academically and civically engaged. This paper presents specific strategies that can

be put into practice to foster youth voice in our service-learning programs.

Introduction

Youth voice is an essential element in high quality service-learning programs.

Service-learning practitioners and researchers agree that engaging students in choosing

and planning their projects and taking on leadership roles can have a positive effect on

fostering their academic and civic engagement while developing their leadership skills.

Jensen (1998) challenges educators to allow opportunities for students to make choices

and to ensure that students’ learning experiences are relevant and engaging.

Incorporating youth voice in our service-learning programs increases student

participation and allows them to take ownership of their own learning experiences.

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This paper highlights youth voice as a framework for examining the impact of service-

learning projects on students’ academic and civic engagement. We present a case study

of the Youth Organized for Disaster Action (Y.O.D.A.), a program administered by the

Institute for Global Education and Service-Learning and supported by the Corporation for

National and Community Service’s Learn and Serve America program. In this paper we

examine the importance of implementing youth voice in service-learning initiatives and

present specific strategies that can be put into practice to foster youth voice in our

service-learning initiatives.

The Y.O.D.A. Program

Youth Organized for Disaster Action (Y.O.D.A.), is a service-learning program

that helps young people prepare their families, schools, and communities for emergencies

and disasters. Y.O.D.A., supported by the Learn & Serve Grant from the Corporation for

National and Community Service, began in the school year of 2004-2005 as a project of

the Institute for Global Education and Service Learning in collaboration with the New

Jersey Commission for National & Community Service and PennSERVE: The

Governor’s Office for Citizen Service. The participating schools comprised nine school

districts that received Y.O.D.A. funding for two school years and twelve schools that

received funding during the second year of the grant. The schools were located in urban,

suburban and rural locales in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Each school identified a

Y.O.D.A. team, a group of students that focused on identifying the disaster preparedness

needs of their school and community and led the service-learning projects. Students were

involved in a myriad of projects. For example: students trained their peers and other

members in their communities on how to prepare for disasters; some evaluated their

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school’s emergency plans and disseminated this information among the school

community; and other students were involved in the Gulf Coast disaster relief efforts, to

name a few. The overall goal of the program was to address homeland security and

disaster response concerns by engaging students in service-learning activities in their

schools and communities while enhancing the students’ academic achievement and

promoting their active citizenship.

Importance of Youth Voice

Researchers and service-learning practitioners suggest that to insure high quality

service-learning practice, educators should incorporate youth voice in their programs.

Youth voice refers to the sharing of ideas, opinions, initiatives and knowledge of young

people. Youth voice entails giving choices and decision making ability to our students.

Research provides the rationale to offer opportunities that allow students to take

ownership of their learning. Scales and Leffert (1999), for example, found that students

whose voices are heard and have decision making capacities tend to have higher self-

esteem, are better at public speaking, show better academic performance and are good

leaders. Bernard’s (1991) extensive research on resiliency shows that at-risk youth can

develop their social competence when involved in decision-making, planning and

problem-solving. In the national study of youth involved in service-learning activities,

Billig et al. (2005) found that civic and academic outcomes were maximized in programs

where students were given the responsibility to select, design and evaluate their

programs.

Jensen (1998), in his book Teaching with the Brain in Mind, challenges educators

to actively engage students in their learning experiences. He posits that for students to

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participate in their own learning they need to be able to make choices. Making choices

adds relevance and meaning to their learning. By implementing youth voice, educators

can provide the choices students need to reach their academic objectives, as well as

prepare them for adulthood as they learn to make age-appropriate decisions.

Methods

Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected. Y.O.D.A. staff conducted

surveys of students and teachers. The student sample consisted of members of the

Y.O.D.A. team in each of the nine participating schools in year 1 and twenty-one schools

in year 2. The Y.O.D.A. team members were the students in charge of organizing the

service-learning activities.

During the first year our primary goal was to examine the outcomes of the

program on students’ development. Students were asked to complete pre- and post-

questionnaires to determine benefits gained through their participation in program

activities. From the first year program evaluations, we observed that programs with

stronger student participation and youth voice had more positive outcomes than programs

where teachers made choices for the students. Thus, during the second year of the grant

cycle, we examined the service-learning activities that fostered youth voice and

contributed to enhancing students’ academic and civic engagement. We looked at the

relationship between service-learning activities that incorporated youth voice and

program outcomes. Individual regressions were conducted to examine the relationship

between the student responses on Y.O.D.A. academic and civic outcomes and the

service-learning activities that foster youth voice. The sample for this analysis included

573 students from grades 6 through 12.

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In addition to questionnaires, at the end of the school year, both individual and

group interviews with students and teachers were conducted during program site visits.

Through interviews we identified relevant themes regarding the impact of integrating

youth voice in service-learning programs. We also carried out observations of the

participating schools. These observations helped us triangulate data to enhance

confidence in our findings. Through observations, we identified projects with various

degrees of youth voice. Here we describe a high quality program that encouraged youth

voice from the beginning of its implementation; a program that increased youth voice

from year 1 to year 2; and a school that failed to incorporate youth voice in its projects.

Findings

During year 1, we identified the overall outcomes of the program. Survey data

suggested that the Y.O.D.A. program helped raise student awareness and interest in

issues that pertain to the safety of their schools and communities. At the end of the first

year we observed that students appeared to be more aware of what to do in the event of

disasters, they knew how to provide first aid and CPR; they were aware of their schools’

plans for emergencies, they felt prepared to show people in the community how to

prepare for a disaster, and they knew what they could do to make their communities

safer.

In year 1 (N = 408), the majority of the students indicated that the program helped

them increase: their ability to work with others (90.7%); their commitment to helping

others (88.1%); and their ability to solve problems (86.7%). Most of the students

reported that the program also helped them increase: their understanding of the problems

in their community (84.9%); their interest in learning new things (84.9%) and in

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community safety issues (84.5%); their attendance in school (72.2%); and, their interest

in school subjects (69%).

Similarly in year 2 (N = 573), most of the students reported that their involvement

in the Y.O.D.A. program had helped increase: their commitment to helping others

(93.2%), their ability to solve problems (91.7%), and their ability to work with others in a

team (90.2%). Most students indicated that program activities helped foster their interest

in learning new things (89.6%), their interest in community safety issues (87.3%), their

understanding of the problems in their community (86.6%), their interest in school

subjects (81.9%), and their ability to speak in front of groups (80.5%).

In year 2, we added a section in our survey that prompted students to determine to

what extent they were involved in selecting and organizing their service-learning

projects. Our goal was to determine the relationship, if any, between the degree of

student participation in service-learning activities and the outcomes of the program.

Through individual regressions we examined the relationship between the student

responses on Y.O.D.A. academic and civic outcomes and the service-learning activities

that foster youth voice. A sum score of service-learning program activities related to

youth voice was calculated and treated as an independent (predictor) variable. Service-

learning program activities included: researching the safety needs of the community;

reflecting on their service-learning experiences; evaluating the project goals;

researching about disasters; teaching others how to respond to disasters; and, selecting

projects to address community needs. A summary table of these regressions, in

descending order of strength of relationship, is provided.

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Table 1: Relationship between Youth Voice & Y.O.D.A. Outcomes

Reported Y.O.D.A. academic and civic outcomes R2 from regression

Your interest in community safety issues. 0.327

Your understanding of the problems in your community. 0.292

Your ability to work with others in a team. 0.258

Your interest in learning new things. 0.216

Your commitment to helping others. 0.215

Note: In general, an R

2 between 0.20 and 0.25 indicates a moderate relationship between variables, and an

R2 greater than 0.25 indicates a strong relationship between variables. The R

2 measures the amount of

variation in one variable explained by another. For example, in the first row of the table, an R2 of 0.327

indicates that 32.7% of the variation in response to the student’s increased interest in community safety

issues could be explained by their reported level of involvement in program activities. Additional details of

the regression are as follows: F(1,336) = 193.097 (p < 0.0001); estimated 1 (slope) = 0.750, t = 13.896 (p

< 0.0001); estimated 0 (intercept) = 8.825, t = 12.3 (p < 0.0001).

The table shows that there was a strong relationship between youth voice and their

increased interest in community safety issues, their understanding of the problems in their

community, and their ability to work in a team. In other words, students who reported

being actively involved in identifying community problems, in reflecting and evaluating

their projects, and teaching others about disaster preparedness and response were more

likely to report an increased interest in and understanding of community safety issues and

an increased ability in working collaboratively. Moderate relationships were found

between student involvement in service-learning activities and their interest in learning

new things, and their commitment to helping others.

What specific service-learning activities might have affected program outcomes?

Here we present programs from three schools with varied degrees of student involvement

and youth voice. An overview of each school will help us showcase the importance for

implementing youth voice in our service-learning initiatives2.

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Truman Middle School

Truman Middle School is a public middle school located in Eastern Pennsylvania.

The Y.O.D.A. activities were carried out by seventh and eighth graders. The projects

were tied to the health, physical education and science curricula. Activities were initiated

by students researching the safety needs of their community. The goal for students at

Truman Middle School was for their disaster preparedness and response projects to

increase community awareness about the frequency of disasters. In year 1, students

researched the community; they created a survey that helped them identify the specific

needs in their neighborhood and town. After tabulating the data they found that the

community lacked information on what to do in the event of a disaster. Based on these

findings, they created an action plan to increase public awareness of what to do when a

disaster occurs. Their action plan included a PowerPoint presentation, which was later

broadcast on public television. Students created emergency kits and a magnet to inform

families of what to do during an emergency. A teacher describes the students’ research

skills and ownership:

“They survey all the students, their parents, and policy makers. They want to find

out what they know about the subject. From that, the math teachers show them

how to graph and what to do with the data they collected and develop their action

plans. Math is integrated right away.”

Concerned about the victims of the Delaware flood in April 2005, students

decided to respond to this local emergency by collecting money and preparing flood

buckets with supplies for the victims. One of the teachers facilitating the program

activities describes the students’ active involvement:

“[Students] selected a project, researched it, began to focus on a specific topic.

From there, we did a needs assessment survey to figure out exactly what people

knew and what things we should focus on. They had selected flooding because of

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the floods in the fall and that had somewhat started before and YODA fit right in

[sic]. When the April 4th floods happened again, then they responded

immediately - collected money, collected cleaning supplies, created flood buckets,

had them delivered to the people who were out of their homes. [They] were

cleaning them up, got businesses to join in.”

Students made choices and were involved in projects they identified as needs in their

communities. They envisioned their message reaching out to the larger community.

Thus, they contacted local authorities and informed them about the importance of

educating people on disaster preparedness and response. Students were involved in

making public presentations at conferences and at school assemblies. These activities

made their learning relevant and engaging.

Truman students made their projects known in their school, neighborhood and

community. Program banners, brochures and magnets could easily be found in the

school facilities. There was an array of activities from which students could choose, use

their skills, and develop new abilities. For example, a teacher reported that one of the

major achievements through Y.O.D.A. was the students’ improved oral skills. She

reflected:

“I think what I see out of the kids that is so phenomenal to me is their speaking

abilities in public and how they have really improved. Kids that I never thought

would get up in front. Kids that would get up in front and talk and they get up

there at the convention and they are totally different people. It’s good for their self

esteem and they do really well. I’m pretty impressed by some of them.”

The program allowed opportunities for her students to make presentations to others about

school and community safety. Some students reported being more self-confident and

many were no longer afraid to speak in public.

During year 2, with the threat of the avian flu, students decided to focus their

research on past pandemics in the country and ways to prevent the spread of the bird flu.

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This research showed them that good hygiene could help prevent these kinds of

pandemics. They researched school-wide awareness of proper hand washing procedures.

They concluded that the majority of the students and school staff did not exercise proper

hygiene. Results from their research allowed them to make a decision on the project to

focus on. They led a campaign to teach members in their school and community on hand

washing procedures which will prevent infection, and created a brochure outlining bird

flu facts along with prevention information. During both years students took ownership

of their projects. By making decisions about their projects, they became more

academically engaged and felt they made a difference in their schools and communities.

Students were also actively involved in fostering relationships with the community. They

contacted community organizations and invited them to give feedback about their

projects. Some of their community partners included the Red Cross and the local waste

management company.

Students’ engagement in service-learning made their learning more significant.

Knowing that their communities had a genuine need increased their motivation for

learning new things and for serving their communities: A teacher describes her students’

increased interest in learning:

“Any topic where students are interested they learn more and sharpen their skills.

When there is an interest they increase their learning. This touches them

personally. They want to be safe and not worry that their family is not going to be

prepared. It’s about keeping your family healthy, safe, and happy. They really

were involved in school and were more positive.”

The students’ response efforts to disaster relief were timely. Concerned by the damage

caused by hurricanes in the Gulf Coast, students reflected in class about the devastation

left in the areas affected by the hurricane and with initiative and determination, they

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planned activities to respond to the needs of the people in the affected region. They

created school bags with supplies and they included the disaster preparedness magnets

they created earlier that year to help schools in the Gulf Coast.

In addition to these projects, students awarded mini-grants for safety projects to

other schools in the district. They acted as reviewers of grant applications, discussed each

application’s strengths and weaknesses and voted on the projects to grant financial

support. By connecting and working with others, they learned to work collaboratively

and to make decisions more democratically. When prompted to talk about the challenges

she faced, a student reflected,

“Not agreeing with my other partner. We sat down and had to come up with an

agreement. We had members of the team vote on what they wanted done. It was

not easy, not hard, it was in the middle somewhere.”

Overall, students at Truman Middle School were empowered. The teachers acted

as facilitators and guided students as the youth designed and carried out their projects.

Youth voice has helped build service-learning sustainability. As the director of the

Y.O.D.A. projects stated:

“Not only do the students select the service-learning projects but they continually

have decision-making authority in the design, development and implementation of

each project. [The school] promotes sustainable service-learning activities by

managing a student directed funding board, with the goal of developing student

leadership skills while reviewing service-learning grant applications for other

institutions and providing matching mini -grants for implementing service-

learning projects in K-12 public and private schools in our community.”

Central High School

Central High School is a public high school located in an urban area of New

Jersey. The Y.O.D.A. team was formed by students from tenth, eleventh and twelfth

grades. Activities took place as part of the school’s emergency response team, which

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formed right after the 9/11 attacks. The emergency response team was formed with the

goal to assist local authorities when emergencies occur.

During the first year, the school experienced difficulties in engaging students in

meaningful and relevant activities. When the Y.O.D.A. grant was awarded, students had

already been identified and were part of an existing elective emergency management

training course (EMT). The course required rigorous academic training and demanded

many hours of hard academic learning from students. Students were trained to respond to

the emergency needs of their community. They were aware that learning this material

was important, but they were not actively engaged in a meaningful service project that

would give them the opportunity to share the knowledge learned. Towards the end of the

first year, we observed that the students were more likely to know academic content that

related to emergency preparedness and response, but did not feel a personal obligation to

help their communities become safer. Students did not have the opportunity to use their

skills to choose a project where they could best meet the safety needs of their community.

Based on our evaluations, we shared our concerns with the program administrator and

teachers and provided training and technical support. We also helped teachers identify

ways students could be involved in meaningful service-learning activities. Together, we

examined possible projects where students could apply their knowledge and they could

see the relevance of what they were learning.

During year 2, we observed changes in students’ decision making and

participation in projects. Students developed a partnership with a local elementary

school. They created a three-hour lesson plan to train elementary school kids on first aid.

They also designed a training program for people attending the National Service-

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Learning Conference. Their EMT training became more relevant as they began

responding to non-emergency calls and utilizing their knowledge in real-life situations.

Students’ enthusiasm and engagement increased; they felt empowered to make decisions

about their projects and felt a personal obligation to help their communities. Survey data

confirmed these findings. By the end of the second year, students were not only more

knowledgeable of emergency related issues, but they also reported that they enjoyed

being at school, that their classes were interesting, and they felt their school work was

meaningful and important. Students reported being actively involved in safety projects

and feeling responsible for serving their schools and community. We also found that at

the end of the second year, students appeared to be more experienced at identifying

community problems, figuring out ways to solve problems and leading service-learning

projects. A student points out one of his major achievements through the Y.O.D.A.

program:

“[I gained a] career path, looks good on college application, and knowing you can

save a person’s life. The more I took the course the more I realized it wasn’t even

about that anymore. It’s about saving a life, being an EMT, they trust you.”

Another student reflected,

“Before coming to this school I never helped somebody like this. With Y.O.D.A.

I learned to help other people. This sounds really cheesy but I never really

believed in myself but I’ve progressed so much that now I can make a difference

if I want to.”

Comments like these exemplify the students’ personal satisfaction and civic commitment.

By helping others students felt empowered and gained the trust and respect of their peers,

teachers and the community. For some students, their involvement in Y.O.D.A. helped

them make decisions about their careers. A student reflected on how the program

influenced his career choice:

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“Not to bring anybody down but being the number one student was my

achievement. Studying for the course I had no life. I had work, gym, and studied.

I’m an average student in everyday school. I realized [that] it gave me a career

for the future. I’m going to go to paramedic school.”

Other projects initiated by students included a blood drive, a security system to

track school visitors and emergency trainings to their peers and school staff. Being

involved in meaningful activities helped increase the students’ interest in learning. The

service projects led by students provided an added value to their learning. One of the

teachers described the students’ involvement in the Y.O.D.A. program:

“When kids feel included and they feel excited and important and valued then

they want to come to school. If you can get them to school then you can teach

them. There is a guy here today and I’m not sure how seriously he’s taken school

in the past but he’s been mature through all this and come into his own.”

Central High students’ commitment to serve their community was strengthened. Students

felt the obligation and had a strong desire to continue serving their community. Teachers

described some students’ success stories: a student for example wanted to continue

helping his community by serving in the local volunteer ambulance corps and 911

services; another student continues to help at her school’s football games as an

emergency response team member. Students’ active engagement in service-learning

activities instilled a sense of civic responsibility for responding to the needs of their

families and communities.

Southville Middle School

When students lack choices, their development can be affected as their learning

becomes irrelevant and passive (Jensen, 1998). This was the case of Southville, a middle

school located in rural Pennsylvania. The service-learning projects at Southville focused

on addressing bullying problems in the school and on creating emergency kits. Activities

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were selected by sixth grade teachers who identified the theme for the projects. During

site visits, we observed that students played a minor role in deciding a project that would

best address safety needs in their schools and community. Throughout the first year,

students read a book that discussed issues relating to safety, but no specific service

projects were derived from their learning. Students were required to put together

emergency kits. Without their input, emergency kits were purchased and delivered to

members of their community. Surveys attest to our observations. By the end of year 1,

no differences were observed in the students’ responses to statements regarding their

knowledge about school safety issues, their academic or civic engagement. At the end of

the second year, students reported being less interested in school work; and were less

likely to report feeling a personal responsibility for learning about safety and for serving

their community. Students did not take leadership roles in preparing and implementing

project activities to address community needs. Teachers failed to give students the

opportunity to lead projects even though they were given technical assistance on how to

engage youth in more meaningful and relevant activities throughout both school years.

During informal conversations, they appeared to be overwhelmed by school requirements

and did not see service-learning as a central component or as a tool to achieve their

academic goals.

Discussion

Service-learning projects that allow students to make choices to actively

participate in problem solving can help foster their academic engagement as well as build

their leadership skills as they connect with others. The three project examples presented

above show different degrees of student involvement in service-learning projects. We

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observed that by allowing students to take on leadership roles and to make choices about

their programs they increased their engagement in learning and their civic development.

Students who were given choices and were more actively engaged in designing and

selecting project activities reported enjoying school work and feeling that they could

make a difference in their communities. At Truman Middle School, students were

engaged in relevant and engaging activities from the beginning of the program. They led

and chose their projects based on their research, solved problems while working in teams,

selected and organized activities and continuously reflected on and evaluated the goals of

their program. Central High found from year 1 to year 2 that allowing students to take

active roles in leading safety projects had a positive impact on students’ development.

Students went from being passive learners in year 1 to being leaders in year 2. By the

end of the Y.O.D.A. program, students felt better about themselves, and reported being

more experienced at solving problems and leading service-learning projects. Sharing

their knowledge with others in creative ways made their learning more relevant and

engaging. Southville, on the other hand, failed to incorporate youth voice into their

projects. Activities were led by teachers, and students were passive learners. Teachers

had difficulty relinquishing power to the students and were overwhelmed by the school

requirements. At the end of the second year, the students appeared to be even less

interested in learning and less committed to helping their community. Lacking youth

voice made the student learning irrelevant. These three examples show that youth voice

can help maximize the outcomes of our service-learning programs.

In their national research of youth involved in service-learning, Billig et al. (2006)

found that genuine need does not predict academic and civic outcomes. In our study, we

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observed that when genuine need is tied to youth voice, it does predict program academic

and civic outcomes. In other words, when the students are involved in researching the

needs of the communities and selecting projects based on their research, the importance

of their project becomes clear to them, adding value to their learning and engagement.

Youth voice needs to be present at each stage of project planning and implementation.

Students should be able to make choices as they carry out their needs assessments, select

the project, organize activities, reflect and evaluate their projects, identify the skills and

knowledge they are acquiring and document their learning. Jensen (1998) encourages us

to help our students see the connections between their actions and the outcomes by

providing students with rich experiences of choice. Having choices allows students to

make decisions about their programs. Youth voice is a powerful service-learning

component that empowers students and can enrich their personal lives. Implementing

youth voice requires a change in the traditional style of teaching, where teachers act as

facilitators of student learning. Encouraging our students to act as active participants

rather than mere learners and to become leaders rather than passive followers is a central

goal of service-learning. A teacher comments on the empowering effects of service-

learning and youth voice on her students:

“It makes them see that their actions and decisions have an outcome. They see

they can make someone more comfortable and make a neighborhood look better.

Things that I do matter. Now, do I do my homework or not might matter. I can

benefit my family and I can benefit myself. All things from service-learning can

help the kids see school is school but you need to use what you have and apply it

to better yourself.”

Recommendations

Being open to the students’ ideas, opinions, and input while they plan and

implement their projects is essential for a successful service-learning program. Here we

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provide some recommendations to assist practitioners in their efforts engaging students in

leadership and decision making.

Involve youth in the planning process: Provide opportunities for students to take

active roles in investigating the needs of the community and in identifying the service

projects that can best meet those needs. If the focus area has already been identified, as

we have done in our Y.O.D.A. projects, students can research the history or the statistics

surrounding a particular issue to help them see the relevance of the service-learning

project they are going to develop.

Surveys created, conducted, and analyzed by students allow them to gain

information about public opinion, and the knowledge level of people in the community.

From the information collected they can make choices about the types of projects that

need to be pursued. Having students contact local experts and conduct interviews is

another excellent strategy for engaging youth in the planning phase of the service-

learning process. These activities not only promote youth voice but help to increase

student ownership of the service-learning projects they are going to undertake.

Allow students to generate potential projects: The service selected by students

can take many forms and should be directly related to the information gathered during the

needs assessment and planning phase of the service-learning project. Choice is

encouraged as students decide the best strategy to meet the identified need by teaching

others, creating a product that can be distributed to community members, or by directly

engaging in and providing a service to the community.

Provide varied and ongoing opportunities for program reflection: Reflection

activities should meet the needs of various learning styles and ability levels. In addition,

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reflection should be a continuous process that allows youth to assess their personal

development, their connection to others, their commitment to active citizenship, their

understanding of new content or skills, and enable them to reframe what they think about

complex issues (Eyler & Giles, 1996).

Ensure diversity in all aspects of the service-learning initiative: Students of all

ability levels and backgrounds can benefit from meaningful opportunities to participate in

the project. Students should be given choices regarding involvement of activities. When

students choose activities they are interested in they are more likely to take on leadership

roles and use their skills in a meaningful way. For example, if the project chosen is

creating a brochure about disasters, students can be involved in various activities: a

group of students can do the research of the information to be included; a second group

can select the targeted audience and distribution methods; and the last group can be

engaged in the layout and design. This way you will be providing choices for students to

use their skills and strengths. Having opportunities to explore the diverse groups in their

community including sensitivity training and discussions of other diversity topics (race,

power, and privilege) allows students to become better able to relate to others different

than themselves. Participating in sensitivity training to better understand the aging

process helps students to choose appropriate information and strategies to include in

service-learning projects geared towards the elders in their community. The same applies

to seeing the relevance of adapting information for other audiences (which could mean

translating information for a non English speaking population).

Allow students to take more active roles as trainers, funders, or evaluators:

Students that were allowed to identify what information to teach others and who to teach

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it to (younger students, peers, or adults) felt most engaged. When youth act as

evaluators, designing and analyzing the effectiveness of the training, the impact of their

efforts is realized. Getting students involved in grant making helps them to understand

the responsibility of program design. Working together to design and evaluate requests

for proposals, increases students’ ability to work collaboratively and understand the ideas

of others.

Notes

The authors would like to gratefully acknowledge and thank the Y.O.D.A.

students and teachers for sharing their candid reflections. We would also like to thank

colleagues who provided insightful feedback on earlier drafts of this work.

1An analysis of student responses was conducted to examine the relationship

between level of youth voice and Y.O.D.A. learning outcomes. To determine whether

sum scores of responses could be utilized for analyses, internal construct validation was

performed by factor analysis of all items of interest. A linear regression was conducted

with the sum score of Y.O.D.A. learning outcomes items as dependent variable, and the

predictor variable: the sum scores of the related youth voice items. Results of this linear

regression showed that responses to the related youth voice items could predict responses

to the Y.O.D.A. outcome items.

2Note that to insure confidentiality, pseudonyms for each of the schools were

used.

References

Benard, B. (1991). Fostering Resiliency in Youth: Protective Factors in the Family,

School and Community. Portland, OR: Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory.

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Billig, S. (2005). The Impact of Participation in Service-Learning on High School

Student Civic Engagement. Maryland: CIRCLE Working Paper 33.

Fredericks, L. et al. (2001). Integrating Youth Voice in Service-Learning. Denver:

Education Commission of the States. Available at:

http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/23/67/2367.htm

Jensen, Eric. (1998). Teaching with the Brain in Mind. Virginia: Association for

Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Eyler, J. & Giles, D. (1996). Practitioner's Guide to Reflection in Service-Learning:

Student Voices and Reflections. Tennessee: Vanderbilt University.

Scales, P. and Leffert, N. (1997). Developmental Assets: A Synthesis of the Scientific

Research on Adolescent Development. Minneapolis, MN: Search Institute.

About the Authors

Kathia Monard-Weissman serves as evaluation consultant for the Institute for

Global Education and Service-Learning. She received her doctorate from the University

of Pittsburgh’s School of Education. Prior to her doctoral studies she directed

international service-learning exchanges in Ecuador. Her research focuses on ways

service-learning fosters civic responsibility and reciprocal relationships between school

and community. She has published in the Michigan Journal of Community Service-

Learning, the Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, the UNESCO

Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems and Academic Exchange Quarterly.

Joan Lennon Liptrot is the Executive Director of the Institute for Global

Education and Service Learning in Levittown, Pennsylvania. The IGESL is a non-profit

training organization that creates service-learning programs in collaboration with schools

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and community organizations across the country. As the Executive Director of the IGESL

Joan provides training and technical assistance to schools, community, and faith based

organizations as well as National Service programs. With 20 years of experience in

education, international teacher training, and curriculum development, she has helped

youth and adults develop, expand, and enhance their service-learning practice. Co-author

of “Getting Started In Service-Learning” and “Developing Citizenship Through

Community Development” Joan is a founding member of the Philadelphia Service-

Learning Support Organization Collaborative.

Julia Wagner serves as the Program Manager for the Learn & Serve America -

Youth Organized for Disaster Action (Y.O.D.A.) program at the Institute for Global

Education and Service Learning. After graduating from Miami University in Ohio with a

Bachelor of Science in Marketing, Julia spent a year as an AmeriCorps VISTA in

Vermont. In addition to coordinating service-learning projects at Rivendell Academy

High School, Julia was certified as a Critical Friends Coach by the National School

Reform Faculty to facilitate district-wide Critical Friends groups focused on 'Improving

student performance through reflective practice".