Safety protocols for COVID-19 necessitated changes to this action research project. This article describes the theoretical framework of Community-Based Art Education for providing Service-Learning in an art education preparation program during the global pandemic. Art education students joined the local Boys & Girls Club (BGC) and a local…

Youth engagement is the meaningful and sustained involvement of young people in efforts to create positive social change. This approach requires youth-serving organizations to rebalance traditional power dynamics between adults and young people, allowing youths to take on decision-making responsibilities. Collective impact initiatives such as…

The rapid growth of the U.S. Latinx population has led to an increased need for community organizations and academic institutions to develop partnerships focused on addressing gaps in health maintenance and education of Latinx individuals. Medical schools also have a responsibility to educate future physicians in delivering culturally sensitive…

Youths not only participate in Extension services but also can be equipped as facilitators to extend information about a critical topic to new audiences. Our interdisciplinary team of Extension professionals created a program to equip youths as peer educators, increase youths' awareness and understanding of a new topic (local foods), promote…

The purpose of this reflective essay is to encourage the discussion of community-engaged scholarship (CES) that does not progress as planned. Insufficient attention is given to lessons gleaned from missteps and outright failures experienced by scholars in the field, which results in a paucity of documented cases and recommendations for…

The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) is a federal agency that annually engages millions of Americans in service and volunteering at more than 50,000 sites across the country. Senior Corps and AmeriCorps members play a vital role in helping communities design and implement locally determined, results-driven, cost-effective…

Service-learning courses provide students with practical opportunities to enhance their learning and development in the field, along with getting students engaged in different communities and settings. However, there are still many challenges to designing and offering effective service-learning courses, such as requiring all students to…

This article describes ROCKETS, an after-school program for at-risk youth, and how the university students became involved in this service-learning project. The article discusses the steps that were taken to start the program, what is being done to continue the program, and the challenges that faculty have faced. This program is an authentic…

Even as service-learning has become more prevalent in higher education as a high-impact teaching methodology, barriers still exist to its implementation by some instructors. One concern is the perception of these types of activities infringing upon course content. This article outlines an example of an introductory service-learning project for an…

Examining traditional and contemporary professional development practices of youth-serving organizations can inform practices across Extension, particularly in light of the barriers that have been noted for effectively developing the professional competencies of Extension educators. With professional development systems changing quickly,…

In the spirit of the Steven Stahl 600 Book Kid Challenge, 90 preservice teachers engaged children in 36 read-aloud sessions for a vocabulary improvement service learning project. This article describes how the preservice teachers used narrative and informational books as a vehicle for rare-word vocabulary exposure for children ages 8-12.

This article describes a critical service-learning project that resulted from an educational partnership among a national teachers' union, a local teachers' union, and a major research university. The partnership-funded by a grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service, Learn and Serve program--focused on professional development…

In all settings, the social work profession thrives on multilevel (macro, mezzo, and micro practice), however recent data from a benchmark study of school social work professionals (Kelly, Berzin, Frey, Alvarez, Shaffer & O'Brien, 2010a) asserts that school social workers do not frequently practice macro level practice in the form of capacity…

Non-formal learning for urban youth has a long history in the United States; it remains a source of innovation. This essay draws on literature about organizations that use community ties to encourage cognitive development and identity formation. It then describes how one youth organization in Camden, New Jersey uses presentations to the community…

The Jersey Roots, Global Reach 4-H Climate Science Program conducted in Camden, New Jersey introduces middle school students to the evidence, impacts, and potential solutions to climate change. For their service learning project, students installed two rain gardens at the school. Rain gardens are shallow landscaped depressions in the soil that can…