In Section 4: Program Delivery, you learned that service learning is an activity that promotes many of the youth development principles (e.g., connection with the community) and practices (e.g., youth decision-making, leadership, and reflection). Staff members can use service learning activities or projects to help improve youth academic achievement, develop their leadership skills, strengthen ties to the community, and provide real-life experience.
Directions: Use this template in partnership with youth to design a service learning project. There are a variety of ways to come up with a service learning project. You can use the Community Inventory for Service Learning (Tool 78). We also suggest identifying your service learning project through a youth-led asset mapping activity (Tool 34) or conducting a youth-researched market analysis (Tool 15) or a needs assessment (Tool 35). Ideally, youth should drive the development of the activity. Younger youth may need additional support to complete this template. Staff members should provide support and guidance throughout the process.