On May 31, eight groups of students, educators, and chaperones from around the city came together to recognize the Service in Schools (SIS) Kids Action Teams. The Celebration of Service honored the awesome service work that elementary students accomplished in their SIS Kids Action Teams during the 2017-18 school year.
Students presented on a wide range of projects that their Kids Action Teams engaged in this year, including park and neighborhood beautification, raising funds for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), and donating socks to the Bowery Mission. Each team’s service efforts involved deep research, including interviews with experts and community surveys. At the Celebration, students also decorated water droplet magnets with messages on water conservation to remind friends and family to monitor their water use.
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Prior to leaving the Celebration, the SIS team presented students with certificates recognizing their accomplishments. The SIS Kids Action Team Celebration of Service gave students a chance to celebrate and reflect on all their hard work this school year, and students walked away feeling proud of their achievements and motivated to do more. We are all very excited to see how these young students serve their communities in the years to come!
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MGHS Students Paint Mural Honoring Women Heroes
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We heard from Erika Klein, school social worker at the Maxine Greene High School for Imaginative Inquiry (MGHS) and a former Service in Schools program participant, regarding her students work on a community mural project. MGHS students worked in collaboration with the non-profit organization Art and Resistance Through Education (ARTE) to create a powerful community mural called “Women Breaking Barriers: Global Women Heroes.” The project was led by ARTE, in partnership with several incarcerated young women at Rikers Island and the Columbia Center for Justice. The mural project was also an educational opportunity for students at MGHS to learn about several inspirational women activists across the world. The women featured in the mural are Leymah Gbowee (Liberia), Dolores Huerta (United States), Bree Newsome (United States), Malala Yousafzai (Pakistan), Leena Kejriwal (India), and Michelle Obama (United States).
Several incarcerated women created the mural design in winter 2016, and ARTE and the MGHS students painted it over this past spring break. The mural is located in Harlem at the Harlem Tavern (2153 Frederick Douglass Blvd). This is a powerful collaboration and the final product sends a strong message of equality, justice, and hope, along with bringing attention to those directly impacted by mass incarceration.
For more information on how to get involved with a service-learning project with ARTE or to attend their upcoming community educational events, contact Founder and Executive Director
Marissa Gutierrez-Vicario
, or visit their website at
www.artejustice.org
.
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Project Summary:
After researching hunger and soup kitchens, Ms. Fici and Ms. Santos’s fifth grade students led and publicized a long-term food drive for
City Harvest
.
They collected 200 pounds of food to donate and gained valuable skills in the process.
Investigation:
The class began by reading the book
Maddi’s Fridge
and engaging in conversations about hunger and serving one’s community. The class also discussed the differences between soup kitchens and restaurants and the purpose of food
drives. After investigating food drives, the class decided to take on one of their own.
Preparation:
First, the students created flyers to promote the food drive and provide information to anyone that visited the school. Then, the students strategized how to gather different kinds of foods from the building. Students decided that the younger grades might want to bring in items that were lighter to carry, such as oatmeal and peanut butter, and wrote item suggestions that would be appropriate for each grade.
Action:
Every day, two students gave a brief announcement over the intercom system to remind staff and students to donate to the food drive. The students also wrote and delivered speeches to each class in English and in Spanish and fielded questions from their classmates in both languages. This helped build confidence in many students who previously struggled with public speaking. The students then created a donation station outside of their classroom so that anyone and everyone could come by at any time and donate goods. Ultimately, they set a goal to collect 200 pounds of food to donate to City Harvest.
Demonstration:
The day before City Harvest was due to pick up the donated goods, students listed the items received, converted the ounces into pounds, and tallied up the total. Then, the students announced to the school what they had collectively accomplished.
Reflection:
This project fostered enthusiastic engagement and cooperation among the students. Ms. Fici and Ms. Santos noted that their students were eager to reach their goal and were even more ecstatic when they reached it in just five weeks. The students reflected as a group on how it felt to help people in their community by setting a goal and working toward it. Next year, they hope to get started earlier in the year and gather double the amount of food, if not more, to be distributed back to their community.
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Current and Upcoming Opportunities
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Masa After-School Program
Deadline: September 1, 2018
Opportunity for Students 16 and up
Masa
is a non-profit organization that collaborates with Latino immigrant youth and families in the South Bronx to develop strong learners and leaders. At the Masa After-school Program, volunteer tutors ages 16 and up help students complete their homework. Whenever possible, tutors work with the same students from week to week, nurturing a mentorship between them and their students. Volunteers also facilitate activities focused on building literacy skills, a growth mindset, and a commitment to social justice. Masa is actively recruiting for the 2018-19 school year and asks potential volunteers to express interest by September 1, 2018. Click
here
to complete the volunteer interest form and to receive more information.
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Holy Apostle Soup Kitchen
Volunteer Opportunity for Middle and High School Students
On October 22, 1982, as a response to the increase in homelessness in Chelsea,
Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen
fed its first thirty-five meals to hungry New Yorkers. From greeting guests to serving food, cleaning tables to passing out haircut vouchers, volunteers enable the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen to support their guests every day. Volunteers can work on any weekday from 9:30am to 1:00pm, including holidays that fall on weekdays. High school volunteers can intern at the soup kitchen and complete community service hours, and middle school students must volunteer as a class with a chaperone. Jobs at the soup kitchen include greeter, ticket taker, runner to replenish the food line, and more.
Click
here
to view an informational video, and click
here
to sign up and make a difference today.
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YSA 9/11 Day of Service and Remembrance
Opportunity for All Ages
It is increasingly challenging to explain the significance of the events of September 11, 2001 to America’s young people, most of whom have no first-hand memory of the occasion
.
YSA
invites teachers and students to participate in an enduring and positive tribute to those lost and injured on 9/11 and the many who rose in service in response to the attacks, including first responders, recovery workers, volunteers, and members of the military. Honoring this moment in our nation’s history by serving in your community helps transform 9/11 into a day of unity, empathy, and service. Click
here
to sign up and browse project ideas, and click
here
to learn more about grant funding for 9/11 Day of Service and Remembrance activities. To learn more about grant funding to support your service efforts on 9/11 and beyond, click
here
.
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Roots & Shoots Growing Compassionate Young Leaders through Service Learning
Free Online Course
Roots & Shoots
is offering an online professional development course that is free and open to everyone. Growing Compassionate Young Leaders through Service Learning teaches participants how to identify and implement a local service-learning campaign using the Roots & Shoots program model. Through this training, participants will learn how to inspire and activate young students to develop a service-learning campaign. Participants will also be able to access curriculum materials, lesson plans, activity guides, and tutorials. Click
here
to learn more about this training and to access Roots & Shoots’ additional resources for educators.
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Learning to Give
TeachOne Lessons
Build community through giving while teaching interdisciplinary skills and art. TeachOne by
Learning to Give
includes three vibrant service initiatives for 2018-19, each with a lesson plan and project for grades K-5, 6-8, and 9-12. TeachOne lessons can be used with your classroom or whole school to empower students to help their community. Click
here
to learn more about TeachOne, and click
here
to find inspirational stories of classroom service and action.
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Contact the Service in Schools Team
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Invite the Service in Schools team to visit your service project. We want to see your students and school community in action. Email the Service in Schools team at
ServiceinSchools@schools.nyc.gov
with two weeks’ notice, and we’ll schedule a visit to your school to learn about your project and see the impact you’re making on the community.
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Follow
@ServicenSchools
to receive program updates, upcoming service opportunities, resources, and more. We encourage students who use Twitter and are interested in service opportunities to follow us.
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Mission:
Service in Schools
strives to expand the number of NYC students engaged in transformative community service and service-learning experiences that enable them to use their voice, skills, and critical thinking to strengthen communities.
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