Generator, (The): Meaningful Service

Meaningful service is at the heart of quality service-learning. As one of the eight K-12 Service-Learning Standards for Quality Practice, it is critical to the initial stage of assessing community needs. While it is central to the entire experience, it can also play a critical role in a secondary service-learning experience -- at the "now what?" stage. Students who've been through an initial experience are then poised to go deeper in their next experience, building off the experiences of the first, and addressing root causes of an issue. In this winter issue of The Generator, we examine the research supporting meaningful service, its role in the service-learning cycle, and its application in a Maine middle school gardening project.