We will also be presenting a poster session at the Special Library Association Annual Conference in Seattle June 15th where we will highlight the various social media tools that NSLC uses to keep in touch and collaborate with all of you. But you don’t have to see our session to find out about all the different ways we have to stay in touch. Visit our new Marketing 101: Using Social Media / Web 2.0 to Highlight Your Program page to learn more about how we’re using social media and to get ideas and resources for using social media to help your project get new participants and supporters, spread the news about your impact, and share tools & resources:
http://www.servicelearning.org/instant_info/marketing_101/index.php

With the flurry of activity, resources, and exciting projects of the spring and early summer, probably like you, we’re ready for a bit of a summer breather so we can focus on creating and collecting resources to support the service-learning community. But, summer or not, we’ll still be here ready to answer your toughest service-learning reference question.

In fact, summer is a great time to restock your service-learning library by ordering materials from us at http://www.servicelearning.org/pubs/index.php or to gather lesson plan and syllabus ideas from SLICE (Service-Learning Ideas and Curricular Examples) at http://www.servicelearning.org/slice/index.php. This summer is also a great time to gear up for the Learn & Serve Challenge, October 6-12, 2008. Get ready for the Challenge by getting project ideas, downloading tools and resources, and getting cool gear. Take the Challenge. Visit http://www.learnandservechallenge.org/index.php.

Hoping you’re having a relaxing and productive start to the summer,

Barbara and Liberty

Barbara Holland, National Service-Learning Clearinghouse Director
Liberty Smith, National Service-Learning Clearinghouse Program Manager

Hot Topic: Community Service Federal Work Study
The Higher Education Act (HEA) states that one of the purposes of the Federal Work Study program is “…to encourage students receiving Federal student financial assistance to participate in community service activities that will benefit the Nation and engender in the students a sense of social responsibility and commitment to the community.” And colleges and universities are required to spend 7% of FWS funds on community service positions. Check out these resources from the NSLC collection to see how you can meet and exceed the community service FWS mandate at your college or university or get a FWS student at your community-based organization.
This Hot Topic provides a list of resources and links to help you use this program to help support your service-learning work.
http://www.servicelearning.org/instant_info/hot_topics/work_study/index.php

Service-Learning & Dropout Prevention: Selected Resources
Service-Learning has been proven as an effective dropout intervention. This bibliography provides background information on America’s dropout crisis and presents tools, resources, and research on the use of service-learning as a dropout prevention tool.
http://www.servicelearning.org/instant_info/bibs/k-12_bibs/dropout_prevention/index.php

Hot Topic: Drug & Alcohol Abuse Prevention
Service-learning is an effective tool for prevention of drug and alcohol abuse amongst youth. This resource has a short bibliography and links to recommended NSLC library items, relevant websites and online sources, and related Hot Topics.
http://www.servicelearning.org/instant_info/hot_topics/drug_alcohol/index.php

Call for Papers/Proposals
This new RSS Feed provides information of service-learning calls for papers and proposals for journals, magazines, and conference workshops.

Unlike a newsletter, email, or traditional webpage, an RSS feed offers you many more opportunities to use and reuse the information. You can subscribe so you'll always know what's new in service-learning funding instantly and you can incorporate the feed into your own webpage, iGoogle page, or blog so it will automatically add the newest content on your site. You just need a newsfeed reader or aggregator. To subscribe, click on (or copy and paste into an aggregator) the link below:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/Service-LearningCFPs

If you have trouble using this feed, you can also get the updates by visiting. http://www.servicelearning.org/rss/cfp.html

For more information on RSS feeds, see:
http://www.semiologic.com/resources/blogging/help-with-feeds/

Tips for Spreading the Word About Service-Learning
We’ve created four new resources with easy to follow steps to guide you through promoting service-learning in your schools and communities (http://www.servicelearning.org/lsa/bring_learning/index.php#blltips):

• Introduce Service-Learning to your Local PTA (91K pdf)
  http://www.servicelearning.org/filemanager/download/ bll_tipsheets/
  Introduce_SL_to_your_Local_PTA.pdf
• Present Service-Learning to your School Board or at Another Public Meeting (90K pdf)
  http://www.servicelearning.org/filemanager/download/bll_tipsheets/
  Present_SL_to_your_School_Board_or_at_Another_Public_Meeting.pdf
• Present Service-Learning to your School Using the Bring Learning to Life Materials (91K pdf)
  http://www.servicelearning.org/filemanager/download/bll_tipsheets/
  Present_SL_to_Your_School_Using_the_BLTL_Materials.pdf
• Recognize Teachers and Students for their Service-Learning Efforts (91K pdf)
  http://www.servicelearning.org/filemanager/download/bll_tipsheets/
  Recognize_Teachers_and_Students_for_their_SL.pdf

Effective Practices for Engaging At-Risk Youth in Service
The guide is designed to provide an overview of the underlying theory and effective practices for engaging at-risk youth in service by examining the roles young people played - and can play- in serving their communities. The audiences for this publication are public officials, youth service and service-learning practitioners and teachers, researchers and others whose mission is to plan and implement community service programs for youth with diverse experiences and backgrounds.
http://www.servicelearning.org/library/lib_cat/index.php?library_id=7566

Engaged for Success: Service-Learning as a Tool for High School Dropout Prevention
This report presents original and secondary research that shows the ability of service-learning to address some of the principle causes of dropping out. It highlights findings from a nationally representative survey of 807 high school students, including 151 at-risk students, who share their views of service-learning. The report also examines the results of focus groups of service-learning teachers who provide specific examples of the ways in which service-learning has affected their students, as well as interviews with current students who offer their perspectives on service-learning programs. The report draws upon research from a comprehensive national literature review, which found that service-learning improves almost every aspect of education that has an effect on graduation rates. Service-learning holds the potential to address each of the underlying causes of low graduation rates, while incorporating the strategies most recommended for preventing students from dropping out.
http://www.servicelearning.org/library/lib_cat/index.php?library_id=7540

Giving Back: Introducing Community Service Learning: Improving Mandated Community Service for Juvenile Offenders
This manual gives youth courts and other juvenile-justice agencies the tools they need to apply school-based service-learning methods to court-mandated community-service. This guidebook provides skill-building strategies and materials to introduce juvenile offenders to basic concepts of community and community problems and offer three options for planning and implementing community service-learning projects specifically designed to deal with ten offenses that youth courts and other juvenile-justice agencies most frequently address. The book contains 20 short-term pre-planned community service-learning projects and are designed to require minimal supervision and resources, and be done in a day.
http://www.servicelearning.org/library/lib_cat/index.php?library_id=7284

Leveling the Path to Participation: Volunteering and Civic Engagement Among Youth From Disadvantaged Circumstances
The aim of this report is to explore the attitudes and behaviors of youth from disadvantaged circumstances, particularly around their engagement in volunteering, to inform efforts around enhancing opportunities for these youth people to enter into the cycle of civic participation. The study found that youth from disadvantaged circumstances are less likely to have entered the cycle of civic participation, leading to lower rates of volunteering and other forms of civic engagement. This report explores the characteristics of youth from disadvantaged circumstances who engage in volunteer activities and compare these characteristics to those of youth from disadvantaged circumstances who do not volunteer, particularly in relation to other forms of civic engagement. Through these analyses, this report looks to identify the significant connections to civic engagement that volunteer activities have for youth who grow up with economic hardship.
http://www.servicelearning.org/library/lib_cat/index.php?library_id=6983

**Service-Learning ‘Classic’**:
In addition to bringing you new library resources or those selected each month around a theme, we want to highlight some of those foundational resources that are of enduring importance and usefulness to the field. Remember that you can always conduct a search for such "classic" resources (or "starter" and "expert" resources) by visiting our advanced library search page. http://www.servicelearning.org/library/lib_cat/default.php

Fundamentals of Service-Learning Course Construction
Kerrissa Heffernan & Campus Compact
This guide to designing, constructing, and implementing higher education service-learning courses includes chapters on course organization (including examples of successful service-learning courses), implementation, assignment examples, and ways of connecting to the community--'civic bridges'. Six models for service-learning courses are described, as well as a catalogued sample of assignments and sample syllabi.
http://www.servicelearning.org/library/lib_cat/index.php?library_id=4166