How can we start a community service club on our campus?

The first thing to do is to make sure you or another educator is absolutely committed to being an adult supervisor/advisor to this student group. If you can get other faculty members involved to support you, that’s even better!

Check to see if there is a Rotary Club or Kiwanis Club near your school that will help you sponsor the club as an Interact Club or Key Club.  These national service organizations have resources, networking with other clubs and guidelines to help you get started and keep the club going.

Connect to the Interact site.

Check out Key Club information.

Whether your club is affiliated with a national service organization or you do it on your own, be sure to share your experience and post questions here on iSpot.  Start a group discussion for community service club leaders.

Next, start a dialogue with your school’s superintendent and principal to discuss your ideas and prospective goals. Once you have approval, get the word out there to the students! Make announcements in all of your classes and ask fellow faculty members to do the same. Additionally, is there a school newspaper and website you can use to advertise? Are there daily announcements over the school’s intercom? Is there a club fair coming up where you could have a booth with information and cookies to give out? Can you make posters?

At Santa Cruz High School the iSpot Compassion™ team recruited five students from the University of California at Santa Cruz to present the idea of the club to the high school students.  They are a lot cooler than parents or teachers and made the idea of the club fun.  If there is a college near the school, ask some of the college students to work with you.  It’s a win-win.  Click here to learn more about how college students can help.

As you probably know, the students who are most likely to be interested in this sort of club are going to be those involved in leadership groups, on the sports teams, putting on the school plays and musicals; the most involved and active kids on campus. These people also tend to be the most outgoing and proactive, which can only help you to reach more people! Assemble a list of names, email addresses, and phone numbers and set up a meeting. Choose a time that is conducive to most kids’ schedules. These kids probably have a million extra curricular activities, so scheduling a meeting after school may be difficult. Aim for a lunchtime meeting and provide food! Free food is an excellent way to get kids to attend your meeting and they may even bring their friends.

At the first meeting, talk about your ideas and then open up the discussion to the students. Collectively come up with a club name. Do you want to be the Community Service club? Or do you want something a little spicier, like the Compassion Club? For more ideas on starting a club and running the initial meeting, please see our iSpot Compassion Week toolkit. Finally, obtain a list of committed students and nominate officers. When picking officers it is best if they are from different social circle’s at school, not only does this help break down cliques and it will help reach more students.

Remember, your club can use our site as a place to brainstorm and connect with others (and each other!), get inspired by projects other people have done, or connect with organizations. Have each group member start a SPOT (profile) on our site, allowing each individual to keep track of their projects over time and to hopefully inspire other students. To do this, click “sign up to begin”.

Also take advantage of the group of students who are excited to make a difference, introduce them to new issues and topics.  Lead discussions that have students critically analyze issues, this will lead them to self-reflect on their own lives and actions. Remember a Community Service club is not only about making a difference in the community but also making a difference in the student’s life.

Can I share my classes’ service learning and community service projects on iSpot?

Absolutely! We want to be a hub for connecting social revolutionaries, especially young ones! We seek to inspire, help, and collaborate and by you sharing your stories or asking important questions, you are helping us to achieve our mission and goals!

The first step is for you to join iSpot by creating an individual profile or SPOT. To do this, click on “sign up to begin”. Once you have created your profile, you will see a list of tabs on the left side of the screen. You can create groups, share projects, and find causes to participate in, among other activities. You can even join a group of educators like yourself to share and obtain ideas!
 

How can I find interesting projects for my students to get involved with?

Stuck on finding the right project to motivate your students to be of service? Click on “project ideas” under the student tab at the top of the iSpot homepage. You will find a comprehensive list sure to inspire! Additionally, check out “causes”, also under the student tab, to view a list of non-profits local to Santa Cruz County who we highly recommend.

Still stumped? Don’t want to work for a specific organization? Head to the educators tab and click on “help-a-thon” or “campus compassion week” for information on how to create similar projects at your school. Finally, surf our site to see what other people are doing, brainstorm ideas or ask others for advice on motivating your students.

 If you are still having a problem, remember that students have different passions, consider divining the group into either two or more groups- all with different topics or subjects. Then they can each do work for their subjects and share what they have done with photos and stories ect. to the whole club at a meeting. This will get the students excited and proud to share their experiences, which will build self-confidence.

Many of my students are not on Facebook or any other social networking site; can they still participate in iSpot Compassion? How is iSpot a safe alternative to Facebook?

 Yes! We welcome all students whether they already participate in other social networking sites or not. Unlike other social networking sites, iSpot is specifically geared towards mobilizing youth in efforts to initiate and participate in community service and compassionate projects, leading to positive social change.

Our site is user-friendly, accommodating people of all ages. Additionally, we are an extremely secure site (please see our privacy policy and terms of use for further information). We are a non-profit organization and are very careful about recommending other organizations. We will not advertize any other sites or products which are unsafe or not in line with our mission and goals of creating a more compassionate, sustainable world. That said, we advocate parent and teacher supervision of teenage computer use.

Are there any fun projects you’d recommend for high school clubs to do as groups?

Getting involved in one’s community should always be socially and intellectually stimulating! There are countless ways to get involved, but if you are really unsure of where to begin, check out our “project ideas” and “causes” pages under the student tab. These should help you to narrow down the types of projects you and your students want to become involved in. Are you more passionate about environmental advocacy or animal welfare? Do you want to offer aid to the homeless or raise money for natural disaster relief? Identify your goals and go from there. If your project is centered on fundraising, what sounds more exciting: a car wash or a bake sale? What about a student auction? Whatever you do, make sure your students have a hand in creating it and are passionate about being involved.

Want to start a discussion group for educators?  It's easy, join iSpot and start a group from your profile (Spot).

Welcome to the conversation!

Question: What is the difference between service learning and community service?

Answer: “Community service is volunteer action taken to meet the needs of others and better the community as a whole.” Some schools assign a particular number of hours of community service as high school graduation requirement.  Community service can also be court mandated. Boomerang can help students fulfill community service requirements whether assigned for graduation or by the courts.  We can also help find community service opportunities for students who would just like to volunteer for a cause they want to support.  Boomerang is deeply committed, however, to igniting a deep, life-long commitment to community service and volunteerism therefore, our program is dedicated to the concepts and values of service learning.

Service-learning is integrated into and enhances the academic curriculum of students engaged in service, or the educational components of the community service program in which the participants are enrolled. Service-learning provides structured time for thoughtful planning of the service project and guided reflection by participants on the service experience. Overall, the most important feature of effective service-learning programs is that both learning and service are emphasized.

Service-learning is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities.

Service-learning combines service to the community with student learning in a way that improves both the student and the community. As they participate in their community service projects, actively meeting the needs of communities, youth develop practical skills, self-esteem, and a sense of civic responsibility (The Corporation for National and Community Service, 2010).

Please visit our resources for educators page for a links to reports, websites and service learning project ideas.  And, please send us your project ideas so that we can help other educators bring meaning and learning to service.

Question: Which states require community service for high school graduation?

Answer: Currently, only one state, Maryland, has a statewide high school community service requirement for graduation. Eight states however, allow schools to make community service or service-learning hours a requirement for graduation. These are: Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin.  In other states like California each school or district can decide whether to require community service for graduation.

 

Question: How do we sign up to have a Boomerang Micro-site and what does it allow us to do?

Answer: Any school, class, club or group doing community service together can create its very own micro-site within the Boomerang site. This is great for Link Crew leaders to send messages and post Link Crew events. Classes planning a service learning activity, Interact and Key clubs, any club or group can use this tool. Click here to watch a video about how to start a Boomerang micro-site.

 

You can post events, pictures, invite friends to join, keep track of projects, and send announcements to your group. You’ll need to assign an administrator for the micro-site who can keep the page active.

Question: How can we start a community service club on our campus?

Answer:  The first thing to do is to make sure you or another educator is absolutely committed to being an adult supervisor/advisor to this student group. If you can get additional faculty members involved to support you, that’s even better!

Here are some national and international organizations that will offer you guidance, materials and affiliations.  Each has a guide to starting a club that you can follow, or take a look at the toolkit we’ve created for student leaders to start a community service club on campus.  They’re all fabulous tools and will give you all you need to start a keep a club going on campus.

1.  Rotary International. Interact is Rotary International’s service club for young people ages 12 to 18. Interact clubs are sponsored by individual Rotary clubs, which provide support and guidance, but they are self-governing and self-supporting. 

Check to see if there is a Rotary Club near your high school, and more likely than not, they’ll support you in creating an interact club on your campus.

Find a local Rotary Club: http://www.rotary.org/en/AboutUs/SiteTools/ClubLocator/Pages/ridefault.aspx

Learn about Interact:

http://www.rotary.org/en/studentsandyouth/youthprograms/interact/pages/ridefault.aspx

2.  Key Club is the Kiwanis International youth service club program. http://www.keyclub.org

Each Key Club is student-led with the support of two advisors; a Kiwanis advisor from the sponsoring Kiwanis Club and a faculty or facility advisor. In addition to the many learning opportunities available at individual district conventions, club officer trainings facilitated by district leadership and at international convention, Key Club International has created a number of downloadable resources to assist both adult volunteers and student officers in performing their duties.

Find a Kiwanis Club in your area to sponsor your club.  Here’s a link to finding and contacting clubs: http://sites.kiwanis.org/Kiwanis/en/MembershipInterest/FindAClub.aspx

3.  LEO Clubs: Leadership Experience Opportunity – is the teen community service program of LIONS International.  Like Rotary and Kiwanis, the Lions club in your area will help your students make the club a success and community service collaborative and fun.

http://www.lionsclubs.org/EN/our-work/youth-programs/leo-clubs/leo-club-activities.php

4.  DoSomething.org

Do Something offers toolkits and some seed funding opportunities for schools to start a Do Something club on campus.  Like Interact, Key and Leos, all of the resources to help you start a club are free! You can apply to receive a toolkit.

http://www.dosomething.org/clubs/resources/what-you-get

If you decide to go it alone, here’s a step-by-step guide for setting up a community service club on campus.

Start a dialogue with your school’s superintendent and principal to discuss your ideas and prospective goals. Once you have approval, get the word out there to the students! Make announcements in all of your classes and ask fellow faculty members to do the same. Additionally, is there a school newspaper and website you can use to advertise? Are there daily announcements over the school’s intercom? Is there a club fair coming up where you could have a booth with information and cookies to give out? Can you make posters?

In recruiting and retaining students for the club, it’s got to be diverse, active and fun!

A committed and fun community service club on campus that is inclusive of a variety of social groups can improve the climate at school and unify students in ways on other activity can. The Link Crew philosophy of selecting leaders from a variety of social groups works great in starting a community service club.  As you already know, the students who are most likely to be interested in this sort of club are going to be those involved in leadership groups, on the sports teams, putting on the school plays and musicals; the most involved and active kids on campus. Don’t just invite the obvious leaders to join the club, reach out to all students from all social groups.  Community service is a great way for students to work with other students they may never hang out with on campus. These become friendships rooted in causes outside their own immediate experiences, based on issues they care about.

Put together a list of names, email addresses, and phone numbers and set up a meeting. Choose a time that is conducive to most kids’ schedules. These kids probably have a million extra curricular activities, so scheduling a meeting after school may be difficult. Aim for a lunchtime meeting and provide food! Free food is an excellent way to get kids to attend your meeting and they may even bring their friends.

At the first meeting, talk about your ideas and then open up the discussion to the students. Collectively come up with a club name. Do you want to be the Community Service club? Or do you want something a little spicier, like the Compassion Club? For more ideas on starting a club and running the initial meeting, please see our Compassion Week toolkit. Finally, obtain a list of committed students and nominate officers.

Remember, your club can use our site as a place to brainstorm and connect with others (and each other!), get inspired by projects other people have done, or connect with organizations. Have each group member create a profile on our site, allowing each individual to keep track of their projects over time and to hopefully inspire other students. To do this, click “sign up to begin”.

Question: Can I share my classes’ service learning and community service projects on the Boomerang site?

Answer: Absolutely! We want to be a hub for connecting social revolutionaries, especially young ones! We seek to inspire, help, and collaborate and by you sharing your stories or asking important questions, you are helping us to achieve our mission and goals!

The first step is for you to join The Boomerang Foundation by creating an individual profile. To do this, click on “sign up to begin”. Once you have created your profile, you will see a list of tabs. You can create groups, share projects, and find causes to participate in, among other activities