Community Service:

Enlarging youth’s sense of the public and perspectives on the common good

Connie FlanaganUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison

YOUTH-NEX CONFERENCEPreparing Our Youth for the Coming World

October 25, 2011

Civic Engagement

different from other extracurricular“free time” activities

Heterogeneous Encounters

Question group stereotypes

Expand conceptions – Collective (civic) identity We, the people

Expand notions of the ties that binds us together

ADOLESCENTS’ VIEWS OF ‘OTHERS’ IN THEIR COMMUNITY

What adolescents say they learned from their community service

Selection of verbatim responses from

700 12 – 18 year olds

Diverse communities and social backgrounds

Basically you get to know people for who they are not what they are

I used to be afraid of the elderly. I understand them more and

found out they are really nice and have a lot to share.15 year-old White female from a working class family

People are a lot friendlyer [sic] & kinder than they are made out to be.

16 year-ole White male from a middle-class family

People are different but they don't have to be an outcast.

18 year-old Puerto Rican female from a working-class family

Understanding the Lives of Fellow Citizens

?? Awareness of Public Issues

It has helped me to see just how hard it can be for some

kids & some adults with disabilities.

17 year-old white female from an upper middle-class family

Some kids have more & bigger problems than others.

17 year-old Puerto Rican male from a working-class family

I see what people get angry about.

14 year-old White male from a middle-class family

Social Responsibility – Ties that Bind

You should always give help, because it probably will be there when you want it back. 18 year-old Arab-American male

I was able to grow closer to people at school and realize that team efforts make a difference.

16 year-old White female who volunteers with the Environment Club

 

Volunteering helps me bond with others and they help me see myself.

16 year-old Native American female who does school programs to help others learn about “my people”

That there are nice considerate people out there that could still believe someone after they have done wrong.

18 year-ole Mexican-American male who volunteers at an ex-convicts rehabilitation center

Adolescents’ Perceptions of their Community

Caring

If someone in my community has a problem, they can usually

count on others to help them out.

Open

When someone moves here, people make them feel welcome.

Effective

Every town has some problems.

In general, people in my town work together to solve our problems.

2.5

2.6

2.7

2.8

2.9

3

3.1

3.2

3.3

3.4

3.5

Clubs/Vol Vol Only Clubs Only Neither

Types of Youth Engagement and Perceptions of Community

CaringOpenEffective

Volunteering

Not Volunteering

ADOLESCENTS’ VIEWS OF ‘OTHERS’ IN THEIR COMMUNITY

Collective Identity

Solidarity and Civic Engagement

.

Civic Behaviors(Year One)

Solidarity/ Sense of

Community

Reflect/ Change My

Beliefs

Teams from Diverse

Backgrounds

AmeriCorps: Program Elements That Increase Civic Behaviors

.298***

.414***

.161*

.248**

Civic Behaviors (Year Two)

Democratic societies rely on persons with democratic dispositions

People prepared to work with others different from themselves toward shared ends.

People with a sense of individuality and a commitment to civic goods that are not the possession of one person or one small group alone.

- Jean Bethke-Elshtain, 1990

From Thomas Jefferson

Equal rights for all, special privileges for none.

 

Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it.

 

Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.