Digital Commons Network^™

The Domestic Volunteer Service Act Of 1973 (As Of October 1, 1993), U.S. Government

Service Learning, General

(a) Because of the long-standing importance of volunteerism throughout American history, it is the policy of the Congress to foster the tradition of volunteerism through greater involvement on the part of individuals of all ages and backgrounds.

(b) The purpose of this chapter is to foster and expand voluntary citizen service in communities throughout the Nation in activities designed to help the poor, the disadvantaged, the vulnerable, and the elderly. In carrying out this purpose, the Corporation for National and Community Service shall utilize to the fullest extent the programs authorized under this chapter, coordinate with other Federal, State, and …

Service- Learning And Forestry, Lei Lane Burrus-Bammel, Gene Bammel, Jack Newhouse

Service Learning, General

Although the topic of "service" appears to have received more attention recently in higher education than in previous years, it is not a new concern. As early as 1869, Charles Elliot, in his Harvard inaugural address, asked, "And what will the University do for the community?" His response was, "It will foster the sense of public duty - that great virtue which makes republics possible." Elliot's premise was that institutions of higher education ought to support those activities which develop generosity, civic mindedness and the capacity for conscientious action. Since the post-Civil War period a number of famous individuals have …

Describing Service-Learning: A Delphi Study, Robert D. Shumer

Service Learning, General

Service-learning is spreading. Congress passed the National and Community Service Act (1990) and states have been implementing service-learning programs in record numbers. With the rapid expansion, people have been asking "Am I doing it right?" or "What is service-learning, anyway?" These are good questions ... ones many have asked for some time.

Bibliography And Annotated Bibliography Of Research: The Effects Of Service-Learning Participation On Students Who Serve, Marilyn W. Smith

Bibliographies

The bibliography portion of this document includes journal articles; ERIC documents; chapters in books; unpublished reports; research in progress; and perspectives and recommendations for the assessment and evaluation of service learning. The annotated bibliography of this document includes journal articles; ERIC documents; chapters in books; unpublished reports; and research in progress.

Kellom Heights Housing Market Report, Marcus Jackson, Robert F. Blair

Publications

Mr. Alvin M. Goodwin, Jr., President of the Omaha Economic Development Corporation asked the Center for Public Affairs Research at the University of Nebraska at Omaha to conduct a brief examination of the housing market surrounding the proposed Kellom Heights 42 unit multi-family housing project. This report examines the existing housing conditions and housing needs in the general project area. In conjunction with other relevant information, this report will help determine the feasibility of the expansion of the Kellom Heights housing project.

Clarifying And Measuring Community, Service, And Citizenship, Rutgers University

Service Learning, General

The working group met for the first time at Rutgers University November 22 to 24, 1992 for critical discussions of issues concerning community, service, and learning in the context of education-based service learning programs. The working group's 31 members included representatives from universities, service organizations, foundations, and community activists. Participants worked closely over the two days, meeting in three discreet sessions dedicated specifically to the theory of community and citizenship, the practice of service-based learning, and--with particular reference to service learning-- the measurement of civic outcomes.

California's Serve America Plan And The Landscape Of Reform, Linda Forsyth, Wade Brynelson

Service Learning, General

The California Department of Education has received $1,600,000 under the Serve America subtitle of the National and Community Service Act to award to local partnerships for 1991-92. Considering that California serves some 6 million public and private K-12 students, this is a modest sum. What do we hope to achieve? How realistic are our hopes? This paper discusses Service Learning in the context of a broad landscape of reforms in education and society. These reforms have much to do with our capacity to fulfill our hopes and sustain the service movement.

Fact Book 1992, Uno Office Of Institutional Effectiveness

Fact Book

This eleventh edition of the University of Nebraska at Omaha Fact Book has been designed to present a variety of information and data, about the University, in a concise, easily used format. I hope this provides a profile of UNO that will expand your understanding of our institution.

Teaching Courage: Service Learning At Pathway School, Michelle D. Ioele, Anne L. Dolan

School K-12

Troubled children are rarely afforded the opportunity to view themselves as valuable and worthy. Because they are often in the role of care-recipients, they are not challenged to be, nor do they see themselves as capable of being, caregivers. Although many child and youth programs seek to provide these opportunities, a systematic and effective program for doing so has been lacking.

Citizenship Education And The Public World, Harry C. Boyte

Civic Engagement

We need a conception of citizenship that is active, engaged and adequate to the challenges of our complicated world. Citizens develop, they do not emerge full blown; and their capacities are cultivated only through tough, challenging, serious practical and theoretical education in what Benjamin Barber has well termed the democratic arts. Barber and I agree on the importance of a strong conception of citizenship; on the centrality of civic education to any honest rendering of education in a purported democracy; and on the significant challenge such a view of civic education presents to customary ways of conceiving citizenship, education, and …

Going To The Community, Benjamin Barber

Service Learning, General

Let me offer three points. First, I want to take a few minutes to set the context for a democratic education. I want to cite six or seven key choices that I think anybody who's interested in community service as a vehicle of citizen education needs to face and which we face at Rutgers as do other universities around the the country. Thirdly, I want to address Harry Boyte's thoughtful criticisms of communitarianism.

Linking A City's Culture To Students' Learning, Richard Allen Chase, William G. Durden

Partnerships/Community

The aquarium, the theater, and the zoo are some of the possible "classrooms" in The Baltimore learning Network's model learning community.

Construction Of An Instrument To Assess The Service Learning Model: Establishing Concurrent Validity And Internal Reliability, Christopher Anthony Payne

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

A paper and pencil test was constructed to investigate the existence of phases as identified by the Service Learning Model (Delve, Mintz, & Stewart, 1990). Subjects with no structured exposure to service-learning activities residing in the residence halls at the University of Northern Colorado (URC) (n =70) and subjects involved in service-learning programs coordinated by the Office of Community Service at Colorado State University (CSU) (n=65) participated in the study during the spring of 1992.

Research objectives provided guidelines for developing the test format and Writing clear and understandable items that reflected the affective, behavioral and cognitive ways in which …

Impact Of Agribusiness On The Omaha Metropolitan Statistical Area, Center For Public Affairs Research (Cpar)

Publications

The impact of agribusiness on a region requires the use of multipliers to estimate the full economic effect. Multipliers account for the interactions from industries to industries and from industries to households and back, and are produced easily from input-output studies.

Pushing The Boundaries Of Education: The Implications Of A Youth Development Approach To Education Policies, Structures And Collabnrations, Karen J. Pittman, Michele Cahill

School K-12

In recent years there have been an extraordinary number of proposals for comprehensive and intensive changes in school structure, finance, and administration, one indication that this is a time of unprecedent change for schools. One of the forces driving this intense focus on school change is the growing national concern about youth issues and problems. This paper notes the myriad of add-on programs that compete for space in the school day and takes the position that, rather than being seen as merely additive,education and services should be viewed as interactive, and essential to the formation of new effective strategies for …

A Survey Of Physicians' Attitudes On Aging, Joan Swanson Hellbusch

Student Work

The purpose of this investigation was to answer the following research questions: 1. How do the attitudes of physicians toward the older adult compare to the attitudes of previously studied medical students? 2. What is the relationship between the attitudes of physicians toward older adults and the following: medical specialty, years in practice, sex, age, estimate of percent of patients 65 and older and whether or not a physician has ever taken a course on aging? Two hundred physicians completed the questionnaire. The number of respondents represented 27 different medical specialties, later regrouped to 14 specialties. Results of this study …

Teacher Education And Service-Learning, Robert D. Shumer

Service Learning, General

Suggestions for needed educational reform have been made for some time. Reports from the 1970s condemned the isolation of schools from their communities and the lack of student participation in the educational process (Brown, 1973; Coleman, 1974; Martin, 1974; Gibbons, 1976). Similar claims were made in the 1980s, where lack of active learning led to student passivity and inability to relate classroom learning to life beyond the school (Goodlad, 1984; Boyer, 1983; Carnegie Council, 1989; W.T. Grant Foundation, 1988). In the 1990s there is a continued call for an end to this isolation, primarily through inclusion of experiential and service-learning …

Unmc Economic Impact Study, Jerry Deichert

Publications

The University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) has a major impact upon the economy of the state of Nebraska. More than a learning and research center, UNMC is a major employer and business enterprise.

Geography And Mutual Understanding: "Harvest Of Hope", Marianne Kenney

Curriculum

The "Harvest of Hope" was an interdisciplinary science/geography project that provided students from two different schools and very diverse backgrounds the opportunity to work in a cooperative community service effort. With teacher coordination from both districts involved in the project, students from an inner-city school and a suburban school planted, tended, and harvested crops on unused school prope11y and donated the food to organizations providing resources to the needy. "Harvest of Hope" was designed to aid the needy of Denver and teach high school students about real-world geography issues. Students also gained knowledge of issues inherent in world agriculture and …

University Of Nebraska At Omaha, Commencement, University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Commencement Programs

No abstract provided.

Draft Instructional Framework In Service-Learning For Elementary School, Maryland Student Service Alliance

Curriculum

MSSA wants to ensure that all Maryland students can make a difference in their schools and communities by learning to be responsible citizens. We published the draft instructional framework to help teachers develop a broad range of service-learning experiences.

Saturday Morning Children's Television And Depictions Of Old Age, Marigrace H. Powers

Student Work

As the percentage of people age 65 and older steadily increases in the United States, the "aging of America" and the manner in which the older segment of the population is depicted becomes an increasingly important issue. One nearly inescapable part of our everyday lives— the media (television, newspapers, magazines, and others)— provides a broad field of study for the issue of aging in American society. The present study investigated the depiction and frequency of appearance of older characters on Saturday morning children's television. Social learning theory posits that children learn from observation— both first-hand and through television. Thus, in …

A Proposal For The Michigan K-12 Service-Learning Center, The Michigan Partnership For New Education

Special Topics, General

The Michigan Partnership for New Education, in collaboration with Michigan State University's College of Education and with several partner universities, proposes to establish a K-12 Service Learning Center, headquartered at Michigan State. The Center would:

1. promote the principles and practices of service-learning in the schools in Michigan generally, through a series of activities ranging from building networks and holding conferences to training teachers, shaping policy and coordinating existing efforts. Such activities would, where possible, be collaborative efforts with other service-learning initiatives in the state. In e this regard, the Center would be a catalyst, switchboard, cheerleader and organizer, tying …

The State Of Black Omaha: 1992 - Housing Conditions, Center For Public Affairs Research (Cpar)

Publications

In 1931, five years after its founding, the Urban League of Nebraska co-sponsored a study of the social conditions of African Americans in North Omaha. Co-authored by T. Earl Sullenger, Professor of Sociology at what was then the Municipal University of Omaha, and J. Harvey Kerns, Executive Director of the Omaha Urban League, the study observed that, "In Omaha, as other cities North and South, the Negro is striving for status .... In spite of obstacles and handicaps he has established social and religious structures which have enriched the city. In this development, the credit belongs to both races- to …

The State Of Black Omaha: 1992 - Housing Conditions: Executive Summary, Center For Public Affairs Research (Cpar)

Publications

The African American community in Omaha has undergone many changes since 1931. Although there is considerable evidence of progress and some cause for optimism, there also are reasons to be concerned. The State of Black Omaha: 1992 Housing Conditions has not attempted to construct an index of parity in housing, but if the housing data in the preceding section is any indication, it would appear that inequality between African Americans and Caucasian Americans in Omaha may be narrowing for some and widening for many others.

Occasional Paper No. 092-1: Health Care Perceptions Of Nebraska's Urban & Rural Aged, James A. Thorson, F. C. Powell

Publications

Random samples were drawn in Douglas County, Nebraska (N = 196, mean age = 73.8 years), in the counties surrounding Douglas County also served by the Eastern Nebraska Office on Aging (N = 104, mean age = 72.4 years), and in eleven of the rural Sandhills counties of Nebraska (N = 200, mean age = 76.6). Participants responded to structured interviews of 169 questions that included self-assessed health status, availability of health care and physician services, costs, attitudes toward health care services, health experiences and beliefs. While the Sandhills respondents were significantly older and had less access to health services, …

Homeless And Mentally Ill: Meeting The Needs, Donna K. Wilson

Student Work

This paper examines the characteristics of homeless mentally ill individuals in a midwest metropolitan area and describes the difficulties they encounter when trying to secure services that would help them change their situation. The study examines the role bureaucracy plays in the social problem of the homeless mentally ill. An ethnographic approach is used to study the question how is it that bureaucracy gets in its own way in attempting to meet the needs of the homeless mentally ill? Both demographic and observational data are provided in this study and the observational data indicate that certain aspects that are inherent …

Innovations In Sentencing: The Use Of Scarlet Letter Dispositions, Catherine A. Elwell

Student Work

Scarlet letter sentencing dispositions are innovative alternatives to incarceration posited as special probation conditions granted to offenders deemed able to live in the community. These sanctions resemble scarlet letter punishments of the Seventeenth Century as illustrated in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter for Hester Prynne. They are designed as bumper or windshield stickers, yard signs, screen prints on T-shirts, and public apologies. This study investigates the proliferation of these innovative penalties created by judges to require drunk drivers, sex offenders, thieves/burglars, white-collar criminals, and drug offenders to publicly disclose the nature of their crime and identify themselves as perpetrators. Societal and …

Mandated Service And Moral Learning, Robert K. Fullinwider

Special Topics, General

Recently the Maryland State Board of Education added a new condition for getting a high school diploma: students must perform 75 hours of "service." The activities that count as "service" will be determined by individual districts, and may include everything from tutoring younger students and visiting nursing home residents to working with nonprofit community organizations. The new requirement builds on an already existing voluntary student service program supported by the Maryland Student Service Alliance, a public-private partnership. Although some municipal school systems in the U.S. impose similar requirements, the Maryland school board is the first to adopt a statewide policy.

Journal Of The Community Development Society Vol. 23, No. 01, Center For Public Affairs Research (Cpar)

Publications

The Journal of the Community Development Society (ISSN 001 0-3829) is devoted to improving knowledge and practice in the field of purposive community change. The purpose of the Journal is to disseminate information on theory, research, and practice. The Editor welcomes manuscripts that report research; evaluate theory, techniques, and methods; examine community problems; or analyze, critically, the profession itself. The Journal is published twice each year.