Volume 2, Issue 6: May 2009

At Live Wire Media and GoodCharacter.com, we have always considered service learning one of the most important ways for students to develop into good citizens and active community members.

David Elkind, co-President of Live Wire Media, has written a comprehensive primer for setting up a service learning program at his son's school — it's a great resource for a service learning program at any school. We also have two very useful lists of web resources to help you in setting up your own program.

The National Service-Learning Partnership is a terrific resource and an excellent place to start.

The Learn and Serve Clearinghouse is filled with useful information about the entire topic of service learning.

In the videos Live Wire Media has produced in association with CHARACTER COUNTS!®, we have always emphasized community service as a key to good citizenship. Here are some inspiring service-learning videos from Live Wire Media's K-12 videos...

High School
In our In Search of Character series for grades 6-12, we tell the story of David Levitt, a teen who designed a program for distributing surplus food to communities in need.

Craig Kielberger created an international movement that he calls Free the Children.

We learn about how Lateefah Simon created a center for young homeless women. This is a wonderful example of someone who has made community service a very important part of her life.

Middle School
Our new middle school series, The Character Chronicles, includes documentaries on several young teens who have demonstrated unusual good citizenship that serves as models for what any teenager can accomplish.

Michael Pesci has used his love of baseball to create a charity to level the playing field.

Kassandra Gonsalves organized groups of kids to make pillowcases filled with goodies that are donated free of charge to foster children.

Alexander Lin works with a group of middle-schoolers to stop e-waste. He and his friends rebuild computers that they then donate to families in need.

Elementary School
In our Six Pillars of Character® series, one of the Popcorn Park Puppets convinces his friends to improve their community by planting trees to turn their urban wasteland into a lush park.

Here are almost 200 pages of "West Virginia's Service-Learning Lesson Plans for K-12 Challenged Students." The activities cover a wide range of topics. Some are historical; others deal with social/emotional learning. There are environmental projects, as well as ways for students to reach out to young people and senior citizens. (PDF document)

An excellent selection of projects for K-12 students based on the Florida service learning standards. These activities would be useful anywhere.

Started during the Kennedy administration, the Peace Corps is still thriving in 74 different countries all over the globe. The Peace Corps is a service option for recent high school graduates to spend a couple of years in a foreign country while doing important work.

President Obama signed a bill last month to triple the size of the Americorps program. He also urged all Americans to volunteer time to improve their communities.

Here is a story about one of three annual winners of the "Spirit of Service Program Award."

A story about how service learning helped turn a student's life around.