What is Service?
We are living in times of great change. We need to significantly shift the choices we make, to alter the course our planet is on. Whilst these problems may seem overwhelming, they are solvable!
Working towards a brighter future requires all of us to take action in our local and global communities.
Community engagement can take many forms.
In Be The Change we use the word service to describe active, voluntary citizenship. We believe in the value of service. We see a desire to engage in ‘selfless action performed for the benefit of others’ as a fundamental human quality.
We define service as: ‘The voluntary act of addressing community needs and ethically working towards sustainable solutions. A process that involves active consultation and collaboration among stakeholders, leading to reciprocal, respectful, and open-hearted partnerships’.
How does Service fit into School Curriculums?
We confront a Triple Planetary Crisis encompassing climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss, alongside pressing societal issues like widespread poverty and conflict. The urgency is real—today's youth will inherit the consequences of our current actions if immediate change is not achieved.
Which leads to the question – what are we offering in our schools to support students to develop core values and deeply understand the need to connect with and take action to bring about positive change in the world around them?
Service can be incorporated into school curriculums in a variety of ways. The action component of service is best combined with theoretical learning to support students to learn the skills, qualities and agency to act in partnership with community stakeholders.
Ongoing opportunities for students to address real world issues at varying ages will enable young people to build firm foundations as active citizens and changemakers. Student agency is built through collaboration; students with teachers, peers, parents and wider community. (OECD 2030 Future of Education and Skills). Establishing long term, sustainable connections and relationships in which all parties are working towards shared goals of community self reliance and empowerment is crucial.
Empowering students with the skills and knowledge to be at the core of school service programs helps build a culture of service within schools. An established culture of service spreads beyond your school, into your community and positions your organisation as a driver for positive change.
Does service really help communities and students involved?
When executed poorly, no.
Service in schools has the potential to do more harm than good. When students are engaged in tokenistic experiences that are not underpinned by a clear and carefully thought out cycle of learning, service can be a detrimental process that disempowers communities and leads to a false sense of saviourism in students.
Community development is a sensitive and delicate process that needs to be approached with care and awareness, in order to ensure that it is a mutually beneficial experience for all involved.
In order to do this education providers need to ensure that a transparent and thoroughly embedded process underpins all service experiences. This includes plenty of student driven investigation, planning and preparation leading up to the action, and an opportunity for students to demonstrate and share their experiences after the fact. Deep reflection throughout the process is essential. As is thorough consultation and relationship building with the partnering organisation or people representing the community need.
If all of these conditions are in place, the act of service can be a deep and transformational experience for all parties, leading to unforgettable experiences, powerful learning and ongoing global change.
A best practice, innovative service program that uses the Student Agency in Service Method™ (SASM) and is embedded in your school’s curriculum will accelerate your students' learning and impact your community more than any other curriculum area.
Sustainable Development Goals
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The Sustainable Development Goals (or The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development) offer humanity “the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. They address the global challenges we face, including poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice.”*
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/
- The SDGs can been seen as a unifying force, connecting humans from all walks of life in aspirational goals underpinned by a common mission for change.
- Teaching our young people about the Sustainable Development Goals, and sharing these goals with communities, offers everyone the opportunity to unite in action and work towards this shared purpose of sustained, positive global change.
Global Citizenship Education (GCED): nurtures respect for all, building a sense of belonging to a common humanity and helping learners become responsible and active global citizens. GCED aims to empower learners to assume active roles to face and resolve global challenges and to become proactive contributors to a more peaceful, tolerant, and inclusive and secure world.
Education for Sustainable Development (ESD): empowers learners to take informed decisions and responsible actions for environmental integrity, economic viability and a just society, for present and future generations, while respecting cultural diversity. It is about lifelong learning, and is an integral part of quality education.
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals aim to accomplish three things by 2030:
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ORENDA
(Oren-da) An innate and sometimes mystical power present in all humans which, once evoked, enables them to consciously affect change in their lives and the world around them. (n.) Iroquois origins.
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