July 17, 2013 – The nonprofit Innovations in Civic Participation (ICP) released today the National 2012 Summer of Service (SOS) Program Evaluation Report. The SOS initiative engages economically disadvantaged middle school youth as community problem-solvers in six weeks of civic involvement, arts-based education, team-building recreation, and academic skill-building activities. School- and community-based summer enrichment providers in New York, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina and Washington participated in the study which tracked the academic, social and civic development of nearly 400 youth.
Evaluators found SOS participation to be associated with increases in youths’ communication, team-building, and community development skills over the course of the summer. Participants became increasingly savvy at taking on leadership roles and building collaborative teams to accomplish real-world tasks. Furthermore, data showed growth in youths’ sense of citizenship responsibility, confidence in their abilities to affect change, and desire to participate in future volunteerism. When asked for lessons learned from the SOS experience, one eighth grade youth replied, „The point is I can make a difference in my community. I didn’t really want to do [service], but once you start doing it you don’t want to stop doing it. You feel good that you did something.“
SOS youth completed an impressive list of dozens of service projects over the summer. Participants worked to restore environmental habitats, produced a documentary on how to be successful teen, mentored younger children, rehabilitated community gardens, launched an anti-bullying campaign, and more. „The SOS program positions young people as positive contributors who give their time and talents to help solve problems,“ explains Nicole Tysvaer, ICP Senior Research Fellow and primary author of the study. According to Tysvaer, „One of the secrets to success of this model is our ability to capitalize on the strengths and interests of young people. Creating contexts where participants are leaders in bringing about positive change is a huge motivator for middle schoolers, and as a result we observed them enthusiastically engaging in some rather complex academic tasks.“
SOS programs were funded in part by a grant from Walmart Foundation and implemented through three partner organizations– City of Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation, Earth Force, and The Afterschool Corporation (TASC). For many site coordinators, this was their first experience adding intensive service-learning methods to their summer camp repertoire. One pilot SOS coordinator was Anthony Rowe, Assistant Program Director of Good Shepherd Services at PS32 in Brooklyn. Rowe explained that the SOS model seemed daunting at first, „To be honest, my hope was just to get through SOS at the beginning of the summer. You know, it was new. It seemed really time intensive… but the program ended up exceeding my expectations. SOS increased the intentionality of our learning objectives. It created a theme and a focus, and we were surprised by how much the youth really took ownership of the whole process.“
Copies of the National 2012 Summer of Service Program Evaluation Report are available on the ICP website (http://www.icicp.org/summer-of-service ). If you are interested in launching a Summer of Service program in your community, contact Nicole Tysvaer (ntysvaer@icicp.org), who is coordinating the effort to expand the program’s reach. Based on ICP’s research, SOS will be new and improved in 2014 as the SummerTrek brand — a six-week journey of self-discovery and community problem solving that begins in your own backyard. Look for SummerTrek updates, including the release of a new standard curriculum and training resources, athttp://www.icicp.org/summer-trek .
Contact: Nicole Tysvaer
Phone: 202-775-0290
Email: ntysvaer@icicp.org
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