YMCA Service Learning Curriculum

I found this "curriculum" to have a lot of vague concepts or to be overly general at times, but throughout the actual document there are several great ideas for engaging youth (adolescents/teens in particular), in thoughful and creative ways. Most of the ideas involve group work but there are a lot of ideas for individuals as well. It's kind of like a teacher's manual for youth groups. Here is how the YMCA described it:

It is a 3-in-1 curriculum package that engages and equips youth as change agents in the community.  With step-by-step guidance, youth-serving agencies and schools can easily incorporate this curriculum into their programs and put it into the hands of youth for them to lead service-learning experiences. 

It includes an About Service-Learning and Assets chapter that covers all the basics of these best practices and offers tips, tools and ideas; a reflection journal, Looking Deeper:  My Service Journey, for recording “a-ha” moments; and three distinct curriculums:

1. Change Your World offers 12-sessions to engage youth in service-learning and
   intentionally build their leadership skills to solve social problems.  It’s an experiential look at discovering individual strengths, exploring community needs, and planning community projects to help youth change their world.
2. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day: A Day On, Not A Day Off includes outlines for three half-day experiences that help youth engage in activism as they explore service, equity, leadership, and justice through advocacy.
3. Service Sampler: Finding Your Place to Serve offers outlines for eleven 3-4 hour service-learning experiences across a broad exploration of community issues (ranging from animal care to promoting peace) that prompts youth to find “their” issue and passion. 

Click on the link below for the pdf document:

http://theassetedge.net/seasons-of-service.pdf