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Transcript of Community Service: Enlarging youth’s sense of the public and perspectives on the common good...
Community Service:
Enlarging youth’s sense of the public and perspectives on the common good
Connie FlanaganUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison
YOUTH-NEX CONFERENCEPreparing Our Youth for the Coming World
October 25, 2011
Civic Engagement
different from other extracurricular“free time” activities
Heterogeneous Encounters
Question group stereotypes
Expand conceptions – Collective (civic) identity We, the people
Expand notions of the ties that binds us together
ADOLESCENTS’ VIEWS OF ‘OTHERS’ IN THEIR COMMUNITY
What adolescents say they learned from their community service
Selection of verbatim responses from
700 12 – 18 year olds
Diverse communities and social backgrounds
Basically you get to know people for who they are not what they are
I used to be afraid of the elderly. I understand them more and
found out they are really nice and have a lot to share.15 year-old White female from a working class family
People are a lot friendlyer [sic] & kinder than they are made out to be.
16 year-ole White male from a middle-class family
People are different but they don't have to be an outcast.
18 year-old Puerto Rican female from a working-class family
Understanding the Lives of Fellow Citizens
?? Awareness of Public Issues
It has helped me to see just how hard it can be for some
kids & some adults with disabilities.
17 year-old white female from an upper middle-class family
Some kids have more & bigger problems than others.
17 year-old Puerto Rican male from a working-class family
I see what people get angry about.
14 year-old White male from a middle-class family
Social Responsibility – Ties that Bind
You should always give help, because it probably will be there when you want it back. 18 year-old Arab-American male
I was able to grow closer to people at school and realize that team efforts make a difference.
16 year-old White female who volunteers with the Environment Club
Volunteering helps me bond with others and they help me see myself.
16 year-old Native American female who does school programs to help others learn about “my people”
That there are nice considerate people out there that could still believe someone after they have done wrong.
18 year-ole Mexican-American male who volunteers at an ex-convicts rehabilitation center
Adolescents’ Perceptions of their Community
Caring
If someone in my community has a problem, they can usually
count on others to help them out.
Open
When someone moves here, people make them feel welcome.
Effective
Every town has some problems.
In general, people in my town work together to solve our problems.
2.5
2.6
2.7
2.8
2.9
3
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
Clubs/Vol Vol Only Clubs Only Neither
Types of Youth Engagement and Perceptions of Community
CaringOpenEffective
Volunteering
Not Volunteering
ADOLESCENTS’ VIEWS OF ‘OTHERS’ IN THEIR COMMUNITY
Collective Identity
Solidarity and Civic Engagement
.
Civic Behaviors(Year One)
Solidarity/ Sense of
Community
Reflect/ Change My
Beliefs
Teams from Diverse
Backgrounds
AmeriCorps: Program Elements That Increase Civic Behaviors
.298***
.414***
.161*
.248**
Civic Behaviors (Year Two)
Democratic societies rely on persons with democratic dispositions
People prepared to work with others different from themselves toward shared ends.
People with a sense of individuality and a commitment to civic goods that are not the possession of one person or one small group alone.
- Jean Bethke-Elshtain, 1990
From Thomas Jefferson
Equal rights for all, special privileges for none.
Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it.
Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.