ICP Lumina Grant for Summer of Service Press Release
For Immediate Release
March 13, 2009
Press Contact: Jean Manney, manney@icicp.org or 202-775-0290
Innovations in Civic Participation (ICP) has received a 3-year grant of $500,000 from Lumina Foundation for Education, an Indianapolis-based, private foundation dedicated to expanding access and success in education beyond high school, for investment in the organization's Summer of Service (SOS) initiative.
ICP proposed a national SOS program to help communities create positive alternatives for middle school students during summer vacations. A national SOS would provide young teens with a positive experience that reinforces community connections, enlivens their education, and strengthens personal and civic values. At the same time, communities across America might find an important new resource in their own backyards - young people who are ready to serve, if only they are asked and provided the opportunity to do so.
"Lumina Foundation sees a strong link between the Summer of Service Project and KnowHow2GO, our public service campaign that targets low-income, at-risk middle school students," said Jeanna Keller, program officer at Lumina Foundation. "When students engage in positive service activities, they avoid risky behavior, become more engaged in their own education and increase their chances of accessing and succeeding in higher education."
ICP's SOS project has a two-pronged approach to postsecondary education access and success: 1) integrate SOS into college access programs, and 2) for existing SOS programs, increase the academic development component that can support college access and readiness.
Through this initiative, ICP will provide high quality resources and assistance to organizations interested in designing, implementing, evaluating and improving SOS programs. Specifically, ICP will develop a program design toolkit, training module, and evaluation toolkit, in addition to advancing development of our SOS Online Resource Center and continuing to raise awareness and build support for the SOS concept.
In August 2008, ICP launched its Summer of Service Online Resource Center, which provides a forum for information exchange on SOS program design, implementation, and evaluation. ICP is improving and building the Resource Center to ensure that local and national organizations and school systems have resources for creating high quality programs.
ICP is also working to create a Program Design Toolkit to assist practitioners in the field with designing and implementing SOS programs. As a way of gathering information on model programs and best practices, as well as providing new content for the Resource Center, ICP will also be collecting and creating Program Insights - narrative and reflective multimedia presentations on successful SOS programs from 10 select projects in Summer 2009. ICP will design an interactive training on how to use the toolkit to be initially presented in 2010 at national and regional conferences, and also available to individual programs or groups on a fee-for-service basis.
An Evaluation Toolkit will be designed to provide local programs with a basic understanding of evaluation methods. It will also provide a set of reliable tools for practitioners to use for generating data to assess both individual initiatives and the overall progress of programs across the field, ultimately providing better evidence of program effectiveness.
ICP will be working with two consultants on this project. Nicole Tysvaer will design and develop the Program Insights, Program Design Toolkit and Training module. Nicole is a doctoral pre-candidate and graduate research fellow at the University of Michigan School of Education and has more than a dozen years of experience working with educational enrichment programs.
Nicole Tysvaer said, "ICP and Lumina have presented us with a valuable opportunity to expand and enhance the good work of service programs across the country at a time of great momentum for engaging young people to make a difference. I look forward to capitalizing on the incredible professionalization of the volunteer and service network that has burgeoned over the past few decades and helping to facilitate a conversation about how to further our intentional learning and development goals as we work to insure meaningful service as a 'rite of passage' for all young Americans."
Alan Melchior will oversee the design and development of the Evaluation Toolkit. Alan is the Deputy Director and Senior Fellow at the Center for Youth and Communities at Brandeis University. He brings over 20 years of experience in managing a wide variety of policy, evaluation, and technical assistance and training initiatives in the fields of youth, education, and workforce development.
"This is a terrific opportunity to build a solid system of supports for the expansion of Summer of Service programs in the United States and to build the tools needed to document the impacts of Summer of Service programs on participating youth," Alan Melchior said. "Service-learning is increasingly recognized as an invaluable educational, civic, and developmental experience for young people. This initiative should help make those experiences available to larger numbers of youth and to make summer an important time for learning and growth."
As a result of the Lumina Foundation grant, ICP will create sustainable resources for the field of youth civic engagement and college access. The organization's work will increase the quantity and quality of SOS programs, including programs' capacity to involve more youth. The initiative will also increase the professional ability of program providers to deliver high quality SOS programs that inculcate a sense of social responsibility and support the academic development and college readiness of youth participants.
ICP advances strategies for youth civic engagement by designing programs and policies, contributing to the knowledge base of the youth service field, and building networks that result in many more young people being given the opportunity to engage in civic activities. These efforts have expanded opportunities for tens of thousands of young people throughout the world to connect with their communities through service. According to Susan Beresford, former President of the Ford Foundation, "ICP is the leading agent for promoting youth service in the world today." For more information, visit www.icicp.org
March 13, 2009
Press Contact: Jean Manney, manney@icicp.org or 202-775-0290
ICP Works to Expand SOS
Programs, Thanks to Grant from Lumina
Foundation for Education
Innovations in Civic Participation (ICP) has received a 3-year grant of $500,000 from Lumina Foundation for Education, an Indianapolis-based, private foundation dedicated to expanding access and success in education beyond high school, for investment in the organization's Summer of Service (SOS) initiative.
ICP proposed a national SOS program to help communities create positive alternatives for middle school students during summer vacations. A national SOS would provide young teens with a positive experience that reinforces community connections, enlivens their education, and strengthens personal and civic values. At the same time, communities across America might find an important new resource in their own backyards - young people who are ready to serve, if only they are asked and provided the opportunity to do so.
"Lumina Foundation sees a strong link between the Summer of Service Project and KnowHow2GO, our public service campaign that targets low-income, at-risk middle school students," said Jeanna Keller, program officer at Lumina Foundation. "When students engage in positive service activities, they avoid risky behavior, become more engaged in their own education and increase their chances of accessing and succeeding in higher education."
ICP's SOS project has a two-pronged approach to postsecondary education access and success: 1) integrate SOS into college access programs, and 2) for existing SOS programs, increase the academic development component that can support college access and readiness.
Through this initiative, ICP will provide high quality resources and assistance to organizations interested in designing, implementing, evaluating and improving SOS programs. Specifically, ICP will develop a program design toolkit, training module, and evaluation toolkit, in addition to advancing development of our SOS Online Resource Center and continuing to raise awareness and build support for the SOS concept.
In August 2008, ICP launched its Summer of Service Online Resource Center, which provides a forum for information exchange on SOS program design, implementation, and evaluation. ICP is improving and building the Resource Center to ensure that local and national organizations and school systems have resources for creating high quality programs.
ICP is also working to create a Program Design Toolkit to assist practitioners in the field with designing and implementing SOS programs. As a way of gathering information on model programs and best practices, as well as providing new content for the Resource Center, ICP will also be collecting and creating Program Insights - narrative and reflective multimedia presentations on successful SOS programs from 10 select projects in Summer 2009. ICP will design an interactive training on how to use the toolkit to be initially presented in 2010 at national and regional conferences, and also available to individual programs or groups on a fee-for-service basis.
An Evaluation Toolkit will be designed to provide local programs with a basic understanding of evaluation methods. It will also provide a set of reliable tools for practitioners to use for generating data to assess both individual initiatives and the overall progress of programs across the field, ultimately providing better evidence of program effectiveness.
ICP will be working with two consultants on this project. Nicole Tysvaer will design and develop the Program Insights, Program Design Toolkit and Training module. Nicole is a doctoral pre-candidate and graduate research fellow at the University of Michigan School of Education and has more than a dozen years of experience working with educational enrichment programs.
Nicole Tysvaer said, "ICP and Lumina have presented us with a valuable opportunity to expand and enhance the good work of service programs across the country at a time of great momentum for engaging young people to make a difference. I look forward to capitalizing on the incredible professionalization of the volunteer and service network that has burgeoned over the past few decades and helping to facilitate a conversation about how to further our intentional learning and development goals as we work to insure meaningful service as a 'rite of passage' for all young Americans."
Alan Melchior will oversee the design and development of the Evaluation Toolkit. Alan is the Deputy Director and Senior Fellow at the Center for Youth and Communities at Brandeis University. He brings over 20 years of experience in managing a wide variety of policy, evaluation, and technical assistance and training initiatives in the fields of youth, education, and workforce development.
"This is a terrific opportunity to build a solid system of supports for the expansion of Summer of Service programs in the United States and to build the tools needed to document the impacts of Summer of Service programs on participating youth," Alan Melchior said. "Service-learning is increasingly recognized as an invaluable educational, civic, and developmental experience for young people. This initiative should help make those experiences available to larger numbers of youth and to make summer an important time for learning and growth."
As a result of the Lumina Foundation grant, ICP will create sustainable resources for the field of youth civic engagement and college access. The organization's work will increase the quantity and quality of SOS programs, including programs' capacity to involve more youth. The initiative will also increase the professional ability of program providers to deliver high quality SOS programs that inculcate a sense of social responsibility and support the academic development and college readiness of youth participants.
ICP advances strategies for youth civic engagement by designing programs and policies, contributing to the knowledge base of the youth service field, and building networks that result in many more young people being given the opportunity to engage in civic activities. These efforts have expanded opportunities for tens of thousands of young people throughout the world to connect with their communities through service. According to Susan Beresford, former President of the Ford Foundation, "ICP is the leading agent for promoting youth service in the world today." For more information, visit www.icicp.org