Northern Kentucky's Vision 2015 community planning initiative is in its final stages of development. The five action teams have been meeting and formalizing their plans as the project nears its January 2006 deadline.

One of those plans is already in the works. A component of the Educational Excellence action team's work is an educational program called "Service Learning."

In it, children are given projects in which they work with the community and, in the process, study something pertaining to their curriculum. Earlier this year, Fort Wright first graders made books on tape for the Cincinnati Association for the Blind, a project that also improved students' reading and public speaking skills.

Service Learning advocate Rick Hulefeld, executive director of the local child development agency Children Inc., believes the program is a perfect fit with the community-oriented development goals of Vision 2015.

Education and Community Building

Service Learning, asserts Hulefeld, is good for business.

"If you're trying to make a pitch for why should anybody come here, expand here, stay here, then ultimately, besides whatever economic advantages for locating here, it really is that livable community piece: ... 'Well, how will it be for my children if I come and stay there?' Service Learning really is good education, but it's also good community building. We want to all live where most people really care about where we are."

Hulefeld's idea is to bring Service Learning into NKY education from kindergarten through 12th grade, engaging kids more deeply in both their communities and their classrooms.

He has organized four local service coordinators-educators Mary Kay Connolly, Becky Bramer, Maria Y. Carter and Tiffany Whalen-who work directly with teachers. Hulefeld's group provides training and other support to enable schools-already stretched to their limits-to add Service Learning to the curriculum.

"We need to build that capacity here," said Hulefeld. "I don't really think there's a principal anywhere who would say, 'Gee, I don't think we'd want this in my school.'

"What most of them say is, 'We're just overwhelmed with what we're already trying to do.'"

The response to that, said Hulefeld, is "We're going to make it easy for you to do what you would like to do anyhow. We're going to give you the money. We're going to do the training. We're going to give you the support. We're going to recognize you for what you do."

National Program, Local Roots

Hulefeld has received grants from Toyota ($120,000) and the Cincinnati-based Mayerson Foundation ($70,000) to implement Service Learning and is seeking additional funds. He and his service coordinators have trained 225 NKY public school teachers, who are now beginning to incorporate Service Learning into their classrooms. There will be more than 100 NKY Service Learning projects this school year alone.

The national Service Learning movement traces its beginning to 1903, when the Cooperative Education Movement was founded at the University of Cincinnati. Today, that service component is usually left to extracurricular groups like scouting, but advocates like Hulefeld believe it's time to bring community back into public education.

Critics might say that Service Learning is a waste of time when too many students have trouble with such basics as reading and math. But Hulefeld believes Service Learning, started at an early age, engages kids in the education process from the start. That basic attitude change can reap academic rewards throughout their school years.

"What's important is how do we keep building the students' voice into this," said Hulefeld. "Because the more they can own the process; the more we let them play where their skills are; the more we can play on their strengths; the better off we are."

At the same time, students are learning new skills, becoming more a part of their community and acquiring a deeper sense of what that all means.

The entire process works on the "PARC" model: Preparation-studying the problem and developing solutions; Action-doing the project; Reflection-helping students internalize and understand what they've done, how it affects the people they served and what effect it has on the community at large; and Celebration, recognizing students and teachers for their accomplishments.

Hulefeld says reflection is the most important educational component.

"The teachers guide that reflection, but as they (the students) reflect, that's where the real long-term learning comes."

Spiritual Service

Hulefeld believes there's a spiritual aspect to Service Learning. The tenet of service, of giving back to the community, is at the heart of virtually every religious teaching, from Baptist to Buddhist.

He emphasizes this aspect of Service Learning when he speaks at area churches.

Recently, after one such talk, Hulefeld said, "One of the older parishioners stopped me and said, 'Well, we can't expect anything from schools, because they won't let God into the schools.'

"And I said, 'Let me tell you what the kids said when they were reflecting. They're not gonna say 'God,' but they're gonna say things like, 'I learned that the other person is just like me, only a little different.'

"If we can give kids those kinds of experiences in school, then the churches ought to be able to finish the job, connecting the dots for the kids. It's religious even without sort of talking about it. ... I would rather have the kids having the experiences, rather than have somebody come in preaching to them about what it is they're supposed to be believing in."

Vision of Community

At a meeting with The Sunday Challenger editorial board before Vision 2015 meetings began, co-chairs Dr. James Votruba and A.J. Schaeffer discussed the general goals for the project, including the concept of community service.

They discussed the older generation of NKY leaders, men and women who not only built huge businesses and developed the region, but who never failed to give back to the community. The challenge, they said, was to develop the next generation of community-minded leaders.

"Somewhere along the line," Votruba said, "this community produced a generation of people who said, 'We're going to build on behalf of generations that we'll never meet.' And I see this as just the next chapter in that process."

Hulefeld sees Service Learning as a way, not only to ensure that process continues for many generations to come, but to expand it beyond the leaders, to create an entire community of people who care as much about the needs of the community as their own.

"We need everybody," said Hulefeld. "It ought to be a party where everybody's invited and everybody realizes it. I truly believe you're ether destroying or you're creating. I think if some people aren't invited to the party, then they'll figure out a way to sort of tear down the wall. I'd rather everybody realize that they have something to give back."

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