If you're a schoolchild and your school has a service-learning program that combines classroom studies with community service, Children Inc. wants you.

And 2,999 of your closest friends.

The Covington-based agency in the past school year put to "work" more than 9,000 elementary and middle-school students from 52 Northern Kentucky public and private schools.

Next school year, it wants to add 3,000 more.

The effort is promoting service-learning, a concept that goes back to previous decades' alternative education philosophies, and it's expanding rapidly in Northern Kentucky.

Educators see the value of using community projects in applying classroom concepts to real-life solutions.

And it directly connects students and business and community leaders, a key component of the region's Vision 2015 plan to increase participation to more than 25,000 students annually in the next eight years.

"Children who learn early about the importance of giving back and have an opportunity to practice giving back year after year will lead this community in the future," said Mike Hammons, president of the Vision civic initiative. "They will be the reason many people in the future will want to call Northern Kentucky their home."

Last month, for instance, a class of 13 students at St. Thomas School in Fort Thomas filled in empty flower beds at a local bank, implementing the math-calculated designs they'd been studying.

From their science studies, they researched online to learn which plants needed direct sunlight, as well as the proper spacing for their growth patterns. Then they built a scale model for $65 under their budget of $250.

"It is amazing, " said Rick Hulefeld, executive director of Children Inc. "The teachers and principals really understand that each child has something to give back and that the children learn so much by being a part of the solution."

It's a good deal for teachers, too.

Children Inc.'s Mayerson Northern Kentucky Service Learning Initiative provides teachers with on-site training, and in the first two years of the initiative has trained more than 950.

"We ask teachers to think about something they really want the children to remember, and then we help them turn it into a service-learning project," Hulefeld said. "Almost any part of the curriculum can be turned into a project to help others, from using math to writing good paragraphs."

Projects conducted this year by students in Boone, Campbell and Kenton counties - several hundred in all - included literacy initiatives that improve reading and donation drives that improve math skills.

Outgoing Beechwood School Superintendent Fred Bassett said such programs can provide invaluable lessons beyond the confines of textbooks.

"The upside is it promotes a sense of community and a sense of obligation," Bassett said. "And it might open kids' eyes to other possibilities."

The downsides, he said, are the safety issues of transporting and supervising students out in the real world, and the chance that kids might be less inclined to become volunteers if their introduction to public-service is mandatory.

Supporters say the pros far outweigh the cons.

Major resource contributors include the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce's BEST program, the Scripps Howard Center for Civic Engagement, as well as financial contributors such as the Mayerson Foundation, Toyota, Ashland, and the Robert Butler Foundation.

Now, Children Inc. wants more of the most valuable resource the region has to offer: its kids.