Outreach Grantee: Pennsylvania
July 19, 2002
Pennsylvania Department of EducationLocation
Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Program Summary
This initiative provides school districts with strategies for integrating service learning into the Individual Education Plan of special education students. Teacher training will focus on how to incorporate service learning within special education and linking service learning with academic standards. Teachers will receive service learning mini grants to enable their students with disabilities to participate in a service learning project. AmeriCorps*VISTA members will meet with students who are transitioning out of school to discuss service and service opportunities in AmeriCorps.
Goals
- Provide
at least 40 youth with disabilities in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh
with the opportunity to participate in extended service learning
experiences based in their local communities.
- Contact
all AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps/VISTA programs in the state to invite
them to workshops on service learning with students with disabilities.
- Attempt to connect Start on Success (SOS) students and other disabled youth with the Corporation for National Service National Leader Schools and Pennsylvania Youth-Driven Service Learning Centers (YDSLCs) for dialogue about local issues and service opportunities, collaborative service and fellowship.
Activities
- The
Pennsylvania Service Learning Alliance (PSLA)'s quarterly newsletter,
Learning and Serving in Pennsylvania, will cover service learning
programs and projects with special education students in a new
column called "Special Service."
- PSLA
will host National Service Fairs in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia
for students with disabilities to come and meet AmeriCorps members
and learn about AmeriCorps programs in Pennsylvania.
- PSLA
will publish a downloadable manual to assist teachers with integrating
special education initiatives with service learning.
- PSLA
will launch a new website for special education professionals
that will highlight best practices, announce new funding opportunities
for service learning and special education, provide links to disability
organization websites, and post the special education/service
learning manual for download.
- PSLA
will expand its network of Peer Consultants by creating a new
group of Special Education Peer Consultants.
- PSLA will expand its PSLA Mini-Grant Program to award $50,000 in mini-grants to special education teachers for service learning projects in their classrooms.
Partners
Partners include the National Organization on Disability, the Start on Success Program, Pennsylvania Service Learning Alliance, AmeriCorps*VISTA, and the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia Public Schools.
Contact Information
Dorothy Hershey
Pennsylvania Department of Education
333 Market Street, Fifth Floor
Harrisburg, PA 17126-0333
(717) 783-7089
