 State Farm Service Learning
State Farm® supports school-based service-learning because it promotes excellence in public schools. Service-learning is a teaching approach integrating service to the community with classroom curriculum through a hands-on approach. Students address community needs while strengthening their academic performance. They also learn civic responsibility and develop meaningful leadership and workplace skills. Research indicates that school-based service-learning encourages students to become active participants in their education. State Farm appreciates benefits of all service-learning programs, but focuses its support on school-based service-learning for K-12 public schools, teachers and students. We do this because public schools are the educational hub for the majority of students and one in which every tax payer invests. Through the State Farm Companies Foundation, State Farm has committed support to the following service-learning partnerships: YSA provides exposure to volunteer service and service-learning for millions of people. Through Global Youth Service Day (GYSD), YSA spotlights service-learning projects that take place year-round. This increases exposure to the diversity of individual projects and their impacts on the community and education. NYLC is recognized for its curriculum development leadership and best practices for teachers in school-based service-learning. NYLC hosts the National Service-Learning Conference (NSLC), the largest annual service-learning conference in the world. Through its partnership with NYLC, State Farm supports Growing to Greatness, the annual state of service-learning report, which offers research on service-learning’s benefits on academics and citizenship. This report is free from NYLC. NSLP is a group of more than 8,500 service-learning organizations and advocates working to promote best practices and making service-learning opportunities available to everyone. It is a national leadership organization dedicated to advancing service-learning as a core element of every elementary, middle and secondary school student in the United States. For more about each organization, visit its respective Web site. Service-learning programs teach students about issues that have real-world importance and provide a golden opportunity for them to have a positive, direct impact on their communities by using and increasing their academic skills. State Farm-sponsored events include annual activities such as Global Youth Service Day and the National Service-Learning Conference, as well as on-going or one-time projects that address issues important to the well-being of our business and communities. Some examples include programs about teen driver safety, auto repair, home safety, building codes, senior safety, financial education and property losses. A brief description of some of the events and projects follows. Global Youth Service Day - GYSD engages millions of young people and focuses national attention on their leadership. The State Farm Companies Foundation is the presenting sponsor and supports 75 Lead Agencies with planning grants to help activate celebrations recognizing youth service activities, as well as 100 grants for young people, teachers or service-learning coordinators to fund projects featured during the annual event coordinated by YSA. National Service-Learning Conference (NSLC) - The conference is convened by NYLC and is the largest gathering of youths and practitioners from the service-learning field. In 2007, the conference drew more than 3000 enthusiasts from across the United States and 41 other countries. State Farm is the presenting sponsor. Project Ignition - This partnership between State Farm and NYLC addresses teen driver safety. Through a competitive process, 25 U.S. schools receive $2,000 grants to implement their campaigns. A $10,000 grant is given to the winning school at the National Service-Learning Conference. For details, go to www.nylc.org or www.sfprojectignition.com.
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