For six years the Food Security Research Network at Lakehead University, Canada, has been engaged in an interdisciplinary theme-based service-learning initiative focusing on food security. Informed by complexity theory, the contextual fluidity partnership model brings community partners, students, and faculty into a nexus through which new…

This article describes how a university and a museum have worked together to create a "How science works" workshop entitled "What's in our water?" The workshop teaches students about the continuing pollution from a disused coal mine, how the pollution is cleaned up using a state-of-the-art treatment works and how scientists…

The Afterschool Alliance is proud to present the first in a series of two issue briefs on afterschool STEM programs, generously supported by the Noyce Foundation. The issue brief topics represent emerging discussions within the afterschool field and are drawn from the two award categories of the 2013 Afterschool STEM Impact Awards: (1)…

Alcohol is all too often seen as an accepted part of college life, but there are programs that can significantly reduce students' risky drinking, according to a series of studies in a special college drinking supplement of the "Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs." Fourteen studies detail results of projects funded by the National…

We present a science centre established in Genoa on an agreement between Municipality of Genoa and Department of Physics of University of Genoa. The aim is to offer children, young people and community an opportunity to approach science in a playful way. The centre staffs guide the visitors through the exhibits, attracting their interests towards…

Evidence strongly supports the notion that juvenile offenders, both with and without disabilities, are significantly more likely to experience successful reentry into their home schools and communities if appropriate programs and supports are in place. In spite of this, comprehensive state-level reentry programs for youth are few and far between.…

The learning and skills sector plays a critical part in working with young people disengaged from education, or at risk of becoming so, and supporting adults with low skills levels to achieve their ambitions in life, work and learning. In particular, the sector has a key role in enabling people to become engaged in education, training and work and…

Based on the assumption that all young people and their communities would benefit from students' active participation in community endeavours, some Canadian provinces and US states have included community involvement activities graduation requirement. Debates continue over whether students should be "forced" to volunteer. Ontario's…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present the current state of student volunteering in English universities, and show how it contributes to some of the core activities of higher education, including teaching and learning, employability, and public engagement. The paper goes on to describe challenges currently faced by student volunteering,…

Program evaluation is recognized as an essential skill set for practitioners in service-related fields, such as education, nonprofit management, social work, and public health. Recently, the need for a public workforce trained in evaluation has increased and is driven primarily by our nation's emphasis on accountability during a time when…

Twenty-seven five-year-olds walk into kindergarten on the first day of school in southeastern Kentucky. On average, nine of those children live in poverty, two were born to mothers who did not complete high school, two were removed from their homes because of abuse or neglect, and fourteen are from single-parent homes: this according to statistics…

Youth sports were created as opportunities for children to play, be active, and begin learning how to become better or more successful at a given sport. Unfortunately for many children with disabilities they may not get the same opportunities that are available to other children. There are a number of barriers that may inhibit children with…

This article seeks to provide an outline of the basic ideas and approaches used by the Incredible Edible programme, a community enterprise that is based in the United Kingdom. To do this the author briefly (1) defines the context for the programme, (2) defines the concepts that inform the programme, (3) and illustrates some of the action of the…

To stem the tide of students dropping out, many schools and districts are turning to early warning systems (EWS) that signal whether a student is at risk of not graduating from high school. While some research exists about establishing these systems, there is little information about the actual implementation strategies that are being used across…

This compilation offers global examples of innovative and promising literacy and numeracy programmes that link the teaching and learning of literacy to sustainable development challenges such as health, social equality, economic empowerment and environmental sustainability. This publication is a timely contribution to the 2030 Agenda for…