The rationale, origins, and practice of peer counseling, a system of training people to help each other through empathy and decision making, are detailed. Specific applications are described, with particular attention to involving adolescents as peer counselors. Peer counselor training as practiced by the Peer Counselling Project (University of…

Surveys the many human and material resources available to the teacher at little or no cost from sources outside the school. These include speakers bureaus, field trips, adopt-a-school programs, loaned executives, clubs, senior mentors, teacher's aides, contests, audiovisuals, games, scholarships, grants, underwriting, in-kind contributions, and…

Discusses three principles for use by volunteer tutors to use in monitoring children's oral reading: (1) maintaining an adequate pace in the lesson, (2) helping students make sense of what they read, and (3) helping the student to read what is actually on the page. (FL)

Results of survey identifying U.S. libraries that provide public access television production services to communities are organized into nine categories: alphabetical listing, current facility status, programing information, funding sources, budget/staff breakdown, volunteer programs, access services provided, type and value of equipment, and…

A program is described in which Spanish-speaking senior citizens volunteered to meet with first- and second-year language students twice weekly on a one-to-one basis for unstructured conversation. Both students and staff benefited, and results show the practical value of integrating such a conversation lab into the regular foreign language…

The health knowledge of crisis intervention volunteers was investigated with volunteers from church, school, and private agencies. (GW)

The use of volunteer speakers and "guest instructors" is proposed as a means of keeping educational institutions and students in touch with the outside world. (LBH)

This new manual updates two older Peace Corps' manuals: "Teaching Conservation in Developing Nations" [ICE M0007] and "Conservation Education: A Planning Guide" [ICE No. M0023]. In addition to the time- and field-tested wisdom of the older manuals, this new manual incorporates current research and practice in the field of environmental education.…

One reason to offer sports in school is to teach youth the values, skills, and habits that will make them more active, engaged, and responsible citizens. Past evidence on the civic effects of sports is mixed, but points to some potential positive civic effects. This fact sheet uses recent data from the 2002 National Youth Survey of Civic…

Youth court, also called teen court, peer jury, or student court, is an alternative to the traditional juvenile justice system and school disciplinary proceedings that empower youth and communities to take an active role in addressing the early stages of youth delinquency. The program provides communities with an opportunity to ensure immediate…

Research has shown that well-designed tutoring programs that use volunteers and other nonprofessionals as tutors can be effective in improving children's reading skills. Students with below-average reading skills who are tutored by volunteers show significant gains in reading skills when compared with similar students who do not receive tutoring…

Title VI provides federal funds to states under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. This document describes Title VI programs and the use of funds in the Austin Independent School District (AISD), Texas for 2000-2001. The AISD allocation of $481,559 was based on the May 2000 projected school enrollment, including projected…

This document lists the national quality standards for volunteer literacy programs that were developed by Laubach Literacy Action in a 2-year project that began in 1994 and involved the following activities: extensive review of existing literacy quality standards and guidelines; analysis of previous national efforts to identify the elements…

High school students who are involved in community service work are more likely to continue such community service after graduation. Highlights of a study using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, Second Follow-up (1992) and Third Follow-up (1994), include the following: (1) in 1994, 43 percent of 1992 high school seniors…

This brief paper summarizes proceedings of a May 2000 conference, Discovering Hidden Resources: Partners and Volunteers--Assistive Technology Reuse Programs, hosted by the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America. The conference focused on different approaches for involving corporate and private partners in…