| Topics: Youth By the People:
Citizenship Training in AmeriCorps Manual Index Preface
Introduction: The Guide Format and the Goals of AmeriCorps
Chapter One: The Framework: Democracy, Citizenship, Politics and Service
Chapter Two: Encouraging (Civic) Responsibility
Chapter Three: Strengthening Community (Capacity)
Chapter Four: Getting Things Done
Chapter Five: Expanding Opportunity
Resources: Glossary, Bibliography, Other Contents Chapter Five: Expanding Opportunity Chapter 5: Expanding Opportunity Citizenship and Service as a Life-long Learning Process AmeriCorps reflects the basic American idea of reciprocity: when you give something great to your country, you ought to get something back in return. . . . [The] experience of AmeriCorps can expand your options in many ways, providing priceless life- and job-skills. You can emerge from AmeriCorps knowing how to teach or to build—and carry these skills through the rest of your life. - AmeriCorps Member Handbook While getting things done is a prime value of AmeriCorps, solving particular problems is only part of a much larger picture. Expanding opportunity is a process of education that allows you to actualize your potential. Of perhaps greatest importance is what you, and the members of the community in which you work, learn through doing the work of citizenship: what you learn about yourselves, your capacities, and the potential of ordinary citizens to impact the world. This will be the true legacy of AmeriCorps. Two important ways to make active citizenship a process of individual and collective education include evaluation and civic storytelling. Civic Skill: Evaluation Evaluation is a critical component of expanding opportunity. It requires that you think about what you've done, about what you've learned, and about what you need to do next. Most of the time, people think of evaluating only at the very end of a project. However, for evaluation to be most useful, you need to do it every step of the way—as you are exploring your interests, building relationships, defining problems, devising solutions, creating strategies, and taking action. Such a focus on ongoing evaluation is often dismissed as a waste of time, time that could better be used to just get things done. Actually, evaluation can help you save time and increase your opportunity to more effectively and efficiently accomplish your goals. Evaluation will help you:
- Avoid misunderstandings and resolve conflict;
- Encourage everyone to participate;
- Clarify roles and create accountability;
- Verbalize what is working and what is not;
- Gain a sense of what you are accomplishing and learning; and
- Know what you need to do differently and what you need to do next.
Much of the preparatory work for service projects takes place in meetings. Evaluating these meetings is a good way to begin to build evaluation into your work. Sample Questions For Evaluating Meetings - What did we set out to accomplish during our time together? What did we accomplish? What decisions did we make? What roles did people take?
- What did we do well today? What didn't go well? What should we do differently next time?
- What did we learn about self- interest? public life? diversity? power? How can we use what we have learned?
- What is our next step? What decisions do we need to make? What roles do people need to take?
- What items do we need to put on our next meeting agenda? What did we not finish today? What new issues will we need to address?
As you and your colleagues begin to implement your strategies for addressing community problems, evaluation will help you gauge your effectiveness and learn from your experience. Sample Questions For Evaluating Strategies and Action - What did we set out to accomplish? What did we accomplish?
- What parts of our strategy or action worked well? What went as planned? Were there any pleasant surprises? How can we build on our successes?
- What parts of our strategy or action didn't work well? What went wrong? What do we need to change to meet these challenges?
- What did we learn by taking this action? How can we use this in the future?
Exercise Worksheet: What We've Done, What We've Learned This exercise asks you to: Evaluate a particular aspect of your citizenship and service work. It helps to expand opportunity because: Evaluation is a key to learning from your experiences and enables you to translate what you've done in one situation to fit another. When you are able to transfer skills and understanding you can take advantage of, and create, diverse opportunities for yourself and others. Instructions
As a group, answer the following questions after you have finished a meeting or completed a task. Time limit: 10 minutes. Evaluation
- What were we trying to accomplish?
- What did we accomplish?
- What did we do well?
- What did we not do well?
- What do we need to do differently next time?
- What do we need to do next, or next time?
Civic Skill: Civic Storytelling Evaluation is one way for individuals and working groups to learn from their experiences, but it is not the only way. And what about communities, future AmeriCorps members, future generations? How will they learn from your work? In part, your citizenship and service work will speak for itself through its lasting effects. On the other hand, America today is a radically forgetful society. In the past, communities and cultures passed on their values and sustained themselves by telling stories—personal stories like those discussed in Chapter 2, as well as civic stories. The loss of civic stories, stories about how people work together, contributes to the thinning of the idea of civic work, and the narrowing of the opportunities it brings. Recovering the art of civic storytelling creates a collective, active history that informs the future. Civic storytelling can take many forms: written documents, oral narratives, drama, videos, murals, or songs and rap. Tips For Civic Storytelling - Find past civic stories connected to your work or institution. What have others done to address public problems? Recovering lost stories is as important as creating new ones.
- Keep a journal of your work. You can even think of it as an ongoing story. Who are the main characters? What is the setting? What are people doing and why? What lessons are they learning?
- Work together. Combining your insights with others' will yield a richer, collective story.
- Pass it on. To prevent your story from getting lost, put it on paper or tape. Then be sure to share and explain it before you move on to future work.
Exercise Worksheet: Creating History This exercise asks you to: Work with others to create a civic story about your AmeriCorps service. It helps to expand opportunity because: Explaining the lessons of your work reinforces them for you and passes them on to others—it is an integral part of the learning process. Instructions As a group, answer the following questions. Time limit: 15 minutes. Then use this information to create a civic story in the format of your choice. Time limit: 30 minutes. When you are finished, share your stories with others. Questions - If you were to look at your AmeriCorps work as an ongoing story, who are the main characters?
- What is the setting?
- What have been the major plot points?
- What have been the points of conflict?
- How have these conflicts been resolved?
- What is the "moral" of the story? What lessons have you learned?
Manual Index Preface
Introduction: The Guide Format and the Goals of AmeriCorps
Chapter One: The Framework: Democracy, Citizenship, Politics and Service
Chapter Two: Encouraging (Civic) Responsibility
Chapter Three: Strengthening Community (Capacity)
Chapter Four: Getting Things Done
Chapter Five: Expanding Opportunity
Resources: Glossary, Bibliography, Other Back to Youth Index | 
