Service-Learning
The New Mexico Out-of-School Time Network (NMOST) partners with national and state organizations to grow service-learning opportunities for youth in New Mexico. Our vision is to expand access to service-learning opportunities through OST for New Mexico’s youth, especially those living in underserved communities.
Service-Learning Mini-Grants - Apply Now!
Project Timeline: February – July 2025
Applications Due By January 15, 2025
The New Mexico Out-of-School Time Network (NMOST) is pleased to offer this mini-grant opportunity ($1,500-2,500) for OST providers to implement service-learning and youth voice initiatives in their OST programs during the first half of 2025.
- Open to New Mexico CBOs implementing afterschool or summer programs for middle and/or high school students
- Access curriculum, resources, and training
- Receive initial grant amount in February 2025; final payment at midway point
- Join a Professional Learning Community (PLC) and connect with other OST programs implementing service-learning and youth voice initiatives
- Submit final project report by August 15th, 2025
Service-Learning K-12 Standards for Quality Practice
One of NMOST’s national partner organizations, the National Youth Leadership Council, developed the K-12 Service-Learning Standards for Quality Practice in partnership with other leaders in the field. These standards represent service-learning best practices to ensure high-quality service-learning experiences that engage and empower youth to create positive change while developing academic and civic knowledge and skills.
Program Resources & Project Ideas
The National Youth Leadership Council accelerates student achievement by strengthening academic, civic, and character outcomes through service-learning. We tap into the passion, creativity, and ingenuity of all young people to make meaningful change happen. NYLC offers a variety of paths to reach service-learning excellence through online content, customized professional development, tools, resources, and more. We are leading the way to address real world issues with all young people, inspiring them to Serve. Learn. Change the world.®
Earth Force provides customizable tools and professional development to help adults create space for young people to form youth-adult partnerships, engage in environmental problem-finding, and take civic action. Our mission is to engage young people as active citizens who can improve their communities and the environment.
In Environmental Action Civics, students share power with adults, practice democratic decision making, and address local environmental problems using civics. And adults are right there beside them, igniting a new generation of decision makers.
Every Monday Matters is a non-profit organization committed to helping individuals and organizations embrace how much and why they matter to themselves, each other, the community, and the world.
Walking Softer seeks to inform, inspire, and support Changemakers. We provide youth environmental programs, invest in world-class partners, and facilitate immersive experiences.
Youth Service America is a leading global nonprofit that activates young people, ages 5-25, to find their voice, take action, and acquire powerful civic and 21st Century skills as they solve problems facing their communities. YSA supports its activation campaigns with grants, training and resources, and recognition programs for young people and their adult champions. Youth-led projects use Awareness, Service, Advocacy, and Philanthropy (ASAP) strategies to create social and environmental change.
Coalition for Service-Learning is a coalition of education and youth development advocates is organizing an effort to renew funding for service-learning in schools and community organizations across the United States.
Research has found volunteerism to have a positive effect on young people through their school years—where adolescents who volunteer see positive outcomes as a teenager and teenagers who volunteer are less likely to take part in at-risk behaviors and more likely to see positive effects on their academic performance and emotional wellbeing. This section contains the variety of ways in which afterschool programs are showing students the positive change they can bring about in their communities, helping them learn about the unique needs and challenges of their communities, and connecting them to the members of their communities.
Youth as Solutions (YaS) is creating a generation of citizens who are passionate about making a positive impact in their schools and communities. Through our self-paced service-learning program, Leadership Teams – consisting of at least two young people in grades 6-12 and an adult mentor from a public school, school district, government entity, or nonprofit – positively impact their communities by addressing one of these impact areas:
The School for Ethics in Education has a list of service learning ideas on its webpage
LionsQuest has several Service Learning guides posted on its website to help programs pick projects and decide on topics
Youth.Gov’s Service Learning webpage includes the government’s definition of service learning as well as information about the benefits and challenges of service learning. Scroll to the middle section to learn about solutions to common challenges and learn about state or district-level policies.
The Maryland State Department of Education has a list ofprojects are aimed at promoting literacy, preserving the past, and affecting the future. Many of these projects include student tutoring or mentoring services and sister schools. Other projects involve continuing education and may fundraise to provide scholarships for students attending college. For projects specifically aimed at preserving the memories of veterans, please see Public Safety.
Power of Young People Podcast: Host Amy Meuers, NYLC CEO, explores how young people are using their ideas, creativity, and passion to shape a better world and how educators can utilize the power of service-learning to redesign education. This podcast is perfect for young people who want to change the world, and for adults who want to foster youth innovation and imagination through real-world education.
Harkin Consulting’s Service-Learning resources include lists of project examples that are aligned to standards in 9 different content areas ranging from Math and Science to Visual and Performing Arts.