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Feature Stories
You've Been Served | To Serve is to Learn
Rural Youth Impact Communities Through Living to Serve Grants
FFA Chapters Turn Community Service into a Habit of the Heart
Rural Youth Impact Communities Through Living to Serve Grants
Homelessness, hunger, accessibility, inclusion and a myriad of environmental issues…communities across the country are facing an avalanche of challenges. At the same time, rural youth find themselves challenged by economic, physical and geographic barriers to opportunities for leadership, growth and development.
“In very rural areas, young people may not have access to transportation, community partners and connections with adult leaders,” said Michele Sullivan, Team Leader of Grant Management at the National FFA Organization. “Youth may live across wide geographic areas and have economic challenges due to a lack of industry. Living to Serve helps students utilize the resources they have, building upon those networks to impact and make changes in their rural communities.”
The organization is managing U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) federal funds in the form of Living to Serve grants. Living to Serve grants have been designed to enable youth to engage in service-learning activities intended to benefit their own lives and the lives of their community.
“The funds are to be used to help students develop and initiate year-long service-learning projects that address an actual, identified community need,” Sullivan said. “Projects need to deeply address community issues such as hunger, housing or water safety. This year we are in the process of awarding grants to 11 states, with a minimum of four grantee chapters each as well as funding 17 individual chapter awards. ”
Service-learning and the classroom
- Service-learning is a pedagogy that infuses service into the curriculum. Living to Serve grants focus on helping students apply classroom learning to real community needs. Successful grant applications include projects that are meaningful because they reoccur over time and sustainable because they have a strong collaborative component between community partners and FFA chapters. Overall, projects are meaningful, intentional and address actual community needs.
- Lesson plans available on the organization’s website provide ag educators and advisors with resources for engaging students. “Service-learning lesson plans help students begin the process of identifying community needs,” Sullivan said. “Needs assessments can include conversations with chapter members, community partners or community mapping. Some chapters choose research strategies to learn more about a problem. Others may use focus groups as a way to gather information. The application needs to demonstrate community need as well as how need was determined.”
- The request for applications for the 2010-2011 school year will be available during November. The grant process is very competitive; not everyone who applies will receive an award. FFA will be providing training and technical assistance webinars as well as conference calls in support of application preparation. Webinars and conference calls will help grant applicants understand the fiscal parameters as well as how to develop and describe measurable outcomes. Training dates will be posted online as they become available.
- “In order for FFA to continue receiving USDA funding, it is imperative that we are able to measure success,” Sullivan said. “State awards range from $3,000 to $6,000 and chapter awards are up to $3,000 depending upon the scope of the project and its community impact. All awards are one-year grants with the possibility of being extended for up to three years.”
Applications are reviewed first by FFA; final approval comes from the USDA. Stefonie Sebastian, ssebastian@ffa.org or 317-802-4462, is the Living to Serve Grant Administrator and point person for questions, webinars and conference calls.