Lack of After School Programs After school programs are activities which the youth can take part in beyond the traditional school going hours. The after-school programs categorized in those undertaken by either secondary or primary schools and those undertaken by external commercial or not-forprofit organizations. The programs meet the needs of youth and children of all ages and encompasses a wide range of focus activities such as mentoring, academic support, youth development, recreation and sports. The social issue is important as it improves the academic performance of attendees, enhances the class behavior of the learners. Additionally, afterschool programs minimize the likelihood of dropping out of school. Further, participation in after-school programs has been linked to a reduction in criminal behavior and drug use. Service learning is important in causing positive change to after-school programs as community partners are able to use some or a lot of the strategies, insights, and information that the students suggest (Vizenor, Souza & Ertmer, 2016). Additionally, service learning is important in causing a positive change to lack of after-school programs as it nurtures the children and the youth to become better members of the society. Community Organization The Wallace Foundation is a philanthropy organization that is based in New York City and operates at a national level in answering essential queries which, if remedied can help in the reinforcement of policies as well as practices in a particular field. The foundation traces its origin back to more than 50 years to the philanthropic instances of Lila Acheson and DeWitt who also founded the Reader’s Digest Association. The generosity was directed to a wide range of educational, cultural and artistic causes in the course of their lifetime. The Wallace’s’ contributions have touched many organizations and their legacy lives on Wallace Foundation, n.d.). The primary objective of The Wallace Foundation is to provide high quality after-school initiatives which can equip the youth and children with rich opportunities for learning, having fun and also growth. The foundation meets the communities’ needs by coordinating efforts that ensure more and more youths and teens participate in high quality after-school programs. Therefore, The Wallace Foundation stepped in by launching the Financial Management program nine years ago to assist providers in sharpening the required skills in the getting of their financial houses in order. Additionally, the foundation makes funder policies and procedures efficient and fairer. In other words, The Wallace Foundation puts in place policies and strategies that coordinate and boost the presence of after-school programs in the country (Wallace Foundation, n.d.). Conclusion Historically, the after-school programs have been differentiated with diverse initiatives -as well as the government institutions which finance them-thus resulting to a scenario where the programs operate in isolation from each other. The Wallace Foundation seeks to coordinate strategies which promote an increase in a number of enrolments in afterschool programs and also promote the quality of the programs. Additionally, the foundation focus on disadvantaged youths and children. Further, service learning at The Wallace Foundation is beneficial to both the community and the students. For instance, service learning at the foundation helps the students to increase the understanding of the importance of after-school programs in the community; exploring and nurturing talents, improvement of one’s ability to handle ambiguity as well as increasing flexibility among other things. For the community, service learning at Amnesty International helps in the gaining of extra human resources required to attain the organization’s objectives, grow Amnesty International’s volunteer pool, increase of public awareness to the benefits of after-school programs in the country among other things ("Benefits of Service-Learning", 2018). References Benefits of Service-Learning. (2018). Retrieved from http://www.servicelearning.umn.edu/info/benefits.html Vizenor, N., Souza, T., & Ertmer, J. (2016). Benefits of participating in service-learning, business-related classes: Assessing the impact on community partners. Journal for Research in Business Education, 58(1), 1-15. Wallace Foundation. A Brief History. Retrieved from https://www.wallacefoundation.org/about-wallace/pages/history.aspx Wallace Foundation. Afterschool. Retrieved from https://www.wallacefoundation.org/howwe-work/our-work/pages/afterschool.aspx Cultural Challenges Introduction Institutions of higher are focused in bringing positive change to the society through various programs. XYZ University needs an evaluation of a particular organization to see if a service learning opportunity would benefit future students and the community. Wallace Foundation aims to improve the lives of disadvantaged children in America’s urban areas. The foundation focuses on building audiences for the arts education of young people, expanded learning, summer learning, afterschool programming, and school leadership. Wallace’s mission is to enable learning institutions to expand learning opportunities for everyone by sharing and supporting effective practices and ideas (Wallace Foundation Afterschool, n.d). Based on its mission statement, the foundation strengthens education leadership to improve student achievement among the young, disadvantaged population. Further, the organization improves after-school learning opportunities and expands student participation in arts and culture. Humanitarian Considerations The afterschool program comprises multiple programs with the private groups and government agencies which fund the programs. The afterschool program is fragmented since each party function separately from each other (Billig & Waterman, 2014). The lack of access to high-quality standards, especially in urban regions which contain large numbers of disadvantaged young people is an effect of the fragmented program. Little efforts are employed to ensure that more teens and children participate in high-quality after-school services. The Wallace Foundation has stepped up to help these students obtain a high-quality education by engaging in “solidarity” work as a way to address the challenge. In 2003, Wallace began the First Generation Initiative to help urban centers experiment the idea of coordinating resources and efforts to bring after-school opportunities to the disadvantaged children and teens. Based on the initiative, Wallace gathered lessons which advanced two fundamental premises which include young students can gain learning benefits by participating in the program frequently, and a coordinated strategy can enhance the quality of and improve access to in-service learning among young people. As an antidote to improve the in-service program efficiency, Wallace can develop a more cohesive leadership system in partnership with various states and districts to engage more fully in “solidarity” work. The rationale for building such a system should consider the standards that define leadership quality and outline a basis for holding educational leaders accountable (Billig & Waterman, 2014). Ideally, the incentives that hinder or help these leaders are most likely to be effective and sustained given that they are both well-coordinated and aligned to the goal of improved student learning. Cultural Challenges Intercultural service-learning experience reinforces students’ stereotypes. According to De Leon (2014), mere contact does not equate to a deepened sense of sensitivity or awareness. Therefore, the result is that when students from different cultural backgrounds participate in the in-service program, cultural differences as a result of ethnocentrism becomes an issue and can lead to conflict and division among the students. The other issue is that students can have feelings of guilt related to their opportunities and privileges. McLeskey, Rosenberg, & Westling (2017) argue that privilege issues, as well as power inequalities associated with social class and race, are pervasive among students in after-school programs. However, students can overcome these issues by interacting in situations where they are equals. Direct and continuous interaction among students of different cultural background fosters reciprocal intercultural learning opportunities where both groups have the opportunity to have misinformation and prejudice questioned. The XYZ University can create a conducive environment for students to build trust and develop meaningful relationships. Roadblocks Many cases of liability involving students stem from negligence on the school administration’s side to execute its duty appropriately with regards to protecting the students. Liability can happen when the XYZ University places students in an unsafe situation or fails to warn them of impending dangers. Liability can also be due to harm that the student causes someone else in the performance of the job. Wallace Foundation has had certain problems with some university students including the addition of poorly trained students into the organization and the disruption of the organization’s workflow (e.g., not participating fully in the in-service program by quitting however they wish) (Wallace Foundation Afterschool, n.d). A number of these liability issues are related to cultural differences among the in-service students as some have cited conflicts with their peers based on stereotypes. Conclusion This study has shown the cultural conflicts that are likely to occur when students participate in service learning at Wallace. In particular, service learning can facilitate ethnocentrism hence causes more harm rather than build healthy relationship among students, the organization, as well as the community at large (De Leon, 2014). The cultural issues mentioned in the preceding text can be resolved when the interaction among both groups includes that of equal status, support of customs, personal interaction, and common goals. The university can support the resolutions by connecting students and communities through academic courses, creating an environment for discussing cultural issues. The potential risks to the university can occur when service students engage in drugs or violent behavior, which can reflect badly on the school administration for failure to carry out proper screening. References Billig, S. H., & Waterman, A. S. (Eds.). (2014). Studying service-learning: Innovations in education research methodology. Routledge. De Leon, N. (2014). Developing Intercultural Competence by Participating in Intensive Intercultural Service-Learning. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 21(1), 17-30. McLeskey, J. L., Rosenberg, M. S., & Westling, D. L. (2017). Inclusion: Effective practices for all students. Pearson. Wallace Foundation. Afterschool. Retrieved from https://www.wallacefoundation.org/how-wework/our-work/pages/afterschool.aspx Case study scenario Service learning involves willing institutions and students who are willing to engage in the communities for social developments through charitable activities. Charitable activities involves activities whose main objective is philanthropy and social wellbeing (Murdock, 2013. Wallace international is an organization in the New York that seeks to boost the disadvantaged in the society as well as the youth to advance their education. The vision of the foundation is to maximize in the people accessing the foundation. The organization leverages on the youth in the service learning process. Students in service learning being the chief agents of the organization need to learn on the approach to the community to avoid any commotions that may arise. The students need to learn well about the nature of people in the community and learn to understand them in order to avoid inflicting any danger when handling them. This will lead to the students being accepted in the community that ensures free interactions with the community without unnecessary attitudes that may arise in the community. This attributes to better delivery in the community leading to improvement of the society. This means that more people will be educated leading to the achievement of the mission to educate more people in society. The vision of the foundation is to ensure a community where every individual has adequate access to education irrespective of the social status and physical status. The students need to be very attentive to the issues affecting the community at large to be able to deliver on the vision. They also need to have a clear mindset of the challenges in the community in order to solve them appropriately. They also need to sacrifice their personal time to attend to the communities. Attitude is the overall factor that determines the performance of the student in the service learning (Markley & Crassidis, 2014). In the process of undertaking the programs organizations may face different challenges in the field where some may be easily controlled internally while others are not controllable. In the current world technological advancement has been witnessed in our systems. This has also affected the kind of students that are in our schools today. However, these technologies may have well penetrated in some communities. This may create barriers between the community and the students since the members of the community may not understand the knowledge especially when technology is used to deliver information. The organization may incur unnecessary expenditure in the course of the service which can be inflicted by students’ negligence. Political stability is also paramount in the communities. Political stability is a situation where people’s government are at peace to access power through nonviolent political processes (Wirls, 2015). During times of political instability, it becomes difficult for the organization to carry out their activities due to risks that can occur. This will always inhibit the service activities in the communities. In order to ensure there is an effective benefit to the community there is a need to adjust on some approaches and reasons that may inhibit community improvement. First, the organization needs to be keen on the kind of students that are taken to the community. A student who fits in the community development should always be of unquestionable character. The organization will also need to learn the community better in order to identify the gaps that may exist that needs to be filled to benefit the community. This will ensure a smooth developments being undertaken without the need to follow up the students. Students will benefit in the service learning in terms knowledge acquired and the understanding of the different environments. This strengthens the student perseverance in all perspectives of life (Schaflechner, 2018. On the improvement of services to the community, the community will be able to access maximum attention in their areas of need, especially in education. Wallace foundation needs to be very proactive on the issue affecting the youth. The disadvantaged and the community at large. The organization has a vision for improving learning for the youth and the disadvantaged children and the community at large. It focuses on ensuring that everyone in the community access required education. Students are the ones responsible for the developments on the ground and can ensure the less privileged have been attended to and improvement of community products. The student will in the process gain an opportunity to transfer what they learn in class to the community. This will be a good opportunity to streamline their knowledge which can help them in their future careers. They will also access a chance to learn and appreciate about other people culture and diversity. References Markley, F. L., & Crassidis, J. L. (2014). Filtering for Attitude Estimation and Calibration. Fundamentals of Spacecraft Attitude Determination and Control, 235-285. doi:10.1007/978-1-4939-0802-8_6 Murdock, M. C. (2013). Charitable Contributions. Tax Insight, 311-316. doi:10.1007/978-14302-4738-8_29 Schaflechner, J. (2018). Change and Perseverance. Oxford Scholarship Online. doi:10.1093/oso/9780190850524.003.0006 Wirls, D. (2015). Stability, Change, and Power in the Study of Political Institutions. The Federalist Papers and Institutional Power in American Political Development, 40-57. doi:10.1057/9781137499608_3 Week 2 Assignment Introduction Service-learning is an innovative teaching approach that incorporates community service approach with academic study to teach students of the positivity of living as community. University service-learning programs are mutually beneficial for both community-based organizations (CBOs) and student volunteers. Students get a chance to engage in the community while gaining practical skills relevant to their skills. Likewise, CBOs are supplied with additional volunteers for their programs. The experiences some students gain with service-learning represents exposure to a new social mission, tackling community needs they might never have known existed earlier. When the community builds relationships with local students, they gain an entirely new audience for their organization’s message. As students establish relationships with members of the communities, CBOs, correspondingly, can also build their bonds with local universities. However, there are some challenges that students might face as service-learners in the community. One of them is time constraints since students can be spread thin with commitment to home, work, and school. As such, many students find it challenging to participate in a servicelearning program. Another challenge is dissatisfaction with the work. The community partners may direct students to carry out tasks which are not in line with the service-learning experience. Often the hardest part is getting students to recognize and report that a problem exists. As a result, students may opt for intern roles instead of after-school learning projects. Since hundreds and even thousands of students lack access to afterschool programs which offer rich opportunities for learning, Wallace Foundation partners with neighboring communities to coordinate the work of programs to build effective after school services. Main components of after school projects include initiatives to enhance quality of programs as well as data collection to inform decision-making. Taking these factors into account, Wallace Foundation then creates a robust after school system which encompasses a wide range of focus activities such as mentoring, academic support, youth development, recreation and sports.
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