State Farm Good Neighbor Service-Learning Initiative

The State Farm Companies Foundation, in collaboration with the National Service-Learning Partnership, awarded grants to six K-12 school districts to increase the practice of service-learning through the development of mutually beneficial partnerships among schools, businesses and communities.

Grantees work with local and regional State Farm® associates to pilot service-learning projects that respond to specific community and homeowner issues. Grantees collaborate with State Farm and the National Service-Learning Partnership to establish a sustainable, local service-learning partnership of teachers, students, district leaders, community representatives, and business organizations.

State Farm provides each school district $5,000, renewable for three years, to support service-learning project costs, including planning, training, materials, supplies, and transportation. The Partnership, with its member organizations, provide school districts with training and technical assistance support.

Selected School Districts

Molalla River School District
Molalla, OR
Focus: Wildfires

Phoenix-Talent School District
Phoenix, OR
Focus: Senior and Elder Homeowner Independence

Richland School District Two
Columbia, SC
Focus: Senior and Elder Homeowner Independence

Roanoke County Public Schools
Roanoke, VA
Focus: Senior and Elder Homeowner Independence

Scotia-Glenville Schools
Scotia, NY
Focus: Senior and Elder Homeowner Independence

Tahoe Truckee Unified School District
Truckee, CA
Focus: Wildfires

Overview

State Farm Insurance Companies (State Farm®), in collaboration with the National Service-Learning Partnership (the Partnership), has selected six K-12 school districts to increase the practice of service-learning through the creation of well-crafted partnerships between schools, businesses and communities.

Service-learning, a teaching method for integrating service projects into academic study, boosts students' academic achievement and civic preparation. Students who are allowed to make meaningful connections between their curriculum and its applications to life outside the classroom are more likely to succeed academically, contribute to their communities, and pursue productive work lives.

Grantees work initially with local and regional State Farm associates to pilot service-learning projects that respond to specific community and homeowner issues. Grantees will collaborate with State Farm and the Partnership to establish a sustainable, local service-learning partnership of teachers, students, district leaders, community representatives, and business organizations. This local partnership will provide the basis for additional service-learning projects during and beyond the this initiative.

State Farm provides each school district $5,000 to cover service-learning-project costs, including planning, training, materials, supplies, and transportation. The Partnership or its member organizations will also provide schools and districts with technical support.

Goals

• Generate sustainable models of business-community-school partnerships, integrated at the school and district level, as a pathway to boosting students' educational excellence, especially their academic and civic engagement.
  
• Generate high-quality service-learning projects, while systematically building the infrastructure necessary for long-term sustainability of service-learning practice.
  
• Generate solutions to pressing community and business needs, by working with youth and adults to enhance State Farm's community presence while addressing State Farm loss-mitigation interests.

Guiding Principles

• High-quality service-learning experiences foster educational excellence for learners inside and outside of the classroom.
  
• Integrating and sustaining high-quality service-learning requires institutional buy-in among school and district leaders.
  
• Sustained service-learning practice emerges from well-crafted partnerships between schools and their communities, so that business, community and school needs intersect and overlap to the benefit of all involved.

Initiative Elements

• Creating Local Partnership Boards for Service-Learning
  School districts selected for the State Farm Good Neighbor Service-Learning Initiative are asked to establish, expand, or adapt a local partnership board to support their long-term service-learning efforts. Teachers, students, parents, school district leaders, and State Farm representatives form a natural core of each community's "service-learning partnership board." Additional board members may include representatives from businesses, community-based organizations, government (local, state, and federal), service clubs, higher education institutions, youth councils, faith-based organizations, and senior centers. A significant youth presence and voice is strongly encouraged on the board.
• Working with State Farm Agents, Zone Loss Mitigation Coordinators, Public Affairs Representatives, and Educational Excellence Coordinators
  Each school district partners with State Farm agents and associates involved in loss mitigation, public affairs and educational excellence efforts. These associates work to provide districts and schools with support resources, content knowledge, and ideas for service-learning projects.

For More Information

nslp@aed.org
202.884.8982

Learn More

About State Farm Insurance Companies® Education Excellence
About the National Service-Learning Partnership