This week's reading by Cardamone and Alexander focused on the benefits of Service Learning projects. Specifically, the authors talked about how art-based projects can impact different groups of people in the community. Cardamone spoke on the topics of community members that need help in some way (animals, homeless, children without steady meals) and Alexander talked about developmentally disabled community members seeking inclusive education. These articles encouraged many questions to arise for me. Think back to k-12 school or even any projects up until the present, have you been a part of something that helped a diverse group in the community through art? How did this grow your knowledge in setting goals and reflection of the project?
In what ways can students gain more empathy and ability to care for others through school projects like this? Throughout the helping others who you may not totally understand the background of or the experiences they have had, you can learn more about yourself and privileges you may hold. Try and think of a time where you uncovered privileges that you did not realize you had over others. How did this affect what you took away from the situation? What are you learning from the planning of our current arts-based service learning in regard to people and their relationships with pets?
I don’t remember ever doing a project with, based on, or to help the community. Kind of like we had talked about last week with Hastings’s question, This is also something that we need to incorporate into our curriculum. In the article “Engaging a Developmentally Disabled Community Through Arts-Based Service Learning '', there was a quote that said ‘students are more likely to volunteer in the community after service projects through the school’. As you had stated, I think by showing students the different experiences everyone has in their lives they can reflect on their lives and what’s different. This can help them appreciate the things that they have that others may not. This can also lead to the students wanting to make a difference in the lives of those who aren’t as fortunate, any way that they can. I have learned a lot about the relationships between pets and people. One of the major takeaways was out-take/intake rate at shelters and how the ratio of it has gotten worse the last few years. I have also learned a lot about humane societies. Although they are not all run the same way, I didn’t realize how much they relied on volunteers and donations to stay up and running. By doing the research and working on this project, it makes me want to volunteer more and help out these shelters any way that I can.
ReplyDelete-Jorgan
My K-12 education took place in rural West-Central Iowa. It is not a diverse town, but there is a nonprofit organization called New Hope that my school would frequently find opportunities to work with. New Hope Village is a small neighborhood in my hometown composed of several small cabins and apartment buildings built exclusively for adults with disabilities that may require assistance. In addition to residency, New Hope Village provides its members with vocational, recreational, and medical resources. New Hope was a household name in my hometown and was a well-respected and much beloved organization within the community. I cannot recall ever having an art project connected to New Hope, but many of my other classes throughout my K-12 education would frequently select them as the primary recipient of fundraising goals. Every year, all the 5th graders would spend a full school day at New Hope Village and visit the residents while learning about its function and the services it provides. I do believe these experiences helped myself and other students in my town form a solid understanding of community learning.
ReplyDelete- Hastings
If I'm honest, I don't think I've ever done an art-based community project. However, my town did have a mural where the the high school students got to do a paint my neighbor. I unfortunately was not of age of time, but I will always remember watching the piece come together. However, at the time the church I went to had many activities for feeding the hungry. As a group we kept up to date on the numbers of poverty and made food, made a garden, and shipped off food. I remember I always felt happy and blessed to have food to eat every night, and parents that took me in. I suppose the only downside was learning about human trafficking at a young age, because our church would provide services. (Only certain people could go and feed, aid, etc) I think that knowing and learning a lot had made me in a way scared of the world, but saddened that there are so many cases of human trafficking and poverty. Again, I was grateful that I lived the life I lived, because my life could've been simular to the lives I got to help. (Kids that go through foster care are my prone to end up in poverty and trafficking.
ReplyDelete-Sarai
In highschool, we had a big summer group volunteer to help build more housing. I found this to be a really cool project that teaches students hardworking and ethic skills. I remember driving right outside of town to visit my grandpa and seeing them working on those houses. They have built several over the years and they do this project almost yearly. I think this is a really fun way for kids to feel like they are actively advocating and working to help house the members of the community.
ReplyDeleteAs far as realization- I most certainly have experienced moments where I have seen parts of several communities traveling around and I have realized and are now actively aware of how, even though I grew up in poverty, that I have been much more fortunate than others.
from Kat
Again, I was extremely fortunate to have gone to a school that focused so much on community service and leadership. Within this school, I participated in a lot of arts-based community service projects which empowered me to continue these types of involvement to this day. Presently, I’m working on/with a lot of community service art projects, the biggest one being RIYO. RIYO is an afterschool organization based in Waterloo that works with migrant/immigrant/refugee students. My role specifically, is the art director, working to empower these students through art making. This experience has been really great in terms of organization and the more administrative side of developing an arts-based community program. Which, I think has helped me a lot when it comes to the project we’re working on for class.
ReplyDeleteI believe that art and community involvement go hand in hand in the way that art promotes civic responsibility. There’s something about creating art for activism in your community, that deepens your connection to the issue/task at hand. Student involvement in projects that break the boundaries of a four-walled classroom, develops enriched and unique perspectives relating to the topic. Often deepening their empathy and care, as they are given the opportunity to look at this project in a new and unique light. In addition, community projects bring attention to multiple perspectives as more diverse experiences are added to the project. This is a vital aspect as it can change the ways in which you approach your service learning. As mentioned in Annisten’s questions, it’s so important to look at the privileges you have and how that can affect your course of action. Discovering and unpacking privileges and diverse experiences can deepen the connection to your work in a multitude of ways.
- Tatiana :)
As far as I remember, I have never been part of a community based service learning art project except for RodCon 2022 with making activities for kids (However, I don't know if this counts since it was required, and part of this class/major in a way). I have hardly been pushed by the schools I have been in to participate in the community, the only time I was was for high school where you must do a minimum of 30 hours of community service in order to graduate.
ReplyDeleteI think a lot about my place in the world as well as social awareness and my privileges - not only because these are good things to think about, but its also because of the way my brain was made (I think very literally and am not always aware of the "rights and wrongs" around me). I fear stepping on anyone's toes because we are all different, everyone has a different background whether they are from two different parts of the world or if they're next door neighbors. We must always be considerate of each others differences, good or bad. These ups and downs help us understand each other and they make the world a more interesting place.
- Jane