World Forum Experiences at the 20th Annual National Service-Learning Conference

Bjørn Lyngstad just attended his first National Service-Learning Conference. A Norwegian national, he is a Research and Communications Specialist at NYLC.

Participants at the 20th Annual National Service-Learning Conference in Nashville experienced abundant examples of how service-learning can change lives. Many of these experiences were highlighted during 40 workshops and other sessions at the World Forum day at the conference. Topics ranged from the global water crisis, to peace-building, to the Millennium Development Goals.

Hisham Jabi, who runs the Ruwwad service-learning and youth empowerment program in Palestine, offered one of the strongest testimonies. Among their youth, who are caught up in a decades-long conflict and trapped in a bedlam of disrupted and largely defunct infrastructure accompanied by poverty and soaring unemployment, the prospects of a meaningful future are sometimes slim. According to Jabi, the results among youth are often civic apathy, and a "trapped majority" that develops a counter-identity. Ultimately, youth may resort to desperate and violent measures. It is against this backdrop that Jabi has found service-learning to be such a powerful and even a life-saving strategy, by offering opportunities to deliver humanitarian assistance and "enhancing job skills and livelihood opportunities through a social entrepreneurship model."

Think about HIV/AIDS and you might be thinking “Africa”. In Nashville, conference participants learned that with an HIV/AIDS prevalence of 3 percent, Washington D.C. is on par with several African countries. More surprising, its prevalence among black men (7 percent) exceeds the average for sub-Saharan Africa. While there are huge differences in how the epidemic plays out in resource-poor countries, where mother-to-child transmission remains far too common and access to testing and drugs is limited, there are also many similarities. One is that young people everywhere are disproportionally affected, yet they are often excluded when policies to fight HIV/AIDS are being developed. Governments, international organizations, and nonprofits alike have struggled to properly involve youth in the planning and implementation of HIV/AIDS programs. (NYLC has developed a series of resources on the power of service-learning and peer education in HIV/AIDS prevention. Please visit www.nylc.org/bookstore to learn more.)

Participants learned that in Africa, upward of 20 million children have become orphans as a direct result of the disease and consequently many see their education and access to health and other essential services cruelly curtailed. The Hope Walks event, a benefit walk held on Saturday in downtown Nashville, was an opportunity for conference participants to raise awareness about such issues while raising funds to support orphans and vulnerable children in Liberia. (Visit www.hopewalks.org to learn more).

During a thought-provoking service-learning experience at Meharry Medical College’s Center for AIDS Health Disparities we learned that young people of color are disproportionately affected by social ills that further increase vulnerability. In the face of such bleak realities and numbers, we witnessed the powerful messages of hope expressed by the college's youth outreach group. Through open, realistic, funny and provocative skits performed by youth for youth, the audience was invited to reflect on how young people are forced to make so many decisions that affect their status, relationships, and health. Only by making the right decisions every time, can they stay safe from the virus. Following the frank discussions, youth participants developed posters communicating HIV/AIDS messages. Many chose to address “the stigma of sex” and were advocating more openness about sex and young people’s relationships. Interestingly, research shows that service-learning and other youth-driven strategies that facilitate peer education are effective at reducing risky behaviors.

The presence of participants from 36 countries and the fact that the conference was available to people in even more countries through the online community Second Life, are expressions of a new reality in which people from all corners of the world can communicate, learn, and take action together. This new reality brings inspiration and hope to today's youth who know many of the serious global challenges discussed at the conference can only be solved through global cooperation.

Hope to see you at next year's conference March 24-27 in San Jose, California!