On this holiday season we wish to:
Thank every children and young person who, with their service, are contributing to a build better present in their communities.
Celebrate with all educators the growth of service-learning experiences in Ibero America, which unite academic quality with active citizen participation.
Continue creating to lights of hope, together, to illuminate the path to a more fraternal world.
Offering you our best wishes for this Christmas and New Year.

CLAYSS team

CLAYSS launches a new edition of their University Support Program

The Program supports university students in our region so that they can become protagonists and leaders in their own community, applying and developing knowledge in real contexts, and offering a community service aimed to promote local development and overcome paternalist patterns. To achieve this, our institution supports universities who implement, or wish to implement, service-learning projects, facilitating access to faculty professional development courses which improve project sustainability. To this date, ten Latin American universities have participated in our Support Program

With OAS support CLAYSS will provide technical assistance to the University of Chile

The Organization of American States announced the proposals for technical assistance in education for democratic citizenship that were selected to participate in the second edition of the horizontal cooperation missions 2011-2012. For the second call for proposals, a total of 41 proposals were received from 118 institutions, representing 20 countries throughout the hemisphere.
One of the selected proposal was “Fostering the development of a democratic political culture among future professionals and secondary and primary school students”, presented by the Municipality of Buin (Chile), University of Chile (Chile) and CLAYSS (Argentina).

CLAYSS in Italy

From October 27th to November 11th, Nieves Tapia participated in multiple activities in Italy.
- Interdisciplinary Meeting in Castelgandolfo, Rome
- Service-Learning promotion in the Province Trento
- Conference for authorities
- Meetings with educative authorities
- Workshops for teachers.

See more >>>

Another recognition for CLAYSS

On Wednesday, November 23rd, CLAYSS was distinguished with the NGO category of the 10º Edition of the Solidary Entrepreneur Award. This award is organized by the Ecumenical Social Forum. The event took place at the Argentinian Foreign Office’s Auditorium, in Buenos Aires. Giuliana Filipponi attended the ceremony representing CLAYSS.

Meeting of volunteer students organized by Argentina’s Ministry of Education

On November 17th, the Subsecretary of Quality and Equity from the Ministry of Education, Mara Brawer, conducted the opening of the First Meeting of Socio-Community Projects. Over 200 students and teachers, from 38 Argentinian schools, participated in this event. The Coordinator of the National Program “Educación Solidaria”, Sergio Rial, was also present in this meeting.
“There have always been service projects in schools –said Brawer- but this is the first time these initiatives no longer depend on the will and awareness of a particular group of students and teachers to be incorporated into the curriculum. This is now done by an education policy.”

National Meeting of Conciencia’s “Strengthening Democratic Values” Program

On Friday November 4th, at the National Library, Conciencia Non-Profit Organization conducted a National Meeting to introduce the projects carried out as part of the “Strengthening Democratic Values” Program. Students from all over the country presented the 14 finalist projects, 3 of which were chosen as winners of the Zurich-Conciencia Award. Giuliana Filipponi represented CLAYSS in the jury who selected the 3 winning initiatives:
- “Echalas del medio: Las bolsas plásticas”.  School #70  “Eva Duarte”, Concordia, Entre Ríos.
-“Unidad Natural para el Cambio Ambiental”. Technical School #3119 “Juan Domingo Perón”,  El Galpón, Salta.
-“Desarmar  para  cuidar. Municipio  sin  armas".  Technical School #3, Necochea, Buenos Aires.
You can see pictures of the event at our Picasa website.

4º Meeting to promote service-learning in Spain 2011

The Spanish Network of Service-Learning Meeting took place on November 23rd, in Portugalete (Basque Country), as part of the 4º Meeting to Promote Service-Learning in Spain. Over 60 representatives from the many regional service-learning promotion initiatives (all taking place in the Autonomous Communities) gathered in this event. Participants included members from the APS Network, which works in Higher Education. The event lasted a working day and was structured around three axes: teacher education; reproduction of service-learning initiatives; how to introduce service-learning in the curriculum.

Students from Chile use special technology for civil engineering

The course’s main goal is to provide specific geotechnical knowledge regarding design, processes, control, and pathologies. This knowledge will be incorporated through the use of special building constructions on civic buildings and environment. The Civic Engineering students from the Catholic University of Chile will work with Estación Central’s Municipality to create an “Ecological Road” in the former dump Lo Errázuriz. The Road will include a Recycling Center and a Vermicompost Center. The “Ecological Road” is one of six projects being carried out at the moment.

Workshop at ROTARACT

On Saturday November 12th, María del Carmen Trincado participated in the First Meeting of Social Organizations 2011, organized at the headquarters of Rotary Club in San Nicolás, Buenos Aires. Her dissertation focused on the importance of planning and implementing service projects that go beyond basic temporary assistance and provides the community with tools to help itself.

Professional Development Course in Loberia

On Friday November 25th, Gerardo Bridi conducted a profesional development course on service-learning, in the Calasancio Institute. 20 authorities and teachers from the Institute participated in this activity.

New onsite courses for the University Support Program

As part of the Support for Social Engagement and Service-learning in Higher Education in Latin America Program, CLAYSS conducted the first onsite course at the Catholic University of Tachira, in Venezuela. The course was aimed to authorities, professors, leading students and community partners. 30 people participated in the course which took place on November 29th and 30th and was conducted by Isabel Hevia.
On December 1st and 2nd, another onsite course took place, this time at the University of Monterrey. This course was conducted by María Nieves Tapia and Giuliana Filipponi.
Both courses included an opening conference which was open for the public, and several workshops and panels. Participants were able to analyze in depth the key concepts of service-learning in order to facilitate the incorporation of these practices to the Universities policies.

State Service-Learning Meeting in Spain

On November 24th and 25th Zerbikas Foundation organized the 1º Service Learning Congress “Practicing Citizenship”. You can see the Congress’ full agenda here.
You can also find a short sinopsis of the Congress in our colleague’s, Charo Batlle, blog.

Call for Projects for the MacJannet Award

The fourth annual MacJannet Prize will recognize exceptional student civic engagement initiatives based in Talloires Network member universities around the world and contribute financially to their ongoing public service efforts.
Visit our website to learn more, see profiles of previous winners, and nominate a program.

You can already find here the presentations conducted at Talloires’ Madrid Conferece. Our region was represented by: 
- María Pérez Yglesias, Social Actions Vice-President at the University of Costa Rica: Una gestión comprometida y estratégica
- Raúl Arias Lovillo, President of the Veracruzana University: Sustainability: University commitment to society and the environment

23º Annual Service-Learning Conference
Like every year, our colleagues at NYLC are organizing their annual service-learning Conference. This time it will take place from April 11th to 14th, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The World Forum will be part of the activities organized and the colleagues of the Iberican-American Network are invited to participate. You can find more information on the Conference here.