Mark your calendar: the 17° International Service-Learning Conference 2014

The 17º International Conference already has a date: it will take place in August, 28th and 29th at the University of Buenos Aires School of Economics. As always, it will provide a forum for students, teachers, researchers, officials, and social organization leaders throughout Latin America as well as other parts of the world to meet and exchange experiences.

The 11º International Week will offer complementary activities to the Conference for foreign visitors and institutions supported by CLAYSS. More news will be updated to our website. In the mean time, to remember the 2013 Conference you can visit our Facebook or watch the presentations here: http://www.clayss.org.ar/seminario/index.html  (in Spanish).

CLAYSS director joins the Talloires Network Steering Committee

This past January María Nieves Tapia was chosen to become part of the Talloires Network Steering Committee for a period of three years. She was chosen in recognition for her distinguished leadership in university civic engagement and social responsibility, and for promoting integration between universities and their communities in Argentina and Latin America.
Since its birth in 2005, the Talloires Network is an international association of institutions committed to strengthening the civic roles and social responsibilities of higher education. The Network envisions universities around the world as a vibrant and dynamic force in their societies, incorporating civic engagement and community service into their research and teaching mission.

Roser Battle presented her book on the history of service-learning promotion in Spain

Our friend and colleague, Roser “Charo” Battle, from the Centro Promotor del Aprendizaje-Servicio in Catalonia and a member of the Iberian-American Network has just published “El aprendizaje-servicio en España: el contagio de una revolución pedagógica necesaria”. The book was launched in an event organized by the L’Hospitalet City Hall from Llobregat, a department near Barcelona, on February 13th.
The event was co-organized between City Hall and Esplai’s Coordinator Committee (which gathers non-formal education institutions). Charo shared a round table with Ana María Scala (CLAYSS Uruguay) and Lluis Esteve (vice-major and education city councilor). We are very happy that Ana was able to bring our Latin American hugs to Charo and all our Spanish colleague who have done so much in the last few years to promote service-learning in their country. To watch the presentation:http://www.slideshare.net/rbatlle/el-contagi-de-lap-s(in Spanish).

Pope Francis launches a Network of “Schools Gathering Together”

Aiming to “create a world without exclusion through education”, Pope Francis launched a Network of “Schools Gathering Together” that all schools from across the globe can join regardless of their religion, their type of management or their origin.
The new Network will be coordinated by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. It hopes to establish links between networks and schools who wish to share their educative projects, as well as promote bond with schools from vulnerable contexts through cooperative and solidary strategies which include academic and sportive activities. It will also reach out to universities who wish to promote “Scholas Chairs” and contribute with the systematization and appreciation of socially committed educative projects.
Last February, the coordinators of the Network visited CLAYSS offices in Buenos Aires to express their interest in working with us to promote socially engaged education, a proposal we gladly accepted.
You can read more about the Network at their website: http://www.scholasoccurrentes.org/

Amulén Workshop: work and solidarity

The Special School #9 “Ruca Antú” from Junín de los Andes, Neuquén Province (Argentina) begun working on their service-learning project 15 years ago.
The project was born out of the need of students and families in the community who did not have enough wood to provide heating over the months of winter. A situation made worse by the fact that the community is located near the Lanín National Park, where chopping wood is forbidden.
The students began researching how to replace firewood, by first compacting newspapers and cardboard. After experimenting with different materials and comparing their heat values through simple scientific tests, the students created the “ecoleños”, small logs of paper compacted with multiple materials (sawdust, dry leaves, potato peels, flour, etc).
In 2001 the school was awarded with the Presidential Award “Escuelas Solidarias” granted by the Ministry of Education of Argentina.
The project continued evolving until in 2008, with the help of City Hall, it gave birth to the “Amulén Workshop”. This is a micro-enterprise for “special needs” youth meant to help the school’s alumni find decent work after they graduate.
More information at: http://www.amulen.org.ar/ (in Spanish)

Online Courses 2014

CLAYSS offers service-learning online courses to be conducted between March and July, and between August and November 2014.

The Service-Learning in Higher Education hopes to provide design, implementation and institutionalization tools for educational projects based on the pedagogy of service-learning, be it to develop new practices or review those already in existence.

Sign-up will close on April 8th, 2014 and the course will begin in April 16th, 2014.
For more information please visit http://www.clayss.org.ar/ingles/online.html or write to online@clayss.org.ar.

CLAYSS at the 25° National Service-Learning Conference in the United States

Between April 9th and 11th a new edition of the National Service-Learning Conference, organized by NYLC (National Youth Leadership Council)will take place in Washington DC. This will be the 25º Annual Conference and will coincide with the 30th anniversary of NYLC, an organization that pioneered service-learning promotion in the United States.
Enrique Ochoa will represent CLAYSS during the Conference, providing a workshop on " Institutional Service-Learning Programs and Policies: The Latin American Experience".
The Iberian-American Service-Learning Network will also take the chance to host its first meeting of the year which will take place in August 11th. For more information please write to paulabasilico@clayss.org.ar.
More information on the Conference available at:  http://servicelearningconference.org/2014/

The Chilean Service-Learning Network meets for the first time this year

The REASE (Red Nacional de Aprendizaje Servicio) met in Temuco, Chile, on January 17th. Multiple papers were presented during the day’s work showcasing different strategies to institutionalize service-learning in higher education.
This meeting has become quite an event at a national level. It is expected that this first gathering will provide impulse and cohesion for the year’s work in Universities engaged with service-learning. In the current political scenario, Chilean students have given their universities a bigger social conscience, pushing them to collaborate with other social agents and put their knowledge into practice in real contexts.

The Spanish Service-Learning Network meets in Madrid

The 6º Encuentro de la Red Española de Aprendizaje-Servicio met in Madrid on November 28th and 29th. The Network gathers Service-Learning Promotion Groups from 15 autonomous communities and hopes to continue promoting these practices all across the country. A hundred people participated in this year’s meeting, including representatives from multiple Promotion Groups and other guests from formal and non-formal educative institutions, social entities, governmental organizations and other public offices.

More information about the meeting here (in Spanish).

The upcoming Talloires Network Leaders Conference is confirmed

The Conference will take place in Cape Town (South Africa) on December 2nd-4th, 2014. It will convene leaders, faculty and students of universities from all around the globe, to discuss the social impact their institutions have in their communities and countries. The Conference will have simultaneous English and Spanish translation. More information at: http://talloiresnetwork.tufts.edu/february-2014-newsletter/  

Free Webinars organized by ICP for the Talloires Network:

The Webinar “Tracking and Measuring Community Engagement Impacts for Improvement” will take place on April 9th. For more information: http://talloiresnetwork.tufts.edu/wp-content/uploads/FSPD-Webinars-Article.docx & http://talloiresnetwork.tufts.edu/programs/fspd/.

2014:

• August 28-29: 17º International Service-Learning Conference, Buenos Aires, Argentina: organized by CLAYSS. More information at: http://clayss.org.ar/
  
  
• September 15-20: 23rd IAVE World Volunteer Conference & Youth Conference, Gold Coast, Australia: organized by the International Association for Volunteer Effort (IAVE) it hopes to convene more tan 1000 participants under the motto “Volunteering, Today’s Imperative”. More information at: http://www.iave.org/
  
  
• December 2-4: Talloires Network Leader’s Conference: organized by the Talloires Network. More information at: http://talloiresnetwork.tufts.edu/february-2014-newsletter/  

Global Youth Service Day 2014

Just like every year, the Global Youth Service Day will be celebrated between April 11th and 13th. Organized by YSA (Youth Service America) it motivates youth to serve and offers them and their mentors financing to develop service projects.
The goal of this celebration is to encourage millions of young people between 5 and 25 years old, especially those who do not normally engage in volunteer service, to take a first step on what will hopefully become a path of service and civic engagement that will last all their lives.
More information: http://www.gysd.org/