Jul 9th, 2008
Overview
Project Service Leadership: Background and Contact Information
Project Service Leadership
12703 NW 20th Avenue, Vancouver WA 98685
Phone (360) 609-1453 FAX (360) 576-5068
Director Kate McPherson, mcphers@pacifier.com
Founded in January 1998, Project Service Leadership (PSL) is committed to improving the quality of our schools and communities by tapping the talents and energy of youth. It assists Pacific Northwest Schools in integrating service into their curriculum and assessment programs. PSL provides profession development and training for educators, students and community members.
Belief:
Service-learning provides a compelling reason to learn, teaches the skills of civic participation and develops service-oriented leaders ready to contribute to their communities, country and world.
Service-learning increases motivation and retention of academic skills as specific learning goals are tied to community needs. By solving real problems and addressing real needs, students learn to apply classroom learning to a real world context. In today’s drive for greater educational quality, service-learning emerges as a promising catalyst for performance assessment, active-learning, and school/community partnerships.
Activities:
Project Service Leadership (PSL) assists school districts in integrating service-learning into their curriculum. It has helped thousands of Northwest teachers, schools and colleges of education to enrich their instructional effectiveness through service-learning initiatives by providing staff training, teacher institutes, phone consultation, program development assistance and resource materials.
Youth Voice Initiative/Youth as a Resource
Belief:
School and communities will be enriched if they involve youth in the decision making process, garnering their ideas, their energy and their ownership.
Activities:
Project Service Leadership helped to initiate The Washington Youth Voice Project (WYVP) and supports efforts to enable youth to participate more actively in decisions that effect their lives.
Current Work:
Education Northwest. Kate McPherson is working with Education Northwest’s Recreating Secondary Schools (RSS) Program which is one of the nation’s foremost providers of training and coaching to schools and districts seeking to develop rigorous and relevant middle and high school programs, including small schools, smaller learning communities (SLCs), and career academies. Project Service Leadership is supporting Jefferson County Public School’s ( Louisville, Kentucky) initiative to increase student engagement and achievement.
Project Service Leadership is currently working with Roosevelt High School’s College and Career Transition Center to develop a student-led Writing and Publishing Center. A cadre of high school and college writing assistants along with a wide-variety of events and training will help writing become a vibrant part of the life and lives of Roosevelt.