Program:
Volunteer Programs
- Budget:
-
--
- Category:
-
- Population Served:
-
Adults
Program Description:
Amizade offers programs for individual volunteers and also customizes programs for groups (colleges, church groups, families, etc). Program sites include Brazil, Bolivia, Ghana, Tanzania, Northern Ireland, Germany, Poland, Jamaica, Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, India and several regions of the United States (Washington, DC; Navajo Nation). Program lengths vary from one week to three months. The service component is determined by the local community, and may include manual work (such as construction), tutoring, or cultural exchange. Past projects have included the construction of a health clinic in the Brazilian Amazon, tutoring children in the Navajo Nation, and supporting a women's nonprofit organization in Tanzania.
Program Long-Term Success:
Participants in Amizade volunteer programs will sustain or increase their involvement as global citizens in the years following their participation in a program. <br />
<br />
This might involve:<br />
<ul>
<li>speaking to appropriate elected officials about issues of concern to the community
</li>
<li>fundraising to support community needs
</li>
<li>educating others about the community, or
</li>
<li>pursuing a vocation that will allow them to effect change - such as Peace Corps, elected office, or public health. </li>
</ul>
Community partners are empowered to make positive changes in their communities and have advocates willing to work in solidarity with them.
Program Short-Term Success:
Both participants and community members self-report a satisfying service experience. <br />
<br />
Participants demonstrate increased knowledge of the community in which they served.<br />
<br />
Communities' expressed needs are met. The needs of our community partners vary, but some examples of success include:<br />
<ul>
<li>children and adults benefit from tutoring/instruction in English, art or other subjects
</li>
<li>community member have access to necessities such as clean water, thanks to a volunteer project to install water tanks on homes and buildings
</li>
<li>homeless adults educate volunteers about the causes of homelessness and participants become advocates for homeless men and women<br />
</li>
</ul>
Program Success Monitored by:
Volunteers complete surveys evaluating their experience. <br />
<br />
Amizade staff and community partners monitor the progress on service projects through site visits and debriefing by phone, mail and email.
Program Success Examples:
In recent surveys 93% of volunteers rated their experience very favorably, with 75% declaring their experience "excellent."<br />
<br />
Some comments from recent volunteers:<br />
<br />
"My future career plan is to become a teacher, and I had the opportunity to teach 8th grade social studies at the school. This experience completely reassured me that I want to become a teacher." - volunteer in Navajo Nation (Tuba City, AZ)<br />
<br />
From the community perspective, Amizade volunteers have helped improve lives in the following ways:<br />
<ul>
<li>In Brazil, the APAE (Association of Parents and Amigos of Exceptionals), an organization that works with developmentally disabled children makes low cost orthopedic shoes and and prosthetics for the people of the lower Amazon basin in a workshop constructed by Amizade volunteers from the U.S. and Brazilian volunteers. </li>
</ul>
Program:
Service-Learning Programs
- Budget:
-
--
- Category:
-
Education
- Population Served:
-
Adults
Program Description:
Amizade offers courses for university credit at its sites in the U.S. and abroad. Each course includes a service component where students deliver a service identified by their host community. Credit is awarded through West Virginia University. <br />
<br />
Recent courses include:<br />
History of the Holocaust - based in Germany and Poland<br />
Indigenous Women's Literature - based in Cochabamba, Bolivia<br />
Journeys with Indigenous Cultures - based in the Navajo Nation<br />
Program Long-Term Success:
Participants in Amizade service-learning courses will sustain or increase
their involvement as global citizens in the years following their
participation in a program. <br />
<br />
This might involve:<br />
<ul>
<li>speaking to appropriate elected officials about issues of concern to the community
</li>
<li>fundraising to support community needs
</li>
<li>educating others about the community, or
</li>
<li>pursuing a vocation that will allow them to effect change - such as Peace Corps, elected office, or public health. </li>
</ul>
Community partners are empowered to make positive changes in their
communities and have advocates willing to work in solidarity with them.
Program Short-Term Success:
Both participants and community members self-report a satisfying service experience. <br />
<br />
Participants demonstrate increased knowledge of the community in which they served.<br />
<br />
Participants meet or exceed learning goals of the course.<br />
<br />
Communities' expressed needs are met. The needs of our community partners vary, but some examples of success include:<br />
<ul>
<li>children and adults benefit from tutoring/instruction in English, art or other subjects
</li>
<li>community
member have access to necessities such as clean water, thanks to a
volunteer project to install water tanks on homes and buildings </li>
<li>homeless adults educate volunteers about the
causes of homelessness and participants become advocates for homeless
men and women</li>
</ul>
Program Success Monitored by:
Amizade invites participants to complete pre-course and post-course questionnaires. Participants report on their satisfaction with the course components (instruction, housing, service experience) as well as their learning. Participants are asked to evaluate their experience in comparison to a similar course at their home institution.<br />
<br />
Amizade staff from the U.S. visit sites to observe programs in action, and work with community partners to evaluate impact.<br />
<br />
<br />
Program Success Examples:
In recent surveys of service-learning students, 95% rated their experience as "good" or "excellent."<br />
<br />
Nearly 90% say that, compared to a similar on-campus program, the Amizade course was "more" or "much more" effective in terms of:<br />
<ul>
<li>what they learned
</li>
<li>how much they can apply to the "real world"
</li>
<li>how much it stimulates their interest in the subject matter
</li>
<li>how much it helped them see connections between knowledge and application. </li>
</ul>
A recent participant in the Jamaica program said, "This experience has opened my eyes to a different culture from my own. I learned their education system and what they struggle with and what others can do to help. This experience has made me want to return to Jamaica as soon as I can and to keep in contact with my host family. After this program, I want to stay in touch with my family and be able to return very soon to continue helping their community."<br />
<br />
A student returning from Jamaica said, "It taught me a lot about what it means to be a global citizen, and it lit a fire in me that is making me want to change things in my life to become a better global citizen."
Program:
Amizade Global Service-Learning Institute
- Budget:
-
--
- Category:
-
Education
- Population Served:
-
Adults
Program Description:
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<p>Designed
for faculty, administrators, and course facilitators, the Amizade Institute is
a weekend-long educational and networking opportunity. The Institute offers specific theoretical
constructs and practical tools for implementing a systematic,
academically-rigorous, reciprocal and reflective approach to global
service-learning and the development of global citizenship. </p>
Program Long-Term Success:
Service-learning courses and programs increase in quantity and quality.<br />
Program Short-Term Success:
Participants leave the Institute with a greater understanding of the concepts of service-learning and ideas to apply those concepts to their work.<br />
Program Success Monitored by:
Each participant is invited to complete written evaluations of the educational offerings of the institute, and results inform future programming. <br />
Program Success Examples:
Evaluations of the most recent institute reflect that:<br />
<br />
94% of the 293 respondents considered the sessions interesting and informative, and;<br />
<br />
87% learned something new at the sessions, and;<br />
<br />
80% would apply their new learning to their service-learning work.<br />
<br />
<br />