Serve DC- The Mayor’s Office on Volunteerism is celebrating National Learn & Serve Challenge Week, October 5-12, 2009. The National Learn & Serve Challenge is a week-long series of local, state and national events designed to raise awareness and public support for service-learning.

Throughout the week, Washington, DC will do its part to engage schools, community-based organizations and — most importantly — youth in service-learning activities and trainings. By participating in this national week of activities, Serve DC hopes to spotlight how service-learning — a teaching method that engages young people to solve problems within their schools and communities as part of their academic studies — has made a difference in the lives of young people right here in our own community.

This year, the Challenge kickoff will issue a national call to action to schools, college campuses and youth-serving organizations to commit to engaging a significant number of young people in service-learning activities that address the tough problems facing the country during the 2009-2010 school year.

Serve DC was recently awarded a prestigious Learn and Serve America higher education grant of $860,000 to expand upon its successful K-12 programs to local universities. Serve DC will partner with Georgetown University, The George Washington University and the University of the District of Columbia to engage more than 1,200 students in high quality service-learning in the upcoming school year. Universities will share resources and best practices as they engage students in service-learning activities that meet local needs and help address issues faced by local nonprofits as a result of the current economic downturn.

In the past, the Learn & Serve Challenge focused on a week of publicity and outreach. Now, it is becoming a sustained, collaborative and focused effort to promote opportunities for elementary, middle and high school-aged youth to be engaged learners and active contributors to society year-round.