San Francisco Unified School District's (SFUSD) Service Learning Resource Hub, along with the new SFUSD VolunteerMatch site, helps students, teachers, schools, and nonprofits create a rich learning environment while serving the community.

The Mayor’s Office, the Department of Children, Youth and their Families (DCYF) and the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) seek to increase the opportunities and participation in community service for public school students, as well as tap into the academic and communtiy benefits that come from service learning programs. To do this the district has partnered San Francisco School Volunteers and VolunteerMatch to pilot a program that could scale district wide. The project seeks to:

1. Utilize technology and current best practices to engage San Francisco students to serve their communities;
2. Streamline the processes for schools that already engage their students in community-based service learning;
3. Pool resources and best practices so that all schools can offer robust community-based service learning programs to their students.

The three partners bring distinct assets to the effort.

VolunteerMatch has technology that enables students and faculty to find volunteer opportunities posted by nonprofit agencies nationally. Its platform offers web-based tools that help school administrators and coordinators to manage, track, measure, and expand their volunteer programs. As part of this project, VolunteerMatch will make its platform available to school district coordinators through a branded school district volunteer web portal.

The San Francisco Unified School District has identified two schools that will serve as model pilots for this program: Gateway High School and Wallenberg High School. This project will examine: a) how the VolunteerMatch tool can improve these existing programs; b) how best to replicate the successes of these programs to other schools in the district. After the initial launch in April, 2009, the district will reach out to other schools to participate.

San Francisco School Volunteers has been placing young people as volunteers within the school district for over 45 years as mentors, tutors, coaches, readers, office help, translators, and more. School Volunteers understands what it takes to create a positive environment for young people and will share its expertise in cultivating volunteers into community leaders. School Volunteers will also provide overall project management for the effort.

Timeline

• Set up and customization of three VolunteerMatch portals. School Volunteers, VolunteerMatch and School District staff will work together to create separate custom community service portals for Gateway High School, Wallenberg High School, and for the School District. [Feb-Mar, ‘09]
   
• Establish resources for setting up and running community service programs. School Volunteers will develop and publish online resources detailing the set up and management of service programs. [Feb – April, ‘09]
   
• Recruit and orient new public schools to program. After the launch and testing of the pilot portals, School District staff will inform, educate, and encourage other public schools to join this community-based service learning program and utilize the VolunteerMatch tool. [April-June, ‘09]