Chapter Two: Activities and Accomplishments of the Summer of Service

Summary

The data on activities and accomplishments of the 16 Summer of Service grantees reveals that the nine and a half week summer initiative resulted in a diverse array of benefits for children and their families, and particularly for households in distressed neighborhoods and for at-risk youth.

Overall, more than 154,500 children and families benefitted from the direct services spanning the four Service Areas (Education, Health, Environment, and Public Safety) that were provided by the Summer of Service participants. For example, 18,300 children received tutoring, 8,200 attended summer school classes, and more than 14,000 participated in art and enrichment activities. Almost 36,000 people benefitted from neighborhood improvement projects, including the rehabilitation of parks and playgrounds, the restoration of at least 7 community centers, and creation of a teen center, an interpretive nature trail, and a safe haven play space in a community facility. Summer of Service participants also assisted in the construction of 7 houses for low-income families, and engaged in dozens of community gardening and planting, recycling, and other environmental projects.

The Health area, with an estimated 91,749 beneficiaries, was the Service Area that realized the largest number of Summer of Service beneficiaries. Almost 33,400 individuals received health education services, which emphasized the importance of child health care and immunizations. Nearly 6,600 individuals received health, vision, or dental screenings. Over 3,800 children received immunizations. Eighteen thousand households in high risk buildings were alerted as to the dangers to their children of lead paint poisoning, and 3,000 children were referred for lead paint poisoning testing. Almost 8,000 individuals received first aid instruction. Two-thirds of the service time of the Summer of Service participants were directed to activities in the Education Service Area. Among these activities, implementation of service learning for students (K-12) was the single activity to which the greatest number of participant service hours were devoted. Many Summer of Service sites, in addition to providing tutoring, literacy training, and mentoring to children, involved them in community service projects to increase their sense of civic responsibility.

The 16 Summer of Service sites also attracted the additional assistance of over 3,840 volunteers, who contributed over 92,500 hours on the grantees' community service projects.

Chapter Two: Activities and Accomplishments of the Summer of Service

Some of these volunteers also assisted with the participant training and skill development activities that were carried out at each Summer of Service site.

Extensive service learning components for the Summer of Service participants were the norm among the grantees, and typically stressed team building, leadership training, reflection/group discussions, diversity training and the service ethic. Participants spent an average of 10 hours per week on skill development and service learning activities, in addition to their 40 hours a week spent on direct service provision.

On average, each Summer of Service participant assisted with the provision of direct services to more than 105 beneficiaries. In addition, several sites conducted mass media and outreach campaigns whose information services expanded the Service of Service to reach more than 1.8 million persons.

The Summer of Service participants worked in conjunction with over 250 organizations that made up the 16 local partnerships during the summer initiative. About two out of every five of these organizations were community-based non-profits, and one quarter were educational institutions. These organizations sponsored projects, provided in-kind and cash contributions, and had members who volunteered their time to the local community service effort.

CHAPTER THREE

CHARACTERISTICS OF SUMMER OF SERVICE PARTICIPANTS

This chapter presents information on Summer of Service participant characteristics, based on Enrollment Forms completed by the participating youth. The chapter is organized into seven sections, focusing on:

how participants learned about the program and their reasons for joining the Summer of Service.

Most of the information presented in this chapter is data aggregated across all 16 program sites. However, the appendices to this report contain data on various attributes for each

Summer of Service grantee.

Age and Gender

The Summer of Service initiative was intended as a vehicle to involve young people in community service in the nation's neighborhoods. Accordingly, eligibility for the funded Summer of Service "participant" positions was limited to individuals 17-25 years old.

Exhibit 3.1 shows the age distribution of Summer of Service participants. As shown in the exhibit:

6 At the beginning of their involvement with their local Summer of Service program, participants were asked to complete a four-page Enrollment Form that sought to capture basic information on each individual's background and initial expectations for the summer effort. The data in this chapter are based on the Participant Enrollment Forms received from the 16 Summer of Service program sites through September 29, 1993. By that date, Abt Associates had received 1,424 Enrollment Forms from Summer of Service participants, representing approximately 97 percent of the youth who participated in the summer initiative.

Training was provided to each site on the use of the Enrollment Form, and local program administrators were urged to review the forms turned in by participants for completeness before submission to Abt Associates. Despite these efforts, not every participant answered (or properly answered) every question on the Enrollment Form. For that reason, in this chapter's presentation of tabulations for each attribute, the number of responses received ("N") for the Enrollment Form questions relating to that attribute is indicated in each exhibit.

Chapter Three: Characteristics of Summer of Service Participants

The majority of Summer of Service participants were in the younger end of the specified 17-25 year-old age range, with 65 percent of the participants being 20 years old or younger.

The largest category of Summer of Service participants was in the age group of 19-20 years old (36 percent of respondents), followed by the 17-18 years old age category (29 percent).

There was a very sharp drop-off in the numbers of participants for the older age categories, with less than 13 percent of participants indicating that they were age 23 or older.

As shown in Exhibit 3.2 below, a majority of the Summer of Service participants were female. Women made up nearly sixty percent of the Summer of Service participants.

According to the program guidelines, one aim of the Summer of Service initiative was to include an ethnically and culturally diverse range of participants in the provision of community service at the various program sites around the country. Exhibit 3.3 summarizes participant race/ethnicity. From these data, it appears that the objective of ethnic and cultural diversity was achieved:

• Overall more than seventy percent of Summer of Service participants were members of minority groups.