How+can+I+help?

=** 7. How can I help? **= //**They consider how they can contribute to the common good, they make a decision, and they act. **// Students are asking themselves how they can help, and they are asking others how they might be of assistance. Contributing to the common good can take many forms. Joel Westheimer has described three levels of community service, giving as an example various ways of responding to hunger in society. __Personally responsible citizens__ contribute food to a food drive. __Participatory citizens__ help organize food drives. __Social justice orientated citizen__s explore why people are hungry and seek to solve root causes.

For community service to effectively develop the orientations that we wish to see in our student/citizens the service must encourage all three levels of contribution. Community service encourages both action and reflection.

Such reflection should raise questions such as What is needed? What constitutes help? Did I help? Did I make a difference? What did I learn?

Deborah Meier has written that student/citizens must develop "informed empathy."   How can students contribute to the common good? The website [|What Kids Can Do] gives many examples. WKCD gives examples of what young people can accomplish when given the opportunities and supports they need and what they can contribute when we take their voices and ideas seriously. 

==== **Skill building Notes 4 orientations helpful -- caretakers, get-the-job-done-now, detail, big picture Compass activity (Carol’s animals) Who’s going to have a harder time asking for help? How can multiple tasks be generatied, yet keep coordinated? ** ====