Regular meaningful service builds civic skills while episodic service does not

Evidence

A mounting body of evidence confirms that community service programs really do strengthen the civic muscles of participants, especially if the service is meaningful, regular, and woven into the fabric of the school curriculum. Episodic service has little effect, and it is hard to imagine that baby-sitting and janitorial work—the two most frequent types of “community service” nationwide, according to one 1997 study—have much favorable effect. On the other hand, well-designed service learning programs (the emerging evidence suggests) improve civic knowledge, enhance citizen efficacy, increase social responsibility and self-esteem, teach skills of cooperation and leadership, and may even (one study suggests) reduce racism. — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 1459

Categorization

• QUESTION: What distinguishes ‘meaningful’ from filler service is under-theorized here; this is a documented finding with an unexplained mechanism worth chasing.
• XREF: connects to: Volunteering correlates with political engagement, not alienation — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 432

Broader Connections

• Volunteering correlates with political engagement, not alienation #corroborates (0.80) — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 432