These publications are meant to be a resource for groups looking to engage young people in political action. Please contact us with additional resources you would like to see available or with documents you would like us to post.

Service Politics Prospectus: A summary of our service politics model.

Service Politics Theory of Change: Why are we doing what we are doing? What change do we hope to see in the world? If you want to particpate in our service politics curriculum, what outcomes should you expect? We begin to answer these questions in this Theory of Change.

The New Student Politics: The Wingspread Statement on Student Civic Engagement (2002) (188 K pdf): This document was part of the original inspiration for the idea of connecting young people more closely to politics through the bridge of community service. The following excerpt, from the Campus Compact website (http://www.compact.org/wingspread/), describes the document and the process behind creating it:

The Wingspread Summit on Student Civic Engagement was held on March 15 – 17, 2001 at the Johnson Foundation in Racine, Wisconsin. The participants included a group of thirty-three juniors and seniors representing twenty-seven colleges and universities from across the country. These students were nominated by faculty and community service directors and asked to participate for two days in a candid group discussion focused on their “civic experiences” in higher education. The thirty-three students represented diverse institutions and diverse communities. Each participant contributed unique stories, experiences, languages, rituals, opinions and ideas about themselves and the world they inhabit. Gathering all of this multiplicity, complexity and enthusiasm into one room provided the grounds for a meaningful and powerful exchange of ideas and knowledge.

The Wingspread Summit provided insight into how students perceive the “civic” efforts on their campuses, and perhaps most importantly, the Summit reaffirmed the importance of student voice in the larger national discussion on service and civic life. This realization is reflected in the assertion of student voices in the synthesis of the outcomes and in the creation of follow-up materials to the Wingspread Summit.

The Wingspread Statement on Student Civic Engagement is a document that was created following the Wingspread Summit. The lead author of the Statement was a participant at the Summit. The Wingspread Statement attempts to describe student political and civic engagement as defined by students at the Summit. It examines contemporary conceptions of civic engagement, politics, and service and provides specific suggestions about how campuses can improve their commitment to student civic engagement through service-learning, increased support for student political activity, and attentiveness to student voice.