Why Engage Faith-Based Organizations in Service-Learning?

The Potential for Faith-Based Service-Learning

From Youth Service California and the National Service-Learning Partnership

Though the Inspired to Serve model is based on the importance and possibility of interfaith engagement, it is also helpful to place this model in the broader context of faith-based service-learning. America’s 350,000 churches, mosques, synagogues, temples, and other communities of faith represent an overlooked resource for service-learning. Here are some facts and figures:

Religious institutions are important “entry points” for service-learning

  • Among young people who volunteer, 53% first learned about volunteer activities through their congregation. (Volunteering and Giving among Teenagers 12 to 17 Years of Age: Findings from a National Survey, Independent Sector, 1996)
  • Two-thirds (64%) of youth who regularly attend religious services volunteer, compared to 53% of those who attend infrequently and 41% who do not attend at all. (Youth Helping America, Corporation for National and Community Service, 2005)
  • Youth who are devoted to their faith are twice as likely as those who are disengaged from congregations to volunteer or do community service. (Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers, Oxford University Press, 2005)
  • Surveys of college freshmen show that students who participated in religious activities in high school are more likely to engage in volunteer activities generally, and in service-learning specifically (57% compared to 43%). (UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute, 2004)
  • Service-learning experience is high for college freshmen from many religious traditions, including the following: Hindu (62.2 percent); Latter Day Saints (61.9 percent); Roman Catholic (59.0 percent); Islamic (57.6 percent); and Buddhist (56.9 percent). Forty-five percent of youth who marked “none” participated in service-learning in high school. (UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute, 2004)
  • Thirty-six percent of all volunteers (all ages) in the United States between 2006 and 2008 volunteered through religious organizations. (Volunteering in America, Corporation for National and Community Service, 2009)

Service and service-learning in religious institutions

  • About 72% of faith-based youth workers say that “involving and empowering youth” is essential to effective youth work, and only 22% feel adequately prepared in this area of youth development. Overall, 63% say they would be very interested in professional development opportunities to strengthen this area. (Is There Common Ground?, Search Institute and National Collaboration for Youth, 2007)
  • Forty-seven percent of religious youth’s volunteer activities are through their faith community, compared to 45% through a secular organization and 8% through another faith-based organization. (Youth Helping America, Corporation for National and Community Service, 2005)
  • An exploratory study of 500 faith-based youth workers found that 86% said their congregation offered youth community service projects at least once per year. Only 10% said their congregation offered projects at least once a month. (Youth Development in Congregations, Search Institute, 1995).
  • Only 42% of both youth and adults in an exploratory study in 15 congregations indicated that their congregation did well in providing youth-only or intergenerational service opportunities. (Building Assets, Strengthening Faith, Search Institute, 2003)

Youth need opportunities to develop mutual respect and understanding across religious boundaries.

  • Hate crimes motivated by religious bias are second only to racially motivated bias crimes, comprising 19% of all hate crimes. Of these religiously motivated hate crimes, 66% were categorized as anti-Jewish and 11% as anti-Islamic. The majority of the perpetrators were groups of young men under age 26. (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2007)
  • Only 24% of faith-based youth workers feel adequately prepared to address religious diversity. Almost two in five (38%) say that this focus is an essential area of youth work, and another 35% said it is a very important emphasis. Two-thirds of those surveyed said they would be interested in training or other learning opportunities to strengthen this area of youth work. (Is There Common Ground?, Search Institute and National Collaboration for Youth, 2007)
  • Building interfaith relationships can address these challenges. Only 45% of adults in the United States say they personally know a Muslim. Those who personally know Muslims and know more about Islam are much more likely to have positive views of Muslim-Americans. Fifty-seven percent of adults with high familiarity with Islam view it positively. Only 21 percent of those with low familliarity view it positively. (Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, 2009)

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