ICP’s Summer of Service Resource Center to Launched

As the culmination of approximately five years of development and incubation, ICP is pleased to announce the launch of our Summer of Service (SOS) Resource Center with the generous help of State Farm. The resource center will serve as a guide and reference for organizations and individuals seeking to partner and participate in youth service and service learning activities during the summer.

The Summer of Service Resource Center grew out of ICP’s 2005 report entitled “Summer of Service: A new American Rite of Passage?” because of an observed lack of information for interested youth and groups serving youth. Summer of Service is meant to provide a safe, positive and constructive alternative to the idleness and boredom that generally fills summer vacations.

For students moving between middle school and high school, Summer of Service would offer a welcome distraction from the monotony of unstructured weeks. The resource center provides tools and reference materials to help organizations create successful SOS programs. Furthermore, it will act as a forum for the exchange of SOS information and ideas with the goal of improving programs and further tailoring them towards the needs of the students and of the recipients of the service.

The Resource Center has 3 main components; a discussion forum, a program database and a materials database—all three of which will be continually expanded.

SOS Discussion Forum - The SOS Online Resource Center also includes an Online Discussion Forum. The first posted topic: suggestions on how to improve the SOS Resource Center. Please share your thoughts with us and post additional topics!

Program Survey – ICP is seeking to gather more information about Summer of Service programs and policies to add to our searchable database of youth service programs and policies. If you would like to add your program to our database, please fill out our quick survey. Visitors to our website can also search our database for Summer of Service programs – click here to go to the search form of our program and policy database, select “Summer of Service” under the Form of Civic Participation field, enter in any additional search criteria, and click “Do Search!”

Call For Materials - ICP is continuing to develop and expand the Resource Center, and welcomes any and all suggestions. If you have materials to contribute, information to share, or other suggestions for improve the Resource Center, please email Jean Manney at manney@icicp.org. Thank you!