Meaning of Service discussion in Montana
The Meaning of Service (MoS) is a national reading and discussion program for service volunteers featuring discussions that use short philosophical and literary texts on the nature of justice, service, and related themes. The discussions are presented on a regular schedule (often monthly) and are led by a trained facilitator. Training workshops are led by the Project on Civic Reflection, the nation’s leading provider of facilitation training and program consultation for this model of humanities-based discussion. These discussions assist participants in enhancing their understanding of why, how and who they serve, thereby improving the experience for themselves and those they serve.
- Read all about our new $350,000 grant from NEH to support MoS expansion!
- Purchase Hearing the Call Across Traditions: Readings on Faith and Service, the new Meaning of Service-related book published in May 2009.
NEH Chairman Jim Leach participates in a Meaning of Service discussionAccording to evaluations, MoS challenges participants to think more deeply about their impact, helps them examine the complexities of service, improves their relationships with other AmeriCorps members, and improves their ability to communicate their values and ideas to others. A majority of participants also note that MoS increased their commitment to service.
The discussions aren't trainings meant to impart specific knowledge but conversations meant to establish or re-establish connections—connections to motives for coming to this work, connections between those who are sharing in the discussions, and connections between underlying commitments and daily choices. Selected readings may include poems by Pablo Neruda and Langston Hughes, essays by Jane Addams or Martin Luther King, Jr., or short stories by Toni Cade Bambara and Dave Eggers.
MoS currently engages close to 200 young volunteers at eight sites in Illinois: City Year, PCC Wellness, Literacy Volunteers of Illinois, Notre Dame Mercy Americorps, Project Yes, and Asian Human Services in Chicago, as well as Belleville AmeriCorps in Belleville and the Illinois Public Health Association in Springfield.
The program was founded in 2003 as a pilot program in Chicago, with support and guidance from the Project on Civic Reflection. In 2005, the IHC received a three-year NEH grant to expand the program in Illinois and to twelve other states. Using lessons learned from the previous national expansion, the IHC received another three-year NEH grant in 2010 to help make reading and reflection a key feature of the service experience in Illinois and in seven other states: Maryland, Mississippi, Montana, New York, Ohio, Wyoming, and Florida.
The Meaning of Service is generously supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily reflect those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Special thanks to Southwest Airlines, the official travel sponsor for The Meaning of Service.
