National Urban League
From Service-Learning Wiki
| This program was profiled in Growing to Greatness 2005. |
The National Urban League is “the nation’s oldest and largest community-based movement empowering African Americans to enter the economic and social mainstream.”
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Service-Learning in the National Urban League
The National Urban League has been involved in service-learning and related youth development programs for more than 15 years. In the late 1980’s, the National Urban League created the National Urban League Incentive to Excel and Succeed program to bring African American youths together in conferences. In 1990, NULITES held its first conference for youths. Now, NULITES holds an annual four-day National Leadership Summit. Summits are hosted by colleges and provide NULITES participants with leadership workshops, career exploration activities, and opportunities for networking and showcasing their talents.
NULITES chapters are sponsored by local Urban League affiliates and have their own youth officers who develop and implement activities with guidance from adult advisors. While NULITES is grounded in African-American pride and history, young people of many cultural backgrounds now participate in NULITES chapters. All NULITES chapters have a service component, and roughly a quarter of the chapters also have an explicit focus on academic outcomes. Through educational seminars, service projects, and other activities, NULITES participants reach NULITES goals of high achievement, educational and character development, and leadership qualities.
The NULITES Houston Chapter
The Houston Area Urban League in Texas is a model for other NUL chapters. At last year’s NULITES National Leadership Summit, the Houston NULITES chapter won “chapter of the year.” The 160 Houston “NULITERS” encounter job opportunities as they visit businesses and their state capital. They receive scholarship help and SAT practice. They also design and complete service projects, and receive awards at an annual end-of-year banquet. In order to encourage participants to become well-rounded leaders, John Robinson, Director, Education and Youth at the Houston Area Urban League, explains that NULITES incorporates service projects in order to “build participants’ mindset of being community servants.”
Robinson believes that NULITES should be regarded as the most important program at all National Urban League chapters “because it’s about our future, and it’s about getting our young people to become leaders…The Houston NULITES chapter will have a President of the United States coming out of it soon.”
Scope of Service-Learning
Today, 57 NULITES chapters exist in 26 states. Each chapter looks in its “own backyard” to decide what issue area it wants to address. Chapters address various social or community issues, usually with explicit or implicit learning objectives. For example, the newest NULITES chapter, in Memphis, Tennessee, formed, in part, because youths wanted to renovate a park in their community.
Intended Outcomes
NULITES’ goals include improving academic achievement, and providing opportunities for personal and leadership development for African American and other urban youths. To ensure that NULITES’ goals are met, all chapters collect information via intake forms and other surveys. “We are in an era of challenge,” says Renita Carter, National Urban League Manager for the Education and Youth Division. She adds, “In order to become great, young people need to expect greatness of themselves and have goals for their futures. But someone needs to expect [greatness] of them, first.”
