The YLI staff would like to invite you to help pilot Democracy Corps, a program designed to demonstrate the ways in which students can make a difference in their communities through civic involvement.

The well-known anthropologist Margaret Mead once wrote, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
More than local volunteerism, the goal of this program is to increase all students' understanding of how important civic responsibility and action are to the functioning of a democracy while encouraging lifelong engagement in community issues. We hope students will learn how they may make a difference both in their local communities and in the larger world of government and public policy. Connections to literature, art, history and current events strive to make the experience interdisciplinary and exciting.

The program includes a self-contained teacher resource guide for completing service learning projects with middle and high school students. The guide includes 16 student lesson plans, alternate scheduling choices, options for differentiation, guidelines for various classroom activities, and links to other YLI resources.

Before offering Democracy Corps to a nationwide audience of educators, we need help in evaluating this new resource. As we value teacher input in the development of a rigorous and quality-driven program, we are reaching out to middle and high school teachers for their assistance. If you choose to participate, we will deliver all the necessary materials to you. All you need to do is either:

Review the teacher resource guide and its accompanying materials and fill out a questionnaire,
OR
Use all or parts of Democracy Corps with your students during the 2006-07 school year and provide feedback.

YLI staff strives to create user-friendly products that are of high academic quality, are easy to incorporate into the curriculum, and excite and engage students. We greatly appreciate any help that you can offer; we cannot do it without you! And we will be offering gifts to all teachers who participate.

If you or any other teachers in your school are interested in learning more, then please contact the YLI staff by calling toll free at 866.514.8689 or by emailing ylihelp@virginia.edu by October 6, 2006. We look forward to hearing from you!