Service Learning
At Green Camp, we strive to offer best practice Learning to Serve experiences for students. Our aim is to plant a seed of compassion, kindness, and inspiration that will grow and flourish within our student’s heads and hearts.
At Green Camp we strive to offer best practice Learning to Serve experiences for students. Ensuring an appropriate cycle of Service is followed and engagements are reciprocal, including benefits for non profit organisations as well as the campers.
The cycle of Investigation, Preparation, Action, Demonstration and Reflection is outlined in the programming. We believe that balanced and interconnected relationships between human to human, and human to earth is crucial at this point of time. We as educators have a responsibility in life to teach what is truly valuable rather than focus on pure academic achievement. A sense of achievement or success in society is often measured by academic standing, personal wealth and status in society.
In the process of achieving all of this so called ‘successful life’, we are forgetting about our real connections and harmony with each other and the earth. We tend to ignore the impacts of our direct or non-direct actions towards our society and the environment. We tend to only think about ourselves and ignore the wellbeing and the prosperity of others who will inhabit the world after us. We are too focused on ourself and our own well-being.
Service to Earth program focuses on delivering services to Earth, the local community and our students. Our aim is to plant a seed of compassion, kindness and inspiration that will grow and flourish within our students heads and hearts. Aspiring to become responsible, and kind-hearted global citizens who will share their learnings, knowledge and experience to inspire people in their own communities.
Learning outcomes that can be expected at the end of the program are:
- To practice compassion, being mindful and grateful human being
- To deepen connections with themselves, others and the earth
- To create a better understanding of how important it is to see ourselves as part of nature and to see the crucial interconnections of our existence
- To ignite mental/mindset/Habit shift on how they perceive the world around them
- To build tolerance, resilience and perseverance
- To enhance confidence
- To build stronger human connection and collaboration
- To have once in a lifetime experience
Benefits for the earth and the local community that we are partnered with: • Prolong earth’s natural ecosystems that provide resources for us and other living species • Maintaining the earth’s balance
- To protect the earth from destruction
- To provide cultural experience and international interaction for the local community and our campers
- To support local economies
- To contribute to the community’s well-being and prosperity
- Collaborate to build systems to improve the quality of life for the local community
Our Inspirations:
- The Niswarth pedagogy, framework and values.
The program prioritises relationships – how to build cross cultural connections, collaborate inclusively, and design a response to a community issue.
Core values: Humility, Compassion and Gratitude. - Global Design for Change approach to guide our design-thinking process.
Additionally, the program includes a writing curriculum that is layered and iterative, sessions that encourage honest reflection, and many options for art, dance or athletic activities to build friendships. - We are grounded by two questions during the program:
What does the user need? How can I serve? Three themes that guide our time together are The Power of Small, The Joy of Togetherness and Small Acts of Kindness.
2 Week Program Itinerary Sample Typical Day At Green Camp:
7.00 : Wake Up
7.30 : Breakfast
8.30 : Energiser/Team Building Games
9.00 : Adventure Program/Experiential Learning
12.00 : Lunch
13.00 : Downtime
13.30 : Adventure Program/Experiential Learning
17.00 : Refresh/Break
18.00 : Dinner
19.00 : Cultural Program/Sustainability Lesson
20.00 : Journal and Reflection
21.00 – 21.30 : Lights Out
