To Hell With Good Intentions - A 1968 speech by Ivan Illich focusing on the injustice perpetuated by American volunteers working in Mexico, and when contextualized in the light of modern "service" work, offers a startling analysis of the volunteer movement in America.

Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? - In 1967 Dr. Martin Luther King laid out a clear analysis of the painful divide facing activists and community organizers. The problem is that we've fulfilled his worst fears. 1960s Connections he drew between Black Power, affirmative action and American segregation provide a clear glimpse into modern American apartheid; his prescriptions for community building, nonviolence and unity offer a roadmap for a different America.

Mentoring the Mentor - This book is a written conversation between Paulo Freire and a number of promoters, practitioners and detractors who have beef with his analysis. "The fundamental task of the mentor is a liberatory task. It is not to encourage the mentor's goals and aspirations and dreams to be reproduced in the mentees, the students, but to give rise to the possibility that the students become the owners of their own history. This is how I understand the need that teachers have to transcend their merely instructive task and to assume the ethical posture of a mentor who truly believes in the total autonomy, freedom, and development of those he or she mentors." (from Chapter Sixteen: "A Response" by Paulo Freire).

In the Service of What? The Politics of Service Learning - In 1994 a pair of university faculty wrote an academic analysis of service learning. They provided a basis for a lot of the modern criticism underway today, and allowed the service learning movement to breathe enough to allow critical thinking within its ranks. While that movement seems to have exhaled lately, Kahn and Westhiemer's analysis is just as applicable today, and provides a great construct to learn from.

Purpose, Empowerment and the Experience of Volunteerism in the Community - In 2004 I adapted Hart's Ladder of Youth Participation with a wider lens that attempted to explore volunteerism. Its an interesting glimpse into a few corners of my experiences that I need to look at some more.