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Source: National Service-Learning Clearinghouse, June 2009.
This fact sheet introduces community assessment to AmeriCorps members working in educational settings and looking to enhance their experience of learning through service, and for anyone interested in finding a way to increase civic engagement, academic, personal, and social outcomes of youth and students.Why is it so important for service-learning projects to assess community resources and needs? The reasons for this process are:
- To identify and prioritize authentic community strengths and needs
- To get to know the community
- Ensure project success
- To avoid duplication of effort
The importance of listening before serving
Service-learning leaders appropriately advocate for recognizing young people as resources in their communities and society. They focus on building young people’s assets and strengths, rather than dwelling on limitations or weaknesses. That same attitude is critical to how service-learning programs engage with the individuals, organizations, and communities that benefit from the service. Paying attention to community members’ voices, identifying their strengths and priorities, and finding ways to partner with them – to work with, not just for, them – has enormous potential for enriching service-learning.Too many service projects develop without meaningfully engaging the broader community in the planning and shaping of the project. The result is often that people providing the service "impose their ideas on another group, with little or no consideration [for] that group’s traditions, beliefs, and needs" (Simmons & Toole, 2003; also see Honnet & Poulsen, 1989). When this happens the value of young people’s service is lessened, and in worst-case scenarios community residents interpret the service as both intrusive and exploitive.
Community assessments provide a structured way to listen before taking action. In the long term, people who develop the practices of listening and learning will become more effective citizens, leaders, and agents of meaningful change.
Relationships
One of the first things to think about in creating good service-learning partnerships is the orientation of the community partner. There are people who are more relationship-oriented and there are people who are more task-oriented. Most people are a combination of the two.When forming a relationship, a relationship-oriented person might first ask: Do I like this person? Do I trust this person? Do we share common values? While a task-oriented person might ask: Do we share the same goals and objectives? What do we need to do to accomplish this task? Will this person follow through with the task? Be mindful of your own orientation when attempting to cultivate a new partnership, because in order to implement effective service-learning projects you will need to be able to relate to individuals of all types. The first step is to determine a person’s primary orientation and approach them accordingly.
What Makes Partnerships Work?
Effective partnerships typically have the following characteristics:- shared leadership, responsibility, and oversight;
- young people are full partners;
- relationships are central;
- inclusion is intentional;
- an appropriate balance is struck between trust building and action;
- mutual understanding and benefits are understood;
- mutual learning objectives and educational activities;
- vision guides structure;
- and being attentive to planning, communication, training, orientation, and preparation.
How Do You Shape a Partnership?
A partnership can be simple or complex, depending on each partner’s comfort level, readiness, needs, and resources—and the nature of the shared work that is envisioned. As the partnership becomes more complex, the potential impact on the community, the students, and the agency increases. Here is a commonly accepted basic framework for understanding a continuum of relationships that are often thought of as being a hierarchy:- Cooperate. Projects may be centered in one organization with support from the other. This is where many partnerships start out.
- Coordinate. Work together in planning a specific effort or program.
- Collaborate. Collaboration typically requires a shared decision-making group, comprehensive planning and communication, and formal agreements on roles, responsibilities, and commitments.
For more examples and resources check out Partnerships
www.servicelearning.org/topic/theory-practice/partnerships
and the Resource Center's service-learning effective practices
www.nationalserviceresources.org/practices/topic/160
This fact sheet is adapted in part from the AmeriCorps Service-Learning Training Modules by Alameda County Office of Education and Beyond Needs Assessment by Eugene C. Roehlkepartain. For a more detailed discussion, see the complete items in our library at
www.servicelearning.org/library/resource/6758 and
www.servicelearning.org/instant_info/fact_sheets/cb_facts/beyond_needs_assess/
www.servicelearning.org/topic/theory-practice/partnerships
and the Resource Center's service-learning effective practices
www.nationalserviceresources.org/practices/topic/160
This fact sheet is adapted in part from the AmeriCorps Service-Learning Training Modules by Alameda County Office of Education and Beyond Needs Assessment by Eugene C. Roehlkepartain. For a more detailed discussion, see the complete items in our library at
www.servicelearning.org/library/resource/6758 and
www.servicelearning.org/instant_info/fact_sheets/cb_facts/beyond_needs_assess/
© 2009 Learn and Serve America's National Service-Learning Clearinghouse.
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