Service-Learning as a Tool for Capacity Development in Rural Nova Scotia

In many parts of Canada and the world, a substantial disparity exists in economic and social development between urban and rural communities. Although there is considerable variation, most small communities beyond commuting distance from a large urban centre are struggling with developing a new social and economic identity beyond the resourcebased economy. Brain drain is the term applied to the loss of skilled labor to greener pastures (Mahroum, 2000). As skilled people leave, so do community leaders, the tax base, jobs, and the infrastructure that sustains a community (Fellegi, 1996). Rural revitalization efforts are often thwarted by the fact that service and infrastructure policy is developed without local input. Macro-level decisions are often made in isolation of each other and without examining their cumulative effects on rural communities. At the level of the community, the determinants that affect people's health and the health of their community are intertwined. At the level of provincial and federal governments, these determinants are streamlined into separate sectors. There are few concrete mechanisms whereby residents of rural communities can provide input into the development of policies that directly affect their sustainability. When these opportunities are provided, rural communities often do not have the capacity to use evidence (e.g., research that clarifies issues and that predicts the potential impact of decisions on rural development) to support their position. Post-secondary educators must be concerned with the development of capacity within individuals (students) and organizations (the institution) to contribute to increasing the community capacity necessary to address the many and complex problems that society faces. Canada is in the midst of a resurgence of interest in education as a vehicle for developing engaged citizens. In the post-secondary sector, in addition to Canadian institutions explicitly referring to educating citizens in their mission statements and/or stated learning objectives, there is a growing interest and commitment to developing research agendas and both co-curricular programs and academic courses that have objectives related to developing and sustaining civic commitment. The creation of the Community University Research Alliance program and the newly established Canadian Association for Community Service-Learning are but two demonstrations of the burgeoning interest in providing and supporting meaningful opportunities for campuses to develop policies and practices which encourage an actively engaged civic commitment in their students, staff, faculty and alumni. To counter the depletion of human resources required to sustain rural communities a major research project was undertaken by a partnership between Dalhousie University's Atlantic Health Promotion Research Centre and the Nova Scotia Coastal Communities Network. The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of student engagement in service learning to increase the capacity of rural organizations to influence and to develop policy that contributes to the health and sustainability of rural communities.