Reflections on University-School Partnerships at Providence College's Feinstein Institute for Public Service

For the purposes of this chapter, the authors draw primarily on their experiences at one public elementary school and two public middle schools over a period of some twelve years. They draw, to a lesser extent, on their work with five other K-8 schools during the same period. When the Feinstein Institute was starting at Providence College in 1994 and its service-based curriculum was being designed, its faculty (including the authors) made several decisions that shaped its direction. First, they would focus their service on supporting community institutions physically proximate to the college that promised students a significant experience of service. They would, as well, focus disproportionately on institutions serving children and youth because doing so could tie them to the larger community's people, issues, and organizations, and because the required skills were withing the students' reach. Third, they would, as much as possible, focus on community building rather than intervention and on asset identification and development. Additionally, they would concentrate on building sustainable partnerships that had a time horizon of roughly ten years. (authors)