Community Standards for Service Learning, (The)

How does one actually implement the three Cs of commitment, communication, and compatibility? What do all four parties-- faculty, students, service-learning offices, and community organizations-- have to do to make service-learning as successful for the community as it is for the student? The authors explore standards in this chapter that prioritize the recommendations of the other chapters in this book. They do not exactly provide a recipe, but they do provide what the community organizations say are the crucial ingredients. Those crucial ingredients organize into the five following categories: communication, developing positive relationships, providing an infrastructure for service-learning, managing service learners, and promoting diversity in service-learning. The three Cs are spread throughout these categories. Because, ultimately, the three Cs are ineffective unless they occur in an integrated way. Communication without commitment and compatibility without communication, for example, will not lead to better service-learning. In this chapter, then, the authors present the very concrete ways that the three Cs can be implemented in the most effective integrated way. (authors)