Developing a Community Service Learning Domestic Violence Prevention Program

The structure of the Domestic Violence Outreach Program (DVOP) is very unique in that the students create and run their own agency as opposed to the traditional service-learning model of being placed in an existing agency, where typically two to four students are primarily supervised by agency social work staff. In employing a humanistic approach to teaching, it provides an environment that liberates and empowers students to become self‐reliant and self‐initiating (Guigno, 2008); in this case, the faculty’s role is that of a consultant, lecturing to encourage students to explore their own ideas rather than utilize the traditional teacher‐student dynamic. This conveys to the teen and young adult students – who are teaching teens – to not let other people control them, which is what makes the program effective. Underlying the pedagogy of service-learning is the belief that a central mission of civic education is to produce active, engaged citizens (Delli‐Carpini & Keeter, 2000). DVOP is an example of the direction that other human service programs may want to consider. DVOP provides students with the opportunity to become empowered as they give back to their community and participate in a crucial prevention effort that engages fellow college students and high school students. Internship projects have helped educate and engage community members in this pilot project to prevent domestic violence.