Service-Learning Community Partners are critical links connecting the chain of learning for students. Students gain practical experience applying the skills and knowledge from their course content to their service-learning project. The students don’t just study a real world problem put forward by our partners, they provide tangible solutions. 99% of our community partners report that the service-learning outcomes were “worth the time and effort” they put forth.
Community partner commitment
The most important commitment that the partner organization has to make is around flexibility and promptness. The service-learning projects are all linked to courses that generally take place over 3 months and these projects are typically worth 20% -40% of the student’s overall course mark. This is a very short time frame given the projects usually start after the students have covered some of the theory in class.
Timeliness for information transfer is critical to project success. As the students work in teams and have varied schedules to plan around, we ask that community partners be very flexible about meeting times. Timely communication is necessary given the tight timelines student teams have to complete the project.
Most projects use the process outline:
- During an initial start up meeting goals and timelines are set up
- Exchanges of information are usually continued by email
- A meeting is set for the half way point to ensure the project is on track
- A final presentation is made either in the classroom or at the partner organization
- Projects are largely delivered in an electronic format to community partners at the end of the term