Campus Community Collaborations
Examples & Resources for Community Colleges

"We shouldn't be the only ones doing this stuff!" I am sure if Dan Gregory knew I'd be using his statement in an article written years later, he would have provided his usual articulate way of expressing the same basic sentiment. Nevertheless, the quote struck me at the time and stays with me still.

Dan and a group of other students were sitting with me around the back patio of my home. The spring semester had ended and lazier days of summer were beckoning. Most students would have been happy to take a bit of a break. Not these students. They didn't expect to slow down much for the summer, and they just assumed that I wouldn't either. Under the guise of "getting together to talk about all the things we did last semester," they were hatching a more devious plot. They had plans--big plans.

The hamburgers were pretty good, but the ice cream never arrived. Good conversation would have to replace dessert. Dan's comment moved the discussion from reminiscing to plotting strategy, providing a starting point for an effort that would lead to more than a year of determined work. That was several years ago, and the work, though less intense perhaps, continues today. The Center for Service-Learning, then a dream for a handful of students, is now part of the fabric of Pima Community College in Tucson.

Students in our social services department have had a long tradition of involvement in the community. Through various projects, the students have come to learn more about the subject matter they were studying, more about their community, more about their role as community members, and more about themselves. These projects were designed not only with such learning in mind, but also with the expectation that the students would contribute to the betterment of the community itself. We had not yet been introduced to the term service-learning, though we were well acquainted with the concept in action.

The students who had invited themselves over that summer evening thought a program of similar activities should be more clearly organized and available to all students of the college. They intended to make it happen.

The students identified four specific areas of support, or what they termed "investor groups." These were students, faculty, administration, and community social agencies.

Students came to recognize a fundamental concept: The faculty-agency link is critical to the success of the service-learning process. Both faculty and agencies control student access to service-learning opportunities, and their purposeful participation can enhance the student's experience. Faculty and social agencies were seen as the most critical investors.

Things began to take shape. Within a month the students had contacted other faculty and with them formed an organization called Service-Learning in College, or SLIC. (Comparisons to a rapidly spreading oil slick were jokingly made.)

In the months that followed, students and faculty researched the service-learning opportunities that were then available at the college and identified faculty involved in service-learning. Through a series of planned activities targeted to each investor group within the college, they began to build a base of support for institutionalizing service-learning in the college's activities and curriculum.

As this was occurring, they approached social agencies with four purposes in mind: attract agency interest; promote agency understanding of service-learning; encourage agencies to provide opportunities to students; and seek agency support of efforts to establish an organized approach for service-learning at the college. In order to accomplish this, the members of SLIC undertook a series of activities.

In keeping with the notion of starting with what you've got, a list of target agencies was drawn up, representing those with whom members had some contact or those most likely to be responsive. A letter explaining the group's intent was drafted and sent to all the agencies on the list. Next, each SLIC member was assigned a number of agencies to personally contact to discuss service-learning and seek support. (Prior to contacting agencies and other potential investors, a series of miniworkshops for SLIC members were held to help them become grounded in service-learning and to prepare them for the contacts they would be making.) Most of these contacts occurred by phone, though in a number of cases SLIC members met personally with agency representatives.

Each agency was asked to write a letter expressing their support of service-learning and their interest in participating. These letters were included in The Book, a compilation of more than fifty letters of support from various social agencies and community organizations, along with more than twenty newspaper articles describing students' contributions to the community during the previous six months.

SLIC members then solicited the support of the Tucson Association of Volunteer Administrators (TAVA), an organization of people who head volunteer activities for most major agencies in the area. Members of SLIC began attending TAVA meetings and made presentations to the group.

Agencies were kept informed of the progress of the overall effort through a number of updates that were mailed periodically during the first year. These updates also invited agencies to participate in service-learning projects and provided contact names.

As support continued to build, SLIC generated more active participation from the community by helping to found the Coalition for Service and Learning, a community group representing various interests, including service agencies and education, government, and neighborhood organizations. The Volunteer Center of Southern Arizona and the Tucson Community Foundation provided valuable leadership to this enterprise. With community education, as well as project coordination and development, this group assisted the growth of service-learning in the community. Through its participation in this new organization, SLIC became linked with many additional community resources.

It became clear that both faculty and agencies wanted to strengthen their understanding of service-learning while providing students with creative projects. Instead of these groups working apart from one another, they were brought together. The service-learning workshop for faculty and agencies gave them a chance to create partnerships by working together in small groups. It was successful not only in helping individuals to get a better grasp on service-learning, but also in allowing faculty and agency members to build relationships and gain insight into each other's particular interests and challenges.

Finally, the Center for Service-Learning at Pima Community College moved off the drawing board and into its office on the west campus. To guide the development of the quality and relevance of its activities, the Center established a formal advisory committee that included staff from several service agencies. By the time the Center was opened, service agencies had indeed become strong investors in its success.

The opening of the Center was the culmination of many, many months of determined work and the beginning of a new direction for the college. During the opening ceremonies, no one could miss the enthusiasm and sense of fulfillment of the students who had provided the leadership to bring us to that day. They had initiated this effort; they had seen it through; they had finally gotten their dessert.

• Understand that faculty and agencies are the gatekeepers of opportunity for students. Perhaps they may be seen as the primary consumers. If they do not buy into the idea of service-learning, options for students will be very limited.
• Do not overrecruit students, agencies or faculty. In order for the program to work, there must be a sufficient number of participants from all groups in a relative balance. Students who are not linked with agencies soon lose interest, as do agencies who receive no students.
• Make sure that individuals who contact agencies seeking their participation are well prepared. They should understand the concept of service-learning and be aware of the different levels of student involvement. They should understand the process for linking a student with an agency and be knowledgeable about agency responsibilities, liability issues and potential benefits to the agency.
• Develop an ongoing relationship with any local volunteer center, volunteer administrators group, service agency coalitions, local community foundations, and the United Way.
• Develop an advisory group, including staff from key agencies, to help spread the word in the community and to help guide service-learning efforts.
• Conduct joint training sessions for faculty and agency staff. These really build relationships, prevent problems, and bring the concept to life.
• Routinely send some form of update or information to agencies. Share news about what's happening in service-learning and inform readers about opportunities for participation. Offer a listing of the subject or discipline areas of faculty interested in service-learning and pose this question: How can students in these fields help your organization? Include copies of news clippings, descriptions of awards won by students, testimonials from agency staff, students, or faculty, etc. This does not need to be a formal newsletter.
• Periodically contact agencies on a personal level. An occasional telephone conversation or lunch can remind busy agency staff of the college's service-learning program.
• Develop relationships with a few agencies that can provide a comprehensive array of opportunities to students. For example, our Center has become a partner with the Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind to offer possibilities to students from many different disciplines.
• Keep a database on agencies. Along with phone numbers, mail, and e-mail addresses, keep a current listing of contact persons, project possibilities for students, and actual service-learning contacts or projects with names of faculty and students involved.
• Formally recognize agency participation through certificates, reception or luncheon, etc.
• Have students send thank-you letters to agencies, with a brief description of what the student gained from the experience.
• Be willing to have fun, experiment, and learn. Keep getting better and more creative. Community agencies and organizations provide the critical service-learning environment. They also are valuable allies in promoting the value of this approach to education. Establishing and maintaining relationships with these investors is crucial to the success of a service-learning program.

Mark Homan is Chair of the Social Services Department at Pima Community College, where he has been a full-time faculty member for eighteen years. In addition to his duties at Pima, Mark has served as an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Sociology and Social Work at Northern Arizona University.

Mark is a strong advocate of service-learning, and he uses his own very active involvement in the community to contribute to its improvement and to increase his own learning. He serves on several community boards and councils and is a founding member of many community organizations and agencies, including Pima CollegeÌs Center for Service-Learning.

MarkÌs recently published textbook, Promoting Community Change: Making It Happen in the Real World, is used in colleges and universities throughout the country, as well as by public and private groups. He is the recipient of the 1994 PresidentÌs Award, given by the National Organization for Human Services Education.

		Service Partnerships: Pathway to the Scholarship of Engagement
		The Roots of Campus-Community Collaboration
		Table of Contents