For really effective service to occur, students need to first know themselves, recognize their strengths and assets and believe they can make a difference: they identify their “talents”.  They must also see their community as a positive place: they identify community “treasures” - this may be the school community or their local community.  For example: students at a school that is traditionally strong at sport might identify among their talents a high level of sporting ability and among their treasures good sporting facilities.  They might decide to use these talents and treasures to plan and conduct a “Paralympics Day” for students with special needs who attend a nearby school.  This day could be open to the public, with attendees paying an entrance fee which would be donated to a local centre for people with disabilities.  Teachers would use aspects of this project to achieve curriculum outcomes and to encourage intellectual enquiry and reflection: service-learning.

Jody Kretzmann and John McKnight, who have worked extensively in the field of Asset Based Community Development (ABCD), state that: “every living person has some gift or capacity that is of value to others. A strong community is a place that recognises those gifts and ensures that they are given. A weak community is a place where many people cannot give their gifts or express their capacities.”