Service-Learning Australia

There are three clear types of service in which students can be engaged: direct service, indirect service, advocacy and research.

Direct, hands on service
Students are in direct contact with those who will benefit from the service. For example:
• reading to people in a local aged care facility
• working with people with disabilities
• tutoring younger students.

Indirect service
Students perform a service activity but do not directly contact those who will benefit. For example:
• knitting blankets for a winter appeal
• helping prepare meals for the homeless, but not directly delivering the meals.
• collecting money for the Red Shield Appeal

Advocacy
Students try to change opinions and actions. For example:
• lobbying local councilors to construct another crossing in front of the school
• performing a community drama production on a particular issue of importance to the students
• participating in an Amnesty International program.

Research
Students research attitudes. For example:
• finding out about the experiences of recent migrants to Australia
• interviewing volunteers at a community agency to find out ways in which the agency can improve their experience of volunteering.
• researching community knowledge about and attitudes to the local community radio station

Good quality service-learning programs have three or four of these types of service.  For example, students might survey the local community to find out their attitudes to the condition of the local park (research).  They might then lobby the local council to put more bins in the park (advocacy).  They could do some fundraising to buy plants for the park (indirect).  They might then clean up the park, plant some gardens, then take some elderly people from the nearby aged facility to the park and perform an outdoor concert (direct service).