Service-Learning Australia

Standard.
Service-learning partnerships are collaborative, mutually beneficial, and address community needs.

Indicators.
Service-learning partners:

• Are varied, including youth, educators, families, community members, community-based organizations, and/or businesses.
• Have frequent and regular communication to keep all partners well-informed about activities and progress.
• Collaborate to establish a shared vision and set common goals to address community needs.
• Collaboratively develop and implement action plans to meet specified goals.
• Share knowledge and understanding of school and community assets and needs and view each other as valued resources.

Sample supporting research.

Wade (1997) showed that strong service-learning partnerships yielded strong outcomes for teachers, youth, and community members in the form of skill and resource acquisition, meeting genuine community needs, and widening partners’ understanding of each other and community issues. Reciprocal partnerships were identified as critical success factors in institutionalizing service-learning practice by Ammon, Furco, Chi, and Middaugh (2002), Billig (2002b), and Bailis (2000).Bailis concluded that the most benefit would be derived in a partnership that was long-term, well-designed, and mutually beneficial, characterized by collaborative communication and interaction between the stakeholders and using efficient leveraging of community assets.