Provide clear learning outcomes, steps, and parameters for the project in the syllabus. Include: type of project, number of hours students are expected to spend on the project, expectations for final product, etc.
Consider providing an essential and/or guiding question to help narrow student focus.
Create a script or handout about the project that students can take to a Community Partner. This will help everyone understand the project expectations, and set students and Community Partners up for success.
Use the Faculty/CP Outreach Checklist (attached) to stay on track.
Negotiate the scope. Consider constraining the size of the project as much as possible. Scoping community projects can be overwhelming and intimidating, so having each student do the same type of project, such as a blog, video, or speech, will help scope the project.
Reach out to Community Partners ahead of time and begin building a relationship. Meet for coffee throughout the year to keep the relationship strong and maintain your understanding of the Partner's ongoing needs.
Help students find a good fit. Students could ask themselves the following four questions: do they genuinely want me, will it meet my goals, do I have the knowledge, skills, and technology to complete this successfully, and will my work environment be safe?
Do no harm. Take care to “do no harm.” The community and the clientele are not a teaching or research laboratory. The notion of community as laboratory assumes a false hierarchy of power and perpetuates an attitude of institutional superiority. Basic goals of service-learning include community development and empowerment. For these goals to be realized, faculty and community must be equal, collaborative partners.
Stay in touch with Community Partner throughout. Encourage students to share drafts of projects with CPs so they can receive and incorporate feedback. This will help mitigate the Partner's concern about a final product that does not represent them well.
Give the CP veto power. If the students create a final product the Community Partner is not happy with, allow an open and frank conversation between the partner and students. Perhaps a solution is allowing the students to share in class, but not with a wider audience.
Share with students the attached handout on Interacting with Community Partners.
Discuss students' responsibility when representing another person or group
Communicate clearly with Community Partners and make sure they feel they are being represented accurately
Emphasize working WITH a community in a partnership rather than providing "noble" service
Discuss topics like protecting others' privacy when publishing information, setting clear boundaries and expectations, etc.
Encourage students to follow up with Community Partners and contributors or interviewees to make sure students have represented their words fairly and in the way that they intended
Encourage students to:
Keep the focus of their project local.
Be specific so they can propose a message about actual change.
Think about how their message will lift people up as opposed to sealing people off.
Base their project on research from appropriate sources.
Explore not just their argument, but also any counter arguments around the issue they choose.
SL staff help connect faculty with community agencies, and often facilitate matches between course learning objectives and community needs. If you need help finding community partners, please contact KaraBrascia@boisestate.edu or call 208-426-2380.