Below, you can find a list of community organizations that may have opportunities that instructors and students can use to engage in service-learning.
These organizations have hosted service-learning students in the past, have existing volunteer programs, and have established risk management support for volunteers.
Tips for Reaching Out
Be prepared: Students should review the guidelines for engaging in Student-Initiated Projects and instructors should familiarize themselves with best practices and prerequisites for working with community partners.
Communicate Clearly and Succinctly: Community partners have lots of competing priorities. Clearly and succinctly introduce who you are, what you are asking for, and what a community partner will need to do to support your proposal.
Research and Utilize Existing Opportunities: Community partners are more able to support your service if it falls within an existing volunteer opportunity. Serving in established opportunities is less taxing on the community partner and can challenge you to make educational connections independently.
If your service falls outside an existing opportunity, have a clear proposal prepared: Everything costs something, whether it’s time, attention, or effort. Community partners are more willing to support service-learning if the investment to facilitate it is limited. Keep the focus on the service by preparing as much as you can.
Embrace Service to Embrace Learning: Community partners are the experts in their missions. Service is an excellent opportunity to learn from that expertise. Embracing the service, whether you understand or agree with the approach or not, will afford you more in-depth learning.