The service-learning movement integrates community service with meaningful instruction and learning. One of the most rewarding aspects of service learning is the good feeling participants get from giving back to their communities at large, and a key way to give back is through improving community health and safety. This book explains the core principles of service learning and how to translate these values into programs that focus on public health and safety. Both domestic and international initiatives are discussed, and simple steps are laid out to encourage readers to get involved—both in their own backyards and across borders.
Because protecting environmental resources has become an issue of scientific, political, and historical import, service-learning projects that serve the planet have become an important part of a wide range of curricula. Students will find a wealth of opportunities both at home and abroad that will directly impact the Earth’s wildlife, aquatic health, and natural resources. This engaging volume surveys the various projects available to students interested in using service learning to find solutions to local and global environmental issues. Readers also learn how to tie projects to coursework and apply their skills to future pursuits.
Loads of learning takes place in the classroom, but it is by no means the only place for students to gain knowledge and experience. This innovative resource introduces service learning and why it can be such a helpful tool for students, the elderly, and the larger community. Successful service learning projects are described throughout the book, which highlight how they work as well as the benefits of getting to know the often overlooked senior population within our communities. Forthright discussions of the challenges and benefits highlight why service-learning projects can be a satisfying, fun, and memorable way to learn.
Anyone who has seen the hungry or homeless on city streets or in rural areas is likely to be touched by the hardship they see. A growing number of schools are incorporating service learning into their curriculum. These programs heighten the students’ sense of community and engage them with a sense of service and civic responsibility. Readers of this book will learn about ways that service learning can help people suffering from hunger and homelessness. The detailed examples provided provide excellent starting points for an individual’s or a school’s exploration into service learning.
Showing students the human side of immigration debates, service-learning opportunities with immigrant and migrant communities can offer an enormously rewarding experience to participants. In addition to enhancing discussions on immigration that can take place in history, social studies, language, political science, economics, or other classes, these opportunities give students a chance to directly affect the lives of those who often find themselves on the periphery of society. This volume examines the various service-learning projects available to those who wish to positively impact immigrant and migrant communities and guides readers through the process of successfully executing a service-learning project.
Veterans and military families have a wealth of stories and history to offer students and certain needs that can be filled by energetic, engaged, and caring young people. This type of service learning helps students put their history and social studies education into context. This book presents service learning with many examples of how students can use it to get to know and learn from local veterans while also giving back to them and providing assistance to a segment of the population that has served our national interests and now requires our assistance and support.
Students who wish to participate in service learning projects will find this book full of real-life examples and first-hand information about what service learning is, what is expected of them throughout the experience, and what they should expect to get out of it. They will also see beyond the educational and resume-enhancing benefits of a service learning project to recognize the often life-changing impact it can have on all involved.
Community-engaged scholarship is an equitable and democratic approach to scholarship that seeks to identify and solve community-based problems. Community-engaged scholars aim to serve the public good by developing and sustaining community-campus partnerships built on trust, reciprocity, and mutual benefit. As universities orient themselves towards serving the public good, they face a number of challenges: faculty and students may not possess the competencies or commitment to build fruitful community partnerships, graduate and undergraduate students may lack the necessary training and mentorship required to develop their identity as community-engaged scholars, and institutional leaders may not know how to motivate faculty and students for this ambitious and challenging endeavor. Unless these challenges are addressed, universities will fail to prepare the next generation of community-engaged scholars. Preparing Students for Community-Engaged Scholarship in Higher Education is an essential research book that explores how faculty and academic leaders can create learning opportunities and intellectual cultures that support the development of community-engaged scholars. Additionally, it will examine how university coursework can help undergraduate and graduate students to develop the knowledge, skills, and commitments necessary for productive and responsible community-engaged scholarship. Featuring a range of topics such as mentorship, higher education, and service learning, this book is ideal for higher education faculty, university leaders, deans, chairs, educators, administrators, policymakers, curriculum designers, academicians, researchers, and students.
How do communities protect and improve the health of their populations? Health care is part of the answer but so are environmental protections, social and educational services, adequate nutrition, and a host of other activities. With concern over funding constraints, making sure such activities are efficient and effective is becoming a high priority. Improving Health in the Community explains how population-based performance monitoring programs can help communities point their efforts in the right direction. Within a broad definition of community health, the committee addresses factors surrounding the implementation of performance monitoring and explores the "why" and "how to" of establishing mechanisms to monitor the performance of those who can influence community health. The book offers a policy framework, applies a multidimensional model of the determinants of health, and provides sets of prototype performance indicators for specific health issues. Improving Health in the Community presents an attainable vision of a process that can achieve community-wide health benefits.
This book is the first to discuss, in practical and theoretical terms, the pedagogical approach of service-learning to establish partnerships for social good that build disaster resilience. Across 12 chapters a collection of academics and practitioners provide insights on the benefits of utilizing service-learning to address existing needs, build community capacity, and strengthen social networks while enhancing student learning. Key features: Discuss how sustainable service-learning partnerships can contribute to building disaster-resilient communities; Provide practical tools to cultivate and manage collaborative partnerships, and engage in reflective practices; Integrate disciplines to create innovative approaches to complex problems; Share best practices, lessons learned, and case examples that identify strategies for integrating service-learning and research into course design; Offer considerations for ethical decision-making and for the development of equitable solutions when engaging with stakeholders; Identify strategies to bridge the gap between academia and practice while highlighting resources that institutions of higher education can contribute toward disaster preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation. Service-Learning for Disaster Resilience will serve as a user-friendly guide for universities, local government agencies, emergency management professionals, community leaders, and grassroots initiatives in affected communities.
