Re: Service and learning

Thank you, Dr. Golden, for your thoughts... I find your "power theory" is
quite accurate in many respects.  One generic example is that many of the
organizations to help children are run by adults.  The children are never
invited to action on their own behalf.  Granted, there are some in any given
demographic that may be unable to meet their own needs, but those that can
should be invited to do so.  Who else would be a better advocate for an
adolescent in need than an adolescent whose needs have been met? It seems
that one of the goals of service learning, although not applicable in all
situations, would also be to serve in a way that those being served are
enabled and invited to serve.

Perhaps a "board of directors" type approach (composed of those within and
without the community) to service learning might help to give a proper forum
as well as proper accountability for those involved.  Sometimes outside
accountability helps to keep some of the messiness in check insuring that
all parties are participating in a win-win situation, and no one is using or
being used.  Perhaps a board of directors could also include those who are
"in need" (adolescents, low-income, minority, elderly, etc...a good mix of
diverse people in the community would be a better way to say this, rather
than labeling a given demographic as "in need", but this is for the sake of
making the point that those who might be served should be included in how
they might be served and in how they might serve others).

Also, long-term partnerships between community organizations and educational
organizations could be made, creating a sort of synergy that includes and
yet is greater than any one instructor, student, etc... so that something
larger is built in the community and in the school rather than just a class
project for a semester.  Logistically, this might be tough to pull off.
However, having said that, let me also say that I agree that authentic
relationships are the backbone of any organizational relationship,
especially in service and education.  For these individual relationships to
have impact on and among various organizations, there must be a sense of
diverse oneness multiplying into the community.  That is to say, that the
oneness fostered in authentic relationships among diverse individuals needs
to be multiplied through the organizations into the community to which these
organizations belong.  The relationships among these individuals give
credibility to the relationships between the organizations themselves.
Perhaps there is a way to raise up people (students and professors) at the
universities who are willing to be involved with a few community
organizations (and the people within those organizations) over a long period
of time to foster the deepness and authenticity necessary to develop vision,
to struggle well with complex social issues, and to serve with an
others-centered mentality.  These type of long-term authentic relationships
in which there is a commitment to pretend about nothing, to expose each
other's mess (individual and organizational... e.g., ways that we maintain
our own power at the expense of others), and to entice each other to a
larger others-centered vision seem like the only way to build a community of
long-term/ lifetime service-learners.  Without this type of vested
relational equity (in it together for the long haul), it seems impossible
(or at least inefficient) to multiply the number of servant-leaders, and
therefore, the number of needs being met, in a given community. I'm
pondering and processing exactly what this might look like, but, they are
issues worth contemplating and wrestling with in order to move in a better
direction.

-Jennifer Clifton

----- Original Message -----
From: "Michelle Golden, Ph.D." <golden@csusb.edu>
To: <service-learning@csf.colorado.edu>
Cc: <mbgolden@mindspring.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 16, 2002 3:53 PM
Subject: Re: Service and learning


> Hi all,
>
> I've been reading the discussion on service and learning with
> interest. I appreciate Betsy's comment about *ongoing* reflection,
> and also Larry, Andrae, and Jill's comments about community-
> identified projects. Oh, and my email program cut off Jill's email
> right at that point, so if any of my comments/questions below are
> redundant, I do apologize.
>
> I am posting with some thoughts and questions about the meaning of
> "community-identified" (note: perhaps someone else can speak more
> directly to the limitations of thinking only in terms of "need"? --
> that is also crucial).
>
> From the perspective of university-based service-learning, it seems
> that any substantial involvement from "the community" in shaping SL
> projects is an improvement over what can happen without attention to
> this element of SL -- e.g., the image of faculty and/or non-community
> students deciding what is best to do and then imposing it on non-
> university communities.
>
> But underneath that layer, things can get complicated.
>
> First and foremost, I think that we (whether approaching this from
> the CBO side or the university side) have to be honest with ourselves
> and each other that there are often unquestioned levels at which the
> university sets the terms of engagement in most approaches to service-
> learning. One major example is timeframes -- how often to we think
> about duration of service-learning processes first in terms of
> community? More often, university semesters or quarters or other
> timeframes (eg "days") are our starting point. This may in some cases
> be unavoidable; I mention it just to bring it to visibility as
> something that we should acknowledge and grapple with where it
> occurs.
>
> Beyond this basic layer of university and community, the question
> emerges: who speaks for "the community"? It seems to me that there
> are several more layers to this (at least). First and most obviously,
> if university faculty and staff look to staff members in non-profit
> organizations for guidance, it would be useful to be thoughtful about
> how those organizations are structured. It is absolutely possible
> (and often more "efficient" and fundable) for non-profit
> organizations to operate without real decision-making participation
> from the groups and communities they purport to serve. This may be
> especially complex in direct service -- organizations can have a lot
> of "clients" because the need is great; the presence of clients
> offers a community-based *appearance* but in some contexts may not
> translate to who makes decisions about what the community does or
> does not want or need.
>
> Then there is the question of quality control on the university side.
> I have, for example, seen a university program that claims to be
> connected with local low income communities of color, but is actually
> just projecting this image while using the community to build a
> little empire consisting of the university and local institutions
> (which are in "the community" but not at all run by "the community").
> In the process, communities that have been used and used and used are
> being used yet again, while university representatives are publicly
> lauded for their "good work."
>
> It is absolutely crucial for us to name community identification of
> goals and needs as essential in service-learning. But now that this
> language is out there in the world, and especially where there is
> funding or awards or other status markers associated with this work,
> I think we also need to dig below the surface, because these words
> can lend themselves to misuse. Again -- who represents "the
> community," who speaks for and about "the community" and who in the
> service-learning field (funders included) is actually paying
> attention to whether claims of community connection, voice, and
> "benefit" are actually true from the community side of things?
>
> And the final issue/question that I would pose is one that I am
> struggling with most directly in my own work right now. The word
> "community" (in service-learning contexts and also in some non-
> profits) often functions as a euphemism for low-income communities of
> color. It is absolutely crucial to look at race and class as lines
> along which power is unjustly distributed, and thus to focus on
> decision-making structures and processes and projects that challenge
> racism and classism. At the same time, are these the only lines along
> which power is unjustly distributed? Consider, as a hypothetical
> example, a program that includes and serves young men and some young
> women from poor African American and Latino/a neighborhoods, but is
> formally and informally male-led and male-centered, and is also
> structurally headed/supervised by an adult.
>
> How do we account for and address power dynamics including but not
> limited to race and class (in the above example, gender and age also
> seem relevant) in decision-making processes about community goals
> and/or needs? I think that it is important for anyone doing community
> work and SL to really look at the theories about power that underlie
> our approach to being "community-based." These theories (whether we
> call them that or something else) often guide not only our
> assumptions about authentic "community" but our goals and practice as
> well. I thank any community project will be partial, in terms of what
> issues it can address and try to change. So I think it is useful for
> all of us to make visible our underlying assumptions so that we know
> more about what it is we're doing.
>
> It seems to me that these are all extremely difficult questions with
> which to struggle,
> and that this is an inherently messy and always incomplete process (I
> don't think we
> will find easy ways to deal with multiple power dynamics in decision-
> making
> processes, for example). This is where authentic relationship-
> building seems to
> emerge as crucial. Are there contexts in which we can trust each
> other enough to
> struggle deeply and authentically with all of these complexities and
> if so, what is
> necessary to create and utilize them?
>
> Or maybe there are other questions that are more relevant or useful.
> In any case, I'd
> be interested to hear if and how other people have been struggling
> with and
> addressing these kinds of messy issues and questions.
>
> I am not sending this post as someone who has figured any of this out
> in any sort of conclusive way. Far from it!! I am most certainly
> learning as I go.
>
> Best,
> Michelle
>