Service-Learning Statement
In my own professional work, service-learning is defined as programs which involve social justice activities, apply classroom theory to the service activities, and actively examining how well the two "fit." The goal is to train new professionals while at the same time providing community participants with sufficient knowledge and skills that they can address their own problems. These new professionals will find themselves in increasingly global contexts. Therefore, the service-learning activities link partners in the US and in South Africa so that the work includes voices from both worlds.
Social Action Project Community Psych Advanced Lab
Nonexperimental Methods
The SOCACT is an international service-learning project with interventions in South Bend, IN; Benton Harbor, MI; and Durban, South Africa. The project conducts community-based action research in collaboration with our community partners to address issues of social justice.
Student team members are required to design and implement original research to examine the ways people cope with toxic environments (efficacy theory). The components of the SOCACT are Youth Community Theater, Poetry am, and Alienation and Homosexuality. Students involved with SOCACT make an 18-month commitment. There are no requirements regarding hours per week, but rather they work within the rhythms of the population and the setting. At the appropriate time, team members present their findings at professional conferences and to the community population with which they are working. These reports are in written and oral form, depending on the setting and the population. Team members are co-authors on several articles and book chapters published regarding SOCACT's work.
a study of the impact on recovery of designing t-shirts for victims of sexual assault;Students must design and implement original research in collaboration with community agencies. Students work with the agencies to define the problem, negotiate access to participants and agency information, conduct the study, and present the findings in oral and written form. Over the years, some of the studies have been:
an examination of a teenage suicide prevention program implemented in the local schools;
an examination of the assessment procedures for children with disabilities in
school settings;
a study of the impact of laughter on the elderly dealing with depression;
an evaluation of service delivery in a residential treatment center for the
elderly;
a study of sense of community among women at a day center; a network analysis
of the local lesbian, gay, and transgendered (LBGT) community;
an examination of teacher attitudes and child accomplishment in a Head Start
program;
a study of the roots of recidivism rates for adolescents in a juvenile
detention center.
Students learn the methodologies by working with materials from local community organizations such as a day center for disadvantaged women, the campus office in charge of diversity issues, a child rights advocacy group. Each team in the class must develop an assignment based on the organization's materials. The outcomes are then shared with the organization for use at their discretion.