Become A Partner
Getting Started | Service-Learning Overview | Community-Based Research Overview | Sample Projects | Working with Students | Questions to Consider
Getting Started
CILSA connects community partners (nonprofits and schools) with faculty and students for potential service-learning and community-based research projects.
Not sure about what service-learning means? Click here.
Want more info about community-based research (CBR)? Click here.
Let us know about your organization's interests and needs by filling out a Community Partner Potential Projects Template and e-mailing it to Beth Hampson, edh2@stmarys-ca.edu.
If you would like to learn more about how CILSA and SMC can partner with you, or have an idea for a project, please contact Beth Hampson, Community Partnerships Coordinator, at 925-631-8543 or edh2@stmarys-ca.edu.
Service-Learning Projects:
• Direct service: Student interacts directly with clients from your organization (e.g., reading to students, collecting oral histories).
• Indirect service: Service is not provided to individuals but the service benefits the community (e.g. students create marketing materials for a new program being offered by your organization).
• Advocacy: Students create an awareness of a community issue (e.g., writing letters to the editor, public speaking, attending and reporting on city council meetings).
Community-Based Research Projects:
What research question(s) does your organization need answered?
CBR projects can provide your organization with new information to enable you to:
- improve your programs
- better understand your clients
- attract new resources
- inform policy debates and better advocate for policy changes
- otherwise improve the lives of people in your community
Sample Service-Learning Projects:
- marketing and public relations (posters, signs, informational brochures)
- tutoring and mentoring (math and reading, after-school activities, ESL clients)
- drives and fund development (fundraiser design, grant research and/or writing, food drive)
- history and communication (oral histories of clients, reading to sight- impaired)
- fine arts (workshops, classes, presentations, benefit performances, craft kits)
- client services (financial literacy counseling/workshops, visits)
- science (experiments, after-school enrichment activities, science club advisors)
- health and wellness activities (nutrition workshops or educational materials, exercise classes, health fairs)
Sample Community-Based Research Projects:
- client demographics (surveys, mapping)
- needs assessments (surveys, interviews, focus groups)
- program evaluation (surveys, interviews, focus groups)
- cost-benefit analysis (impact of PR/marketing campaigns, fundraising efforts)
- policy brief (strengths and weaknesses of policy implementation and recommendations for changes)
- scientific research (lead testing in local playgrounds, etc.)
When designing service-learning and community-based research projects, think of students as…
- Students, not Volunteers: Learning is central to the students’ experience, and the service is not optional (thus it’s not volunteerism). What’s great about this?! Your organization is part of the teaching team! In this way, you are also educators.
- Temporary Employees: Students in these courses can commit up to 30 hours of service in the course of a semester (15 weeks)! Disclaimer: There’s significant variation from class to class in how much time they’re asked to give…
When thinking about or designing a project it is helpful to keep the following questions in mind:
• What is your organization’s goal or the broader community issue being addressed?
• What are the key service or research objectives for this project?
• What do you want students to learn about your organization, community assets and goals, and themselves?
• How many students will the project require? How much time will it involve (15-week semester)?
• Does this project entail using students from a particular discipline? Does it require a certain skill level?
• Who will supervise the students at the site? Who’s the staff contact person?
NOTE: Please keep in mind that there is no guarantee that a proposed project will end up meeting the needs of a faculty member/class. We will, however, do our best to find you a match!
