Many of you were unable to sign up for the Learn and Serve America Clearinghouse webinar "Increasing Community Voice in Higher Education," hosted by Barbara Holland. California Campus Compact is pleased to announce the availability of our free, downloadable executive summary of our research findings (many of which will be covered in the webinar): Community Voices: A California Campus Compact Study on Partnerships, authored by Dr. Marie Sandy.

This report is based upon work supported by the Corporation for National and Community Service under Learn and Serve America Grant No. 03LHHCA004. Opinions or points of view expressed in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the Corporation or the Learn and Serve America Program.

The research team for this project included Elaine Ikeda, Ph.D., Principle Investigator, Nadinne Cruz, M.A., Barbara Holland, Ph.D., Kathleen Rice, Ph.D., and Marie Sandy, Ph.D. The data analysis for this project was the result of the collective effort of this team, in collaboration with community partners. We are especially grateful to the service-learning directors and coordinators at the participating campuses and the 99 community partners for helping to make this project possible.

http://www.cacampuscompact.org/cacc_programs/community_campus_partnership/index.html

This report is not copyrighted. Photocopying for nonprofit educational purposes is permitted and encouraged.

If citing this document, cite as:

Sandy, M. (2007). Community voices: A California Campus Compact Study on partnerships executive summary. San Francisco: California Campus Compact.

Overview

This study grew out of a conversation among service-learning practitioners at a retreat hosted by California Campus Compact. "What do our community partners think about service-learning? We think they are benefiting, but how do we know?" This is the largest study of community partner perspectives that we are aware of in the literature.

Research Question and Structure

As recommended (Cruz & Giles, 2000), our unit of analysis was the community-campus partnership, perceived through the lens of community partner eyes. The study considers their perspectives on effective partnership characteristics as well as benefits, challenges, and motivations. Service-learning coordinators at eight California campuses self-selected a total of 99 experienced or advanced (Dorado and Giles, 2004) community partners to participate in fifteen focus groups, making it the largest study of community partners in the literature to date. A mix of urban and rural, four-year and community college, public and private, faith-based and secular, research-intensive and liberal arts institutions were included from diverse regions of California. Participants were primarily staff members from non-profit organizations and public institutions, such as K-12 institutions, libraries and hospitals. The ethic of reciprocity (Sandy, 2007) informed the research model of this qualitative study. This resulted in a two-tiered approach that included: 1) designing eight campus reports with information particular to each participating campus, and 2) synthesizing findings from all sites to inform service-learning practitioners and researchers more broadly.

http://www.cacampuscompact.org/cacc_programs/community_campus_partnership/index.html