Applying Public Relations Theory to Assess Service-Learning Relationships

In Service-Learning (S-L) partnerships, universities and community organizations exchange resources and influence. Community engagement scholars Cruz and Giles proposed that relationships within S-L partnerships serve as units of analysis for the study of community outcomes of engagement. Yet, the scholarship of engagement lacks a suitable instrument to assess such relationships. This study brings together two lines of scholarship-relationship studies within community engagement and cocreational studies within public relations-to address the problem of assessing the community outcomes of S-L relationships, and it applies Cruz and Giles\u27 ideas about using relationship analysis to assess community outcomes when it considers the perspectives of representatives of nonprofit organizations relative to their relationships with S-L students. Specifically, this qualitative study applies public relations theory to the problem of assessing project-based S-L relationships