Discovering the community voice: The community perspective of the service -learning program at DePaul University

This dissertation is a case study of community organizations\u27 perceptions of their involvement with the Steans Center for Community-based Service-Learning at DePaul University. For this qualitative study, forty representatives from twelve partner community organizations were asked questions about their motivations for becoming involved with a service-learning program, their perceptions of the value of their involvement, and the benefits and challenges of working with service-learning students. Their responses were used to construct a case study of one large, urban, service-learning program in higher education from the community partners\u27 perspectives. I found that while community organizations tend to become involved with the service-learning program to garner additional resources, their motivations for staying involved relate to their perceived roles as community educators. Although organizations expressed a range of challenges to working with service-learners, they also were clear that the benefits outweigh the challenges. The community organizations in this, study perceive themselves as providing important opportunities for college students to gain an experiential understanding of the knowledge and skills that they are learning in the classroom, explore career possibilities, and apply a theory of service. Most importantly, though, CBOs believe that DePaul service-learners will gain a better understanding of the realities of racial and socio-economic disparities in the U.S. through direct interactions with CBO programs and clients. Organizations also perceive value in the role models of successful college life and community service that service-learning students provide. Community organizations have developed a perception of DePaul University as an engaged institution that gives back to its urban community through their interactions with the service-learning program. The results of this study serve to expand pervious research, particularly in the understanding of community motivations for continued involvement as serving-learning partners