Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning What Influences the Long-term Sustainability of Service-learning? Lessons from Early Adopters Community-campus Partnerships for Health Community-campus Partnerships for Health

As service-learning is adopted by growing numbers of higher education institutions, there is increasing interest in understanding the factors necessary to sustain service-learning for the long-term. Institutions that were early adopters of service-learning may offer important insights into what factors influence long-term sustainability. With this aim in mind, we conducted a retrospective, qualitative study of the ten-year sustainability of service-learning among a cohort of sixteen colleges and universities that participated in a national demonstration program of service-learning from 1995 to 1998. We assessed the extent to which service-learning was sustained at each institution, and explored the factors that influenced sustainability , including facilitators, challenges, and strategies for success. In recent years, there have been increasing investments in service-learning by academic institutions, community partners, and funding agencies. The growing number of students participating in service-learning, the popularity of the Carnegie Foundation's Community Engagement Classification, and unprecedented federal support for service-learning through the 2009 Serve America Act all signify that these investments will likely continue to grow. As a result, it is critical to understand the factors necessary to sustain service-learning for the long-term. Sustainability is important to the efficiency, quality , and impact of service-learning. It ensures that front-loaded investments—including developing community-academic partnerships, incorporating service-learning into the curriculum, and training faculty and staff in skills for service-learning—are not unnecessarily replicated. It prevents challenges that may be caused by interruptions in service-learning , including reductions in services or programs among community partners that have come to rely upon student and faculty participation and reduced willingness among community partners to participate in community-academic partnerships (Shediac-Rizkallah & Bone, 1998). Moreover, long-term commitment and participation Fall 2010, pp. 59-76 59 may be required to achieve some of the most ambitious goals of service-learning, such as shifting the culture of academic institutions toward greater civic engagement, generating community-engaged scholarship , enhancing mutual understanding among academic institutions and communities, and building the capacity of academic and community partners to address community needs and work for social justice A small but rich body of empirical research has documented many factors contributing to the sustainability of service-learning in higher education (Bell From this body of literature , three groups of factors have emerged as key sources of support for institutionalization. The first of these is institutional characteristics and policies, including the centrality of service to an institution's mission (Gelmon et al., 1998; Holland) and recognition for service-learning (Holland; Prentice), …