Assessing the Community Partner in Academic Service-Learning: A Strategy for Capacity-Building

Service-learning is an instructional method used by an ever-increasing number of schools in the academic community. This paper is concerned with surveys that have been created to assess the views of community partners who host service- learning students. We describe surveys of community partners found on the websites of 92 Campus Compact members. Eight themes emerged from analysis of survey items: Agency Voice, Agency Resources, Students' Work Skills, Students' Service Skills, Agency Benefi t, Communication and Coordination with University Service- Learning, Sustainability of Partnership, and Satisfaction with the Service-Learning Experience. The theme of Community-University Partnership established in extant literature was absent from the online surveys, so this theme was added to the survey themes. In addition, a critical analysis of current community partner assessment practices is offered with suggestions for improvement. Community partners are accessible resources that have the potential to transform institutions of higher education and their respective communities into a productive symbiosis. Yet scholarship concerning community partners is limited (Bortolin, 2011; Cruz & Giles, 2000), especially as compared to the scholarship about service-learning impacts on students' grades, civic engagement, or personal development (Bernacki & Bernt, 2007; Eyler & Giles, 1999: Mabry, 1998; Steinke & Buresh, 2002). "We know little about how service learning affects communities" (Stoecker & Tryon, 2009, p. 7). The present research attempts to help fi ll that gap by assessing available survey instruments that have been used by Campus Compact member institutions with their community partners. Community partners can have several different motives for working with service learning programs. Bell and Carlson (2009) list four motives for community organizations endeavoring to work with service learners: The altruistic motive to educate the service learner, the long-term motive for the sector and organization, the capacity-building motive, and the higher education relationship motive. The third motive, capacity building, can be developed when organizations use students for outreach activities such as to "promote the organization's image in the broader community" (p. 29); work on pre-established programs, campaigns or events; and work on projects that the organization does not have skills or capacity to accomplish. Community partners have myriad roles and responsibilities when engaging with an instructor and students on an outreach activity. In their role as co-educators, community partners might implement any or all of the following: Providing projects that are meaningful and benefi cial for students; discussing the mission, goals, objectives, policies, and guidelines of the organization with the instructor and students; providing training, supervision, and resources; communicating challenges to the instructor when needed (e.g., negative student behavior, attendance or productivity); and providing feedback about the service-learning experience when the project is completed, usually at