Information General Information Service Learning assignments provide an opportunity for students to gain understanding important to assessment and to learn more about themselves. Areas of learning include child development, family dynamics, poverty, issues of opportunity, access to resources and power, issues of diversity, and other variables affecting both the individual and society. Social work values of service and human worth are reinforced.
Students have the opportunity to assess professional commitment to social service.
Service Learning Experience Participating agencies know of the social work program's desire for community service to consist primarily of direct contact with people seeking services. There may be times, however, when you are asked to contribute in indirect ways. Students should use these activities as opportunities to learn about the agency or program structure, to think about policies and how they are applied to services, and to gain understanding into the ways clients are affected by activities that occur apart from their personal experience with the agency. In other words, if you are asked to do some type of support work, seek to learn from the experience and think about the impact on clients. However, activities other than direct contact with people should be the exception rather than the rule.