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Page 1: Engaging Students in Macro Issues Through Community-Based Learning

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Journal of Teaching in SocialWorkPublication details, including instructions forauthors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/wtsw20

Engaging Students in MacroIssues Through Community-Based LearningPaul Sather MSW, ABD a , Barbara Weitz MPA, MSW,ABD b & Patricia Carlson MSW, ABD ba School of Social Work, University of Nebraska ,Omaha, USAb School of Social Work , University of Nebraska ,Omaha, USAPublished online: 08 Sep 2008.

To cite this article: Paul Sather MSW, ABD , Barbara Weitz MPA, MSW, ABD & PatriciaCarlson MSW, ABD (2007) Engaging Students in Macro Issues Through Community-Based Learning, Journal of Teaching in Social Work, 27:3-4, 61-79, DOI: 10.1300/J067v27n03_05

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Engaging Students in Macro IssuesThrough Community-Based Learning:

The Policy, Practice,and Research Sequence

Paul SatherBarbara Weitz

Patricia Carlson

ABSTRACT. This paper describes the revision of a curriculum that wasinitiated to engage and sustain students’ interest in the macro dimensionof social work practice. Specifically, we describe how two junior policycourses, a senior macro practice course, and a research methods course wererevised to include a service learning approach. This article provides a re-view of the literature and focuses on the development of service learningin two social work courses. Results of subsequent research are discus-sed, indicating service learning provides successful opportunities to en-gage students in macro social work practice. doi:10.1300/J067v27n03_05[Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Ser-vice: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: <[email protected]>Website: <http://www.HaworthPress.com> © 2007 by The Haworth Press, Inc.All rights reserved.]

KEYWORDS. Curriculum, service learning, macro practice

Paul Sather, MSW, ABD, is Associate Director of the School of Social Work, Uni-versity of Nebraska, Omaha (E-mail: [email protected]).

Barbara Weitz (E-mail: [email protected]), MPA, MSW, ABD, andPatricia Carlson (E-mail: [email protected]), MSW, ABD, are affiliated withthe School of Social Work, University of Nebraska, Omaha.

Journal of Teaching in Social Work, Vol. 27(3/4) 2007Available online at http://jtsw.haworthpress.com

© 2007 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.doi:10.1300/J067v27n03_05 61

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INTRODUCTION

In theory, completion of an education in social work produces a socialwork practitioner who understands how social work research, social wel-fare policy, and social work practice are interrelated. This notion is thefocus of attention on vertical and horizontal integration that guides theCouncil on Social Work Education’s evaluation of social work curric-ula, and is the essence of what it means to be a generalist practitioner. Yet,is this desired synthesis of the core elements of generalist practice morean assumption than an actual programmatic outcome?

The research suggests that this consolidation of the core componentsof social work education by social work students is far from a certainty.A number of authors (Black, Jeffreys, & Harley, 1993; Midgley, 1993;Mosca, 1998; Rompf & Royce, 1994) note that while students are ofteneager to acquire the skills necessary for the direct practice dimension ofgeneralist practice, they are less enthusiastic about the curriculum com-ponents dedicated to social welfare policy analysis, macro practice, andresearch. Kasper and Wiegand (1999) highlight the reluctance of socialwork students to embrace macro content in the curriculum and, also, thelimitations of existing teaching methodologies utilized to acquaint stu-dents with the theory and skill base of macro social work practice. Gilbertand Terrell (2002) express concerns that the knowledge base for socialwelfare policy is often fragmented and does not offer the immediacyand realities of day-to-day social work practice.

These findings mirror the experience of the authors. Students in re-search, macro practice, and policy courses often have indicated to theauthors that they were failing to make connections between research, pol-icy, and practice. These gaps in students’ learning were also reflected incourse evaluations. In exit surveys, graduating students typically rankedpolicy, macro practice, and research courses among the “least valuable”of their educational experiences.

In an effort to respond to these less than ideal programmatic outcomes,a service learning approach was incorporated into two junior level pol-icy courses, a senior level macro practice course, and a senior level re-search methods course. This article provides a review of the literatureand focuses on the development of service learning in two social workcourses. After integrating service learning projects in two courses, anevaluation was done with the students, the faculty, the university, and thecommunity agency. Results are discussed, indicating service learning pro-vides successful opportunities to engage students work at the macro level.

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LITERATURE REVIEW

Service learning is an innovative teaching modality which seeks tointegrate students’ learning in the classroom, with a practical applica-tion of community service. The definition of service learning we use inour program, as adopted by the Service Learning Academy at the Uni-versity of Nebraska at Omaha, states:

Service learning integrates community service with academic study.Typically, professors design service-learning projects in partner-ship with representatives of community organizations, planningactivities that will meet genuine needs in the community and advancethe students understanding of course content. In the communitysetting, students work under the supervision of community agencystaff; on campus, they reflect on that experience, considering its re-lationship to their reading and research as well as its impact on theirpersonal values and professional goals.

Our experiences with courses already conducted using a service learn-ing model confirmed Guarasci’s (1997) observation that service learningengages students in: experiential, active, and collaborative learning; in-tensive writing and reading; ethical and value-centered education; peerlearning; and integration of the community as a laboratory. This activelearning approach tests students’ knowledge and skills of community-based practice and creates an environment for developing greater socialawareness, civic responsibility, and a service identity (Bok, 1990; Boyer,1990; Elliott, 1994; Greiner, 1994; Kezar, 2002).

Educators and practitioners agree that students completing an under-graduate degree in social work should be able to intervene strategicallywith individual clients as well as competently assess social problems inthe larger community and collaborate with others to respond to them.Thus, social work education offers an excellent opportunity to integrateservice learning and community-based learning into a curriculum.

The research of Kasper and Wiegand (1999) not only highlights thereluctance of social work students to embrace macro content in the cur-riculum, but also notes the limitations of existing teaching methodolo-gies utilized to acquaint students with the theory and skill base of macrosocial work practice. As Iacono-Harris and Nuccio (1987) state, “the taskthen, is to challenge students to stretch their notions of social work so thatthey begin to think, feel and practice the integrated model” (p. 80). Theresearch of Koerin, Reeves, and Rosenbloom (2000) also suggests that

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real macro practice opportunities are a rarity in the student’s practicumexperience.

However, as the following examples illustrate, engaging and sustain-ing students’ interest in the policy dimension of social work has provento be a difficult task for social work educators. In the latest edition oftheir policy textbook, Gilbert and Terrell (2002) acknowledge this quan-dary by continuing the refrain that the knowledge base in the field of so-cial welfare policy is “fragmented and less than immediately related tothe realities of day-to-day social work” (p. 1). Jansson (1999) concursand advocates that students learn the skills of policy practice and advo-cacy. Service-learning offers opportunities to teach the students the tasksof setting agendas, analyzing problems, making proposals, enacting pol-icy, implementing policy, and assessing policy while performing a muchneeded service in our communities.

In response to this teaching challenge, several social work educatorshave developed models to link particular courses in the macro sequenceand include a more active learning approach in the teaching of thesecourses. Social work programs are increasingly developing educationaltechniques that use active learning methods to teach policy practice, so-cial action, and community practice. Adaptations to the way policy courseswere traditionally taught led to the following developments.

An advanced policy course developed by Johnson (1994) integratedsignificant content on task force approaches to responding to social prob-lems. Students in this course function as a task force examining the scopeof an existing social problem in the community, and, ultimately, sharingfindings and recommendations in a final report to the public. Johnsonnotes that “Students have viewed the course as an excellent learning ex-perience. Typically they have felt that they learned important policy-practice skills and gained the confidence to get involved in communitygroups” (p. 346).

A model for linking research and policy content is proposed by Mosca(1998) who introduced students to a particular model of community-based treatment of the chronically mentally ill. Research results com-pared the treatment outcomes of this approach to other approaches andthen analyzed current local and national policy development regardingthe chronically mentally ill.

Perhaps Rocha (2000) provides the most comprehensive overviewof the current status of policy practice in her survey of over 100 MSWgraduates. She assessed three issues: (1) how graduates value the impor-tance of policy-related tasks; (2) perceptions of competency to performselected policy-related tasks; and (3) actual political activity levels.

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Rocha compared recent graduates who had community-based experien-tial learning opportunities to those who were educated in more traditionalclassroom environments. Results indicated that students with experien-tial learning not only felt more competent to do policy-related activities,they actually transformed their skills into action.

These approaches present interesting and valuable prototypes for en-gaging students more actively in the policy arena of social work. How-ever, they do not address the issue of integrating research and practice inthe undergraduate curriculum.

PROCESS OF DEVELOPING SERVICELEARNING PROJECTS

The work of integrating research, policy and practice courses throughthe use of service learning components in the social work curriculum isat the heart of our process. Our program had previously received posi-tive feedback in incorporating service learning in two courses–Intro-duction to Social Work and Social Welfare and Social Work Practice III(macro practice). The positive feedback from students, faculty, and agen-cies involved in these early experiences led us to consider a more de-liberate effort to coordinate the use of service learning throughout theundergraduate curriculum. Our experience seems to support the litera-ture which indicates that service learning has the potential to addressseveral faculty concerns such as: students lack of interest in macro prac-tice, research and policy, the concern that students tended to tolerate ratherthan integrate content for use in their practice, and a need to offer moreopportunities for experience with diverse populations to a predomi-nantly white, female student body.

The impetus occurred during a retreat as the faculty reviewed the syl-labi and content of the undergraduate social work sequence and decided toadd service learning in the junior undergraduate policy sequence and thesenior research course, opening the possibility of collaboration with themacro practice course taken the same semester.

COURSE PLANNING

The undergraduate faculty reviewed the content of the research andmacro practice course to determine the possibility of developing a jointservice learning assignment. These two courses, three credit hours each,taught in the fall semester of the senior year, have the same students and

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are scheduled back to back on the same day of the week. A listof learning objectives and/or skills was developed for each course (seeAppendix A for an example), which could be shared with an agency todetermine if projects could be created which involved the use of theseskills and would meet the learning objectives for the two courses.

A letter was sent to non-profit agencies in targeted communities (un-derserved vulnerable populations, in this case a largely African-Americancommunity in the northeast part of the city) describing service learningand inviting those interested to respond. A meeting was held with eachagency to answer questions and learn about the needs they identified forservice learning work. Faculty reviewed the results of these meetingsand selected an agency. The selection was based on the fit between theneeds identified by the agency and the learning objectives for the twocourses. The hope was to work with agencies addressing a critical socialproblem–requiring students to learn about the social policies involved,the community context, issues of diverse populations and the operationof the agency. The social work program is able to commit to workingwith the agency for the academic year as the undergraduate courses inthe fall could “hand off” the projects to a foundation graduate class inthe spring. This paper will use the agency and projects from a prior aca-demic year as an example.

COMMUNITY PARTNER

In 2001-2002, the agency selected was Family Housing Advisory Servi-ces, an agency with the breadth of mission and the staff capacity to incorpo-rate students into meaningful service efforts. Family Housing AdvisoryServices provides a comprehensive range of services to clients includ-ing management of a database of client services provided to the home-less, home search services, case advocacy services for housing choicevoucher participants, a neighborhood revitalization project, and the ad-ministration of a fair housing center, to name a few. In addition, 51% ofthe clients served by the agency are members of minority groups and80% of the clients have household incomes of under $20,000, permittingstudents to grasp the particularly harsh relationship of poverty, race, andlack of safe, affordable housing options. Furthermore, clients facing theeffects of this social problem are equally misunderstood by students andthe general population as well as policy makers, providing ample oppor-tunity for students to critically examine stereotypical assessments of thispopulation on personal, cultural, and institutional levels.

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Once the agency was selected, the faculty began meeting with theagency director and staff to develop potential service learning projects.Conversations consisted of exploring the work of the agency as eachstaff member talked about their area of expertise. The director and agencystaff had developed a list of five or six potential projects. Together we be-gan to shape each project area with specific tasks, which would drawupon the academic objectives while simultaneously meeting agency needs.Senior social work students were invited to attend at least one of thesemeetings to offer suggestions and lend a student perspective to the work.The Executive Director of the agency was the facilitator of these meet-ings. An agency staff member was identified who would act as a “proj-ect manager” for each service-learning group. His or her expertise wasessential to the process and we viewed them as our co-teachers. Eachproject manager continued to shape the project assignments and a finaldescription of each one (see Appendix B) was prepared for distributionto the students.

COURSE MANAGEMENT

To assist students in understanding the larger context of homeless-ness and the community, we arranged to take them on a bus tour of thecommunity. The agency executive director and a member of her staff de-veloped the itinerary and narrated the tour. The tour ended at the agency’soffices where a large room served as a community classroom for the se-mester. The executive director gave students an overview of the historyand work of the agency and introduced the staff that would act as projectmanagers. Each project manager explained their role in the agency andreviewed the service learning assignments available in their projectarea. Students were asked at the end of this class to indicate their topthree choices. Faculty used this and knowledge of student’s strengthsand learning needs to develop the service learning project groups.

The class met at the agency approximately every other week through-out the semester. This allowed the agency personnel to be available for aportion of the class time to work with students, answering questions, in-troducing them to resources or people, taking them into the communityto meet clients and/or other agency personnel, and reviewing their prog-ress. Students were expected to spend about 20% of their class prepara-tion on service learning work and it accounted for 20% of the evaluationof the course. Each service learning project group would present theirwork at the end of the semester to a gathering of board members of the

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agency and interested others (this has included city planning board mem-bers, a local newspaper reporter, and other interested community mem-bers). Students developed portfolios that contained any resources theycreated for the agency along with sections that documented their workthroughout the semester and suggestions for the ongoing work beingpicked up by the students in the spring course.

Throughout the semester, faculty followed the work closely–sittingin on classroom meetings with project managers, checking in with projectmanagers on students’ use of course content, project development, groupissues and problems, etc. In the presentation of course content throughoutthe semester, faculty made a conscious effort to use examples related tothe issue of homelessness and agency work in class discussions. For exam-ple, in research, the students from the database project were reporting con-cerns from agencies being asked to share client service data. Issues ofconfidentiality were raised and ethical issues in research surfaced. Thegroup working on the use of housing vouchers by local landlords wasencountering major obstacles to gathering basic information and discov-ering a clear geographic pattern to the use of vouchers, leading to discus-sions of accessibility, discrimination, and policy implications. Studentsworking in the area of HUD’s “Bar and Ban” policy discovered the exis-tence of an appeal process but the reality of no record of its use. Studentsdiscovered the limitations of the McKinney Act’s definition of homeless-ness and its contribution to the “invisible homeless” in the community.

Students’ responses to questions in weekly reflection papers assisted thefaculty in assessing the progress of the student’s work, the development ofthe projects, areas ripe for discussion of course content, and also possibledeveloping problems. These papers were a vital part of insuring the stu-dent’s integration of class content with service learning experiences.

As described in this curriculum model, students have an opportunityto learn the skills Jansson (1999) espouses: developing a vision, takingsensible risks, balancing flexibility with planning, developing multipleskills, being persistent, and tolerating uncertainty.

SERVICE LEARNING OUTCOMES

Our experience has led to positive outcomes for all the participants in-volved in this program. Students, faculty, the university, and the agencyall reported benefits directly associated with the service-learning projects.

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Students. Student presentations to the board and community at theend of the semester offered them a chance to receive feedback from theagency and the community. They responded to questions from the audi-ence at the end of each presentation. The Executive Director was generousin using this as an opportunity to point out to each of the student groupsthe ways in which their work benefited the agency and the community.

Students have subsequently been invited to participate in national con-ferences in the social work field–The Policy Conference, the DiversityConference, and the Baccalaureate Program Directors Meeting. In addi-tion, the students have sought out opportunities to expand their learning inmacro areas by creating a diversity conference at our university, and at-tending the NASW Midwestern Campaign School. Students have beeninvited to present their service learning work to other agencies in thecommunity.

In a variety of outcome measures used to assess the social work pro-gram, students’ responses have begun to reflect changes in their inter-ests in practice and professional goals. Eighteen of twenty-four studentsindicated that after the service learning experience their interest in macropractice had increased. The average overall evaluation of the Policy/Practice/Research sequence on a five point scale (with 1 being outstand-ing), was 1.47. This represents a dramatic shift in students’ perceptionsand evaluations of these courses.

The program’s capstone course requires a senior paper which asks themto assess their own development since entering the program. These pa-pers clearly reflected an increased sense of the need to be advocates insocial policy:

Because of my interest in therapy I was only concerned with themicro side of social work. Because of the macro class, I now havean interest in macro social work. This class informed me on broadersocial issues and the impact that they have. I personally would neverhave guessed that this side would have interested me. The mainthing that I like is public policy. One day, I would like to get in-volved in the public arena and change legislation that is negativelyimpacting minorities and women.

The classroom material in the second semester was very interestingand our class engaged in numerous discussions about racial issuesover the semester. This class really helped me to know and under-stand about many issues that minorities faced in everyday life.

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I feel that without this experience I would not have felt as positiveand confident in my endeavors for the future. These will initiallyinclude micro social work practice but eventually concentrate moreon macro issues in social work such as national healthcare and im-proved social services for all underprivileged people in our globalsociety.

Students also wrote of their professional goals and identified inter-ests in a variety of macro pursuits such as: running for political office,playing a role in lobbying or advocacy as a part of their professionalidentity, entering the Peace Corps or other international social work.

Student comments about their own growth in the social work pro-gram indicated a sense of their integration of the macro aspects of socialwork into their understanding of social work practice. For example, onestudent wrote:

When I first decided to make social work my career choice, I envi-sioned myself in an office, helping someone resolve their problems.However, throughout my undergraduate education, my career goalshave become more macro in nature. Many individual problems arenot as individual as society would like to think. As a social workerI hope to promote awareness and make social changes on the policylevel that will better serve my clients. More specifically, I wouldlike to work with the organizations that shape our community. Tobetter these organizations, would be to directly impact, change andmake society stronger. This change is what makes social work dif-ferent from other helping professions while others may help, socialworkers advocate and empower clients to help themselves.

Faculty. The opportunity to create a learning environment, whichchallenges and excites students about content they previously tolerated(macro practice) or even feared (research), has energized the faculty.The opportunity to work collaboratively has encouraged a sense of co-hesiveness and support among the undergraduate faculty. The recogni-tion of the work through the university (in faculty development grants)and in the community (media coverage of student work and private do-nor grants) has enriched the teaching environment for all of us. Thework has offered us the opportunity for research and presentations andbegins to integrate the continuum of teaching, research and service as asatisfying whole in our professional lives.

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University. The use of service learning has changed the view of theuniversity in the community. Previously, the community has felt theyhave been the most studied and least served by the university and manycity institutions. The work of service learning as a collaborative processbased on needs identified by the community and supervised by commu-nity members acting as experts has encouraged others to seek universityparticipation. The involvement of other agencies in the community, the cityplanning office, and local media has led to a higher profile for the socialwork program and the university, which has led to increased opportuni-ties for involvement and collaboration. In fact, faculty at the universityhave become so interested in the potential for student and communitybenefits that a collaborative multi-disciplinary project has emerged. Thisfall, three other departments will be teaching courses with service learningcomponents in a joint service-learning project with us. The work withthis agency and others in the community to address issues of affordablehousing will be further developed and enhanced.

Community interest in service learning and the approach to involvingstudents in working on social problems has led to private donors award-ing the university with a grant to further enhance and continue the work.In addition, the University of Nebraska Foundation has become involvedin the project as they find the projects are capturing community and uni-versity supporters’ interest.

Agency. The students completed tasks the agency could not addressfor years: a telephone survey of landlords’ awareness and use of hous-ing vouchers; a set of brochures for agency clients offering accurate andup-to-date information on resources and services in the community; asurvey to follow up on the outcome of client’s who were denied partici-pation in a mortgage loan program; the development of a manual for adatabase to encourage entry data by those providing client services (seeAppendix B for details). Agency personnel have attended national con-ferences with students to participate in discussions of their role in theservice-learning projects.

CHALLENGES AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Developing a curriculum that places students in the communitythroughout their social work major presents a number of challenges forthe school. For us the challenges have been the ability to evaluate theexperience, the process of deciding which problems to address in the

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community and through which agencies, and the need for greater insti-tutional support.

Formal evaluation tools of service learning as a teaching methodol-ogy have been developed by other higher education institutions (Myers &Lipton, 1998; Olney & Grande, 1995; Stacey, Rice, & Langer, 1997), butare generally designed to assess more general outcomes of this approach,such as increases in students’ civic mindedness. While useful, these toolsfail to measure desired outcomes specific to the social work curriculum.Moreover, there is an absence of outcome measures that address the im-pact of this approach for faculty or the community partner. Qualitativereports in the form of student journal entries do indicate that students’ graspof community practice principles and techniques is enhanced through ser-vice learning, but without evaluation methodologies that can accuratelyand consistently identify results of this approach for all parties involvedit will be difficult to gain needed external support of curriculum revisionefforts.

Recent research efforts across disciplines suggest promising directionsfor evaluation of service learning efforts in social work higher education.Tucker and McCarthy (2001) measured an increased sense of self-effi-cacy and communication skills in business students who engaged in ser-vice learning coursework. An increase in self-efficacy was also notedby Morgan and Streb (2001). Sedlak, Doheny, Panthofer, and Anaya(2003) conducted extensive qualitative research of 94 nursing studentswhich revealed an increase in their critical thinking skills. These attributesand capacities are equally important for social work students. A combina-tion of the qualitative and quantitative methodologies employed by theseresearchers could enhance our understanding of the impact of servicelearning on social students’ skill development and perception of self asa change agent.

It is also apparent the non-profit agencies that serve as communitypartners for service learning based courses welcome the assistance stu-dents bring as they complete their class projects. But, every agency isnot necessarily a suitable partner for this approach to teaching and learn-ing. The grassroots community agency can offer students many uniquelearning opportunities, but there is also a point where an agency needstoo much. The service learning approach works when clearly identifiedgoals are established for student projects that can be completed in a rea-sonable amount of time. It is also vital that key agency personnel remainavailable to students for consultation throughout a semester time frame.When these conditions cannot be met, student satisfaction and learning isjeopardized. The development of an agency screening tool that establishes

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a set of criteria for agency selection as the partner in the service projectwould be a useful addition to the service learning literature, and a valuableassessment tool for social work educators.

CONCLUSION

Although the latest Curriculum Policy Statement (1994) for under-graduate social work education emphasizes a generalist model, a numberof authors (Black, Jeffreys, & Hartley, 1993; Midgley, 1993; Mosca, 1998;Rompf & Royce, 1994) have noted that while students are often eager toacquire the skills necessary for the direct practice dimension of generalpractice, they are less enthusiastic about the curriculum components ded-icated to social welfare policy analysis, macro practice, and research.Thus, social work education offers an excellent opportunity to integrateservice learning and community-based learning into a curriculum.

This article truly describes a work in progress. We have learned fromeach semester and continue to tinker with the courses. The areas we seeneeding continued work include: First, using the projects to better inte-grate course content from a policy and research perspective; Second,providing additional support to our agency partners in their work withthe students; Third, how to handle problems in service-learning projectgroups; Fourth, evaluating students service learning projects; Fifth, as-sessing outcomes in using a service learning approach.

As social workers, our vision is to create needed social change and asteachers to produce outstanding social workers. John Dewey (Hatcher,1997) using Hull House as an example reflected on the idea that socialtransformation can occur when education has an awareness of its role increating social change. We believe service learning offers endless op-portunities for engaging students in work at the policy level, which canlead to important social change in all our communities.

REFERENCES

Batchelder, T., & Root, S. (1994). Effects of an undergraduate program to integrate ac-ademic learning and service: Cognitive, prosocial cognitive, and identity outcomes.Journal of Adolescence, 17, 341-355.

Black, P.M., Jeffreys, D., & Hartley, E.R. (1993). Personal history of psycho-socialtrauma in the early life of social work and business students. Journal of Social WorkEducation, 29, 171-180.

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Bok, D. (1990). Universities and the future of America. Durham N.C: Duke UniversityPress.

Boyer, E. (1990). Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities for the professorate. Princeton:The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Learning.

Brueggemann, W.G. (2002). The practice of macro social work (2nd ed.) Belmont, CA:Wadsworth.

Devore, W., & Schlesinger, E. (1991). Ethnic-sensitive social work practice. NewYork: Macmillan Publishing.

Elliott, P. (1994). The urban campus: Educating the new majority for the new century.Phoenix: Oryx Press, American Council on Education.

Gamble, D.N., Shaffer, G.L., & Weil, M.O. (1994). Assessing the integrity of commu-nity organization and administration content in field practice. Journal of Commu-nity Practice, 1, 73-92.

Gilbert, N., & Terrell, P. (2002). Dimensions of social welfare policy. NeedhamHeights, MA: Allen and Bacon Publishing.

Greiner, W. (1994). ‘In the total of all these acts’: How can American universities ad-dress the urban agenda? Universities and Community Schools, 95, 317-323.

Guarsci, R. (1997). Democratic education in an age of difference: Redefining citizen-ship in higher education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

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Kezar, A. (2002). Assessing community service learning. About Campus, 7, 14-20.Koerin, B.B., Reeves, J., & Rosenbloom, A. (2000). Macro-learning opportunities:

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APPENDIX A

RESEARCH CLASS OUTCOMES/SKILL DEVELOPMENT

Assignments need to involve:

• Learning to read and evaluate research• Understanding and using secondary data

Learning about potential resources for secondary dataSelecting reliable sourcesUses for demographic data

• Developing skills in using the internet for research• Learning how to frame research questions

Identifying and defining key variables

• Survey research

How surveys are constructedDevelopment of samplesLimitations and strengthsBeginning skills in using survey research

• Program evaluation

Understanding usesKnow how to construct a program evaluationBeginning skills in doing program evaluation

• Qualitative research

Identifying the different types of researchUse of interviewingUse of observationsBeginning skills of interviewing and observations

• Grant writing

Understand purposes of grant writingKnow the basic structure of grantsBeginning skills in writing grants

• Ethical questions

Be able to identify ethical issues which arise

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APPENDIX B

FAMILY HOUSING ADVISORY SERVICES

Service Learning Projects

Project 1: Information System for Omaha’s Continuumof Care for the Homeless

Omaha’s Continuum of Care for the Homeless (OACCH) has implementedand is maintaining a database to tracking services provided for homeless per-sons throughout the city. Shelter and service providers collaborate throughoutthe city to provide services to clients and to fulfill any gaps in services. Stu-dents in this project will:

(1) Research how other cities are coordinating their Continuums

a. For targeted Continuums, gain an understanding and perform ananalysis of:

• The history of each Continuum• Their approach gathering and using data for groups of agencies• How guidance for agencies and administrators is given• The order in which agencies become Database ready• The overall transitions for agencies in those Continuums

b. Using the information gathered in the analysis, determine what is“normal” for developing a Continuum Database

c. Prepare a report of standard Continuum Database development.

(2) Compare three existing Continuum database sites

a. Compare and analyze the needs of current groups (i.e. EmergencyShelters, Transitional Living Facilities, Pantries, and SupportiveServices Providers) using the OASIS System

• Prepare a report of Database user needs for each user group• Assist in the development of a manual for database coordina-

tion between sites• Using the standards developed in Part I and User Needs de-

fined in Part II; develop a manual for Omaha’s Continuumusers and one for Administrators.

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(3) Assemble information and develop a report of OASIS system trends

a. Using the City of Omaha’s reporting suggestions and currentmonthly report; students will develop a comprehensive report oftrends through the first year of OASIS.

Project 2: Project Jericho

FHAS performs services to assist local housing authorities with supportiveservices and housing placement of person using section 8 vouchers.

(1) Research HUD’s application of their Criminal History and “Barand Ban” policies as they apply to Section 8 voucher applicants/recipients, and create alternatives for persons affected by thosepolicies.

• Research local effects of the application of “Criminal History”and “Bar and Ban” to property seekers

• Develop housing options for persons affected by the policies

(2) Research and perform an analysis of the reception of the section 8program.

• Survey area property owners to determine their level of partici-pation in the program, and the reason for their willingness/un-willingness to participate

• Add willing landlords to property database• Perform an analysis and prepare a report using landlord feed-

back from survey

(3) Assist with client workshops, including developing informationaltools and flyers.

Update information regarding neighborhood associations, day care, schools,medical, shopping, restaurants, recreation, etc., Create pamphlets with up-dated information for each area of town.

Project 3: Homeless Services Analysis

FHAS Case Advocates visit local homeless shelters to provide housing as-sistance to residents. Students in this project will:

Read and understand the McKinney Act Homeless statement and shadowCase Advocates at local shelters. Then:

• Perform a survey of client assistance provided at shelters (shelter trans-portation for health services, educational information, providing clients

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with knowledge of VNA, day care, job/career wardrobe), and require-ment/stipulations of residents

• Compile a report of helpful sources available at shelters and residentrequirements

• Determine and prepare a report of ways to encourage more participationin housing services

• Survey and write a report on barriers to obtaining housing

Project 4: Employee Assisted Housing Program (EAH)

EAH is an employer-provided benefit that helps employees purchase homes.An EAH plan can be easily customized to meet the unique needs and circum-stances of a business. It provides overall recruitment, retention, benefits andcommunity strategies. Students will be assigned to do the following:

• Identify local employers who may have an interest in the EAH Program• Research to find out whether local employers have national affiliates

who are participating in the EAH Program• Identify the appropriate individual(s) to contact about the EAH Program• Research the local employers to determine their current employee incen-

tives and turnover rates• Design a survey to determine which employers are interested in the pro-

gram (if they are not interested in the program find out why)• Design a marketing tool to interest employers• Determine if the employers need a customized EAH Program (such as:

match what the employee has saved, pay a portion of the closing cost, etc.)

Project 5: Homeowners Rehabilitation Program

There is a 44% homeownership rate in north Omaha, compared to a 67% ratecommunity wide. In addition, there are 28,800 substandard housing unites eastof 45th street. The Omaha 100 Mortgage Lending Program wants students to:

• Assist the program in identifying neighborhood associations needing as-sistance in helping homeowners rehabilitate their homes.

• Develop the criteria for interested homeowners to participate• Develop a method for prioritizing those requesting services

In addition, out of 150 applicants to the lending program last year, only 50were selected, due to a lack of resources. FHAS would like students in thisproject to develop and implement a survey to identify what happened to the100 applicants not selected. For example, did they select a predatory lendingrate to rehab their home?

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