Waves of Change Building People Centred Economies May 22nd, 2008 Community Development Service Learning: Connecting Individual and Community Learning to a Greater Social Movement Waves of Change Building People Centred Economies May 22nd, 2008

This workshop will: Invite you into the dialogue on connecting individual and community learning to social change. Introduce the Community Development Service Learning Initiative Share the story of CDSL in one Northern British Columbia community

What type of social change are you working towards in your community? What are your assumptions about how learning contributes to social change?

Principles of CED Grassroots Community-led (conceived & directed locally) Holistic approach Long-term

Learning for Social Outcomes What kind of learning fosters citizenship? Learn about ourselves (passions, skills, assets, etc.) Learn about each other through relationships Learn about the systems in the community.

The Community Development Service Learning Initiative

Learning and CED: This project builds on existing work happening in CED to: Engage youth; Develop leadership and build capacity for youth involvement in CED initiatives ; Mobilize new knowledge that informs policy & practice; Build partnerships between practitioners, communities and educational institutions .

What is the CDSL Initiative? A national initiative to strengthen service learning opportunities in CED organizations for students, build youth engagement in CED, and facilitate effective experiential learning partnerships between community organizations, educational institutions and youth.

Service Learning? “Community Service-Learning (CSL) is an educational approach that integrates service in the community with intentional learning activities. Within effective CSL efforts, members of both educational institutions and community organizations work together toward outcomes that are mutually beneficial” Canadian Association for Community Service Learning

Community Development Service Learning? A form of experiential education People in their neighbourhood or community decide what the learning outcomes and the service need to be. The learning involves fostering understanding, knowledge and skills outside of the curricula of formal institutions. Practitioners consciously create learning opportunities for people to engage with each other to bring about change that enhances local life

Example of CDSL in the Upper Skeena 1. ENGAGEMENT: Individuals and groups who are normally disengaged…

Example of CDSL in the Upper Skeena 2. APPLY SKILLS: Individuals apply knowledge and skills for collective learning and community action How can we connect individual and community learning for a greater social movement? How is learning a process for building citizenship? Working in relationship: Collaborative acts and partnerships are at the core of the work in CED Living, learning and working in community means doing so in relationship with others. Our sense of self and a sense of community are formed through interaction with others. Relationships = sense of attachment, sense of belonging, sense of communion. Community economic development happens interaction-by-interaction, relationship-by-relationship. Relationships help us to build trust that is necessary when we are working in often uncertain environments of community—we don’t know what is going to happen before we act, so we trust each other. It is becoming widely recognized that projects that do not move to action fail when time or effort is not put into building the relationships necessary to sustain the movement of these ideas into action. However, we often struggle to take the time to build these relationships – sometimes because we are nervous or concerned about the difficulty of such work and other times because we just don’t have the resources to support this and we are already “maxed out” in what we do

Living & Learning in Community Liaison: connect people, learning & service Human capital: the skills & capacities of each member of society Social capital: collective action to increase community social and economic assets

Using learning for transformative change: Conversation Informed Action Reflection

Objectives of the CDSL Initiative Objective #1: Build capacity of CED organizations to benefit from community development service learning & contribute to the development of curriculum and programs in formal/non-formal learning organizations that meet community needs.

Objectives of the CDSL Initiative Objective #2: Build opportunities for students to engage in effective community development service learning, and network with youth leadership and the CED movement to contribute to social and economic change in Canada.

Objectives of the CDSL Initiative Objective #3: Build opportunities for formal/non-formal learning organizations to partner with CED organizations to expand community development service learning opportunities that contribute to community needs and assets.

Objectives of the CDSL Initiative Objective #4: Enhance the effectiveness of community development service learning in building community assets and contributing to youth engagement in CED, inclusive of rural, urban, northern, Aboriginal and disadvantaged communities.

How does the university contribute to the development of active and engaged citizens? How does the Individual learning that happens in an institution connect back to the learning that will benefit community?

Next steps for CDSL Initiative Tools and Resources Discussion Paper How-To Guide Critical Reflections Paper Digital Stories Peer Learning with Community Partners to test Tools. Kerri Klein [kklein@alumni.sfu.ca] Anne Docherty [adocherty@upperskeena.ca] http://www.ccednet-rcdec.ca