Service Learning: Building Relationships as the Foundation for Interpersonal Helping

Social Work, Park University

BACKGROUND

Social Work is a highly interactional and interpersonal helping profession. As such, skills in engaging service participants (traditionally referred to in the field as "clients") are essential for effective and efficient intervention. Introduction to Social Work is traditionally the first course taken by students interested in earning their BSW degree.

The service learning component of this course challenges students to experience first-hand the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors which must be consciously harnessed when one person attempts to gain the trust of another in the helping relationship. These skills are especially important at the first meeting as the student assumes the helping role. This skill set is also generalizable to many other fields and disciplines. Social Work faculty assigns this service experience in an effort to empower students to stretch themselves and move beyond their comfort zone.

STUDENT EXPECTATIONS

During the first week of class, you should be considering which social service agency you would like to engage in your learning experience. I strongly recommend that you begin calling and making contacts within your community to explore your options. This gives you the opportunity to make initial contacts with potential service learning venues.

Students are expected to contact the volunteer coordinator at the agency, set up an appointment for an interview, and complete at least 10 hours of face to face service. Five of the ten hours should be served with an individual or family that is currently receiving services/assistance. If face to face contact with program participants is not possible, you must have discussed this with your instructor and been given prior approval for not completing this direct contact. Otherwise, you will lose points towards your experience portion of this assignment.

Social Work is involved with many diverse groups of people who need some type of assistance. The community partners that have become involved with our students reflect this diversity. Some examples of national community partners include such organizations as: Big Brothers & Big Sisters, YMCA & YWCA, Meals on Wheels, Reach Out and Read programs, United Way local community based programming, after school mentor programs, domestic violence shelters, transitional living programs, mental health and medical centers, programs for runaway youth, programming for gay and lesbian youth, and nursing homes.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The outcomes have been quite gratifying. Students write a seven to ten to page paper summarizing the experience. Several learning themes have emerged. First, many stereotypes that students have held regarding certain groups of people have been exposed and re-thought. For example, one student worked with a young man who struggles with severe and persistent mental illness and commented "I couldn't believe how smart he was." Another outcome has been an increase in the students' own confidence, self awareness, and skills in what we refer to in class as "conversational interviewing skills." One student stated, "I was so nervous when I first got there, I worried that I might say something that would be really bad. I really relaxed when I realized that they were trying really hard to make me feel comfortable and help me with this assignment. It was really cool."

There have been several students who have continued their volunteer activity even after the class was over. Through this assignment, we have also developed field practicum affiliations for our senior students with several new agencies. Senior students in Social Work are assigned to an agency with a social worker who serves as their "field instructor" and they are at the agency two full days each week during the entire year. Many of our students get hired as social workers at these agencies immediately upon graduating from Park.

CHALLENGES AND IMPROVEMENTS

There have been some challenges with the service learning requirement. For many of our foreign born students the issues of language and transportation have been evident. In response to this challenge Social Work faculty are seeking to identify agencies that have a diverse population and the attempt will be made to more effectively "match" students with people for whom English is also a second language. We have also encouraged students to work together on this project so that they may share resources, specifically related to transportation.

Based on the success of the service learning assignment in Introduction to Social Work, the Social Work department is currently considering building in a service learning component in the Social Welfare Policy and Programs class. This experience will focus on getting involved with a community initiative that focuses on the agency or community level. Students will be expected to attend a policy/planning meeting and gain first hand knowledge of how social welfare policies are formulated and implemented.