Description
Book SynopsisCommunity service and learning experiences are booming as we enter the 21st century. This practical guide assists college students and other constituents as they psychologically prepare for volunteering, service-learning, practicums, fieldwork assignments, and internships in a diverse and ever-changing world. Though created with the novice community worker in mind, this book will also assist professors, teachers, administrators, and agency personnel in understanding and preparing workers for community service and learning in schools, child care centers, soup kitchens, and shelters for the homeless. Written in a practical, conversational style, this book offers the voices, issues, concerns, and resources of more than 200 previous community workers. This book includes their struggles with the initial adjustment process, as well as ongoing gender, race, and class issues encountered in various service learning environments. Topics range from choosing a community service site to appropriate
Trade ReviewThis book will be a companion to students as they face the challenges, struggles, apprehensions, and joys of community service. It provides practical and realistic advice for students on many issues. In addition, the book will be a valuable resource for faculty as they develop and conduct service learning classes. The book will also be useful to community agency personnel as a resource for their supervision of service learning students. -- Robert G. Bringle, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
Faculty will find the book useful not only in terms of preparing their students for community service and learning, but also in terms of facilitating students' reflection upon their experiences and merging those reflections with the learnings in the course. This book will make students better learners, faculty better teachers, and the community work more beneficial to all parties. -- Jeffrey Howard, editor of Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning
Reaching Out to Children and Families is intended primarily for college students but may be useful to high-school, international, or nonstudent volunteers, and to those who organize or manage student-volunteer programs. * The Chronicle of Philanthropy *
The book will be most useful for students who participate in community learning, and for university or college faculty who work with setting up and supervising community learning experiences. * Readings:Ajournal Of Reviews and Commentary In Mental Health *
How can we help our students move beyond familiar stereotypes to think more critically about the significance of race and class not only in other people’s lives but in their own? This is a question that teacher educators and others involved in community-based learning are asking all over the country. In this excellent book, using students’ own voices, Professor Dunlap cogently captures the challenge of preparing students to interact effectively with racially and ethnically diverse populations, and offers useful strategies for supporting student growth in service learning placements. Anyone engaged in service learning programs, faculty and students alike, will benefit from reading this book. -- Beverly Daniel Tatum, author of Why are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? and Other Conversations about Race
Table of ContentsChapter 1 Preface Chapter 2 Introduction Part 3 Beginnings Chapter 4 How Do I Get Started? Getting Organized for Community Service Chapter 5 While You Are Getting Ready: Community Service and Learning in Context Chapter 6 What in the World Am I Doing Here? The First Visits Part 7 Intermediate Issues Chapter 8 Looking in the Mirror: Images of the Self, the Hero, and the Mutual Learner Chapter 9 Is It Getting Better Yet? Building Trust and Nurturing Relationships Chapter 10 What should I do now? Addressing Issues, Behavior, and Limits Chapter 11 To Touch or Not to Touch? Affection and Gender-Related Issues Chapter 12 The Melting Pot and the Vegetable Stew: Multicultural Issues Chapter 13 Working with Individuals with Special Needs Chapter 14 Did She Really Say That? Shocking Statements and Other Traumas Part 15 Endings Chapter 16 Is It Time to Say Good-bye? Arranging Successful Closure Chapter 17 Reviewing the Community Service Adjustment Process Chapter 18 Notes Chapter 19 Appendix A: Journal Reflection Questions Chapter 20 Appendix B: Methods Chapter 21 Appendix C: Guidelines Regarding Privacy and Confidentiality Chapter 22 Appendix D: Sample Introductory Letter to Agency Chapter 23 Appendix E: Guidelines for Working with Children and Families Chapter 24 Appendix F: Collectivistic Practices and Approaches Chapter 25 Appendix G: Sample Placement Supervisor Evaluation of Worker Chapter 26 References
