TOPIC-1: DIMENSIONS OF GOOD COMMUNITY/SOCIETY

Topic-1- Sub-topic-1: DEFINITION OF CONCEPTS

What is a Community?

• A community is a group of people who share an identity-forming narrative.

o This means, a group of people who share a story that is so important to them that
it defines an aspect of who they are. Those people build the shared story
archetypes (characters) of that community into their sense of themselves; they
build the history of those communities into their own personal history; and they
see the world through the lens of those shared stories.
• a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common
• the condition of sharing or having certain attitudes and interests in common
• Communities are essentially groups of people who come together for different reasons.

Most Important Characteristics or Elements used to define a community include:

o Geographic criteria - people living in an enclosed area (on a hill, adjacent to a
river, a marsh, etc.), a settlement, a street, or even block of flats may be
considered a 'community'.
o Economic criteria - people belonging to the same income group, or working in the
same location, having similar skills, etc. can come together to form a community.
o Social criteria - These are some common criteria used to define a community,
including people for example, coming from the same hometown, speaking the
same language, having the same ethnicity or belonging to the same religion,
gender-based or age-based grouping, etc. Social criteria can also include groups
that have similar beliefs or visions.
o Political/Administrative criteria - Communities are also formed among people
belonging to the same political party, residing in the same city district or ward,
designated area etc.
o Other criteria - There are other possible criteria used to define a community. A
community can be formed on-line, sometimes referred to as a 'virtual community',
when a group of people come together through information technologies such as
the Internet.

1. A group of people is the most fundamental or essential characteristic or element of

community. This group may be small or large but community always refers to a group of
people. Because without a group of people we can’t think of a community, when a group
of people live together and share a common life and binded by a strong sense of
community consciousness at that moment a community is formed. Hence a group of
people is the first pre-requisites of community.

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2. A definite locality: It is the next important characteristic of a community. Because
community is a territorial group. A group of people alone can’t form a community. A
group of people forms a community only when they reside in a definite territory. The
territory need not be fixed forever. A group of people like nomadic people may change
their habitations. But majority community are settled and a strong bond of unity and
solidarity is derived from their living in a definite locality.

3. Community Sentiment: It is another important characteristic or element of community.

Because without community sentiment a community can’t be formed only with a group
of people and a definite locality. Community sentiment refers to a strong sense of awe
feeling among the members or a feeling of belonging together. It refers to a sentiment of
common living that exists among the members of a locality. Because of common living
within an area for a long time a sentiment of common living is created among the
members of that area. With this the members emotionally identify themselves. This
emotional identification of the members distinguishes them from the members of other
community.

4. Naturality: Communities are naturally organised. It is neither a product of human will

nor created by an act of government. It grows spontaneously. Individuals became the
member by birth.

5. Permanence: Community is always a permanent group. It refers to a permanent living of

individuals within a definite territory. It is not temporary like that of a crowd or
association.

6. Similarity: The members of a community are similar in a number of ways. As they live
within a definite locality they lead a common life and share some common ends. Among
the members similarity in language, culture, customs, and traditions and in many other
things is observed. Similarities in these respects are responsible for the development of
community sentiment.

7. Wider Ends: A community has wider ends. Members of a community associate not for
the fulfillment of a particular end but for a variety of ends. These are natural for a
community.

8. Total organised social life: A community is marked by total organised social life. It
means a community includes all aspects of social life. Hence a community is a society in
miniature.

9. A Particular Name: Every community has a particular name by which it is known to the
world. Members of a community are also identified by that name. For example people
living in Kenya are known as Kenyans, etc.

10. No Legal Status: A community has no legal status because it is not a legal person. It has
no rights and duties in the eyes of law. It is not created by the law of the land.

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 11. Size of Community: A community is classified on the basis of it’s size. It may be big or
small. Village is an example of a small community whereas a nation or even the world is
an example of a big community. Both the type of community are essential for human
life.

12. Concrete Nature: A community is concrete in nature. As it refers to a group of people

living in a particular locality we can see its existence. Hence it is concrete.

13. Exists within society: A community exists within society and possesses distinguishable
structure which distinguishes it from others.

Types of Communities
It is common to classify communities into the following categories:

Activity
****Students to give examples of such communities as categorized below:

1. Communities of place
2. Communities of interest
3. Identity-based communities
4. Communities of need
5. Communities of practice

Topic-1- Sub-topic-2: What is a service?

• A service is an intangible offering that provides value to a customer.

• A service is any activity or benefit that one party can offer to another, which is essentially
intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything. Its production may or may
not be tied to a physical product.

• Services are economic activities that create value and provide benefits for customers at
specific times and places as a result of bringing about a desired change in – or on behalf
of – the recipient of the service.
• Services are the non-physical, intangible parts of our economy, as opposed to goods,
which we can touch or handle.

• Services, such as banking, education, medical treatment, and transportation make up the
majority of the economies of the rich nations. They also represent most of the emerging
nations’ economies.

Services are often described in terms of their attributes, such as reliability, responsiveness, and
quality. In many cases, services are also distinguished from goods by their perishability—that is,
they cannot be stored for future use.

Activity

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****Students to give examples of services they are aware of.

“Intangible products such as:

Examples of services
Here are some examples of business services to consider implementing within your organization:
• Software services. ... • medical treatment
• Training services. ... • Legal services.
• Event planning services. ... • Athletic training business
• Consulting services. ... • Housekeeping
• Marketing services. ... • Maintenance service
• Waste management services. ... • Graphic design
• Construction services. ... • Auto mechanic shop
• Accounting • Transportation service
• Banking and Financial advising • Car washes
• Cleaning • Landscaping company
• Consultancy and other Business • Swimming Pool servicing
consulting • Child care
• Education and Academic tutoring • House painting
• Insurance • Massage therapy

Most services require supporting goods in order to be useful. The same applies to goods, i.e.,
most of them need supporting services to be useful.

Distinctive characteristics of a service

Services have the following features which include:

• Intangibility: you cannot touch or handle them. Neither can you transport, stock,
manufacture, mine, or farm them.

• Inventory (Perishability): unlike physical goods, services cannot be stored. You cannot
store them for future use. Once the provider delivers the service, it irreversibly vanishes.

• Inseparability: the provider must deliver the service at the time of consumption. Unlike
a good, a service can only be delivered and consumed when the provider is present. I
cannot, for example, have a haircut if the person who cuts my hair is not present.

• Heterogeneity is closely related inseparability as it is very difficult to apply quality

standards to services to ensure an identical service output, when so much depends on the
cooperation and participation of individual customers.

• Inconsistency: as in ‘variability’. Each delivery of a particular service is never exactly

the same as the previous or future ones. Each one is unique, even if the same customer
requests the same service. For instance, the haircut I had today may be similar to the one
I had two months ago, but it is not 100% identical.

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 • Goods, especially those that come off a production line, are identical. In fact, the first
pocket Kenya constitution booklet produced in the government printer on Monday
morning is identical to the second produced on the same day. Furthermore, they are both
identical to all the others the printer produces on Tuesday, Wednesday, etc.

• Involvement: both the consumer and provider of a service participate in its provision.
For example, during a haircut, there are two participants – the customer and the
hairdresser. Unless both are present, the service is not possible.

• Variability An unavoidable consequence of simultaneous production and consumption is

variability in performance of a service. The quality of a service may vary depending upon
who provides it as well when and how it is provided, e.g., an airline company provides on
time services to and fro, whereas some other airline provides though regular service but
not on time. Within a service provider one employee may be courteous and helpful others
might be inefficient as well as rude.

• Lack of Ownership: Lack of ownership is the basic difference between a service

industry and a product industry as a customer gets an access for a service after paying for
it but not owns it, e.g., hotel rooms, hospitals beds, etc. So, service industry should put a
stress on easier payment terms in order to facilitate better growth of service sector.
Ownership relates to the notion that the consumers of services do not own them overall,
but only have temporary access to them.

The characteristics of services are briefly stated here:

(i) It is a core area or an activity or a task of business,

(ii) It is a major component and denotes a parallel size of business,
(iii) Services may be collateral activity and have a supplementary service to support the
core area of business,
(iv) A service is an act or performance offered by one party to another,
(v) It is an ideology or concept or an approach based on customers’ orientation,
(vi) A service is an economic activity that creates values and provides benefits for
customers,
(vii) The service process may be tied to a physical product and the performance is
transitory,
(viii) Services are based on the concepts of rational behaviour and the norms of ethical
values,
(ix) Services may be treated as the philosophical part in the form of art and a systematical
part in the form of ‘science’,
(x) It is prominent task to serve at the input as well as output stages in any value creation
process,
(xi) It serves as dynamic platform to accommodate professional attitudes,
(xii) It is provided by a person who processes a particular skills, quality, competencies and
learning aspects,
(xiii) Services having the continuous process within their performance,

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 (xiv) Services may be characterised as intangibleness, inseparability perishability,
heterogeneity in nature and does not normally result in ownership of any resource,
(xv) Service are based on different environmental factors.

Classification of Services
There are numerous varieties of services. The numerous varieties of services can be classified
into certain categories or types on the basis of certain criteria.
Classification of services into certain categories or types serves certain purposes.

The purposes of classification of services into various categories are:

1) The classification helps to understand the nature of different services.
2) The classification is helpful to understand the attributes of a service product.
3) The classification is helpful to understand the relationship between service organisations and
their customers.
4) The classification is helpful to understand the nature of a service demand.
5) The classification is helpful in solving issues connected with planning and designing of
services.

The criteria used for the classification of services and the various classifications of services
are:
1. Classification Based on the Ultimate Users of Services:
On the basis of the ultimate users of services, services can be classified into two
categories.
They are:
a) Services to final consumers – Services to final consumers are services which are
provided to ultimate consumers. Examples of such services are recreation and
entertainment services, tourism, hair-dressing and other personal care services, etc.
b) Services to business firms – Services to business firms refer to services rendered by a
service organisation to business firms. Examples of these services are advertising,
marketing research, maintenance and repairs, installation of plants and equipments,
computer programming, consultancy, legal, accountancy, etc.

2. Classification Based on the Degree of Intangibility of Services:

On the basis of the degree of intangibility, services can be classified into two broad
categories.
They are:
a) Low intangible content services or highly tangible services – Low intangibility
content services are those services which have low intangibility content or which
have high tangibility content. Examples of these services are fast food services,
vending machines, etc.
b) High intangibility content services or highly intangible services – High intangibility
content services refer to services which have high intangibility content or which are
highly intangible. Examples of these services are consultancy services, legal services,
baby-sitting, etc.

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3. Classification Based on Service Options:
On the basis of service options, services can be classified into two categories.
They are:
a) Primarily people-based services – Primarily people-based services refer to services
which are primarily people-based or labour intensive. Examples of these services are
restaurant, insurance, medical services, etc.
b) Primarily equipment – based services – Primarily equipment – based services refer to
services which are primarily equipment – based and which involve low contact with
people. Examples of these services are vending machines, automatic teller machine
services in banks, cinema, etc.

4. Classification Based on Specialisation:

On the basis of the expertise, skill and specialisation of the service providers, services can be
classified into two categories.
They are:
a) Professional services – Professional services refer to services rendered by skilled
specialised professionals to business firms and ultimate consumers. Legal services,
medical services, consultancy services, accountancy and auditing services, etc. are
examples of professional services.
b) Non-professional services – Non-professional services refer to services provided by
nonprofessional persons. Baby-sitting, domestic help, etc. are examples of non-
professional services.

5. Classification Based on Profit-Orientation:

On the basis of profit-orientation (i.e., profit motive), services can be classified into two
categories.
They are:
a) Profit-Oriented Services – Profit-oriented services refer to services rendered
primarily with profit motive. In other words, they are commercial services designed
for profit. Examples of profit-oriented services are banking service, insurance
service, hotel, restaurant and catering services, tour operation, airline service, etc.
b) Non-profit-oriented services – Non-profit-oriented services refer to services
rendered without any profit-orientation or profit motive. Examples of such services
are educational services by Government, hospital services by Government, services
of cultural organisations, services of welfare organisations, services of religious
institutions, services of research foundations, etc.

6. Classification on the Basis of the Fact whether they are Primarily Directed at Public at Large
or Primarily Directed at Individuals:
On the basis of the fact, whether the services are primarily directed at public at large or primarily
directed at individuals, services can be classified into two categories.
They are:
(a) Public services – Public services refer to services which are primarily directed at
(i.e., provided to) public at large. Examples of public services are public utility
services, transport services, insurance services, municipal services, etc.

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 (b) Private services – Private services refer to services which are primarily directed at
individuals. In other words, they are services designed for and used by consumers
as individuals. Examples of private services are personal care services, medical
advice, etc.

7. Classification on the Basis of the Extent of Contact between the Service Provider and the
Consumer:
On the basis of the extent of contact between the service provider and the consumer, services can
be classified into two categories.
They are:
a) High contact services – High contact services refer to services in which the
consumers or users have to spend more time with service providers to acquire or
utilise the services. Examples of high contact services are medical services, personal
care services, etc.
b) Low contact services – Low contact services refer to services in which the consumers
or users have to spend less time with the service providers to acquire or use the
services. Examples of low contact services are internet services, hospitability, theatre
performance, etc.

8. Classification on the Basis of Number of Delivery Outlets:

On the basis of the number of delivery outlets, services can be classified into two categories.
They are:
(a) Single or specific outlet services – Single or specific, outlet services refer to services
which are provided to customers through a single outlet. In this case, the convenience
of receiving the service is less. Examples of these services are theatre services,
museum services, etc.
(b) Multiple outlet services – Multiple outlet services refer to services which are provided
to consumers through many outlets. In this case, the convenience of receiving the
services is more. Examples of these services are fast food service, bus service, etc.

9. Classification of Services as External and Internal:

Services can also be classified as:
a) External services – External services refer to services provided by a service
organisation to external or outside agencies. Examples of these services are
installation services, distribution services, etc.
b) Internal Services – Internal services refer to services provided by the service provider
within the organisation. Examples of these services are internal transport, office
cleaning, etc.

10. Classification on the Basis of the Presence of Customers and Employees:

On the basis of the presence of customers and employees, services can be classified into three
categories.
They are:
a) Self-services – Self-services refer to services in which there will be the presence of
only the customers. Examples of self-services are self-service restaurants, ATM
banking service, etc.

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 b) Inter-personal services – Inter-personal services refer to services in which there will
be the presence of both customers and employees. Examples of these services are
education, hotel services, entertainment services, etc.
c) Remote Services – Remote services refer to services in which there will be the
presence of only employees. Examples of such services are insurance services, etc.

Topic-1- Sub-topic-3: What is Learning?

• The acquisition of knowledge or skills through study, experience, or being taught.

• Knowledge acquired through study, experience, or being taught.
• A thing learned by experience; a lesson.
• Learning can be described as process of acquisition, retention and modification of
experience.
• It re-establishes the relationship between a stimulus and response.
• It is a method of problem solving and is concerned about making adjustments with the
environment.
• Learning is much deeper than memorization and information recall. Deep and long-
lasting learning involves understanding, relating ideas and making connections between
prior and new knowledge, independent and critical thinking and ability to transfer
knowledge to new and different contexts.
• Learning is not something done to students, but rather something students themselves do.
It is the direct result of how students interpret and respond to their experiences.

Topic-1- Sub-topic-4: What is Community service learning?

Community service learning (CSL) – an introduction

• Community Service Learning is a form of education, in which students use their academic skills
to contribute to societal issues.
• Community Service Learning (CSL) is a pedagogy that promotes students’ learning through their
active participation in experiences of community engagement.
o It is considered an effective pedagogy for improving social engagement and at the same
time enhancing students’ skills and aptitudes.
o CSL stimulates (among others) critical thinking, problem-solving competencies, personal
development, interpersonal skills and cultural understanding.
o Moreover, CSL has the potential to benefit community partners.
o In addition to more direct tangible outcomes as a result of a project, CSL activities are
said to increase community capacity as they have the potential to bring together various
community partners and members.
o It has also been suggested that CSL can benefit faculty members as it fosters personal
growth and improves teaching experience and practices.

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Elements of Community Service Learning

• CLS, a mix between classroom-based and community-based activities

1. classroom-based activities are designed to generate learning experiences that better
prepare students to perform the community-based service activities, and
2. community-based service activities are intentionally organised to influence and
enhance students’ learning in classroom-based activities.

• Who is involved in Community Service Learning?

• Within Community Service Learning (CSL) teachers, students and community
partners collaborate to address existing (complex) societal issues. In CSL, the
learning experience is based on practice rather than merely focused on acquiring
formal knowledge. Overall, we consider an educational project to be CSL when:
• There is a crossover between higher education and a (complex) societal problem.
• This crossover provides reciprocity, referring to both an academic learning
experience for students as well as benefits for involved (community) actors
surrounding the identified problem.
• Students (critically) reflect on their academic and practical learning experiences.
• The project is integrated in the curriculum and students get credits for it.

• What are formats for Community Service Learning courses?

There are various possibilities for integrating CSL in an academic course. Here we
provide some examples for inspiration. However, there are many ways to realize CSL in
a course and there is no ‘one size fits all’. Bearing this in mind, CSL courses/projects can
generally be divided into 1) a CSL acquaintance course, 2) CSL as part of a course, and
3) Capstone courses and Internships.

Examples of Community service learning

Activity
****Students to give examples of Community service learning actitivites they may be aware
of.

• Voter registration: Students in a political science class volunteer to help with voter
registration targeting the elderly that also involves conducting interviews and surveys
assessing their needs and opinions regarding various political issues.
• Books in schools: Students pair up with local charities and churches to run a campaign to
improve the school library’s book offerings.
• Rural community service: Nursing majors hold health fairs in rural areas to disseminate
information regarding healthy habits and perform basic health checks for attendees.
• Recycling programs: Mechanical engineering students use recyclable materials to
construct playgrounds in inner cities and analyze the physics of each piece of equipment.
• Migrant support: IT majors teach courses to immigrants on web design and e-commerce
as part of group projects assessing the functionality of various web design software
programs.

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 • Supporting budding businesses: Business majors work with local small businesses on
strategic planning, marketing, and hiring practices to improve revenue. The students
create portfolios documenting their experiences.
• Websites for businesses: A group of digital marketing students are asked to connect
with local businesses to help them to develop a web presence and consistent brand image.
• Addressing local tax changes: An accounting class works with local businesses to help
them implement standard accounting principles and understand the local tax code.
• Working with local children: Anthropology students conduct a participant observation
study in local orphanages as helpers to document the children’s narratives and produce
short films.
• • Missionary work: A faith-based university sends its students to a third-world country
to help single mothers apply for micro-finance loans and start their own businesses.
Students create video documentaries that detail each stage in the service-learning process.
• Upskilling locals: Communication majors conduct a pre- post-design study on the
effectiveness of training the unemployed on interview techniques and presentation skills.
• Charity work: Students in an International Studies course work in teams to write and
submit a grant for the charitable cause of their choosing.
• Local waterway management: Biology students study local waterways and identify
strategies to improve the biodiversity in the area.
• Urban farming: Students develop an urban farm on the rooftops of local buildings in
order to supply fresh food to local impoverished families.
• Local town hall: Students from an event management course organize a local town hall
for political candidates to meet with locals and address their concerns.
• Bike to work day: To encourage green transit, students start a bike to work campaign,
culminating in one day where an additional 1000 people use the local bikeways to get to
work.
• Animal housing: Students run a campaign to support pet adoption by not only
encouraging adoption, but implementing regular support for the new owners so the
animals transition to a happy new life.
• Traffic management: Students from an advanced math course conduct a study of the
traffic light pattern at a particularly busy bottleneck and find a way to improve the pattern
to minimize congestion. They bring the report to the local council to consider.
• Urban Farming
• Water conservation

What learning objectives do service-learning projects answer to?

Service-learning is a versatile instructional strategy that can be applied to several different
subjects across different grades.

It is particularly useful in achieving learning objectives that involve:

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 i. Critical thinking – the synthesis and analysis of information to solve complex problems
with multiple possible solutions
ii. Problem-solving – the application of concepts and knowledge to practice in new
contexts
iii. Communication skills – effective written, oral and visual communication
iv. Teamwork – working collaboratively with others, especially across difference and
diversity
v. Responsibility – exercise well-reasoned judgement and taking ownership of learning
vi. Citizenship – using the disciplines knowledge base to address social issues, as well as
developing the skills and habits for critical reflection

These different learning objectives are built into the five stages of service-learning, which
include:

1. Investigate – Learners understand that investigating the needs of the community makes
service effective
2. Preparation and Planning – Learners understand that preparation and planning ensure
that the goals and needs are met
3. Action – Learners understand that implementing a plan of action generates change and
results
4. Reflection (trans-disciplinary)- Learners understand that reflection is ongoing,
prompting deep thinking and analysis about themselves and their relationship to society
5. Demonstration/Communication (trans-disciplinary) – Learners recognize that through
demonstration and communication they solidify their understanding and evoke a response
from others.

Throughout the five stages of any service-learning project, students are challenged to expand
their thinking of the world around them, which leads to personal growth. The skills learnt in each
stage of the service-learning project creates opportunities for personal growth in terms of how
students think and act. This fosters passion and empathy, helping students understand diversity
and the challenges that others are going through and how to find solutions to them.

vii. Personal Outcomes -

• Greater sense of personal efficacy, personal identity, spiritual growth, and moral
development
• Greater interpersonal development, particularly the ability to work well with others, and
build leadership and communication skills
viii. Social Outcomes
• Reduced stereotypes and greater inter-cultural understanding
• Improved social responsibility and citizenship skills
• Greater involvement in community service after graduation
ix. Career Development
• Connections with professionals and community members for learning and career
opportunities
• Greater academic learning, leadership skills, and personal efficacy can lead to greater
opportunity

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 x. Relationship with the Institution
• Stronger relationships with faculty
• Greater satisfaction with college
• Improved graduation rates
How Do I Benefit as a Student?
Through service learning, students:
• Learn more about their relationship with the communities they engage with
• Learn more about their capacity for serving others
• Refine their decision-making abilities and acquire other career-related skills
• Better understand the meaning of responsible citizenship
• Grow in their awareness of cultural differences

Faculty Benefits of Community Engagement

• Satisfaction with the quality of student learning
• New avenues for research and publication via new relationships between faculty and
community
• Providing networking opportunities with engaged faculty in other disciplines or
institutions
• A stronger commitment to one’s research
College and University Benefits of Community Engagement
• Improved institutional commitment to the curriculum
• Improved student retention
• Enhanced community relations
Community Benefits of Community Engagement
• Satisfaction with student participation
• Valuable human resources needed to achieve community goals
• New energy, enthusiasm and perspectives applied to community work
• Enhanced community-university relations

Topic-1- Sub-topic-5: DIMENSIONS OF GOOD COMMUNITY/SOCIETY

A community's health is made up of many separate but inter-related dimensions.

A healthy community is a place to live where all people can: Meet their needs: economic, social,
physical, cultural, and spiritual. Work together for the common good.

A healthy community is a place to live where all people can:

• Meet their needs: economic, social, physical, cultural, and spiritual.
• Work together for the common good.
• Participate in creating their future.
9-Common Dimensions of a Healthy Community

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A healthy community is a place to live where all people can: Meet their needs: economic,
social, physical, cultural, and spiritual. Work together for the common good. Participate in
creating their future.

1. Life-long Learning: All ages have access to educational opportunities that enable them to
participate in and contribute to the economic, political, social and cultural life of the community
to the fullest extent of their potential.
2. Inclusion: People consistently make the effort required to capitalize on the range of differences
in the community and intentionally seek ways to utilize the diverse backgrounds, experiences
and skills of everyone for the benefit of the whole community.
3. Recreational and artistic opportunity: Everyone has access to a variety of recreational and
artistic opportunities. The variety of opportunities available expresses the cultural backgrounds,
talents and experience of all community members.
4. Environmental stewardship: The community supports the environmental quality and
management of natural resources that best provide for a sustainable future. The community is
aware that it must decide between competing long- and short-term uses of its natural
resources.
5. Infrastructure and services: The community has adequate infrastructure and all people have
access to essential services, such as access to necessary services such as sanitary living
conditions, health and social services.
6. Safety and security: The community provides appropriate safety and security measures for all
and actively addresses the causes and consequences of violence. The community actively seeks
to aid all those affected by violence and to change the conditions leading to violence.
7. Community leadership: There are broad-based leadership structures in which many people fill
leadership roles. The same people, or same group of people, do not hold all the elected offices
or chair all the committees. Volunteers are numerous and reflect the diversity (age, gender,

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 ethnicity, etc.) of the community. There are opportunities for people to gain or improve the
skills that will help them be more effective in leadership roles.
8. Economic opportunity: All people can earn an income that allows them to live with dignity. This
dimension has a two-fold emphasis: economic opportunities that provide for adequate incomes,
and long-term viability through renewing and sustaining the human and other resources that
create the community’s economic advantages.
9. Spirituality and wellness: A healthy community recognizes that a person does best when they
are sound in body, healthy in mind, and grounded in values that direct their lives. Because the
community respects personal and cultural differences, there are opportunities to support
people’s efforts to live as “whole persons.”

How to: Identify Community Resources

Your community is rich with resources that can help your community work. Use the
9 Dimensions of a Healthy Community to help you see what those resources are, and
possible ways to connect them to your work.

A community resource assessment in 3 steps:

1. Gather: Bring together a diverse group of people to help you map out resources around an
issue or project. We suggest bringing representatives from all 9 dimensions.
• You can find the 9 Dimensions of a Healthy Community PDF Handout with descriptions at the
bottom of the page listed below:
2. Discuss Together
• State your goal or project.
• Use the 9 Dimensions graphic to identify resources contained in each dimension that can
help you move your project forward.
3. Ask the Group
Ask the following questions:
• What do you notice as you look across all the dimensions in relation to this project?
• What gaps did you discover?
• Who else should we be talking to about this project?
• What are our best resources available?
• Given these resources, what’s possible?
• What are our next steps?
• How can we support each other in taking the next steps?

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A healthy community does not exist solely based on the quality of its healthcare system, but
rather based on a range of social and economic resources needed for the health and well-being of
its residents in all aspects of their lives. For this reason, PHC wants to make sure we focus on the
broad determinants of health, as well as, encouraging our partners to do the same. To understand
our partnerships and goals is to understand what kind of community we want to create. This can
be further understood by our definition of a healthy community:

• Health is broadly defined as physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the
absence of disease.
• Health is strongly impacted by social and economic conditions that characterize poor
communities and communities of color.
• Approaches to health that focus on changing conditions and environments where people
live, learn, work, pray, and play are likely to have the greatest impact.
• Interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches to research, teaching, and service are
necessary to address the complex health challenges experienced by communities.
• Health is directly tied to quality of life and is a resource for living and working; therefore
healthy communities are essential to the social and economic well-being of our state and
nation.
• Working in authentic partnership with communities is not only essential to health
promotion, but is also a critical element of effective and sustainable University-
community relationships.

16
 • Working closely with communities helps to create a more relevant workforce that is more
skilled and more effective in meeting diverse community needs.

The word ‘community’ originates from the Latin communis, which can mean ‘affable’,
‘collective’, ‘common’, ‘open’, ‘public’, ‘social’, and ‘universal’

A community is defined as a group of people who have common characteristics.

o Communities can be defined by location, race, ethnicity, age, occupation, a shared
interest (such as using the same service) or affinity (such as religion and faith) or
other common bonds.
o A community can also be defined as a group of individuals living within the same
geographical location (such as a hostel, a street, a ward, town or region).

• A Community is a complex system with different dimensions.

• These dimensions may be present in all communities, but they may vary in size, degree,
and complexity.
• This characteristics of a community may be attributed to the combination of the
communities' human resources, natural resources, culture, structure, and other
factors.
• Bartle(2010) identified six community dimensions: technological, economic, political,
institutional, aesthetic value, and beliefs-conceptual. These are briefly describe in the
following table:

Dimensions Description
1. Technological The technological dimension of community is its capital, its
tools and skills, and ways of dealing with the physical
environment. It is the interface between humanity and nature.
• It is the community capital-its tools, and ways of dealing
with the physical environment.
• It is the interface between humanity and nature.
• This dimension is not compromised of the physical tool
themselves but of the learned ideas and behavior that
allow humans to invent, use, and teach others about these
tools.
• Technology is as much a cultural dimension as beliefs
and patterns of interaction are.
• It is symbolic.
2. Economic • It is the community's various ways and means of
production and allocation of source and useful goods and
services throught barter, market trade, state allocation and

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 others.
• This dimension is not about physical items like cash but
about the ideas and behavior that give value to cash (and
other items).
3. Political The political dimension of community is its various ways
and means of allocating power, influence and decision
making.
• The various ways and means of allocating power,
influence and decision-making.
• It is not the same as ideology, which belongs to the
values dimensions.
• It includes but is not limited to, types of government and
Management systems.
• It also includes how people in small bands or informal
groups make decisions when they do not have a
recognized leader.
4. Institutional The social and institutional dimension of community is
composed of the ways people act, interact between each
other, react, and expect each other to act and interact. It
includes such institutions as marriage or friendship, roles
such as mother/father, police officer, status or class, and
other patterns of human behavior.

• These are the ways people act, react, and interact with
each other, as well as the ways they expect each other to
act and interact.
• It includes institution like marriage or friendship; roles
like a mother or a police officer; status or class; and other
relationships that are sometimes identified as roles and
status, and the formation of groups and institution that
derive from those patterns.
5. Aesthetic value • The aesthetic-value dimension of community is the
structure of ideas, sometimes paradoxical,
inconsistent, or contradictory, that people have about
good and bad, about beautiful and ugly, and about
right and wrong, which are the justifications that people
cite to explain their actions.
•
6. Beliefs-conceptual The belief-conceptual element of community is anotht
structure of ideas, also sometimes contradictory, that people
have about the nature of the universe, the world around
them, their role in it, cause and effect, the nature of time,

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 matter and behavior.

Proposed Indicators for a Community Health Profile

Socio-demographic Characteristics
1) Distribution of the population by age and race/ethnicity
2) Number and proportion of persons in groups such as migrants, homeless, or the non-English
speaking, for whom access to community services and resources may be a concern
3) Number and proportion of persons aged 25 and older with less than a high school education
4) Ratio of the number of students graduating from high school to the number of students who
entered 9th grade three years previously
5) Median household income
6) Proportion of children less than 15 years of age living in families at or below the poverty
level
7) Unemployment rate
8) Number and proportion of single-parent families
9) Number and proportion of persons without health insurance
Health Status
10) Infant mortality rate by race/ethnicity
11) Numbers of deaths or age-adjusted death rates for motor vehicle crashes, work-related
injuries, suicide, homicide, lung cancer, breast cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and all
causes, by age, race, and gender as appropriate
12) Reported incidence of AIDS, measles, tuberculosis, and primary and secondary syphilis, by
age, race, and gender as appropriate
13) Births to adolescents (ages 10–17) as a proportion of total live births
14) Number and rate of confirmed abuse and neglect cases among children

Health Risk Factors

15) Proportion of 2-year-old children who have received all age-appropriate vaccines, as
recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices
16) Proportion of adults aged 65 and older who have ever been immunized for pneumococcal
pneumonia; proportion who have been immunized in the past 12 months for influenza
17) Proportion of the population who smoke, by age, race, and gender as appropriate
18) Proportion of the population aged 18 and older who are obese
19) Number and type of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency air quality standards not met
20) Proportion of assessed rivers, lakes, and estuaries that support beneficial uses (e.g., fishing
and swimming approved)
Health Care Resource Consumption
21) Per capita health care spending for Medicare beneficiaries (the Medicare adjusted average
per capita cost [AAPCC])
Functional Status
22) Proportion of adults reporting that their general health is good to excellent

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23) During the past 30 days, average number of days for which adults report that their physical
or mental health was not good
Quality of Life
24) Proportion of adults satisfied with the health care system in the community
25) Proportion of persons satisfied with the quality of life in the community

TOPIC-2: PRINCIPLES OF GOOD COMMUNITY SERVICE LEARNING

Principles of Community Service Learning and Pedagogy

Principle 1: Academic Credit Is for Learning, Not for Service

Academic credit is not awarded for doing service or for the quality of the service, but rather
for the student’s demonstration of academic and civic learning.

Principle 2: Do Not Compromise Academic Rigor

The perceived “soft” service component actually raises the learning challenge in a service-
learning course. Students must not only master academic materials as in traditional courses,
but also learn how to learn from unstructured and ill-structured community experiences,
merge that learning with the learning from other course resources, and satisfy both academic
and civic learning objectives.

Principle 3: Establish Learning Objectives

It is a service-learning maxim that one cannot develop a quality service-learning course
without first setting very explicit learning objectives. This principle is foundational to
service-learning.

Principle 4: Establish Criteria for the Selection of Service Placements

Requiring students to serve in any community-based organization as part of a service-
learning course is tantamount to requiring students to read any book as part of a traditional
course. Faculty who are deliberate about establishing criteria for selecting community
service placements will find that students are able to extract more relevant learning from
their respective service experiences, and are more likely to meet course learning objectives.

Principle 5: Provide Educationally-Sound Learning Strategies To Harvest Community

Learning and Realize Course Learning Objectives
Requiring service-learning students to merely record their service activities and hours, as
their journal assignment is tantamount to requiring students in engineering to log their
activities and hours in the lab.

Principle 6: Prepare Students for Learning from the Community

Most students lack experience with both extracting and making meaning from experience

20
 and in merging it with other academic and civic course learning strategies. Therefore, even
an exemplary reflection journal assignment will yield, without sufficient support, uneven
responses.

Principle 7: Minimize the Distinction Between the Students’ Community Learning Role
and Classroom Learning Role
Classrooms and communities are very different learning contexts. Each requires students to
assume a different learner role. The solution is to shape the learning environments so that
students assume similar learning roles in both contexts.

Principle 8: Rethink the Faculty Instructional Role

If faculty encourage students’ active learning in the classroom, what would be a commitment
and consistent change in one’s teaching role? Commensurate with the proceeding principle’s
recommendation for an active student learning posture, this principle advocates that service-
learning teachers, too, rethink their role.

Principle 9: Be Prepared for Variation in, and Some Loss of Control with, Student
Learning Outcomes
Given variability in service experiences and their influential role in student learning, one can
anticipate greater heterogeneity in student learning outcomes and compromises to faculty
control in service-learning courses.

Principle 10: Maximize the Community Responsibility Orientation of the Course

One of the necessary conditions of a service-learning course is purposeful civic learning.
Designing classroom norms and learning strategies that not only enhance academic learning
but also encourage civic learning are essential to purposeful academic learning.

References
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 1997. Improving Health in the
Community: A Role for Performance Monitoring. Washington, DC: The National Academies
Press. [Link]

Bringle, R. G., & Hatcher, J. A. (1996). Implementing service learning in higher education. The
Journal of Higher Education, 67(2), 221-239.

Bringle, R. G., Phillips, M. A., & Hudson, M. (2004). The measure of service
learning. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Capella-Peris, C., Gil-Gómez, J., & Chiva-Bartoll, Ò. (2020). Innovative analysis of service-
learning effects in physical education: A mixed-methods approach. Journal of Teaching in
Physical Education, 39(1), 102-110.

Furco, A. (2002). Is service-learning really better than community service? A study of high
school service. In A. Furco & S. H. Billig (Eds.), Advances in service-learning research: Vol.1.

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 Service-learning: The essence of the pedagogy (pp. 23–50). Greenwich, CT: Information Age
Publishers.

Furco, A. and Billig, S.H., (2002) Service-Learning: The Essence of the Pedagogy. Greenwich,
CT: Information Age Publishing.

Toole, J., & Toole, P. (1995). Reflection as a tool for turning service experiences into learning
experiences. Evaluation/Reflection, 63. [Link]

By Dr Sheila Mutuma
Analyzing community problem
CONTENT

Directions
• Determine the problem – Analyze root cause.
• Think of several possible solutions to the problem
• Generating and choosing Solutions
• Consider the consequences for each of their solutions.
• Pick the solution they think will work the best.
• Putting Your Solutions into Practice
• Present/Discuss the solution to the class.

Analyzing community problemAnalyzing community problems is a way of thinking carefully

about a problem or issue before acting on a solution. It first involves identifying reasons a
problem exists and then, identifying possible solutions and a plan for improvement.
Community Problems
• Communities are composed of people with various backgrounds, problems are inevitable.
Issues may start from families and further grow as a community matter. It is crucial to solve
each problem to avoid a bigger uproar.
• Although problems may differ per area, there are common issues that may guide both leaders
and members. Some of the community problems are as follows

✓ Lack of access to Clean Drinking Water

✓ Child Abuse and Neglect
✓ Crime
✓ Domestic Violence

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 ✓ Drug Use
✓ Pollution
✓ Lack of Funding for Schools
✓ Ethnic Conflict
✓ Lack of Healthcare Programs
✓ Jobs
✓ Housing
✓ Poverty
✓ Violence
✓ Racism
• A country won’t develop without solving pressing issues that hinder its success.
Problems must be addressed from the grassroots in order to progress. This is why driving
progress by solving local community problems is important for every nation. Learn how
the members and leaders could solve pressing issues in their local area.

To determine the barriers and resources associated with addressing the problem.
It's good practice and planning to anticipate barriers and obstacles before they might arise. By
doing so, you can mitigate them. Analyzing community problems can also help you understand
the resources you need. The better equipped you are with the right resources and support, the
higher your chances of success.
To develop the best action steps for addressing the problem.
Having a plan of action is always better than taking a few random shots at the problem. If you
know where you are going, you are more likely to get there.
Having a deeper understanding of a problem before you start trying to solve it helps you cover
all of your bases. There's nothing worse for member involvement and morale than beginning to
work on a problem, and running up against lots of obstacles, especially when they are avoidable.
When you take a little time to examine a problem first, you can anticipate some of these
obstacles before they come up, and give yourself and your members better odds of coming up
with a successful solution.
Every community problem benefits from analysis. The only possible exception is when the
problem is an immediate crisis that requires action at this very moment. And even then, reviews
should be conducted after to help plan for the next crisis.
However, there are conditions when an analysis is especially critical:

• When the community problem is not defined clearly

• When little is known about the community problem or its possible consequences

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 • When you want to find causes that may improve the chance of successfully addressing
the problem
• When people are jumping to conclusions and solutions much too soon
• When you need to find collaborative partners to help take action.

How Should I Analyze a Community Problem?

The ultimate goal is to understand the problem better and to deal with it more effectively, so the
method you choose should accomplish that goal. We'll offer some step-by-step guidelines here
and go over a couple of specific ways to determine the causes of the problem.
1. Justify the choice of the problem.
Apply the criteria we’ve listed above – frequency, duration, range, severity, equity, perception –
as well as asking yourself whether your organization or another can address it effectively, in
order to decide whether the problem is one that you should focus on.
2. Frame the problem.
State the problem without implying a solution or blaming anyone, so that you can analyze it
without any assumptions and build consensus around whatever solution you arrive at. One way
is to state it in terms of a lack of a positive behavior, condition, or other factor, or the presence
or size of a negative behavior, condition, or other factor.
3. Identify whose behavior and/or what and how environmental factors need to change for
the problem to begin to be solved.
This can be as straightforward as individuals changing their behavior from smoking to not
smoking, or as complex as persuading legislators to change laws and policies (e.g., non-smoking
ordinances) in order to change others’ behavior (smokers don’t smoke in buildings or enclosed
spaces used by the public) in order to benefit yet another group by changing the environment
(children are protected from secondhand smoke in public.)
4. Analyze the root causes of the problem.
The real cause of a problem may not be immediately apparent. It may be a function of a social
or political system, or may be rooted in a behavior or situation that may at first glance seem
unrelated to it. In order to find the underlying cause, you may have to use one or more analytical
methods, including critical thinking and the “But Why?” technique.
Very briefly, the latter consists of stating the problem as you perceive it and asking “But why?”
The next step is to answer that question as well as you can and then asking again, “But why?” By
continuing this process until you get an answer that can’t be reduced further, you can often get to
the underlying cause of the problem, which will tell you where to direct your efforts to solve it.
The difference between recognizing a problem and finding its root cause is similar to the
difference between a doctor’s treating the symptoms of a disease and actually curing the disease.
Once a disease is understood well enough to cure, it is often also understood well enough to
prevent or eliminate. Similarly, once you understand the root causes of a community problem,
you may be able not only to solve it, but to establish systems or policies that prevent its return.

24
5. Identify the restraining and driving forces that affect the problem.
This is called a force field analysis. It means looking at the restraining forces that act to keep the
problem from changing (social structures, cultural traditions, ideology, politics, lack of
knowledge, lack of access to healthy conditions, etc.) and the driving forces that push it toward
change (dissatisfaction with the way things are, public opinion, policy change, ongoing public
education efforts, existing alternatives to unhealthy or unacceptable activity or conditions, etc.)
Consider how you can use your understanding of these forces in devising solutions to the
problem.
Forces
A full force field analysis probably would include many more forces in each category.
6. Find any relationships that exist among the problem you’re concerned with and others in
the community.
In analyzing root causes, you may have already completed this step. It may be that other
problems stem from the same root cause, and that there are other organizations with whom you
could partner. Understanding the relationships among community issues can be an important step
toward resolving them.
We’ve already seen connections to lack of education, unemployment, lack of after-school
programs, and gang violence and crime, among other issues. Other organizations may be
working on one or more of these, and a collaboration might help both of you to reach your goals.
7. Identify personal factors that may contribute to the problem.
Whether the problem involves individual behavior or community conditions, each individual
affected by it brings a whole collection of knowledge (some perhaps accurate, some perhaps
not), beliefs, skills, education, background, experience, culture, and assumptions about the world
and others, as well as biological and genetic traits. Any or all of these might contribute to the
problem or to its solution…or both.
A few examples:

• Genetic predisposition for diabetes and other conditions.

• Lack of knowledge about healthy nutrition.
• Lack of knowledge/ skills for preparing healthy foods.

8. Identify environmental factors that may contribute to the problem.

Just as there are factors relating to individuals that may contribute to or help to solve the problem
you’re concerned with, there are also factors within the community environment that may do the
same. These might include the availability or lack of services, information, and other support; the
degree of accessibility and barriers to, and opportunities for services, information, and other
support; the social, financial, and other costs and benefits of change; and such overarching
factors as poverty, living conditions, official policy, and economic conditions.
Sample environmental factors:

• Poverty
• Lack of employment and hope for young men in low-income neighborhoods

25
 • Lack of availability of healthy food in low-income neighborhoods
• General availability – at school as well as elsewhere – of snack foods high in salt, sugar,
and fat
• Constant media bombardment of advertising of unhealthy snacks, drinks, and fast food

9. Identify targets and agents of change for addressing the problem.

Whom should you focus your efforts on, and who has the power to improve the situation? Often,
these may be the same people. The best solution to a particular problem may be policy change of
some sort, for instance, and the best route to that may be to mount an advocacy effort aimed at
officials who can make it happen. People who are suffering from lack of skills or services may
be the ones who can do the most to change their situation. In other cases, your targets may be
people whose behavior or circumstances need to change, and you may want to recruit agents of
change to work with you in your effort. The point of this step is to understand where and how to
direct your work most effectively.
Try this analysis out with a current problem in your own community [Link] do you
conclude?

• Analyzing community problems can be hard work. It takes real mental effort. We're not
used to sitting down and thinking deeply about a problem. (We're too busy!)
• Real community problems are likely to be complex. Economic development may depend
on the global economy, a force you can't have much effect on. You may have opposition,
either from within the community itself, or from powerful forces trying to protect their
own interests.
• When you go looking for reasons and underlying causes for significant problems, you are
likely to find more than one. Several different reasons may be influencing the problem, in
different amounts, all at the same time. It may not be an easy task to untangle all the
reasons and their relative strengths, but it may be necessary in order to reach a solution.
• The problem may not only have more than one reason; it may have more than one
solution too. Problems often call for multi-pronged solutions. That is, difficult problems
often must be approached from more than one direction. So in revitalizing the downtown,
you might want to (a) beautify the streets; (b) expand the staff of the chamber of
commerce; (c) run sidewalk sales; (d) look for outside loans; and (e) recruit new
businesses. These are all parts of the solution. Many different types of actions might be
necessary for revitalization.

When analyzing real community problems, the analysis may show multiple reasons behind the
problem. The analysis may not always be easy. The solution may be more difficult still.
But that's why problems are problems. Community problems exist precisely because they often
resist clear analysis and solution. They persist despite our efforts. They can be real challenges.
Yet this doesn't mean we are helpless. Analysis, including the analytic methods we have
described, can take you a long way. With good analysis, some resources, and enough
determination, we believe even the most troublesome problems can be addressed, and ultimately,
solved.

26
References
Avery, M., Auvine, B., Streibel, B., & Weiss, L. (1981). Building united judgement: A handbook
for consensus decision making. Madison, WI: Center for Conflict Resolution. (Available from
the Center at P.O. Box 2156, Madison, WI 53701 -2156).
Cox, F. (1995). Community problem solving: A guide to practice with comments. In Rothman,
J., Erlich, J., & Tropman, J. (eds.), Strategies of community intervention (5th ed., pp. 146-162).
Itasca, IL: F. E. Peacock.
Dale, D., & Mitiguy, N. (1978). Planning for a change: A citizen's guide to creative planning
and program development. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts, Citizen Involvement
Training Project.
Johnson, D., & Johnson, F. (1997). Joining together: Group theory and group skills (6th ed.)
Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Lawson, L., Donant, F., & Lawson, J. (1982). Lead on! The complete handbook for group
leaders. San Luis Obispo, CA: Impact Publishers.
Mondross, J., & Wilson, S. (1994). Organizing for power and empowerment. New York, NY:
Columbia University Press.

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PURPOSE OF COMMUNITY SERVICE LEARING; CHARACTERISTICS

The Community Service Learning Program (CSL) offers students opportunities to connect in
classroom learning with real life experiences in the community. This is done through both
curricular (course based) and co-curricular (open to all students) programs and projects with
community partners.

CSL is different from traditional volunteer work and experiential education (co-op, internships,
and practicum), in that the focus is not only learning but also service and the beneficiary is not
only the student but also the organization served. The goal is to educate students about their roles
as engaged citizens and leaders in their communities.

Service that meets community needs

The CSL projects are always issue based, meaning they will focus on actual issues and needs
identified by the community.

Academic content

CSL is able to enhance student learning by making connections between the theory taught in the
classroom and the application of those theories in real-life situations. The community
organizations involved become co-educators, providing valuable knowledge and insight into
what the students are learning.

Critical reflection

Critical reflection is the process where program participants use their critical thinking skills to
analyze their experiences, attitudes, beliefs, and how these were shaped or changed by the
project. Critical reflections are done through journal writing, small group discussion, writing
analytical papers, and reflective essays.

Importance of Community Services

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Thus, community service for students and college volunteering helps students to acquire
knowledge, life skills and provide service to people who need it most. Community service and
volunteering for college students give young people the opportunity to become active members
in their communities, creating a positive societal impact.

Some benefits of community service for students

Social Benefits

Because volunteering engages students directly with a community, it allows for a special bond
with those people or organizations being served. Community service for students increases social
awareness and responsibility as well. By committing to a project or activity with others, college
volunteering helps to build and strengthen relationships and make new friendships. Your social,
professional, and support network is bound to grow, introducing you to so many new people who
care about the same things as you!

Psychological benefits

By helping others, you will also decrease stress and depression. One of the major risk factors for
depression is social isolation. College volunteering helps you feel better about yourself and
increase overall satisfaction in your life by helping others and staying in regular contact with
others. Volunteer work with animals and pets has also been shown to reduce stress and anxiety
and boost your mood.

Boost Confidence

Are you shy, or do you have a difficult time meeting new people? Thankfully, volunteering gives
people, outgoing or not, the opportunity to develop and practice social skills by meeting with
people who share the same interests and goals. With college volunteering, you will become more
comfortable with your fellow volunteers over time and boost your confidence levels too.
Community service for students boosts self-confidence, self-esteem, and a sense of
accomplishment. This newfound pride will have positive effects on your present and future.

Cognitive Benefits

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While the benefits of community service for students include directly helping and making a
difference in an organization and the lives of people you are serving, it will also make a
difference in your career prospects. College volunteering helps students cognitively by
enhancing their knowledge, growing from new experiences, and developing and improving
interpersonal communication skills as well. You will gain new work-related skills through
community service, a better sense of social responsibility, and make a positive impact on your
community.

Staying Active

There are many mental benefits of volunteering, but there are physical benefits as well.
Volunteering keeps you physically healthy and lessens symptoms or risks of chronic pain,
depression, improves heart health, and more. Volunteering has many benefits to your physical
and mental health amongst others and therefore important for overall well-being.

Advance Your Career

College volunteering can directly help you get experiences in your areas of interest and meet
people in a professional field. Through things like teamwork, problem-solving, practicing
communication and organizational skills, planning and managing projects, and more, you will be
practicing skills learned and used in the workplace. Various volunteer opportunities provide
additional training, such as volunteering for a shelter or working in a childcare environment.
Volunteering can also allow you to hone skills you already possess and use them to benefit the
greater good in your community as well.

Boost Resume

Another importance of community service for students is to improve job prospects by boosting
your resume. Studies have shown that volunteering is connected to greater odds of employment,
and most employers are more likely to choose candidates with volunteering experience. College
volunteering, and volunteering at any age, will not only boost your resume but help you to stand
out professionally.

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Refresh

By participating in college volunteering, it can be easier to escape from your day-to-day

responsibilities or stressors. By exploring your interests while helping others, volunteering can
be a meaningful way to stay relaxed, refreshed, and energized. We all need time away from work
and obligations, and by taking a step back from worrying about yourself, you can make space to
help yourself grow. It can be helpful to explore an environment of volunteering that differs from
your professional or schoolwork, such as finding something to do outdoors rather than indoors or
something that requires movement if you are typically stationary.

Volunteering with Limited Mobility

If you are living with disabilities or are lacking time or transportation, there are ways to
volunteer over the phone or computer as well! Things like phone banking, graphic design,
writing, public relations work, and more can all be done from your home environment. If this
option sounds ideal to you, check out organizations you are interested in to see what
opportunities they offer.

Volunteering as a Team

While there are many benefits of community service for students, there are various benefits of
volunteering with your family, friends, and loved ones. It may be challenging to find time in
everyone’s schedules to coordinate volunteer work, but this is a great way to get to know
organizations in your community and find resources or programs available to your family and
friends. Volunteering with children is especially important because they are always looking up to
adults for what to do and how to behave.

How to Get Involved

The main importance of community services is to give back to others. Because so many different
organizations and initiatives exist, it is helpful to look at your interests and determine what
would be beneficial in your community as well. There are many ways to give back, and here are
a few ideas to get you started.

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 • Visit and provide care in an orphanage.
• Visit to an elderly neighbor.
• Help neighboring younger students with homework.
• Offer to grocery shop for an elderly neighbor or a neighbor living with different
disabilities.
• Offer to provide free childcare to family, friends, or neighbors who need it.
• Start fundraising or donating to an organization you care about.
• Organize or participate in a food or clothing drive.
• Donate food, clothes, and/or toys.

Be the Change

Volunteering can benefit you as much as the organization you are volunteering at, and you are
bound to build many new friendships, boost your social and professional skills, expand your
social and professional network, improve your quality of life, and so much more. The importance
of community services is greater now more than ever after a pandemic that has upended the lives
of so many people worldwide. Whether you are new to this experience or not, your time is
valuable and useful, and the benefits of community service for students are endless.

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