My experience has been that the creation of service learning projects is best done through collaborating with faculty. This helps to assure faculty ownership of the project leading to a stronger involvement by their students. This enhances the curriculum of the course through the "targeted teaching" as well as enabling students to see the application of their course learning outcomes.
The community agencies that are involved in the service learning projects not only receive needed support, but come to have a better understanding of the value of the educational institutions and their students.
At this period of time, it is most important that institutions and the communities wherein they reside and with whom they serve enter into mutually positive relationships.
