Authentic Community Partnerships - How do you acknowledge community partners?

The Ontario regional CSL network is a great source of support, ideas and innovation for CSL practitioners. As my colleague from Georgian mentioned, it is a great place to harvest ideas, share tools and processes, and collaborate with one another.  It is also a network where traditional boundaries between college and university, faculty and staff dissolve to allow for open and honest conversation about student engagement.  

The focus on yesterday's meeting was on Authentic Community Partnerships and the question was asked "how do you acknowledge community partners?"  Some of the ideas shared by the group include:

- A shout out on social media 
- Thank-you card(s) written by the student(s)
- Holiday e-Cards
- End of term celebration
- Professional development workshops, institutes 
- Sharing info, resources, databases, or offering space on campus

Remembering to thank our community partners is one way for us to acknowledge that service-learning is:

            Reciprocal - there is potential for learning and impact for the student, community and practitioner. A thank-you acknowledges the community partners time and commitment to our students learning  (Mintz & Hesser, 1996)

           Collaborative - both community and institution work together to establish needs and goals, each contributing a unique set of knowledge and skills.  A thank-you acknowledges the community partners contribution of knowledge and skills toward student learning (Mintz & Hesser, 1996)  

How do you acknowledge community partners? Share your ideas below:

References:

Mintz, S. D., & Hesser, G. W. (1996). Principles of good practice in service-learning. In B. Jacoby, Service-Learning in Higher Education: Concepts and Practices (pp. 26-52). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.