How+program+&+organizational+structure+shapes

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**How program/organizational structure shapes the performance and sustainability of student led co-curricular community service program ** John Sarvey, Executive Director, School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs, Northeastern University [j.sarvey@neu.edu]

**Keywords:** Organizational structure, student led service, co-curricular service, sustainability, programmatic model

**Track:** Organizational change and sustainability

**Format:** Poster presentation

Robust, high-quality, and consistent student led co-curricular service programs are a critical element of overall institutional civic engagement. While service-learning courses provide the opportunity to go deeper with analysis and reflection and convey faculty guidance to students, service-learning will not constitute the primary platform through which students engage in long-term (i.e., 1-4 years of sustained, regular involvement in a particular volunteer opportunity). Most students will be much more likely to sustain their involvement if serving within a social structure, like a co-curricular service program.
 * Summary **

An informal assessment of student led, co-curricular community service programs reveals a strong correlation between program strength (quality, sustainability, capacity to engage, and outcomes) and program structure. Nearly all programs assessed as “strong” share a common organizational / programmatic model. The intent of this session is to invite examination of the model and to help inform a research design to test the hypothesis that this model is a key contributor to program strength and consistency.

Additionally, we are in the process of developing an organizational change/development program for institutions interested in developing or adapting this model for their community service program. Institutions that sign up will be assigned a pair of consultants to help implement the model. We are interested in integrating a participatory evaluation effort as part of this capacity-building program.

A strong, broad base of students engaged in a high-quality service program helps build a critical mass of student interest and demand for service-learning courses on campus. Securing faculty and administrative support for service-learning is much easier when students are asking for it and course enrollments in service-learning courses are high. Research to confirm that there is a particular organizational/programmatic model that contributes substantially to program strength can contribute to advancing the field.

There were no references provided with this proposal.
 * References **

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