Suggested strategy for on-boarding community partners to participating in the ASPiRE program. Presentation created by Steve Tyler.

1. ASPiRE
Community Partners
On-Boarding

2. Agenda
 ASPiRE’s objectives and unique experience
 Success for our Community Partners
 Engaging the students
 Next Steps

3. ASPiRE Objectives
When completing the ASPiRE experience,
VCU students will be able to…
 Define and explain “service learning,” citing
actual experiences and examples
 Identify and apply theories of citizenship, social
movements, civic leadership, and social justice
 Apply academic theories to address local
community issues

4. What Makes ASPiRE Unique
 Students learn together and live together
 Life-learning through community partner
experiences
 Coursework that parallels real-time service
learning experiences
 Service learning that aligns with students’
chosen college paths and majors

5. Creating the Experience
 ASPiRE is a unique learning experience
within the students’ VCU college career
 Sophomores apply to be accepted into ASPiRE
 Includes a specific four-semester curriculum
 Students also pursue the coursework associated
with their selected college major

6. Community Partners –
Success!
Group Discussion:
 As a group, let’s brainstorm two ideas:
 What will a successful experience look like for
you and the students working within your
organization?
 Describe what an unsuccessful experience
would look like.

7. Community Partners –
Success
 How to ensure a successful engagement:
 Planned course of action
 Having a plan to engage students so that they will be
part of the solution
 Constant communication
 Between faculty, community partners, and students
 Periodic “check-ins”
 Faculty and community partners have monthly
check-ins to discuss progress and observations

8. Community Partners –
Success
 How to ensure a successful engagement:
 Faculty preparedness:
 Provide community partners with a clear idea of the
learning expectations
 What should the students take away from this
experience?
 Each faculty member will find out what support
their community partner will need in order to
accomplish the goals
 Agree upon the best ways to communicate
 Frequency; preferred communication paths

9. Community Partners –
Success!
Group Discussion:
 What else can the faculty do to help you
prepare you for working with the students?

10. Community Partners –
Success
 How to ensure a successful engagement:
 Community partners preparedness:
 Work with the faculty member to verify what the
students should take away from the experience
 Ask what the support the faculty member will need
in order to accomplish the goals
 Agree upon the best ways to communicate
 Frequency; preferred communication paths

11. Community Partners –
Success!
Group Discussion:
 What other ideas do you have that
community partners might do to prepare
for the students working in your
organizations?

12. Engaging the Students
 Student involvement:
 Faculty provides students with an overview of
the learning objectives and expectations
 Explain to students what they should take away from
this experience
 Clearly define performance expectations as part
of the syllabus
 Participation, attendance, effort, professionalism,
behaviors, applied learning

13. Community Partners –
Success!
Group Discussion:
 Let’s brainstorm two lists:
 List what you can do to engage students
 List what might be done that could cause a
disconnect with students

14. Community Partners –
Success!
Group Discussion:
 How do you plan on engaging the students
in your organization’s mission and work?
 How should we utilize students for
learning, and not just as an extra “pair-of-
hands?”
 Share examples of things that the students
might work on in your organization

15. Engaging the Students
List of what to provide students:
 Welcome and introductions
 Organization chart and contact info
 An overview of what the service does for
the community
 Procedures, processes, policies
 Calendar of events and deliverables
 Work assignments and schedule
 Job descriptions

16. Next Steps
 Dates when students will begin working
with community partners
 List of students assigned to each community
partner
 Community partner’s schedule of work
assignments, expected deliverables, and
project due dates
 Communication agreement between faculty
and community partners

17. Next Steps
 What other action items or deliverables do
we need to add to our preparation list?
Action Item Who is Due Date
or Deliverable Responsible?

18. Conclusion
Let’s agree to…
 Constantly communicate information,
changes, observations, and ideas
 Be totally prepared for a successful launch
and program experience
 Foster a collaborative relationship
 Follow up on our commitments to each
other