Multiple partners are participating to the course, including:

• street outreach education
• migrant/refugee integration in the reception system and youth migrant integration in educational and community setting
• support for displaced Palestinian families
• violence against women (prevention and support)
• social inclusion and occupational integration of disabled people (including young people),
• education for sustainability
• health promotion and prevention,
• integration of marginalised people (drug users, homeless)
• harm reduction.

The need is defined by the community organisation filling a grid prepared by the course instructors. The community organisations are familiar with the community psychology approach and are informed about the content/competence methods that the students are supposed to learn during the theoretical and operational models of Community Psychology (6 ECTS). The community organisation clarifies the activities that they propose to students, and which kind of competences they believe that students can gain through the experience. They share the grid with the instructors who revise them if the activities are not relevant enough, if it is not clear which competences students may learn/train and how. The students involved may identify specific (sub)needs. In some organisation the needs are not identified in advance: students participate in the activities, and they are the ones that identify needs and offer solutions.

The collaboration is based on respect and mutual trust. Community organisations acknowledge that the perspective, the ideas of psychology students can be beneficial in terms of need analysis, project proposals and concrete -small scale solutions. They offer students a situated knowledge of the users/experiences/contexts they work with, the possibility to enter into a team (usually multidisciplinary). In some cases, the organisation gains future employees through SL.  Partners are co-designers as they propose the activities according the need they identify, and co-educator as they act as site supervisors, offering the students advice, support and engaging them in reflective sessions on the activities.  Partners meet instructors during the implementation of the service activities, for reciprocal monitoring and ongoing evaluation.

The course is a module of Laboratory I, that offers 7 ECTS, half in Community psychology, half in clinical psychology. There are 7 channels of  Community Psychology Lab, two of them adopt the service-learning methodology, allowing 25 to 30 students (the class is made of 100 students).  Attendance is mandatory. Through the service-learnig methodology, students apply methods and tools of Community Psychology in the design (and possibly the implementation) of an analysis and/or intervention project with the community aimed at contrasting marginality and social exclusion and prevention/promotion of well-being.

Service activities: The activities focus on emerging issues and challenges identified by (and with) local organizations, involving students actively with the goal of addressing community social needs in a framework of social justice and sustainable development, according to community psychology principles and methodologies. The specific service activities depend on the typology/main activity of the organisation. Usually they include:

• familiarisation with the organisation and its culture
• participatory observation
• support to organizational core activities (e.g., outreach activities for organisations working with marginalisation, support to educational or prevention activities), that allow students to familiarise with the organisation approach and methodologies
• identifying specific need and design
• and (if possible) implementation of specific intervention/product/resource for the need identified

Learning activities:

• Theoretical input on service-learning, social justice, decolonial approach, active citizenship, Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture;  
• Learning about the specific topic/target/issue/experience the organisation deals with;  
• Group-based work and implementation;  
• Collection and analysis of qualitative and/or quantitative data, production of documentation materials, and presentation to local stakeholders.

Students make decisions with regard the intervention/product/resource to provide to the organisation.

Reflection takes up a fundamental position in the course. This is made explicit at the beginning of the module. Reflection is supported by the completion of a reflective individual journal, small group sessions with instructors and regular meetings with site supervisors . Reflection takes place before, during and after the service activity.

• attend in-class activities, fieldwork, and the final presentation to stakeholders and the community 
• participate in drafting and presenting a final report/presentation (individual or group) that documents the experience.  
• produce an individual reflection on the process and learning using a reflective journal and participating in monitoring sessions 
• submit a letter to the tutor (site supervisor) of the organization where the service/community-based activity was carried out 
• complete a pre -post questionnaire evaluating the experience 

Values

• Valuing democracy, justice, equality and the rule of law

Attitudes

• Respect
• Responsibility

Skills

• Analytical and critical thinking skills
• Listening and observing skills

Listening and observing are asked as “service“ activities, critical thinking is stimulated during reflective sessions (and with specific questions of the reflective journals). Responsibility, respect, and social justice perspective are discussed as grounding feature of service-learning and Community Psychology, asked as main posture, and discussed with instructors during in-class reflexive group sessions.

• context/community analysis
• identifying needs and community resources in collaboration with local organizations (associations, NGOs, public services) through observations and/or conducting interviews and focus groups with the target population
• design of the intervention (goals and methodologies)
• plan for evaluating the proposed actions in collaboration with local organizations

• limited implementation
• lack of institutional support
• administrative rigidity, in particular issues with insurance coverage for students participating in off-campus activities that are not formally classified as internships

• strong community partnerships
• institutional support