Bringing Undergraduate Service-Learning Into a High-Risk, Urban Environment

This chapter describes the development and administration of a service-learning pilot program that is a one-credit adjunct to the three-credit Community Psychology course and Atypical Child Development course. Because conditions that contribute to unrealized personal potential, sociopathy, and poor health are prevalent in urban areas, and because the incidence rates of poverty, crime, mental illness, and undereducation are highest in these areas, they have been deemed “high-risk” and become the target of many preventive social, educational, and health programs. Many courses in psychology and other social sciences focus on these high-risk, urban environments. More than an appreciation for interpersonal similarities, comprehension is the goal of service-learning supervision. In addition, critical group analysis of causal mechanisms that explain what students experience at their placement sites and the cooperative development of strategies to implement intended changes are key to effective service-learning supervision.