Lynn Sutankayo is a partnership coordinator at University of Alberta’s (North Campus) Community Service-Learning (CSL) unit, where she focuses on matching academic courses with community partners and providing opportunities for students to engage with community partners through volunteer experiences built into a course. She tells us about how a strong relationship built on trust and support can help a partnership grow.

How did you first start working with the Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers (EMCN)?

has collaborated with CSL as a Community Partner in the curricular CSL program since 2005. When I began working at CSL in 2012, EMCN hosted around 7 students from 1-2 courses per semester. The homework club volunteer position was a popular CSL placement then, and remains to this day. EMCN’s homework clubs are after school or weekend programs that offer children and youth from grades 1 to 12 the opportunity to work with an adult or older youth volunteers for help with homework, language skills and social skills.

How did that work evolve?

The reciprocity that comes with co-creating successful CSL projects each term created a trusting working relationship between Partnership Coordinator staff and EMCN volunteer Coordinator staff over the years. Since 2005, I estimate that EMCN has worked with at least 15 different courses and, with increased capacity on both our sides, they have worked with as many as 40 students in a semester. EMCN has incorporated new activities into programs facilitated by CSL students from courses that teach about play leadership, inquiry-based learning, comedy and other diverse fields. EMCN has also partnered with courses to explore new projects. For example, this past semester, while continuing to host CSL students in homework club roles, EMCN connected with CSL students to film an educational video. The semester before that, CSL students supported the development of training resources for volunteers. Those are just a few of the examples of projects that our partnership has inspired. To make projects happen term after term and to continue working with each other to build upon successes requires a particular type of relationship. For us, that relationship includes trust, mutuality, reciprocity, and one where we can provide each other positive and negative feedback. There is a common satisfaction there, and that relationship is part of the ‘infrastructure’ of supporting our ability to work with each other to make those tangible kinds of outcomes happen.

You’ve mentioned the positive changes that EMCN has implemented. What has CSL’s role been in developing that level of trust you mentioned?

Something CSL strives to do well is listen to organizational needs and ideas and respond to the interests and creativity that surface in friendly conversation. I think that is part of a community-first approach—starting where the community is at. Community organizations, like faculty, are at different points in their community engagement journeys. Some may want to start with a small number of students in 1 CSL course, while other organizations may be interested in a large-scale engagements involving several courses and students. We can offer ideas, and organizations like EMCN are willing to experiment and innovate. Ultimately, we decide together the type of engagement that has the greatest chance for everyone – students, instructors, and the organization – to be successful. It’s also important to recognize that ‘increased engagement’ doesn’t need to result in a increasingly larger number of participants. There is also a type of increased engagement that ‘deepens’ the relationship. For example, a deepened relationship is one where we can talk frankly about setbacks, yet agree to continue working together and to improve on the process for next time.

What have been some of the highlights of your work together?

CSL partnered with EMCN to co-design a course called CSL 350, an ‘Introduction to Community-based Research’. It was taught by our CSL director, David Peacock, a member of the CFICE team, in collaboration with EMCN’s researcher and volunteer coordinator, who participated as a community co-educator. Based on the research from that course, and EMCN’s expertise and experience, EMCN has developed a homework club best practices guide to be shared city-wide with practitioners who work with newcomers and youth. The homework club model is common in Edmonton, and so this guide is an important resource.

Most recently, we have co-written a federal government grant proposal. The grant was to build the social capital of 40-50 newcomer and diverse youth, ages 16 to 18, to participate in service learning activities based upon EMCN’s unique family-centered approach to youth settlement. The funding, if granted, will go towards EMCN and another community partner to implement the program. CSL supported the grant-writing process and we will participate in the proposed program to link youth with CSL student volunteers.

One of the most significant drivers in this work is the energy and innovation brought by EMCN’s volunteer management staff. These staff saw the potential that CSL students could bring as volunteers in their programming. A highlight for me is the relationship I have been able to form with EMCN’s volunteer management team. It’s trusting, it’s energizing, it’s motivating, and it’s responsive in the ways we support each other’s work. That kind of close working relationship has been valuable to my own learning about reciprocity.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

University of Alberta Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

The biannual WRRCEA conference, a collaborative effort of universities in Western Canada and the Western United States with graduate programs engaged in the study of the education of adults, will be hosted by the Department of Educational Policy Studies, University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada.

Proposal submissions are due no later than June 1, 2015

Conference Theme

This year, the conference will be organized around the theme of Reanimating Adult Education: Conflict, Violence and Learning. The theme is meant to invoke ideas and debates about possibilities for adult education in the shifting global landscape of violent conflict, colonialism, capitalism, imperialism, gender and other inequities, and neoliberalized spaces. Participants are invited to explore their research and practice in relation to these contextual factors. How might adult education scholars, researchers, practitioners and activists bring new life to the field?

Proposal submissions are invited to respond to this theme or to broader considerations in the study and practice of adult education.

Types of Proposals and Sessions

The WRRCEA 2015 conference committee welcomes proposals in the areas of theory, research, policy and practice. As a principle of adult education, audience participation in all sessions is encouraged. All proposals will be peer reviewed. Full papers, along with summaries of roundtables, posters and symposia, will be published in the digital conference proceedings.

• Full Paper (50 minutes): ĚýFull paper presentations report on complete or nearly complete work.
• Research Roundtables (50 minutes): Informal discussions of research in progress and research opportunities are facilitated through research roundtables. Several roundtable discussions will take place concurrently in the same room with each presenter assigned to a different table.
• Posters: Posters offer an opportunity to share informal, visual presentations of completed research or research in progress.
• Symposia (90 minutes): In symposia participants explore diverse or conflicting perspectives on a compelling topic or issue that is or should be of concern to adult education practitioners. A symposium is intended to be a dialogue, not only a presentation of a related set of papers.

Proposal Format

All proposals should be submitted electronically to wrrcea2015@gmail.com

Please include authorial information along with primary author contact information in your email only. The proposal itself should not include any identifying information.

Proposals should be a maximum of three pages, double-spaced and include:

• Proposal title and presentation type
• Abstract (150 words maximum, will be included as is in the conference program)
• Proposal (identify the guiding question, theoretical framework, and significance of the work)
• Session description (describe how you will engage participants, the proposed sequence of events, what materials participants will receive, why the presentation methods are appropriate for the session, and how the session promotes active learning)

Proposal Deadlines

• Proposal submissions are due no later than June 1, 2015
• Accepted proposals will be confirmed by June 15^th
• Full papers/summaries for inclusion in the WRRCEA Conference Proceedings are due no later than August 15, 2013

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