2019 Continuums of Service Conference

The main goals of this presentation are to share what we have learned about designing and implementing a community engagement experience that is co-created with our South African partners in Makuleke Village and to have a conversation with others about the opportunities and challenges of this model. First, this session foucses on the creation of this community engagement experience. While it has evolved over the last seven years, it has always relied upon a partnership between USD, the non-profit Sharing to Learn, and a Makuleke-based student group called the Equalizers. We believe that there are important lessons to be learned from how these partnerships have developed and deepened over the years. Second, the Youth Leadership Workshop is co-created each year with our partners and has focused on a variety of specific issues. The Workshop itself provides an opportunity for the USD students and the Makuleke students to address issues of power and privilege through specific activities that address our unequal global power positions. And third, the presenters will discuss some of the failures they have experienced while doing this program in Makuleke and the ways in which they have sought to respond to these failures.