Putting Partnerships on Paper: Creating Service Engagement Opportunities in Kinesiology and Recreation

The purpose of this article is to describe a model for creating a successful service engagement partnership with a community organization that may lead to the development of a short- or long-term service engagement project or course. The article explains how to create a successful partnership, including how to identify and choose the right community partner, the importance and development of a memorandum of understanding, and procedures for evaluating the partnership. Examples of two successful partnerships with two different structures, at two different universities, with one organization (Special Olympics) will be used. One partnership has produced a service-learning course for a sport management program that includes service-engagement opportunities for physical education, health, and exercise science students, while the other partnership has resulted in a three-tiered service-engagement project that involves interns, two community recreation and nonprofit leadership classes, and a co-curricular registered student organization. Lessons learned from this article can be replicated in other higher education programs, as well as in elementary, middle, and secondary education settings.