Community Partners

The Center for Community Engagement promotes participatory citizenship, facilitates campus-community forums that focus on issues of shared concern and creates partnerships for problem-based service learning, research, and creative activities.

The Center for Community Engagement views community partners as co-educators who collaborate with faculty to provide high-quality service learning projects for students on a semester basis. Community partners play the role of providing training, orientations, guided reflection, hands-on learning task/assignments*, and supervision. Community partners would work with service learning students for 20 hours per semester to help students gain a greater understanding of their coursework.

Community partners are essential to the service-learning experience. By collaborating with CSULB faculty and students, community organizations provide meaningful, hands-on opportunities that integrate academic learning with real-world community engagement. These partnerships enhance students' understanding of social issues, develop critical skills, and inspire civic responsibility.

Detailed Partnership Development Process 

To establish a formal Service-Learning Partnership, organizations must complete the Request to Initiate Partnership Form on CSULB’s S4 system. This form will be reviewed by the Center for Community Engagement (CCE) staff. If additional information is needed, CCE will follow up with the organization.

Once approved, a Student Fieldwork Placement Agreement (SFPA) (also known as an Affiliation Agreement) will be sent to the organization for signature. Once the agreement is finalized, service-learning partners can collaborate with faculty to develop meaningful engagement opportunities that align with course objectives.

The CCE Office will help connect service-learning partners with the appropriate academic departments and courses that best fit the organization's needs.

Your interest in community engagement and our office is what drives us to help you as best we can! If you are interested in a service-learning partnership or would like to know more about our program, please contact our service learning team at cce-SL@csulb.edu or 562-985-7131 

  • Affiliation Agreements Information
  • Volunteer Opportunity + Events

Learn About Community Service Learning

Service learning is a high-impact educational practice that integrates meaningful community engagement with academic coursework. Service Learning courses emphasize civic engagement, community collaboration, and reflective learning. Service learning is an opportunity for public, community-based, and faith-based organizations to partner with CSULB faculty and students in addressing significant community needs and/or issues and, in the process, help students develop a lifelong ethic of service and civic engagement.

Service learning is designed as a way to better understand the concepts of a particular course and is not necessarily connected to one's major or chosen career.

Service learning is generally around 20-30 hours per semester (about 1 ½ - 2 hours per week), and focuses on non-profit and/or public (governmental or educational) organizations that meet significant community needs that focus on public service rather than on profit.
Service learning students do not receive monetary compensation for their time since it is part of an academic class.

Service learning is almost always integrated into a regular academic course that requires demonstrating an understanding of course concepts by showing how the service-learning experience relates to course content through classroom discussion, reflection journals, papers, and/or exams.

Service-learning experiences are course-integrated, meaning they are designed as part of a structured academic curriculum, ensuring students engage with community partners in a way that aligns with both the course objectives and community needs. These experiences involve structured risk management agreements between CSULB and the community site, defined learning outcomes, ongoing faculty oversight, and formal evaluations. Additionally, service-learning projects typically follow the semester calendar to align with coursework.

  • Links academic study to community service through intentional learning goals and structured reflection to enhance both learning and service.
  • Emphasizes active learning in different environments.
  • Must involve service activities that are relevant to both the course learning objectives and to the needs of the community.
  • Values reciprocity, with the community (community-based organization and community members) and academic (faculty and students) partners sharing the roles of learner, server, and educator to meet both academic and community goals.
  • Engages students in responsible and challenging community service that meets identified community needs.
  • Allows students to reflect critically on their experiences.
  • Is integrated into the course and not an "add-on" or extra work.
  • Provides credit for doing community service. Students will be graded on the learning related to the service, not on the service itself.

What is the Process for Establishing a Service-Learning Agreement?
  1. Identify a Partnership Opportunity
    • A CSULB faculty member or staff initiates the process by identifying a community partner whose work aligns with course learning objectives.
  2. Initiate the Agreement
    • A Student Fieldwork Placement Agreement is generated via DocuSign.
    • The document is sent to an authorized representative at the community organization (typically a CEO, Executive Director, or HR/legal contact).
  3. Approval and Signatures
    • The organization signs the agreement, after which it is routed to the appropriate College Dean at CSULB for final approval.
  4. Implementation
    • Once the agreement is finalized, students can begin engaging with the organization as part of their service-learning coursework.

For modifications to an agreement or if an organization prefers CSULB to sign its own agreement template, please coordinate with the Center for Community Engagement at cce-sl@csulb.edu 

What is a Student Fieldwork Placement Agreement (SFPA) and Why is it Required? 

The SFPA is a formal agreement between CSULB and the service-learning site. It outlines:

  • The roles and responsibilities of both the university and the community partner.
  • Risk management protocols to ensure a safe and productive learning experience.
  • The expectations for supervising and supporting students during their service-learning experience.

An SFPA is required for all service-learning courses to ensure students are placed in a structured, supportive environment that meets both academic and community engagement standards. More information about this agreement can be found on the CSULB Contract Management website.

What is the Service-Learning Timeline? When Will Students Be Available?

Service-learning projects follow the semester calendar at CSULB. Community partners should plan ahead and recruit students at least one semester in advance.

  • Fall Semester: August – December
  • Spring Semester: January – May
  • Summer Session: May – August

You can review the 2024-2025 Academic Calendar here.

  • Connecting @ The Beach
  • Community Partner Awards/Celebration