Connecting Passions with What the World Needs in a Community Context
Understanding and identifying our own passions, talents, and interests involves introspection and reflection. For most students, this knowledge is easily accessible as it is concerns themselves and their experiences. Bringing meaning to goals can involve helping students identify connections between what they love and something the world needs. Once they have made that connection, they can further enhance the value of their project work by identifying a community context where their passion (the "me") intersects with something the world needs (the "we"). This does not mean that personal projects must be service projects and community contexts are varied. However, through this process of goal identification, project value is enhanced as students connect their passions with something the world needs in an authentic community context.
The model shown below guides students in identifying product and learning goals for their project with the aim of enhancing the impact of the project on the student as a learner by finding connections between the project, their community, and the world.
Resources for Identifying "What the World Needs"
Numerous frameworks, like the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Social Cohesion and Justice Framework, have been developed that highlight areas of importance globally and locally. Students should use these frameworks to connect their passion and topic for a project with areas of importance on global or local scales. While they could also identify such areas through independent research, these frameworks are key tools supporting goal identification. Below is a non-inclusive list of resources:
Resources for Identifying Community Assets
Once an area of personal interest has been connected to an area of global or local significance, students can use a variety of tools to support identifying community assets that their projects can be based in. Students may identify community contexts without formal analyses, however, supervisors should guide students to consider multiple options as a key stage in the planning process. Below are two resources that can help (again, this is not an exhaustive list):
Below is a sample of a Community Asset Map from Inspiring Communities:
