From the fraternal exchange among the members of Uniservitate, the initiative “A Decalogue of Lessons Learned” emerged, seeking to address the question of how to regionally manage a global service-learning programme in Catholic Higher Education. It is a collaborative guide that can be used by those who promote service-learning and, particularly by specialists, faculty, professionals and authorities who support other institutions, participate in, or are in the process of managing a Regional Hub in Uniservitate.
For several months in 2023, representatives from three of the following seven Uniservitate hubs worked jointly during online meetings: Latin America and the Caribbean, Western Europe South, and Central Europe and the Middle East. An international team was formed, accompanied by María Rosa Tapia, Andrés Peregalli and Candelaria Ferrara, from the Uniservitate coordination. The referent universities of each hub —the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, the University of Deusto and the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt— shared their experience during the three years of accompanying the service-learning institutionalization process of other institutions.
The authors of the “Decalogue” state in the introduction: “This document was created with the intention of collecting and passing on the knowledge acquired from the experience of coordinating the universities accompanied during the first stage of the Uniservitate project”. In a different paragraph, they state: “We value the opportunity to continue strengthening the Uniservitate Programme with initiatives aimed at mutual, horizontal and democratic learning, closely linked to the core of the service-learning approach.”
This joint work identified sixteen recommendations which, based on experience, are presented in the text under four main headings: context and preliminary steps; project coordination and logistics; talent management and team strength; and evaluation, discussion, and celebration.
The authors of the initiative anticipate that it is not a manual or compendium of instructions but rather a document with guidelines on relevant factors and actions that may be useful for those who choose the enriching path of community-based service-learning. According to the authors, the central objective of the “Decalogue” is that the reflection on the support of the hubs to the universities that make up the programme, contributes to reinforcing good practices, fostering a culture of collaboration, commitment, and mutual support with the accompanied universities.
Candelaria Ferrara, responsible for Regional Hubs from the coordination of Uniservitate, affirmed that “they especially value the fact that in the second stage of the programme, bonds are strengthening in concrete actions of exchange between hubs and that the singular experience of each region contributes to the systematization and production of knowledge about the trajectory that they have as referents of the programme.” She added: “In this case, the association between hubs was based on the Spanish language, but the material was translated and shared with the others, and the experience became a product of the global network”.