To expand and strengthen the network of Catholic Higher Education Institutions (CHEIs) globally in order to make a critical, original and innovative contribution to the goals of university education in the contemporary context.

 To promote the development of service-learning projects and to contribute to its institutionalization as a pedagogical practice in CHEIs on an international scale.

To promote the training of human resources to encourage the design, implementation and evaluation of service-learning projects.

To research and produce knowledge about the spiritual dimension of service-learning in order to collaborate in the design of educational models related to the identity and mission of CHEIs considering multicultural contexts.

 To make available to the entire university educational community – both religious and non-confessional – the academic production of the programme, the experiences implemented within its framework and a series of bibliographical resources edited by experts in the field.

UNISERVITATE is an initiative of Porticus and is coordinated by the Latin American Centre for Solidarity Service-Learning (CLAYSS).

Porticus coordinates and develops the philanthropic endeavours of the Brenninkmeijer family whose social commitment dates back to 1841 when Clemens and August Brenninkmeijer founded the C&A company. In 1995 Porticus was born, and has grown to become one of the most committed institutions to work with the challenges of our time and to create a sustainable future where justice and human dignity can flourish.

The Latin American Center for Solidarity Service-Learning – CLAYSS – is a leading organization for service-learning in Latin America, and a reference worldwide. It promotes the development of solidarity service-learning in both formal and non-formal education, and advises policy-makers, NGOs and community leaders, educators and students.

The actions developed by the Programme are aimed at multiple actors: higher education authorities, educational planning teams, professors, students, communities. The participation of each one of them will make possible the transformation of the teaching proposals from the implementation of service-learning projects.

The Programme’s grid format will allow 200 universities and higher education institutions to be integrated over three years from the “pioneer hubs”. In the first stage, 20 institutions have already been added and accompanied in their process of institutionalization of service-learning.

Research and reflection
The aim is to investigate and produce knowledge about the spiritual dimension of SL in the CHEIs around the world, in order to develop meaningful models for the construction of the CHEIs’ identity and mission, taking into account multicultural contexts.

Building a global network
Through the creation of regional hubs and local centres, the aim is to create a system of horizontal communication – bringing together all CHEIs – which will contribute to the development and exchange of original and challenging experiences of SL and contribute to critical reflection at the global level. Within this framework, a Global Award will be promoted to recognize and make visible the best educational practices in CHEIs and to propose global quality standards for SL.

Training for institutionalization
Institutionalizing SL projects in higher education requires the development of an intensive training of trainers and leaders programme, which includes management teams, coordinators and proffesors. Initially, the project extends to 20 institutions that have been selected to develop their SL institutionalization processes.