The consolidation of service-learning in Fundesplai and in free-time education

Abstract

This article reviews the expansion of service-learning at Fundesplai (The Catalan Leisure Time Foundation) and in the wider context of informal education. Over the past 15 years or so, multiple strategies and mechanisms have guided us from initial implementation to the consolidation of service-learning within the organisation. Through actions focusing on promoting education during leisure time with a transformational will, Fundesplai proposes that service-learning represents the integration of two aims that are central to the foundation: firstly, the promotion of competency and skill-based work for young people, and secondly, placing social engagement at the core of the socio-educational programmes that the foundation carries out. The introduction of service-learning in the foundation is helping to train young people who will not only be competent but who will also be able to take on new challenges, reflect critically and take action in their environment, seeking, altruistically, to achieve a positive impact on their communities.