Access to Higher Education Service Learning in Rural Areas Randy Stoecker Charity Schmidt University of Wisconsin

Background to the Project Community-based research focused on 64 Madison area nonprofits Community impact and concerns Expansion to the rest of Wisconsin

Methodology Lack of existing data Lack of tracking Lack of interest Table 1:  Higher Education Institutions Contributing Data Total Number Contributing Data UW universities 13 12 UW colleges 4 Technical colleges 6 2 Private institutions 20 9

Distribution of Service Learning in Wisconsin

Access to Service Learning in Rural vs. Urban Areas   Access to Service Learning in Rural vs. Urban Areas Table 3:  Percent of nonprofits hosting service learners by region Wisconsin Exempt Organizations: urban/surburban Wisconsin Exempt Organizations: rural Total number of nonprofits 15494 16524 Number of nonprofit service learning hosts 801 124 Percent of total nonprofits hosting service learners 5.3% 0.6% Combined Wisconsin and IRS database:  urban/surburban Combined Wisconsin and IRS database:  rural 32179 32808 2.5% 0.4%

Implications Why the inequality of access? How do we address the inequality of access? Does it matter?

Get the Paper http://comm-org.wisc.edu/drafts/wisl.htm