Geography, Citizenship and Volunteering: Some Uses of the Higher Education Active Community Fund in Geography

Abstract

Voluntary work with local communities has been advocated as beneficial for geography students, higher education institutions and the public. In England, the Higher Education Active Community Fund (HEACF) has recently been established by the Government to encourage staff and students in higher education to undertake voluntary work in local communities. This paper reports on the use of HEACF funding to develop voluntary work projects for geography students at the University of Plymouth. It examines the student experience of voluntary working and concludes that it helps students to develop as both geographers and active citizens in their local communities.

Keywords:

• Voluntarism
• citizenship
• geography with the community
• service learning

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to Brian Chalkley for direction towards relevant literature on work-based and community-based learning. Thanks are offered to Tim Hall and the referees for their encouraging comments on this paper. Thanks also to the students and partners for their participation in the pilot ‘Geography with the Community Scheme’ and for providing honest feedback during the interviews.