ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the development and accomplishments of the University of California at Los Angeles Community Scholars Program (CSP) as one prototype of service-learning. Classes were designed to build local leadership by training “students” in the skills needed to speak knowledgeably at public meetings and in content built on neighborhood issues that students brought into the classroom. The community design movement can be traced to a 1968 speech in which Whitney Young chastised the members of the American Institute of Architects for their inaction in the Civil Rights movement. While advocacy planning addressed the voicelessness of residents living in threatened communities, it generally stopped short of giving them a voice in directing the planning and making them true collaborators. The CSP draws on numerous traditions within not only urban planning and architecture but broader social movements including civil rights and labor. The most influential traditions include popular education, labor and neighborhood colleges, and institutes that focus on leadership and organizing.
