Keywords

Utah, Boy Scouts of America, service, students

Abstract

This article presents a case study describing a robust fortyeight- year partnership between the Boy Scouts of America, Brigham Young University, Utah Valley State College, and others in an annual merit badge Powwow1 for Boy Scouts. Service-learning occurs as five hundred university students and faculty prepare for and teach merit badge classes to five thousand Boy Scouts as part of this Powwow. The article presents the history and operation of the Powwow, describes benefits to participants, and identifies some of the factors that contribute to the enduring nature of the partnership. The case study suggests that partnerships are similar to ecosystems, in which context and ideology and participant and organizational goals overlap to ensure partnership adaptation and survival. This particular partnership has demonstrated that a service-learning program with all its complexity and propensity to dissolution is more than self-perpetuating; it is actually partnership-perpetuating.

Original Publication Citation

Daynes, G., Howell, S. & Lindsay, N. (2003). The ecosystem of partnerships: A case study of a long-term university-community partnership. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, 8(2), 135–150.