Croatia

The Center for SL operates at the Faculty of Economics in Split and implements the SL program through the Professional Practice-SL (SP-DKU) course. The goal of the Center is to strengthen cooperation between civil society organizations (CSOs) and higher education institutions in jointly solving social problems in the community and building young people as socially active and aware citizens.

Students can participate through the SP-DKU Elective Course, and those students who have the option of enrolling in elective courses in the last year of undergraduate, professional, graduate and specialist graduate professional studies can enroll. The topics are Marketing, tourism, entrepreneurship, environmental protection, web and media, humanitarian actions etc. – no so much materials.

In addition to practice, they also hold a two-day competition - Hack4Split is a two-day competition (hackathon) aimed at solving social problems and designing social innovations. It brings together individuals with specific knowledge who find solutions to problems in their local community, in accordance with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Center for SL from Faculty of Economics in Split was made through the project who was co-financed by the European Union from the European Social Fund and the Office for Associations of the Government of the Republic of Croatia and is still ongoing.

University of Rijeka (UNIRI), since the academic year 2007/2008, the methodology SL has been applied in the courses Strategic Management, Market Research and Promotion at the Faculty of Economics in Rijeka and the course Evaluation Research at the Faculty of Philosophy in Rijeka. But also the methodology can be applied to any course taught at the University. It was a part of project "University in the community" 2015 and now is a part of regular education programmes on Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Rijeka (FFRI) and Faculty of Economics in Rijeka. In the strategic plan/action plans of the FFRI, SL is explicitly included in strategic guidelines and performance indicators (cooperation with associations and institutions).

Students and Community college - elective courses on university level, open for all UNIRI students - each semester around 80 students enroll these courses and engage in various local communities, collaborating mostly with NGOs and addressing various social issues.

Project ""Involving persons with Down syndrome in the implementation of sustainable development goals through service learning" – SUSTAINABLE SERVICE-IN DS" is funded by the European Commission under the ERASMUS + 2020 program, Key Action 2 – Strategic Partnerships for Adult Education. Contains documents on SL in activities with vulnerable groups.

The purpose of the project SLUSIK is to promote and support social inclusion by enhancing the acquisition of social and civic competences and fostering knowledge, understanding and ownership of values and fundamental rights in school leavers. Through project is developed a PLACE model (A service learning curriculum to be used in secondary schools for students aged 12-16 incorporating role model component and NFE methodology) and training Toolkit for teachers (https://www.slusik.eu/outputs/).

Project is ongoing and co-financed by the Erasmus+ program of the European Union, and is led by the European Volunteer Center (Belgium) in cooperation with Out of the Box International (Belgium), the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Rijeka (Croatia), the University in Limerick (Ireland), the University of Granada (Spain), the Faculty of Education in Vienna (Austria) and the Matej Bel University (Slovakia).

AG LIKA, Nikola Tesla Polytechnic in Gospić and HGSS Gospić develped project Tesla for Service Learning. The activities are intended for the students of the Nikola Tesla Polytechnic in Gospić to be actively involved in the work of local civil society organizations through seminar classes, to strengthen their analytical and advocacy skills, and to ensure the sustainability of the work of civil society organizations through practical work.

Part of the project activities is aimed at increasing the visibility of the work of civil society organizations and the importance of volunteerism for the sustainable development of the local community (through voluntary actions, association fairs, online platforms for volunteer programs and SL programs). Project is closed.

The Service Learning Office was established on January 7, 2019 with the aim of providing support for socially useful learning as a pedagogical approach that encompasses and develops civic engagement in higher education and enriches the process of acquiring knowledge through critical reflection on the complex causes of social problems and mutual cooperation on a joint project.

Services and activities of the Office:

• organization, preparation and implementation of workshops, seminars and trainings covering topics related to the implementation, improvement and evaluation of socially useful learning
• coordination of socially useful activities, courses and programs that exist in the components
• teacher counseling related to the implementation of socially useful learning in existing or new courses
• teacher counseling related to improving the quality of existing courses and socially useful learning
• developing instruments for the evaluation of socially useful learning
• informing teachers about the services and activities of the Office
• informing the public about socially useful learning and socially useful learning projects realized at the units
• conducting research on the topic of socially useful learning
• preparation and production of publications
• institutional networking

The manual "Reflect with knowledge -  Service Learning in practice" was prepared during the implementation of the project "Reflect with knowledge - start a community": Faculties and associations together for the sustainable development of local communities.

The project was designed with the idea of ​​encouraging and supporting the cooperation of higher education institutions and civil society organizations (CSOs) by applying the method of Service Learning (SL) and directly involving students in the work of associations for community development and the common good. Students and teachers of two faculties (Faculty of Economics and Faculty of Graphics, University of Zagreb) were involved in the project activities, who implemented the method of socially useful learning in nine courses. 20 Zagreb associations were also involved in the project. The manual contains forms designed for better implementation and monitoring of the SL process.