Making connections: an approach to digital social work through a service-learning project

In the 21st century, higher education institutions (HEIs) must operationalize their commitment to sustainable development by actively promoting collective well-being by training socially responsible and supportive human resources. In this sense, the learning service appears as a pedagogical approach capable of providing a rich, creative, co-constructed context and systematic articulation between scientific knowledge and practice. This study stems from a service-learning experience in a social work degree course at the Portuguese Catholic University. The aim is to understand how this approach enables the consolidation of transversal skills and meaningful learning. This experience lasts 14 weeks. Students are challenged to develop and carry out a project in collaboration with a partner association that manages, supports, and supervises families that house elderly people and/or adults with disabilities. The lack of responses and their inadequacy make it urgent to expand and create resources that offer personalized care, i.e., attentive to each person's specific needs. In methodological terms, this is a qualitative exploratory study involving interactive diagnosis and planning cycles. It resulted from a dynamic of effective collaboration between students (14), teachers (2), and a social worker representing the partner institution. From the group dynamics and the participatory diagnosis (using techniques such as brainstorming and the problem cloud), the central aspect emerged: the need to create a digital platform to publicize the work carried out by the institution to attract members and potential foster families; and access to recreational and technical information to support foster families. On the one hand, this approach highlighted the students' ability to respond to complex challenges with creative solutions. Still, on the other, it demonstrated the potential of digital social work to complement traditional practices. The results of the ongoing study highlight the commitment and active participation of the students in the process, which were fundamental to developing a project that reflects a deep understanding of the association's needs and community support. The process was not straightforward; this was marked by moments of questioning, skepticism, and divergent enthusiasm, which required careful management of emotions in the face of the intensity of the interactions and perspectives defended and agreed upon. These aspects put the teachers' knowledge of theoretical-practical, technical-operational, ethical, and social policy areas to the test, as the issues raised were unexpected and not managed by a script of programmatic content. The preliminary results of the service-learning project point to the potential of this approach in developing critical thinking, creative thinking, collaboration, and teamwork, and very significantly in the sense of usefulness created by learning experiences that respond to concrete community needs and contemporary challenges, such as the aging population.