Unity through Community Service Activities - by August John Hoffman & Norma Espinosa Parker & Eduardo Sanchez (Paperback)

About the Book

Community service work is rapidly becoming a defining factor in how individuals interact with each other, and more importantly, how people define and achieve meaning within their own lives. This text addresses the power of community service work and its guiding principles to bridge cultural divides, facilitate interethnic group development, and reduce ethnocentrism and ethnic conflict. Simply stated, it defines ways in which people of different cultures and ethnicity can learn to appreciate their diversity while using that strength to improve their communities.

Book Synopsis

Community service work is an ideal way not only to help define how young people deal with each other but actually to facilitate these interactions and help them achieve meaning in their lives. This book addresses community service ways to overcome divisions, foster multicultural group development, and reduce ethnocentrism and ethnic conflict.

About the Author

August John Hoffman is a professor of psychology at California State University Northridge and El Camino College-Compton Center. His research interests include community service work and student mentoring as effective methods to reduce ethnic conflict and improve self-efficacy among community college students. Born in Havana, the late Norma Espinosa Parker was a developer of the CCC Cultural and Fine Arts Academy, whose more than 300 students from different backgrounds, cultures, and races were enrolled in a summer and after school music program. Eduardo Sanchez is a psychology student at California State University Northridge. He collaborates with Hoffman on various research projects involving community relations. His research interests include interracial interaction through community service work. Julie Wallach is a graduate of California State University Northridge. She has co-authored more than a dozen articles with Hoffman.