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The term service has potentially problematic connotations for CEVC's approach to co-creating more just and equitable communities. Pompa (2002) articulates our reservations: “If I ‘do for’ you, ‘serve’ you, ‘give to’ you—that creates a connection in which I have the resources, the abilities, the power, and you are on the receiving end. It can be—while benign in intent—ironically disempowering to the receiver, granting further power to the giver. Without meaning to, this...replicates the ‘have-have not’ paradigm that underlies many social problems” (p. 68). CEVC actively works to counter this us-them dichotomy with Mitchell's (2008) critical approach to S-L that “is unapologetic in its claim to dismantle structures of injustice...[by] working to redistribute power amongst all participants in the S-L relationship, developing authentic relationships in the classroom and in the community, and working from a social change perspective” (p. 50).

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