Written and presented in 2018 at the Transforming Service Conference in Melbourne, GH considers this paper a definitive statement on the origins of the 7Rs, his service learning philosophy and the ACSL.

My underlying fear is that an increasingly large percentage of young people appear to be graduating from schools with the idea that service endeavour is best provided through faceless transactional donations rather than the donation of time - in which real people are actually present and walking alongside others in a service relationship.

Why a theme song for a centre of service learning? That’s a good question. Maybe it’s me just wanting to safeguard this notion that the arts should always be a presence in and around service endeavour… Art’s willingness to dive into the pool of the intangible through creative expression can actually provide a powerful voice to the disempowered, misunderstood and invisible.