Class Descriptions

Community Development

SW650

Course Description

This course examines methods of community development as a process in which people join together and develop community-based programs and services at the local level to create community change, with or without assistance by outside agencies. It emphasizes ways in which residents can take initiative, contribute to collective action, and help themselves through community-based business and economic development, health and human services, popular education, and housing and neighborhood revitalization projects. It includes innovative examples of community development in urban and rural areas, as well as examples that involve diverse communities of interest taking into account ability, age, class, color, culture, ethnicity, family structure, gender (including gender identity and gender expression), marital status, national origin, race, religion or spirituality, sex, and sexual orientation. Special emphasis is placed on initiatives which involve individuals and families in positive pluralist and multicultural efforts to integrate human, social, economic, and community development to build upon their strengths and assets rather than focus solely on their problems and needs.

Objectives

Upon completion of the course, students will be able to:
1. Identify the changing context of community development, including the social, political, and economic forces affecting communities at their diverse constituencies relevant to ability, age, class, color, culture, ethnicity, family structure, gender (including gender identity and gender expression), marital status, national origin, race, religion or spirituality, sex, and sexual orientation, as well community of residence". (Practice Behaviors 4.CO, 9.CO)
2. Recognize alternative concepts of community as pluralist and multicultural units of solution. (Practice Behaviors 3.CO, 6.CO)
3. Assess the needs and assets of low income communities as defined by the communities themselves. (Practice Behaviors 10.a.CO, 10.b.CO)
4. Analyze the roles and responsibilities of community development workers as facilitators of efforts by communities to empower themselves. (Practice Behavior 5.CO)
5. Analyze organized efforts by community residents to increase interaction, take initiative, plan programs, and help themselves through community-based business and economic development, health and human services, housing and neighborhood revitalization, with or without assistance from outside agencies and practitioners. (Practice Behaviors 10.c.CO, 10.d.CO)
6. Develop practical skills for understanding and working with racial and ethnic groups in economically disinvested, racially segregated, and/or culturally diverse communities e.g., assessing community needs and assets, power structure analysis, finding and developing leaders that represent diverse constituencies, building organizational capacity and institutional structures, researching local history, and popular education). (Practice Behaviors 1.CO, 4.CO, 10.a.CO)
7. Recognize and address ethical and value issues which arise in community development practice situations. (Practice Behavior 1.CO)

Design

Responsibilities may include readings, participatory discussions, written assignments, and experimental exercises related to course materials