Course Description
This course will provide students with critical thinking skills and experience based tools for assessing community needs and resources and making community decisions. The course introduces students to the development tools of community assessment (listening to the community) and project design, monitoring and evaluation. At the end of this course participants will have the skills necessary to involve the community in in its own restoration. This course is geared for students who have a passion for social change, and have hopes to nourish this passion by providing a conceptual framework for organizing and advocacy, policy practice and social service and social change leadership. It focuses on the role of the professional in community advocacy and organizing settings, problem analysis and problem framing, an overview of theories of community and social justice, and community and organizational assessment methods. The course explores theories, models and approaches to organizing, advocacy and community development; and emphasizes the organizing skills necessary to empower people so they can improve their communities. Finally, it covers various aspects of community leadership. Participants in this course will develop the skills necessary to engage a local community.
Prerequisite
Enrollment in Charter Oak’s partnership program with College Unbound. Completion of Cornerstone Course. The College Unbound program is a competency-based program that is a hybrid of on-site cohort support/online course system. With that, course materials are delivered online, but students are frequently asked to engage with fellow students and their communities’ in-person.
Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs)
Students who successfully complete this course will be able to:
- Summarize the theoretical basis of community practice social work, including theories of social justice, communities, and organizations.
- Distinguish between and apply different community organizing strategies, including social action, asset-based development, community development, grassroots organizing, and neighborhood revitalization, based on the specific community context.
- Delineate and develop proficiency in the major tasks, processes and technologies of community organizing.
- Design a community based project/Create baselines, budgets, targets and indicators.
- Identifying, analyzing, and implementing evidence-based interventions designed to achieve community goals; using research and technological advances; evaluating program outcomes and practice effectiveness.
- Analyze project idea for connection to community need and conduct a community validation of community assessment report
- Craft a personal philosophy of community development.
- Engage, assess, intervene, and evaluate with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.
- Developing, analyzing, advocating, and providing leadership for policies and services; and promoting social and economic justice.
- Identify strengths and assets that exist within communities and groups and employ intervention models that help build upon them.
- Employ knowledge, skills and appropriate conceptual frameworks and theories to tailor a range of evidence-based interventions at organizations and various levels of communities.
General Education Outcomes (GEOs)
Please check the applicable GEOs for this course, if any, by outcomes at GEO Category Search, or by subject area at GEO Discipline Search.
Course Activities and Grading
| Assignment(s) | Weight |
|---|---|
Weekly Discussion Board and Participation | 10% |
A Philosophy of Community Development | 10% |
Community Assessment | 20% |
Review of Community Assessment Report (CAR) | 20% |
Case Study Analysis | 10% |
Personal and Process Evaluation | 10% |
| Final Paper | 20% |
Total | 100% |
Required Text
- Hardcastle, D. & Powers, P. (2011). Community practice: Theories and skills for social workers. 3rd. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN-13: 978-0-19-539887-8
Additional Resources
- Rowe, W. Clayton Rowe and Hugh T. Brewster, Community Assessment: Listening to the Community, World Vision Canadian Programs (version 2012)
- Rowe, W. Clayton Rowe and Hugh T. Brewster, Project Design, Monitoring and Evaluation: Responding with the Community (LEAP 2), World Vision Canadian Programs. (Version 2012)
- Henry David Thoreau's Civil Disobedience
Course Schedule
| Week | SLOs | Readings and Exercises | Assignment(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1,2,13 | Understand the Concepts of Community Assessment and Design
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2 | 2,3,5 | Theories of Community Systems, Social Learning and Social Capital
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3 | 9,10,11 | Discovering the Life of the Community: Completing a Community Assessment
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4 | 4,5 | Deciding What Information You Need to Gather |
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5 | 5,9,10 | Community Issues |
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6 | 8,12 | Understanding the Evidence and Providing Leadership
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7 | 10,13 | Describe the Barriers and Resources for Addressing Identifed Issues |
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8 | 11,12,13 | Completing the Design of a Community Based Project
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COSC Accessibility Statement
Charter Oak State College encourages students with disabilities, including non-visible disabilities such as chronic diseases, learning disabilities, head injury, attention deficit/hyperactive disorder, or psychiatric disabilities, to discuss appropriate accommodations with the Office of Accessibility Services at OAS@charteroak.edu.
COSC Policies, Course Policies, Academic Support Services and Resources
Students are responsible for knowing all Charter Oak State College (COSC) institutional policies, course-specific policies, procedures, and available academic support services and resources. Please see COSC Policies for COSC institutional policies, and see also specific policies related to this course. See COSC Resources for information regarding available academic support services and resources.