Introduction to Community Development
Dedicated to gender equality? Keen to improve health across all age groups? Want to reduce plastic pollution or the poaching of endangered species? Want to help create greater food or water security?
All these causes, and many more, require the engagement of local communities. Our Introduction to Community Development course, which is offered in partnership with Richmond University, provides the theoretical background that will allow you to carry out this type of work effectively and ethically.
The course material is based on GVI’s more than two decades of practical experience conducting community development initiatives in locations around the world in close collaboration with local communities. In fact, because we want all our community development interns to know how to conduct community development work, this course is included in the program fee of all our community development internship abroad programs.
Course Information
Course starts: 18 May 2020
Enrolment closes: 13 May 2020
Duration: 1 week
Time Commitment: 15 Hours
Format: Online
Option Extra: GVI Program Abroad
Costs: Flexible Payment Options
Skills you’ll Acquire
After completing this course you’ll be able to:
- identify the common pitfalls of most community development initiatives
- incorporate community development thinking into other development plans
- know what best practices to follow when implementing community development initiatives
- recognise methodologies used to monitor and evaluate community development programs
- understand the reasoning behind different definitions of community development.
Course Curriculum
In this course, you’ll explore different definitions of the term “community development” and learn how each displays an underlying ideology. Study the history of the term “community development” and efforts designed to empower communities. In the process, uncover your own preconceptions and discover the common pitfalls of these types of initiatives.
Learn about best practices in community development including the importance of keeping local context front-of-mind during any community development project. Learn how local factors, such as financial security, gender norms, religion, infrastructure, history, and national policies affect a community’s objectives. Find out why it’s important to always keep your own context in mind.
Getting the buy-in of a community is important if the initiative is to succeed. This course will teach you about how to engage communities at different levels using a variety of techniques. Learn how to use the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) approach to identify the strengths of a community and create an inventory of the community’s capacities.
Find out how to set the outcomes of a community-based initiative and understand the difference between negative and positive impact.
Finally, the course will teach you how to balance the requirements of financial donors to the community development program with the objectives and welfare of the community itself. You’ll learn how to conduct a stakeholder map and find out how to manage expectations and conflict.
Orientation to our online learning platform
Module 1: Introduction to community development
Module 2: Understanding a local context and its priorities
Module 3: How to engage with communities
Module 4: The ethics of stakeholder management
Module 5: Best practice in community development and implementation tools
EARN A CERTIFICATE
Want to show colleges, universities and employers that you’ve got the knowledge and skills covered in this course? Once you’ve successfully completed any of our courses, we’ll send you a digital certificate of completion at no additional cost. The certificate will feature the official name of the course, your name, the date and a signature from your course instructor. Add the certificate to your college application, your graduate school application, your job application or your LinkedIn page.
GVI ONLINE IN PARTNERSHIP WITH RICHMOND SCHOOL OF PROFESSIONAL & CONTINUING STUDIES
