Community Building
Certificate Program
Instructor: Airick Leonard West
Community Building is the practice of connecting formal and informal resources (assets) around shared values for shared interest. In this course, you will use what you have learned about yourself (from Personal Strengths and Problem Solving) and about working with others (from Facilitation and Relationship Building) in the context of Community Building.
Session 1: Awareness
A prerequisite to effective community building is a deeper understanding of assets, community building and which assets already exist in your community to build upon. In this case, assets are both physical and personal — the make-up of skills and talents of people in the community. Connecting this inventory to community building goals provides path for getting to success that you may not have considered in the past. Hidden assets are gems in your community waiting to be used.
Goals: Clearly define community building; distinguish between asset-based and deficit-based strategies; build awareness and skills that incorporate asset-based community building strategies; summarize the steps of effective community development; create a community asset map.
Session 2: Acknowledgement
Recognizing the role we, as neighborhood leaders, play in the creation, disruption, or connection of assets is a critical access to realizing the full potential of the assets at our disposal. What role can you as a neighborhood leader, take in connecting the inventory of assets to the community building goals of your neighborhood. Your behaviors as a leader are strongly tied to the successful outcome of community building. You will learn specific leadership behaviors and skills that will enhance the likelihood of successful community building in your neighborhood.
Goals: Understand the behaviors associated with asset-based community building; recognize the importance of modeling appropriate behavior.
Sessions 3, 4, 5: Action
When awareness and acknowledgment are present, steps toward community building proceed swiftly and potently. The balance of the Community Building sessions will have you doing the work of connecting assets through the development and implementation of a community building project. Each session is designed to advance your project from conception to reality, monitor your progress, and provide group feedback on what's working, what's stopping your success, and how to make adjustments as you go.
Goals: Outline a community building plan; create outcome measures for the community building plan; create a community building plan; implement the community building plan; receive constant community building coaching.
Lead instructor: Airick Leonard West
