Community-Based Experience

Catalog description

The purpose of this course is to provide students with opportunities to engage in the integration and application of theory and practice through a community-based experience. Students will explore the pragmatic, nuts-and-bolts type issues of the community-based experience to a more in-depth exploration with concerns such as hierarchical relationships in service-delivery contexts, the implications of human rights, and the long-, -political, -economic, and -cultural contexts. As such, students will examine the implications of social identities and positionality in relation to social locations such as race/ethnicity, gender, social class, sexuality, national origin, religion, for experiences in the field as interns and eventually as human rights practitioners. During this process, students will engage in critical analysis and thoughtful reflection in exploring and challenging their values, assumptions, perceptions, and biases related to their work as practitioners in communities. This course is designed to ensure accountability and feedback through the community-based experience at three levels: supervision/evaluation by site supervisor; coordination/consultation with the instructor; and co-reflection/discussion with fellow students. Students must actively participate in a community-based experience at a local human service agency for 10 hours per week, for a semester total of 120 hours. The 10 hours should be allotted either in one full-day and/or half-day increments so that the student may maximize the richness of the experience. Students will begin the community-based experience by the first week in the semester, and continue in the same site through the end of the semester. Community-based experience sites are community based, non-governmental, or governmental agencies that incorporate a focus on human rights and must be approved by the instructor. These sites can be located on local, regional, statewide, or international levels. Appropriate field settings include a wide range of human rights systems such as child welfare, criminal justice, educational, family services, health, mental health, schools, shelters, etc. The program participants of a given field agency may be individuals, families, groups, organizations, and/or communities. Offered: spring.