Leadership and Community Organizing

Catalog description

Fulfilling the democratic promise of equity, accountability and effectiveness requires the participation of an “organized” citizenry able to formulate, articulate, and assert its shared interests effectively. Organizing, in turn, requires leadership: accepting responsibility for enabling others to achieve shared purpose in the face of uncertainty. Last revised 3/25/16 2 Organizers identify, recruit, and develop leadership; build community around that leadership; and build power from the resources of that community. In this course, students will study leadership through the lens of community organizing in order to develop the critical knowledge and skills necessary to work in teams to achieve specific outcomes in the pursuit of a shared purpose. Students will “practice” leadership by developing a strategy and producing artifacts to mobilize members of a constituency to work together to achieve specific outcomes in pursuit of a shared purpose culminating in the submission of a capstone portfolio that chronicles their work.