Community Organization: Community Work for Social Justice

Catalog description

This course focuses on community work as a major approach to social change and highlights community participation as a means to address social determinants of health. The course explores concepts relevant to community engagement and examines how gender, race, ethnicity, power, and structural racism inform community work. The roles of community members, institutions, public health practitioners and others in improving or hindering community work is also examined. The course stresses critical thinking and application of community work skills with an emphasis on participatory approaches, empowerment, intersectionality, community assessment, group process for partnership development, and evaluation of community-level programs. Common strategies for community-level change will be discussed in the context of case study reviews.