Duke University
EN-11: Continuing Education

Approaches to Community Development 2 CEUs Duration: 5 Weeks Description: Explore both the structure and practice of community development around the world. Engage in a critical analysis of different approaches to community development, their historical development and underlying assumptions.  Gain an understanding of the structural and practical issues that promote or detract from the goal of community empowerment. Upon completion of this course participants will be able to: • Outline the historical development and underlying assumptions of different approaches to community development. • Identify the issues faced by the rapidly changing field of community development. • Distill key structures and practices for becoming more effective. Community-Based Food Systems 2 CEUs Duration: 5 Weeks Description: The cultivation, preparation, distribution, and consumption of food are practices that shape how we organize ourselves socially, economically, and politically. Control over food is central to the sustainability and self-determination of communities. In this seminar, you will learn about different approaches to building community-based food systems and movements for food justice around the world. Together, we will evaluate various strategies for protecting community food resources and rebuilding local food economies, as well as the factors that threaten these efforts. With special consideration for marginalized communities in the global North and South, students will develop a conceptual toolkit and set of resources to help them assess the limitations and possibilities of their own community’s food system. Upon completion of this course participants will be able to: • Understand the historical and economic “root causes” of global hunger, peasant displacement, and environmental degradation. • Understand the key differences between the “dominant paradigm” of food system change and alternative models based in food sovereignty and food justice. • Identify concrete examples of political and practical strategies, in the global North and South, for promoting community-based food systems and evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies. • Support local and global movements for community-based food systems by engaging in informed activism. Community-Based Health 2 CEUs Duration: 5 Weeks Description: Access to health care and other resources, such as nutritious foods, employment, clean water, safe housing, education, etc. are crucial to maintaining health and well-being. In an ideal world, everyone would have access to these essential means for survival; however, it is all too apparent this is not the case for many communities and populations around the world. It is desirable, therefore, for those groups who are not supported by a formal health care system to seek alternative solutions for the resources they lack. Using case studies and other readings, along with group discussion, this course will explore the global, social, political, economic, and cultural factors that contribute to poor health. It will also look at methods for empowering communities who lack access to health care to create practical solutions that are relevant to their unique situations. Community-Based Participatory Research will be one of the key strategies dealt with in this course due to its focus on promoting change at the grass roots level. Upon completion of this course participants will be able to: • Identify micro and macro level factors that affect health and well-being. • Collaborate with communities to evaluate their needs in regard to health and cultivate ideas for appropriate actions to address those needs. • Provide support for community-based solutions to health issues by establishing connections to information and resources. Community-Based Mapping 2 CEUs Duration: 5 Weeks Description: Mapping can be a powerful tool for communities to use to better manage their resources, plan for the future, record and utilize local knowledge, raise awareness about areas of concern in their environmental and social landscape, and communicate their priorities and concerns to external agencies or government officials. This course will explore theories, ethics, applications, and methods of community-based mapping and its role in participatory learning and action as well as larger processes of integrated community-based development. This course, while drawing on many of the recent case studies, academic writings, and reports from the field, will be highly interactive and will emphasize the sharing of experiences, ideas, and insights from course participants. Upon completion of this course participants will be able to: • Understand the basic principles, theories, and ethics of community-based mapping and its role in community-based development. • Identify which mapping methods and tools are most appropriate to achieve the desired objectives in your community. • Locate and utilize existing geographic information data sets, online and elsewhere, for specific project areas. • Learn some basic mapping functions (including projecting GPS coordinates onto a map, downloading and projecting satellite images, creating features from aerial imagery, and more). Community-Based Organizing 2 CEUs Duration: 5 Weeks Description: The importance of an approach to community development that increases the rights of poor and marginalized people within governing structures has never been more apparent. Situations of severe oppression and marginalization demand organizing techniques that go beyond a traditional “hand-out” style approach to development. Taking a practical hands-on perspective, this course will explore the theories, tools, styles, and challenges of community-based organizing. It will discuss practical strategies for developing community leadership and working with marginalized communities. Together, we will discover the impact that ordinary individuals can have on the world. Upon completion of this course participants will be able to: • Apply basic organizing techniques, such as popular education and direct action. • Understand the role of privilege, race, gender, and class in struggles for change. • Understand the history and basic principles of community organizing. • Design methods to help support and organize the local community. Community Participation and Dispute Resolution 2 CEUs Duration: 5 Weeks Description: Over the last three decades, community dispute resolution has become a worldwide export, embraced by many organizations throughout the world. This practice includes community mediation, facilitation, collaborative problem solving, conflict resolution, conflict transformation, and even conflict transcendence. Looking closely at these processes and practices, we will explore their social and cultural significance and applicability in various communities. We will ponder the power dynamics of disputes and their contexts and how we seek to find our own center in relation to such disputes. The course will be largely issue-focused, with an eye toward working with indigenous communities and in other sensitive cultural contexts. Upon completion of this course participants will be able to: • Examine the nature of community dispute resolution processes and practice. • Reflect upon cultural assumptions about dispute resolution. • Explore the dynamics and contexts of power in disputes. Community Mobilization 2 CEUs Duration: 5 Weeks Description: Explore what turns a group of individuals into an organization or social movement. Consider what structural, social, or psychological barriers inhibit or prevent individuals and groups from getting involved and working together for change. Examine the definition of community mobilization as both an initial and ongoing process central to any community and social change effort with a common goal or vision that seeks to build support and participation of individuals, groups, and institutions. Learn from the theories and methods of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, whose work has guided some of the most successful development and education programs around the globe, including the Orangi Pilot Project in Pakistan, the NAAM movement in Burkina Faso, and the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement in Sri Lanka, among others. Upon completion of this course participants will be able to: • Identify the role of community mobilization in the context of human rights-based approaches to community development. • Outline the causes and psychological effects of poverty oppression. • Communicate with individuals and communities to enhance trust and solidarity. • Assist communities in the analysis and transformation of their world. Development and the Politics of Empowerment 2 CEUs Duration: 5 Weeks Description: Over the last few decades, many scholars have begun to challenge traditional conceptions of development. Their work has generated an intense debate between those that attribute “underdevelopment” to cultural factors, and those that dismiss such ideas as racially motivated and instead recognize poverty and marginalization as primarily structural and systemic issues. Indeed, the concept of poverty itself has been challenged. Employing this critical lens, the course will examine the assertion that development should not only be seen as an economic process of wealth accumulation, but rather as a socio-political process of empowerment. This realization has major implications for how NGOs approach development, as it brings to light the fact that this work has a substantial political component. In order to overcome the disadvantages of poverty, structural barriers to success must be addressed. Through a careful investigation of the historical applications of development, we will explore the idea that development is an inherently political process and challenge the claim that any development NGO is apolitical. Additionally, we will strive to identify successful methods of community empowerment through political organization. Upon completion of this course participants will be able to: • Analyze the underlying political implications and perspectives of seemingly apolitical actions in development work. • Apply and refine techniques of empowerment and advocacy. • Explain the history of development thinking as it relates to politics. • Articulate a broader understanding of key terms, such as empowerment, participation, politics, and power. Gender Equity in Development 2 CEUs Duration: 5 Weeks Description: Women’s participation and empowerment in development is one of the major Millennium Development goals and has become an important ideal in a lot of development policy and theory. Yet there has been little dialogue as to how gender equity can actually be implemented in practice. Women centered projects, such as microcredit and cooperatives, create new assets and enlarge the amount of available resources to communities but often do not address control of existing resources. Genuine gender equity must take into account existing relationships as well as newly developed ones. This course will seek to understand and recognize the various forms of women’s power, potentials for disempowerment in many development initiatives, and how practitioners can facilitate gender equity in community-based sustainable development. The course will be highly interactive and will emphasize the sharing of experiences, ideas, and insights from participants. Participants will be encouraged to test the ideas discussed by applying them to their own communities or development projects. This course will use case studies and readings to understand gender equity in development. Upon completion of this course participants will be able to: • Compare women in development vs. gender equity approaches. • Incorporate gender equitable methodologies into community development activities. • Design a gender equitable project for your community or project area. Local Communities and Climate Change Mitigation Strategies 2 CEUs Duration: 5 Weeks Description: “The environment and the economy are really both two sides of the same coin. You cannot sustain the economy if you don’t take care of the environment because we know that the resources that we use whether it is oil, energy, land … all of these are the basis in which development happens. And development is what we say generates a good economy and puts money in our pockets. If we cannot sustain the environment, we cannot sustain ourselves.” -- Wangari Maathai This course provides an overview of how climate change is impacting the livelihoods of local and indigenous communities and looks at mitigation strategies proposed to combat climate change effects while promoting sustainable livelihoods. We will examine the role of science and local traditional knowledge in mitigating climate change. We will look at carbon trading, carbon offsets and REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) and PES (Payment for Environmental Services), and we will analyze the international policy context in which these solutions were born. We will critically analyze mitigation solutions and various projects, assess their local impacts, making sure we capture the community’s perspective. Our planet is heating up due to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. This is manifesting in different ways and all around the Earth: weather patterns are changing, desertification is expanding, sea level is rising, oceans are becoming more acid, and many species are on the brink of extinction. In an effort to mitigate climate change, economists, governments, corporations and environmentalists have proposed, since early 1990s, the use of ‘offsetting’ mechanisms to help polluting industries to compensate for their CO2 emissions by either expanding or protecting forests somewhere else. The idea of offsetting industrial carbon emissions through biological carbon sequestration and storage has been fiercely debated since it was first proposed, as well as putting a price on nature and on the “services” provided to our planet. Big conservation organizations, developed country governments and lately the private sector see these mechanisms fit to help combat climate change, whereas some NGOs, developing country governments and many local communities remain skeptical to their efficiency and even see them as dangerous and working against locals. Description: This course provides an overview concerning how climate change impacts the livelihoods of local and indigenous communities and looks at mitigation strategies proposed to combat climate change effects while promoting sustainable livelihoods in local communities. We will examine the role of science and local traditional knowledge in mitigating climate change. We will look at carbon offsets and REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation), and we will analyze the international policy context in which these solutions were born. We will critically analyze various mitigation solutions and projects undertaken in communities and assess their local impacts, making sure we also capture the community’s perspective. Our planet is heating up due to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change manifests in different ways and all around the earth: weather patterns are changing, desertification is expanding, sea level is rising, oceans are becoming more acid, and many species are on the brink of extinction. In an effort to mitigate climate change, economists, governments, corporations, and environmentalists have proposed since early 1990s the use of ‘offsetting’ mechanisms to help polluting industries compensate for their CO2 emissions by either expanding or protecting forests somewhere else. The idea of offsetting industrial carbon emissions through biological carbon sequestration and storage has been fiercely debated since it was first proposed. There are split opinions on the benefit of such schemes. Big conservation organizations, developed country governments, and lately the private sector see REDD and carbon offsetting as the best mechanisms to help combat climate change, whereas some NGOs, developing country governments, and many local communities remain skeptical to their efficiency and even see them as dangerous and working against local communities. Upon completion of this course participants will be able to: • Understand the variety of issues and challenges faced by organizations, nations, and local and indigenous communities related to climate change mitigation. • Critically assess the impacts of climate change mitigation strategies on local communities. • Understand the role of traditional knowledge in mitigating climate change. • Make informed decisions when analyzing carbon offsetting/REDD projects. Micro-Finance Projects: Sustainable Community Development and the Role of Women 2 CEUs Duration: 5 Weeks Description: In the context of developing communities across the world, the role of microenterprise is crucial. Identification of people who would undertake micro enterprise is the first important step. Identification of projects to fit the people and their needs and equipping people with the basic skills to run micro-enterprises profitably is the next step in the process. Women-oriented projects are vital as self-esteem building activities for women whose micro enterprises typically, in the long run, produce far reaching economic and social impact for the entire community. Micro-enterprises have become an important vehicle of development for developing economies. They are small-scale, low-investment projects that provide fulfillment and fairly immediate income generation. This has a great impact on boosting self-confidence which in turn affects family and social life. Micro enterprises greatly influence the women who, in developing economies, are generally uneducated or semi-educated, are dominated by men, and have relatively low societal status. Micro enterprises energize women to become economically self-sufficient, empower them to be emotionally self-confident, and enable them to have a voice in society. Their newly acquired influence reflects in improved living conditions at home and better prospects for their children’s futures. Upon completion of this course students will be able to: • Explain the role and impacts of micro-finance. • Recognize the different types of micro-enterprises: manufacturing, agricultural and non-agricultural based industries, marketing and providing services. • Develop a microfinance pilot project. Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation 2 CEUs Duration: 5 Weeks Description: Discover participatory methods in monitoring and evaluation for community development where multiple stakeholders are involved in the process of planning, collecting, interpreting, communicating, and using information. Gain skills in using regular monitoring and evaluation processes in order to lead to continuous improvements. Upon completion of this course participants will be able to: • Plan a monitoring and evaluation project. • Develop evaluation questions that address stakeholders’ needs. • Select the most appropriate data collection method for a given situation. • Effectively communicate monitoring and evaluation data. • Use monitoring information for effective feedback and improvement. Participatory Water Resource Management 2 CEUs Duration: 5 Weeks Description: Millions in both urban and rural communities worldwide are becoming vulnerable to water scarcity, social exclusion from access to water, and polluted water sources and water-borne diseases. Overpopulation, falling groundwater tables, the mismanagement of water sources, pollution, and over-extraction all threaten to exacerbate the already severe decline in available water resources. A community-based and participatory approach involving and empowering users and managers of local communities is necessary to balance the various needs and demands on available resources. This course will explore important concepts and strategies for successful participatory water conservation strategies to ensure long-term, sustainable solutions to managing water resources effectively in communities around the world. Upon completion of this course participants will be able to: • Work with communities using tools such as social asset mapping to identify value-based water and sanitation priorities and implement these into their community development plans. • Deliver training and develop capacity of local communities. • Understand how to integrate users and managers of local communities, government bodies, and various stakeholders into all components of effective water management plans. Social Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development 2 CEUs Duration: 5 Weeks Description: One of the biggest challenges we face in today’s global economy is the alleviation and ultimate elimination, of poverty. Unemployment, lack of economic opportunities and the inability to provide for one’s needs and those of one’s family, lead to destructive consequences at the individual level and can lead to crime and armed conflict at the social level. While the latest development theory recognizes the importance of entrepreneurship and micro-enterprise generation in combating poverty, providing employment and increasing income, in order to address poverty at the grass-roots level, we need to explore the intersection of traditional business concepts with social venturing. This course aims to provide an understanding of social entrepreneurship that will help us put theory into practice in a meaningful way. This course will examine entrepreneurship and enterprise generation as a key foundation of the development of both economic and social capital, as well as individual and community empowerment. Its main emphasis will be the exploration of entrepreneurship with an imperative to drive social change and build sustainable ventures. Its focus will be on designing enterprises for the base of the economic pyramid in the context of disadvantaged communities. We will participate in the unfolding dialogue about what constitutes a “social entrepreneur”, develop an understanding of the power of “disruptive innovation”, and study success stories from around the world, thereby gaining valuable insights into how to develop our own enterprises. This course will require critical thinking, be highly interactive, and students will share their experiences, ideas, insights and challenges. Participants will be able to apply the learning from this course to their own start-ups and field projects. Upon completion of this course participants will be able to: • Understand the role of enterprise development in poverty reduction. • Identify key elements to designing a successful social venture. • Analyze social entrepreneurship in the context of developing sustainable businesses. • Network with resource organizations for social enterprise development projects. Technology and Community Development 2 CEUs Duration: 5 Weeks Description: Explore how technology, both a blessing and curse, is critical for individuals and communities accessing and managing resources. Consider equitable distribution of technology and its productive gains, environmental impacts, debt burdens, health consequences, and impacts on the social and cultural fabric of a community. Examine some of the practical and ethical challenges faced by communities and community workers in their efforts to develop or introduce new technologies to enhance human well-being. Discover important concepts and strategies for successful participatory technology development, emphasizing principles developed by thinkers such as Ghandi and E.F. Schumacker. Upon completion of this course participants will be able to: • Outline the history and basic principles of appropriate technology. • Work with communities to analyze their situation, develop strategic directions, and generate appropriate technology packages. • Support community-based technology generation efforts by creating linkages to information and resources. Tourism and Development 2 CEUs Duration: 5 Weeks Description: Globally, tourism initiatives receive considerable public funding and private investment as a means of economically developing low-income communities. NGOs are taking on a growing role in local tourism initiatives, as well as voluntourism, in hopes of injecting capital into the communities where they work. Amongst proponents, tourism is seen as a mechanism for local communities to capitalize on assets such as the natural environment and cultural heritage. Yet critiques often note that tourism can be destructive, elite and at times oppressive. In light of this critical lens, we will explore both successful and problematic tourism initiatives. We will critically examine the nature of tourism, its impacts on communities and considerations that must be taken into account in order for a tourism project to have the desired impact of development without destroying. Upon completion of this course participants will be able to: • Identify best practices for successful tourism initiatives. • Work with a community to evaluate how tourism may impact their lives. • Network with private, public and non-profit institutions in the field of tourism and development. • Understand common challenges and issues with eco-tourism and voluntourism. THE WORLD TODAY This course is for those who are interested in current events. Each week we discuss news from the United States, the world, and the Triangle. We begin each class with a list of proposed topics and discuss those of interest to the group. Class members also offer topics for discussion. Active participation by class members is encouraged (but not mandatory), as it expands our mutual understanding of the many events that might affect us. Discussions are enriched by the variety of backgrounds, expertise, and viewpoints of class members. Topics are discussed knowledgeably, respectfully, and sometimes with passion, but we always end with humor, looking forward to the next class. We offer two sections of this class. The discussion leaders will rotate between the two sections. While not necessarily experts in the field, each has participated in “The World Today” discussions many times; each brings a distinctive style and background to the class, and most important, each will elicit a wide spectrum of views from class members. ENERGY UPDATE: Our National Addiction Continues We have become a nation of energy addicts. Without electricity at the flick of a switch and gasoline at the pump, our comfortable world would collapse into a miserable struggle for subsistence. Is that overly dramatic? Think about it. In this course, we will discuss how we reached this state of dependency over the past couple of centuries and what is being done to prepare for the day when we begin to run short of the ancient— and nonrenewable—reserves of fossil fuels that provide most of today’s energy and contribute to major environmental problems. We will mix a bit of history with a dash of technology, add some simple economics, and, of course, throw some politics into the stew. By the end of the course we should know enough to try to understand whether the United States has a rational energy policy. CURRENT PUBLIC POLICY ISSUES—2014 This course will explore public policy issues that are currently areas of contention between conservative, liberal, and other groups. We will begin with forty minutes of presentations followed by fifty minutes of class questioning and discussion. Among the topics will be the following: • l K-through-12 education—what is the best way to educate our children? • l workforce training—preparation for employment • l fiscal policy—growth, deficits, and taxation • l monetary policy—the Fed, inflation, and asset bubbles • l foreign policy and defense—vital national interests and defense of the homeland • l healthcare—optimizing quality and access • entitlements—Social Security and Medicare nonmeans tested programs going broke • l immigration—by ability and skills or uniting families and refugees • l energy policy—cheap energy to grow economy or expensive energy to reduce pollution • l federal regulations—rationale for costly market interference (OSHA, EPA, FCC, FDA, etc.) • l elections—the new law explained THE WORLD TODAY This course is for those who are interested in current events. Each week we will discuss news from the United States, the world, and the Triangle. We will begin each class with a list of proposed topics and discuss those of interest to the group. Class members also offer topics for discussion. Active participation by class members is encouraged (but not mandatory), since it expands our mutual understanding of the many events that might affect us. Discussions are enriched by the variety of backgrounds, expertise, and viewpoints of class members. Topics are discussed knowledgeably, respectfully, and sometimes with passion, but we always end with humor, looking forward to the next class. We offer two sections of this class. The discussion leaders will rotate between the two sections. Each has participated in The World Today discussions many times, each brings a distinctive style and background to the class, and, most important, each will elicit a wide spectrum of views from class members. THOMAS BERRY’S DREAM OF THE EARTH: Foundations of an Ecological Civilization Thomas Berry, formerly of Greensboro, is the leading thinker in human ecology of our time. 2014 is the 5th anniversary of his death and the 100th anniversary of his birth. The Dream of the Earth, his landmark book, has sold over 100,000 copies. First published in 1988, it is still regarded as the key source for his thought. Berry taught that the universe expresses itself as a succession of dream experiences and that humans are part of the dream of the Earth. The question, then, is not what do we want Earth to be, but what does Earth want us to be? Drawing on the wisdom of Western philosophy, Asian thought, and Native American traditions, as well as contemporary physics and evolutionary biology, Berry recasts our understanding of science, technology, politics, religion, ecology, and education. In this course, we will explore Berry’s ideas and how he speaks to us today. NATIVE AMERICAN VIEWS OF LAND: Space and Place as Sacred Almost all of the Native American tribes have a traditional concept of land as a mother held in sacred esteem. This course will explore how space and place are central to different tribes’ spiritual philosophies and practices, as well as how animals and plants fit into their sacred ecology. These views will be contrasted to those of European colonizers who viewed land as property and nature as resource. We will examine how conflicting views played out historically, from Europeans’ “legal” justifications to appropriate native land in early colonization to the nineteenth-century Allotment Act’s attempt to teach Indian people the concept of “private property.” We will also look at how these conflicting views are evident in contemporary land and resource issues affecting American Indians. Throughout the course, we will bracket the deeper question of what these indigenous traditional sacred ecologies might teach mainstream America about the environmental issues facing us today. ENERGY & THE ENVIRONMENT: Exploring Paths toward a Cleaner Future To frack or not to frack? Is clean coal an oxymoron? Nuclear energy—a cleaner choice or a catastrophe waiting to happen? These are central questions to the great energy debate that rages in our country. In this course, we’ll study the historical and economic events that frame the current energy debate. We’ll learn about the scientific basis for the most controversial forms of energy generation, and we’ll examine the environmental impacts of these processes with a special focus on North Carolina. The end goal is to become informed citizens so we can participate in the debate with full knowledge of all the complexities involved. Course topics will include fracking, clean coal, nuclear energy, wind energy, solar energy, and biogas.

The Sustainable Community Development program offers online, noncredit courses designed for people who currently work in community development and desire to advance their careers as well as those who plan to work or volunteer in this field. A Certificate of Completion is awarded to those who pass four as part of a specialization or pre-approved custom track. Specializations include: • Community Planning and Development • Economic Development • Food Security / Agriculture • Participatory Facilitation • Political Empowerment • Service and Civic Engagement Courses are taught by practitioners employed by the educational partner, Village Earth. The instructors focus on applied knowledge to prepare students to meet today’s challenges as project directors, community leaders, grassroots activists, funders, and field workers in community-based organizations and governmental and nongovernmental organizations.