Community Action Workshop


This seminar is about the historical roots of current trends in community organizing. There is an increasing body of knowledge in practice on how people can build and use power through broad-based organizations to influence the forces that shape their lives, families and communities.


Princeton University ASA
Community Action Workshop



Community Development Workshop introduces students to the community development practice, from an empowerment planning perspective. Participants will be introduced to core methods of neighborhood planning; will formulate designs and scopes of service to investigate existing conditions; will review data needed to develop effective solutions to local problems that build on available community assets; and will produce new ideas and present them to local leaders to use in their future efforts.

These seminar-style meetings are designed to encourage exploration of community-building and democracy among participants. Sessions will include a combination of lectures, discussion of the readings, dialogue with community activists, presentations by groups in the class as well as presentations by members of the class.

Several activists to get our dialogues started; later on, participants will be encouraged to invite someone from their community. This strategy is applied to fully integrate reflection and experience, which is based on the principle that participants can and should take responsibility for their own learning, just as citizens can and should govern themselves.

In our discussions, we will integrate scholarly and community "voices" which are not often heard in academic or public policy debates. During classes, we will work together to create a safe environment, in which we all can express our views and to listen to the views of others. This requires a degree of courage and trust; it is sometimes very hard to take a different stand on a controversial or sensitive issue, or to open ourselves to a very different viewpoint. But if we can't do it in a class like this, how will we ever be able to do so in public life?

The seminar provides participants with an opportunity to learn about and debate power, democracy, and faith in American society and other big ideas such as:

  • Social capital
  • Conceptions of community
  • Conceptions of democracy and citizenship
  • Roles of the non-profit sector
  • Inequality
  • Public goods and collective action
  • Mediating Institutions and American democracy
  • Populism
  • Civil rights movement
  • Power analysis
  • Leadership development/transformation
  • Liberation theology

Other Possible Course Topics:

  • Community Structures
  • Cultural Patterns
  • The Leaders of The Future
  • Leadership in Business and Organizations
  • Community Development
  • Civic Engagement and Negotiation Skills
  • History and Traditions of Organizing
  • Analysis and Strategy
  • Action, Reflection, and Celebration
  • Campaigns That Win Victories and Build Power
  • Organizing and Participatory Democracy
  • The Limits of Organizing
  • Introduction to Community Organizing
  • History of Community Organizing and Saul Alinsky

  • Diversity in Community Organizing--Contemporary Variations on Leadership and Identity Development

  • Community Organizing and the Internet
  • Organization Building
  • Diversity in Community Organizing--Popular Education
  • Diversity in Community Organizing--Non-Conflict Models
  • Political Campaign Design (Issues & Tactics)
  • Community Visioning and Planning
  • Organizing as a Profession

Seminar Structure/PURPOSE AND OVERVIEW

This seminar will provide an overview of community development, how community is formed and structured as well as community leadership perspectives. Readings will be drawn from cross-cultural materials. Important elements include social change, changing value systems, perceptions, and attitudes of groups and communities. The course has three major segments:

  • Multi-cultural concepts of community
  • Leadership and community in organizations, and
  • Negotiation and public issues management in community.

Seminars will feature lectures on assigned topics, student presentations and class discussions of readings. seminars will involve students in both a group and personal project, and participants will be responsible for one class presentation related to the idea of comprehensive community development. Students will be required to do oral presentations on their assigned reading and neighborhood field trips will be conducted for workshop participants.

SEMINAR OBJECTIVES

The Community Action Workshop has been designed to assist participants in achieving the following educational objectives:

  • Understanding and appreciation of the concept of community and community development

  • Determine the key characteristics found in all communities

  • Understand and appreciate the link between leadership development and community

  • Gain insights about leadership and the key skills needed by organizational leaders for the future

  • Expose participants to critical economic, social, environmental, and political problems confronting residents and distressed urban neighborhoods

  • Introduce participants to the principles and practice of contemporary community development from an empowerment planning perspective

  • Enhancing the community development knowledge and skills of participating students through active involvement in the design, implementation and evaluation of a challenging neighborhood project for an actual partner

  • Offer participants the opportunity to gain experience working in teams to solve important urban problems undermining the quality of urban life

  • Engage participants in an ongoing dialogue regarding how local, state, and federal urban policies can be changed to further enhance the organizational capacity of community-based organizations serving distressed urban communities

  • Engage participants and connect them to day-to-day grassroots activities with big ideas about citizenship, opportunity, and the public good in society

  • Develop a fundamental understanding of leadership and the skills manifest in effective leaders

  • Identify their personal leadership assumptions and philosophy, and enhance self-awareness

  • Demonstrate effective techniques and strategies for articulating a vision

  • Understand the steps involved in setting goals

  • Discuss the complexities inherent in ethical leadership

  • Articulate their personal leadership values

  • Employ the processes involved in effective decision-making

  • Recognize the different types of conflict and appreciate the role a leader can play in managing conflict.

  • Learn team-building strategies and engage in team-building activities
    .
  • Comprehend the concept of empowerment and the techniques of effective leaders to empower others

  • Express the methods leaders can use to initiate change and help others adjust to change

  • Expand their awareness of leadership to include the concept of servant leadership

  • Improve participants overall leadership abilities.

    Learning Objectives

  • To develop a broad understanding about the history of community organizing

  • To understand the approaches to, and dynamics of, community organizing

  • To develop an understanding of the different styles of community intervention

  • To develop an understanding of the different types of community assessments

  • To become familiar with techniques appropriate to measure change, goal attainment and success in community interventions

  • To learn to work in various team, group, and community settings with professionals and non-professionals

  • To develop an understanding of the importance of social capital in economic growth and regeneration of community life

  • To develop an understanding for the need for citizen participation and leadership

Philosophy of Education

When teachers realize they still have things to learn and students realize they have things to teach, and when everyone is in an atmosphere where teachers are encouraged to learn and participants are encouraged to teach, everyone benefits.