GSLL 1507 - Community Capacity Building

Community capacity is the "interaction of human capital, organizational resources, and social capital existing within a given community that can be leveraged to solve collective problems and improve and maintain the well-being of that community (Chaskin 2001)."

This course explores the concept and basic assumptions of community capacity building while also focusing on the practical methods that can be used in community capacity building efforts. The course is highly interactive and emphasizes the sharing of experiences, ideas, and insights from participants. Participants are encouraged to ground the ideas discussed by applying them to their own communities or development projects.

After completing this course, participants will be able to:

• understand the basic assumptions of community capacity building
• link the theory of community capacity building to real world applications
• describe various examples of community capacity building initiatives
• design a community capacity building initiative for their community or development project

This course can be applied towards the:

• Community-Based Development Certificate

Noncredit courses do not produce academic credit nor appear on a Colorado State University academic transcript.

Instructors

David Bartecchi
david@villageearth.org

David is a Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology. He has an M.A. in Anthropology and a BA in Anthropology. He is Director of Program Development, Village Earth: The Consortium for Sustainable Village-based Development and an instructor in CSU's Anthropology department.

David's areas of expertise include: Community Capacity Building, Social Capital Theory, Participatory Action Research, Survey and Evaluative Research Methods, Development with Indigenous Communities, and Application of Information Communication Technologies in Rural Development.