Village Earth/CSU Online Certificate Program in Sustainable Community Development
The Village Earth/CSU Online Certificate Program was founded in 2003 to serve as an online and affordable practitioner-to-practitioner training program for community development workers around the globe. To earn a certificate in sustainable community development, you must complete the required course “Approaches to Community Development” and any three elective courses of your choosing. Each course runs five weeks and requires a minimum of 20 hours of student participation. You may take courses in any order. Each course costs $390.
The courses use the flexibility of online delivery to help you learn through case studies, exercises, and group discussions, providing a complete learning environment. You will learn from, and share experiences with, practitioners working in the field all over the world. These courses give experienced practitioners a fresh perspective and provide novices and volunteers the training they need to be successful working in the field of development.
All courses are offered in partnership with Colorado State University Online.
Browse classes in the VE/CSU Online Certificate Program
GSLL 1504 – Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation
This course stresses participatory methods in monitoring and evaluation, where multiple stakeholders are involved in the process of planning, collecting, interpreting, communicating, and using information.
GSLL 1514 – Building Climate Change Resilient Communities
This class will explore key concepts of resilience, vulnerability, adaptive capacity and social capital in the context of community exposure to climate change. We will engage in critical analysis of tools and methods for building resilience to climate change and will look at several case studies from around the world.
GSLL 1522 – Participatory Water Resource Management
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 developing and transitional countries.
GSLL 1505 – Community-Based Health
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.
GSLL 1501 – Approaches to Community Development
This course provides a framework for community development based on a participatory, bottom-up, multi-sector model. Various approaches have been used in community development with varying
GSLL 1510 – Community-Based Mapping
This course explores 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.
GSLL 1509 – Development and the Politics of Empowerment
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.
GSLL 1503 – Community Mobilization
This training draws on the theories and methods of Brazilian educator Paulo Friere, whose work has guided some of the most successful development and education programs around the globe, including the Orangi Pilot Project in Bangladesh, The NAAM movement in Burkina Faso, and the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement in Sri Lanka, among others.
GSLL 1512 – Micro-Finance Projects : Sustainable Community Development and the Role of Women
The role of micro-enterprises in developing communities is crucial. This course examines the process of identifying projects to fit the needs of people and equipping
GSLL 1519 – Agroecology for Sustainable Communities
In this course we will identify their common root (the agroecological lens) and learn how to use it as a transformative tool for social and environmental justice.
GSLL 1524 – Social Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development
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.
GSLL 1507 – Tourism and Development
This course will explore successful tourism initiatives as well as problematic 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 pursuing a local vision for development without destroying.
GSLL 1517 – Community-Based Organizing
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, exploring the ideas and examples from Evo Morales, Paulo Freire, Saul Alinsky, Sub-Comandante Marcos, the Bridge Immigrant Rights experiment and Martin Heidegger.
GSLL 1518 – Community-Based Food Systems
During this five week course, you will learn about various approaches to building community-based food systems and movements for food justice around the world. Together, we will evaluate successful efforts at food system relocalization and the protection of community food resources, as well as the factors that threaten these efforts.
GSLL 1502 – Technology and Community-Based Development
This course covers the principles of using technology effectively in community development, and uses examples and case studies to illustrate successful technology implementations.