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.
**For 2025: Due to refreshing our courses they will not be available and the certificate program will be on hold. We are planning to resume in 2026 (summer/fall).**
Browse classes in the VE/CSU Online Certificate Program
ON HOLD: GSLL 1514 – Challenges and Opportunities of Utilizing Traditional Knowledge in Climate Adaptation
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
ON HOLD: 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
ON HOLD: 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
ON HOLD: 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
ON HOLD: 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
ON HOLD: 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,
ON HOLD: 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
ON HOLD: 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.