…John Straw, Executive Director over at Concern America! He will be teaching a few different online courses in the Sustainable Community Development Certificate program starting with the upcoming Approaches to Community Development course through Colorado State University (Registration deadline this Sunday, July 20). John Straw grew up in Flint, Michigan and received his Bachelors from the University of Michigan with a degree in Spanish and Education. He went on to earn a Masters in Education from the University of Illinois at Chicago, focusing on social justice and bilingual education. John and his wife lived for five years in Honduras and Guatemala working on a variety of community-based health and development projects. For the past 15 years, John has worked with Concern America, an international development and refugee aid organization based in southern California, with health, water, and income-generation projects in Latin America and Africa. He has been the Executive Director of Concern America since 2012. In addition to his international development work, John has taught Spanish at the middle and high school levels, is on the school board of his daughter’s dual immersion school, and regularly participates in local political, justice, and solidarity efforts focused on Latin America. John and his wife are the proud parents of two children ages 15 and 12. We are excited to have him on board and we think he will be a valuable addition to our training faculty!
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 degrees of success. One approach that has consistently demonstrated effectiveness is the Village Earth model based on participatory practices.
Through personal and structural empowerment, the objectives of economic well-being, environmental sustainability, and socio-cultural vitalization can be met. By looking at an overview of the entire development process and using case studies, this course will prepare participants to work in the field of community development and illuminate how all of the development efforts fit together to support the overall goal of sustainability.
Upon completion of this course participants will be able to:
Compare different development approaches and evaluate their effectiveness.
Understand the basic principles that underlie sustainable development.
Incorporate participatory practices into community development activities
Design a development project based on the Village Earth model
Who should take this course? This course is suited for people who are interested in community development and work or plan to work in this field. This includes people working or volunteering at NGOs, NPOs, governmental organizations, without border organizations, or missionary organizations. In addition, people involved in funding community development projects benefit from this course.
