Course
Community Engagement
ENVR-40005
Learn Strategies to Engage Communities and Drive Sustainable Change
Community Engagement refers to the process of working collaboratively with community members to address issues that impact their well-being, ensuring empowerment, social cohesion, and locally tailored solutions. This course is designed for working professionals in environmental sustainability who want to strengthen or refine their community engagement initiative. Students will acquire essential knowledge of community engagement principles, models and strategies, alongside practical skills for conducting needs assessments, developing communication strategies, facilitating participatory decision-making, and evaluating initiatives. Through guided assignments, participants will progressively design their own community engagement project, directly applicable to their professional or volunteer work. By the end of the course, they will have a customized, ready-to-implement engagement plan that equips them to create meaningful and sustainable change in their fields.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand the basic definitions, history, and importance of community engagement.
- Analyze models of community engagement and their applicability in diverse contexts.
- Create stakeholder maps and identify key stakeholders for sustainability initiatives.
- Conduct community needs assessments using appropriate data collection methods.
- Engage storytelling and facilitation strategies to communicate clearly with communities.
- Develop effective communication strategies tailored to diverse audiences.
- Build cultural sensitivity into initiatives to promote equitable participation.
- Facilitate participatory decision-making processes using appropriate tools and techniques to integrate community input into program and project development.
- Evaluate community engagement initiatives using appropriate data collection methods.
Join us October 22nd at 12pm for an engaging free webinar session, led by our Instructor Frances Lang.
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Course Information
Online
3.00 units
$595.00
Course sessions
Closed
Closed
Instructor:
Dr. Beth Karlin is the founder and CEO of See Change Institute, a research (and practice) institute devoted to studying and shaping behavior change programs for the greater good. Beth and her team deliver actionable research to support organizations in the fields of energy/climate change, health, social justice, and philanthropy. They are currently working on projects to increase Medicaid enrollment, measure inclusion in popular film, understand and influence adoption of smart home technology, and support local community choice energy programs.
Beth has published her work in venues ranging from Psychological Bulletin to Peace Studies and is a sought after speaker and trainer on Storytelling, Smart Homes, and the Social Science of Sustainability (and she loves alliteration). She is Past President of the American Psychological Association’s Division 34 (Environmental Psychology), U.S. National Expert on the International Energy Agency’s Demand-Side Management (DSM) Task 24 on Behavior Change, and a committee member on the National Academy of Sciences Environmental Health Matters Initiative. She also founded the Transformational Media Lab at the University of California, Irvine and served as Research Director at the University of Southern California’s Norman Lear Center, which studies the impact of entertainment on society.
Before receiving her Ph.D. in Social Ecology from UC Irvine, Beth spent nearly a decade working in K-12 education, holding positions as a teacher, counselor, and school administrator. She believes that the role of a researcher is not only to better understand the world but also to improve it and hopes that her work is able to serve both purposes.
Full Bio
Section ID:
189973
Class type:
Online Asynchronous.
This course is entirely web-based and to be completed asynchronously between the published course start and end dates. Synchronous attendance is NOT required.
You will have access to your online course on the published start date OR 1 business day after your enrollment is confirmed if you enroll on or after the published start date.
This course is entirely web-based and to be completed asynchronously between the published course start and end dates. Synchronous attendance is NOT required.
You will have access to your online course on the published start date OR 1 business day after your enrollment is confirmed if you enroll on or after the published start date.
Textbooks:
No textbook required.
Policies:
- No refunds after: 10/13/2025
Schedule:
No information available at this time.
Instructor:
Beth Karlin
Beth Karlin
Beth has published her work in venues ranging from Psychological Bulletin to Peace Studies and is a sought after speaker and trainer on Storytelling, Smart Homes, and the Social Science of Sustainability (and she loves alliteration). She is Past President of the American Psychological Association’s Division 34 (Environmental Psychology), U.S. National Expert on the International Energy Agency’s Demand-Side Management (DSM) Task 24 on Behavior Change, and a committee member on the National Academy of Sciences Environmental Health Matters Initiative. She also founded the Transformational Media Lab at the University of California, Irvine and served as Research Director at the University of Southern California’s Norman Lear Center, which studies the impact of entertainment on society.
Before receiving her Ph.D. in Social Ecology from UC Irvine, Beth spent nearly a decade working in K-12 education, holding positions as a teacher, counselor, and school administrator. She believes that the role of a researcher is not only to better understand the world but also to improve it and hopes that her work is able to serve both purposes.
Add To Cart
Add To Cart
Instructor:
Dr. Beth Karlin is the founder and CEO of See Change Institute, a research (and practice) institute devoted to studying and shaping behavior change programs for the greater good. Beth and her team deliver actionable research to support organizations in the fields of energy/climate change, health, social justice, and philanthropy. They are currently working on projects to increase Medicaid enrollment, measure inclusion in popular film, understand and influence adoption of smart home technology, and support local community choice energy programs.
Beth has published her work in venues ranging from Psychological Bulletin to Peace Studies and is a sought after speaker and trainer on Storytelling, Smart Homes, and the Social Science of Sustainability (and she loves alliteration). She is Past President of the American Psychological Association’s Division 34 (Environmental Psychology), U.S. National Expert on the International Energy Agency’s Demand-Side Management (DSM) Task 24 on Behavior Change, and a committee member on the National Academy of Sciences Environmental Health Matters Initiative. She also founded the Transformational Media Lab at the University of California, Irvine and served as Research Director at the University of Southern California’s Norman Lear Center, which studies the impact of entertainment on society.
Before receiving her Ph.D. in Social Ecology from UC Irvine, Beth spent nearly a decade working in K-12 education, holding positions as a teacher, counselor, and school administrator. She believes that the role of a researcher is not only to better understand the world but also to improve it and hopes that her work is able to serve both purposes.
Full Bio
Section ID:
193517
Class type:
Online Asynchronous.
This course is entirely web-based and to be completed asynchronously between the published course start and end dates. Synchronous attendance is NOT required.
You will have access to your online course on the published start date OR 1 business day after your enrollment is confirmed if you enroll on or after the published start date.
This course is entirely web-based and to be completed asynchronously between the published course start and end dates. Synchronous attendance is NOT required.
You will have access to your online course on the published start date OR 1 business day after your enrollment is confirmed if you enroll on or after the published start date.
Textbooks:
All course materials are included unless otherwise stated.
Policies:
- No refunds after: 4/14/2026
Schedule:
No information available at this time.
Instructor:
Beth Karlin
Beth Karlin
Beth has published her work in venues ranging from Psychological Bulletin to Peace Studies and is a sought after speaker and trainer on Storytelling, Smart Homes, and the Social Science of Sustainability (and she loves alliteration). She is Past President of the American Psychological Association’s Division 34 (Environmental Psychology), U.S. National Expert on the International Energy Agency’s Demand-Side Management (DSM) Task 24 on Behavior Change, and a committee member on the National Academy of Sciences Environmental Health Matters Initiative. She also founded the Transformational Media Lab at the University of California, Irvine and served as Research Director at the University of Southern California’s Norman Lear Center, which studies the impact of entertainment on society.
Before receiving her Ph.D. in Social Ecology from UC Irvine, Beth spent nearly a decade working in K-12 education, holding positions as a teacher, counselor, and school administrator. She believes that the role of a researcher is not only to better understand the world but also to improve it and hopes that her work is able to serve both purposes.
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