Community Engagement
ENVR-40005
Community Engagement
Community Engagement is a critical component of sustainable development, fostering empowerment, social cohesion, and locally effective initiatives. This course is for professionals working in environmental science, public policy, urban planning, and community development. Participants will acquire essential knowledge and skills for effectively engaging communities in sustainability efforts, including understanding diverse engagement models, conducting thorough needs assessments, and cultivating collaborative partnerships. The main goal of this course is to equip students with the theoretical knowledge and practical skills needed to effectively engage communities in sustainability efforts. Students will learn how to conduct community needs assessments, develop and implement communication strategies, facilitate participatory decision-making, build collaborative partnerships, and evaluate the impact of their initiatives.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand the basic definitions, history, and importance of community engagement for sustainable development and behavior change
- Analyze models of community engagement and their applicability in diverse contexts.
- Know how to conduct a comprehensive community needs assessment using appropriate data collection methods and techniques to identify priority issues and concerns.
- Develop effective communication strategies tailored to diverse audiences and cultural contexts to facilitate meaningful dialogue and understanding in community settings.
- Create stakeholder maps and conduct analyses to identify key stakeholders, their interests, influence, and relationships crucial for collaborative sustainability initiatives.
- Facilitate participatory decision-making processes using appropriate tools and techniques to integrate community input into program and project development.
- Design culturally sensitive initiatives that integrate local knowledge, respect cultural practices, and promote equitable participation and benefit sharing within communities.
- Evaluate the social, economic, and environmental impacts of community engagement initiatives to assess impact and support continuous improvement.
- Formulate strategies for maintaining collaborative partnerships with community stakeholders to enhance sustainability outcomes.
Course Information
Course sessions
Section ID:
Class type:
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: 4/14/2025
Schedule:
Instructor:
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.
