"This is a nontraditional course."
So begins the course description for the Urban Community Development class I'm teaching this semester at Alliance Theological Seminary. It continues: "Equal parts graduate seminar, academic laboratory, and clinical practicum, our overriding goal will be to understand and apply strategic leadership principles in a real-world, urban community development context. While exploring the evolution of community development as an industry, including top-down public policy approaches and bottom-up, community-based strategies, the class will simultaneously 'learn by doing.' That is, we will work as the strategic planning group of a start-up community development corporation (the 'Corporation'), conceiving the Corporation’s vision, mission, and values, and creating the relevant documents to launch the Corporation at the end of the semester...." Two weeks into it and I'm already having fun.
posted by Jeremy Del Rio @ 1/27/2005 01:06:00 PM
2 Comments:
Jeremy, good to know you're loving what you do. I met with a pastor in East L.A. to talk about community development in his neighborhood yesterday. I want to teach my students at East L.A. College to begin thinking about how to change things where they live, and I'm doing it by networking with local pastors. Traditionally, Intervarsity ministries tend to focus on the campus. But at East L.A. College we can't get away with ignoring the issues in the city because they affect our students so much. I met with Rudy Carrasco last week for ideas, it was awesome. I was wondering if you know of any good resources on the web to help those of us who are starting to think about some of these things?
http://elacceso.blogspot.com/
Abner,
Here is a list of some websites that have been helpful to me. They represents lots of different resources, from think tanks to governmental agencies to funders and "nonprofit toolkits." Hope they're helpful.
Asset Based Community Development Institute, Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University, http://www.northwestern.edu/ipr/abcd.html
Board Source, Library of Resources and Articles on Nonprofit Board Development, http://www.boardsource.org/
Christian Community Development Association, http://www.ccda.org
Enterprise Foundation, Organizational Development Toolbox for Nonprofits, http://www.enterprisefoundation.org/organizationaldevtoolbox/
Enterprise Foundation, Organizational Structures and Systems, http://www.enterprisefoundation.org/resources/ERD/browse.asp?c=103
Faith Center for Community Development, http://www.fccd.org
Foundation Center, http://www.fdncenter.org/
Free Management Library, Starting a Nonprofit Organization, http://www.mapnp.org/library/strt_org/strt_np/strt_np.htm
GuideStar, The National Database of Nonprofit Organizations, www.guidestar.org
Harvard Business School, Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness, http://www.isc.hbs.edu/
Inc. Magazine, “Inner City 100,” http://www.inc.com/magazine/inner100/
Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, http://www.icic.org
Internal Revenue Service, Tax Information for Charitable Organizations, http://www.irs.gov/charities/charitable/index.html
Local Initiatives Support Corporation, Online Resource Library, http://www.lisc.org/resources
NYU Law School, Furman Center For Real Estate and Urban Policy, http://www.law.nyu.edu/realestatecenter
Office of the New York State Attorney General, Charities Bureau, http://www.oag.state.ny.us/charities/charities.html
Public/Private Ventures, Publications Directory, http://www.ppv.org/ppv/publications/publications.asp
US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, “Faith Based and Community Initiatives, http://www.hud.gov/offices/fbci/index.cfm
US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, “Toolkit for Faith-Based and Community Organizations,” http://www.hud.gov/local/shared/working/faithbased/iifaithbased.cfm?state=ny White House Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives, http://www.whitehouse.gov/government/fbci
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