New Course Will Help Students Build Concrete Skills in Community Organizing

Wednesday, April 3, 2013, By Kelly Homan Rodoski

A new course in the fall 2013 semester will teach students key skills of organizing by leading a community engagement project on campus.

“Community Organizing: People, Power and Change” (SWK 400/CFE 400) will meet on Wednesdays from 2:15-5 p.m., and is open to students in all schools and colleges.

The course is a praxis-based class in which students will learn the five key practices of organizing: sharing stories, building relationships, crafting teams, strategizing and taking action. Each student will develop a semester-long organizing project through engagement inside and outside of the classroom.

The course is part of the Leading Change Network (leadingchangenetwork.com) and is rooted in the work of legendary community organizer Marshall Ganz, lead strategist for the 2008 Obama presidential campaign and current senior lecturer in public policy at Harvard University.

Students may also have the opportunity to travel to Cambridge, Mass., during the semester to collaborate with other students at an intensive one-day skills training session at Harvard.

For more information about the course, contact Hendricks Chapel Dean Tiffany Steinwert at tsteinwe@syr.edu.